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is true, of course, that distant expeditions were not unknown to the sipahi before the present generation, but they have not only been more frequent of late, but everything points to the continuance of the tendency mentioned above-namely, to transfer the scene of military attention from the tropics to the outskirts of India, and more especially in the direction of the north-western frontier.'

But since in every material augmentation of our Indian forces a due proportion between English and native troops. is always observed, we have been adding to the strength of both establishments; and thus one inevitable result of the enlargement of our borders is to be detected in a sympathetic swelling of the military estimates; for the cost of the army services, which amounted in 1881-82 to 37 per cent. of the total charges of the Empire, rose to 43 per cent. by the end of the decade.

So long, indeed, as the Government of India conceive themselves obliged to accede to the military and political arguments that are incessantly pressed in favour of taking up advanced points and fresh ground upon strategical considerations that are less urgent than important, the Indian Treasury cannot logically refuse to provide whatever ways and means may be declared by the army chiefs to be indispensable for maintaining the new position. In the excellent speech on Indian Finance delivered in the House of Lords on July 20 Lord Lansdowne rightly defended the rise of military expenditure on the ground that military responsibilities had simultaneously increased; but he touched lightly on the connexion between the steady accumulation of army charges and the series of recent operations upon our north-western frontier. It has been the Viceroy's foreign policy to complete beforehand all possible dispositions in view of the contingency that a serious hostile movement against us from Central Asia may eventually be developed. But there is, we think, room for doubting whether, in fixing his eye on the far horizon, he did not overlook nearer political and financial considerations at his base. For this continual expansion of our external frontier adds to the Indian charges without increasing the Indian revenues, because it locks up both money and troops in the military occupation of outlying districts. We may undoubtedly take into account the countervailing advantage that the defences of India are thereby understood to be strengthened. But the reserve capital of that great enterprise which is known as the British Empire in India consists, at the last resort, in the British army; and, as in finance so in politics, the invest

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is true, of course, that distant expeditions were not unknown to the sipahi before the present generation, but they have not only been more frequent of late, but everything points to the continuance of the tendency mentioned above-namely, to transfer the scene of military attention from the tropics to the outskirts of India, and more especially in the direction of the north-western frontier.'

But since in every material augmentation of our Indian forces a due proportion between English and native troops is always observed, we have been adding to the strength of both establishments; and thus one inevitable result of the enlargement of our borders is to be detected in a sympathetic swelling of the military estimates; for the cost of the army services, which amounted in 1881-82 to 37 per cent. of the total charges of the Empire, rose to 43 per cent. by the end of the decade.

So long, indeed, as the Government of India conceive themselves obliged to accede to the military and political arguments that are incessantly pressed in favour of taking up advanced points and fresh ground upon strategical considerations that are less urgent than important, the Indian Treasury cannot logically refuse to provide whatever ways and means may be declared by the army chiefs to be indispensable for maintaining the new position. In the excellent speech on Indian Finance delivered in the House of Lords on July 20 Lord Lansdowne rightly defended the rise of military expenditure on the ground that military responsibilities had simultaneously increased; but he touched lightly on the connexion between the steady accumulation of army charges and the series of recent operations upon our north-western frontier. It has been the Viceroy's foreign policy to complete beforehand all possible dispositions in view of the contingency that a serious hostile movement against us from Central Asia may eventually be developed. But there is, we think, room for doubting whether, in fixing his eye on the far horizon, he did not overlook nearer political and financial considerations at his base. For this continual expansion of our external frontier adds to the Indian charges without increasing the Indian revenues, because it locks up both money and troops in the military occupation of outlying districts. We may undoubtedly take into account the countervailing advantage that the defences of India are thereby understood to be strengthened. But the reserve capital of that great enterprise which is known as the British Empire in India consists, at the last resort, in the British army; and, as in finance so in politics, the invest

ments and liabilities of an active and solvent administration must be carefully proportioned to the funds that are ready and easily moveable upon an emergency.

It is well known, and the fact has recently been brought home to Englishmen by the death duties, that a substantial strengthening of the national armament means raising the revenue demand; and it is always a serious matter for the British Government to levy fresh taxes on the Indian people. The difficulty is enhanced at the present time by the embarrassment into which the finances of the Empire have been thrown by the unfavourable exchanges, which have so operated as to produce a heavy surcharge upon the ordinary remittances for the payment of India's debt to England. For the discharge of their annual obligations to lay down gold in London the Indian Government has now to collect from the people many more rupees than were sufficient a few years ago. And the strain upon the Indian taxpayer's loyalty and patience is in no sense mitigated by the discovery that his Government are not even permitted to adopt those methods of raising additional funds which are most suitable and popular, but must regulate the incidence of the new import duties according to the exigencies and interest of English commerce. Remembering always that finance is the mainspring of administrative mechanism, that the Indian people accept our civilisation with indifference, and that if they consent to be hustled onward along the road of moral and material progress it is chiefly on condition that they are not required to pay much for the blessings that are showered upon them, we are bound to deal very cautiously with all measures of fiscal enhancement. exchange for protection from foreign invasion and for internal peace, the two benefits of English rule that are really appreciated, the Indian population is willing to allow us a very free hand in governing them; but the price which they care to pay must not be exorbitant, and its weight must be adroitly distributed. The question is not so much whether the import duties on cotton goods would or would not tally with the axioms of enlightened political economy as well as with the interests of our manufacturing towns; it is whether, if the Indian financier be debarred from this expedient, he may not be driven to unpopular and inelastic pressure in endeavouring to extract more money from the land, the excise, the salt tax, the income tax, or other main sources of the existing revenue. The sheet anchor of Indian finance has hitherto been the land revenue, and so long as there is

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a steady demand for export to Europe this revenue is easily collected. But the Indian corn trade is exposed to such sharp competition from North America, Russia, and the Argentine States, and the prices have fallen so low, that it is not safe to count upon the permanence of this profitable outlet, while if it were interrupted or closed the existing assessments upon the rents or produce of land in India might become difficult to maintain.

Such considerations as these naturally draw attention to the internal aspect of British India, of which the Blue Books now before us present a picture that the English reader may be pardoned for regarding with complacency. During the past ten years the exports and imports of India's trade with foreign countries have increased largely; there has been a remarkable extension of railways; the great productive irrigation works of North India have shot out new branches that spread far and wide the inexhaustible supply of the snow-fed rivers; the web of telegraph lines has been spun out wider and interlaced more closely; the area under scientific survey has been extended. In the principal departments of government, in the administration of justice, in the police, the prisons, and the management of revenue, reforms and improvements go forward uninterruptedly; the statistics of public instruction are most satisfactory, while, in spite of the dearth caused by bad seasons, the population has increased in ten years by 19 millions, a number more than equivalent to the population of England, and not far below that of the kingdom of Italy.' The chapter on the movements and condition of the people contains some instructive and well-placed remarks upon the causessocial, climatic, and geographical-which have governed and still affect the variations in number and local distribution of this immense population, with some remarkable conclusions as to the crops and food supply, the tenures of land, the incidence of the land tax, and the general condition in different provinces of the agricultural classes.

No one, in short, who knows or has studied Indian affairs could deny that this administrative record is a very good one, could doubt that the health and wealth, the morals and the knowledge, of the people are improving. All these authentic facts and figures are the outward, visible proofs that the public estate is under excellent management, which of itself gives strength and stability to the rulers. Let us, then, take leave of the official annalist, to whom are due many commendations for the accuracy, skill, and clear comprehen

VOL. CLXXXI. NO. CCCLXXI.

C

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