In the end, a partial compromise, was effected, through the intervention of the Government, between the supporters and opponents of the Bill, and it was passed into a law, which promised to be of considerable advantage both to the captors and consumers of an excellent article of food.

The portion of time devoted by the Imperial Legislature to the affairs of the greatest dependency of the Crown-British India— was this year remarkably small; but this circumstance may be regarded rather as a favourable indication than otherwise, so far as it may be attributed to the rapid, yet steady, advance of that country in wealth and prosperity, and to the absence of any causes of disturbance in its political condition. Since the great change in the administration of India which arose from the transfer of the government from the Company to the Crown, we may date a marked improvement in the material prosperity of this portion of the empire, especially in the financial department, which, under the new management to which it was transferred, displayed a most satisfactory reaction; the chronic state of deficit, which had formerly caused so much anxiety, having gradually disappeared, and the public securities manifesting a very improved state of confidence and credit. When, in the latter part of this Session, the Secretary of State for India presented his annual financial exposition to the House of Commons, he was able to congratulate his hearers very cordially upon the improved prospects which after a long period of despondency had dawned upon the finances of that country. The accounts which he had to present were those of 1861-2, ending with the 30th of April of the latter year. As to that year, he said, he was happy to state that there had been a great increase in the revenue of India. "When the regular estimate was submitted to the House last year, it was estimated that there would be a deficiency of some 600,000. I am glad to say that, although the expenditure has been somewhat larger than the estimate to the extent of 370,0007., yet the revenue has increased to a large extent,-viz., 920,0007. in round numbers. So the deficiency, instead of 600,000l., will be only 56,000l. The actual revenue was 43,829,0007., the estimated amount being only 42,911,000. The actual expenditure was 43,880,0007., the estimate having been 43,506,000l., or an increase of 374,0007.; but the excess of revenue over the estimate, as I said, reduced the actual deficiency to only 56,000l. There are varieties in the items which led to that result. There was a considerable increase in the land revenues of 862,000l., a portion of which was casual. There was a decrease in the revenue from salt-547,000l., not arising from a diminution in the quantity used by the natives, but because English salt has been substituted, to a large extent, for the salt manufactured by the natives, and English salt having paid duty in the previous year gave no advantage to the accounts of this year. There was a considerable increase in the expenditure for the army-880,000l., to discharge

some arrears for the old mutiny that had not been brought into account. Upon the other hand, there was a diminution on the cost of opium-600,000l., and upon the whole accounts the result is as I have stated. I think I may fairly congratulate the House upon the circumstance that so soon after the mutiny year we have arrived at a practical equality between Indian expenditure and Indian revenue."

Sir Charles Wood proceeded to state that the revenue for the current year 1863-4 was estimated at 45,306,000l., and the expenditure at 44,490,000l., leaving a surplus of 816,000l. The Government of India had thought it would be wise to reduce taxation to the amount of 335,0007., which would make the probable surplus 480,0007. After showing the progressive reduction of expenditure in India, he proceeded to offer explanations and comments upon particular points,-the discontinuance of the India navy, the health of the army, the sales of waste land, the cinchona plantations in the Madras provinces, the cultivation of cotton, the increased consumption of English salt, and other matters.

In regard to the expenditure upon public works Sir C. Wood gave the following explanations:

"The total sum applied to public works amounts to 5,237,2007., and including the guaranteed interest on railways to 9,237,2001. On this point Sir C. Trevelyan, in his financial statement for 1863-4, stated:

"The Government desires that it may clearly be understood that any funds that can be expended with advantage on cotton roads, on works of irrigation or navigation, or on any other useful works, will be granted during the ensuing year. There will be no difficulty as far as money is concerned. The only limit will be the impossibility, in particular cases, of getting value for the outlay.'

"I can assure the House that for some years past there has been no check whatsoever as far as money goes. Many railroads are now approaching completion, and others are progressing rapidly. The whole amount now opened is 2500 miles; 747 were opened last year, and 759 in 1861. The East India Railway is very nearly completed, with some small breaks, and, under the direction of Mr. Turnbull, the works have been admirably executed. The Great Indian Peninsula-one of the greatest works ever accomplished-is rapidly progressing. The Bhore Ghaut incline, which surmounts an elevation of 1800 feet in 15 miles, was opened in April last. The amount of the estimated expenditure on these great lines was 60,000,000%. Of this, 56,000,0007. has been sanctioned, 48,000,0007. has been raised, and 46,000,0007. has been spent. The opening of these different means of communication from one part of India to another will be of the greatest possible advantage to that country. When the railways are once commenced, the more rapidly they are pushed on the better. We guarantee the interest, and until the receipts begin to come, of course that is so much out of pocket. The House will be glad to

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hear that whereas in 1861-2 the traffic returns were only 390,000, in 1862-3 they rose to 868,000l. That, of course, is deducted from the guaranteed interest which we are liable to pay. The increase in expenditure is 46,0007., taking England and India; the increase of revenue is 1,276,000l. This is the more satisfactory, because the reduction of the ten per cent. duty to five per cent. has taken place, so that the revenue has kept up in spite of that reduction."

After particularizing in detail the evidences of progress which the social and commercial state of our Indian possessions afforded, Sir C. Wood thus summed up the results:

"Throughout the length and breadth of India we hear of a progress and prosperity which must be deeply gratifying to all who have the interests of that country at heart, and from all quarters I receive assurances of the contentment and loyalty of the people. Although the material improvement has been owing to the development of the natural resources of India, still I believe that the measures which have been proposed by the Government, and passed by Parliament, have contributed not a little to this very satisfactory state of things. The natives have been admitted to the highest positions. They have been placed in the Council of the Governor-General, on the bench, and in other situations of high trust and dignity. The people are now, I hope and believe, convinced that India is governed by us for the benefit of the great mass of the population. In referring to these results I should not be doing justice to my own feelings if I did not express my obligations for the assistance I have derived from my Council, and the support which the House has uniformly afforded to me."

Most of the members who took part in the debate which followed Sir C. Wood's statement, expressed their concurrence in the favourable anticipations which he had held out of the future progress of India, and joined in congratulating the House upon the success of the policy pursued. In regard to one point, however, an exception was made, it being alleged by some members that the Government might offer greater encouragement than they had hitherto done to the cultivation of cotton, whereby the increased supply, so much needed by this country, might be facilitated. This question, indeed, had formed on a prior occasion the topic of a separate debate, involving the policy of the Government in regard to the occupation by settlers of waste lands, and the redemption of a portion of the land tax.

Mr. H. SEYMOUR, who strongly advocated the extension of facilities to the cultivation of cotton by measures of this nature, brought the subject before the House of Commons in the shape of a Resolution, expressing the opinion of the House as to the duty of the Home Government in this respect. He argued that the land tax of India was a heavy charge upon the soil; that such a joint ownership between the State and the proprietor checked the accumulation of capital, restricted its flow, and interfered with improve

ment; that if the land tax were done away, the large expenditure upon public works, which was attended with evils, would be unnecessary, and that a larger amount would be expended by the owners of the soil. He fortified his argument by the testimony of Indian officers, who were of opinion that the measure would, moreover, have a tendency to ameliorate the condition of the agricultural classes, and be attended by indirect moral advantages to the native population. He referred to the despatch of Lord Stanley in 1858, recommending the measure; to the general concurrence it had met with in India, and to the proclamation of Lord Canning to the same effect. He then subjected to a severe criticism the despatch of Sir C. Wood, of July, 1862, cancelling, he said, that of Lord Stanley-a despatch which he thought must have been written by an old East Indian director. He condemned the rules which Sir C. Wood had substituted for those prescribed by Lord Canning for the sale of waste lands, especially the auction system and the imperfection of the tenure; and inferred, from a case which he cited, that Sir Charles had infused an illiberal spirit into the employés of the Indian Government. He adverted to the vast quantities of waste land, of the most fertile character, in various parts of India, particularly in the Terai, a tract at the foot of the Himalayas, where are the remains of the cultivation of former periods; and he insisted that there was enough of this land for any number of European settlers, whom the rules of Sir C. Wood were, he said, calculated to deter. In a great cotton-growing empire like India, the supply of cotton, which had increased in other countries, had rather decreased, the Government having denied to this culture the encouragement given in one of our colonies. His object in this motion was, he said, not to prefer an indictment against Sir C. Wood; but he could not shut his eyes to a state of things in India which was not satisfactory.

Mr. SMOLLETT viewed the policy of Sir C. Wood in a different light from that in which it had been placed by Mr. Seymour. He thought the alterations of Lord Canning's proclamation made by Sir Charles were founded in a just and liberal spirit, not departing from, but confirming, the principle of the proclamation. The outcry raised against the amended rules for the sale of waste lands came, he said, from a set of land-jobbers; they had given the utmost satisfaction to the natives of India. On the subject of the sale of waste lands, he thought the proposed measure was a faulty one; that in the plains, as regarded the settlement of Europeans, it would be inoperative; and with regard to the redemption of the land tax he believed it was utterly impossible, in the present state of India, to be carried out.

Mr. BUXTON defended the amended rules for the sale of waste lands, and gave credit to Sir C. Wood for having ratified the scheme, though he dissented from his views as to the redemption of the land tax.

Lord STANLEY expressed his regret that the two subjects em

braced in the Resolution,-namely, the redemption of the land tax and the sale of waste lands-were not separately presented for discussion. With regard to the former he had been, and still remained, of opinion that a very considerable number would not avail themselves of the opportunity to redeem the tax, yet that it was most important to offer encouragement to that step. He compared his own plan and that of Sir C. Wood for dealing with the land tax, and stated his reasons for still preferring his own. As to the other subject, the sale of waste lands, he believed the quantity of these lands was practically unlimited, and the question was how best to open them to Europeans or natives, and whether it was best done by Lord Canning or Sir C. Wood. He did not blame the latter for expressing his opinion of the rules promulgated by Lord Canning; but he thought Sir C. Wood was wrong in delaying his revision of them. If a change was to be made, the very earliest notice ought to have been given. He then explained wherein he agreed with, and in what respects he differed from, the modifications made by Sir C. Wood in the rules laid down by Lord Canning, and his reasons for so doing.

Mr. AYRTON denied that the ownership of the land in India was in the Government; on the contrary, he asserted that the native occupiers of the land were the owners of the fee simple of the land they occupied. He was satisfied with the despatch which Sir C. Wood had sent out to India.

Sir C. WOOD vindicated himself and the Indian Government from the charge of neglecting to encourage the growth of cotton in India, appealing to documents before the House, to which Mr. Seymour had abstained from referring, which proved the contrary. With regard to the sale of waste lands he had approved, he said, the whole of Lord Canning's resolutions, with only two exceptions, and he justified his overruling an act of the Indian Government in which they had been legally wrong, and had acted in excess of their authority. In dealing with waste lands it was to be remembered, he observed, that there were three descriptions of lands called waste, to which different incidents attached; and he defended the regulations he had directed to be observed in their disposal, surveys and sale by auction, entering into very full details respecting the description and quality of the lands sold, and the prices obtained for them. Large quantities of land, he observed, lay waste or uncultivated which the Government had no power to sell, it being the property of a zemindar or a village community. The love of the people of India for their land was inconceivable. If there was one thing more than another that would alienate them, it would be a feeling that we were trifling with their rights of property. With respect to the redemption of the land tax, he agreed with Lord Stanley that, up to a certain point, there was no difference between them. He certainly objected to the sacrifice of a large portion of the land tax-a tax which had existed in India from time immemorial, and was acquiesced in by the whole popu