The Indian Government, by the acceptance of such an eleemosynary loan, virtually confess that the strain now put on the finances of India is more than she can bear, and that she is obliged to come to England for assistance. Not only is it an admission of financial exhaustion, but the granting of such assistance may produce a most disastrous effect upon the future financial administration of India. If the idea is once permitted to spread that the Indian authorities, whenever they are pressed for money, can draw upon the English Exchequer, every guarantee for economy will be swept away, and an incalculable injury may be inflicted both upon England and India.

It will, however, be probably said that the advance of this 2,000,000l. is not intended in any way as a gift, but that it must be solely regarded as a contribution, which England is legally bound to make, towards the expenses of the Afghan war. By the fifty-fifth section of the Government of India Act of 1858 it is distinctly provided, that when the Indian army is employed for imperial purposes beyond the frontiers of India the cost shall be borne by England, and when for Indian purposes the cost shall be borne by India. There seems to be no room for doubt that the present war has been undertaken, in part at least, for imperial purposes, and, therefore, India cannot be legally called upon to bear its entire cost. It has, in fact, been most distinctly stated by the Prime Minister that the military expedition into Afghanistan was not simply an Indian war but was undertaken for imperial purposes; for, in a speech which he made in the House of Lords on the 10th of December, 1878, he said: "This is not a question of the Khyber Pass merely, and of some small cantonments at Dakka or at Jellalabad. It is a question which concerns the character and the influence of England in Europe." As no one would for a moment think of throwing upon India the entire cost of maintaining the influence and character of England in Europe, no other conclusion is possible, than that the advance of 2,000,000l., without interest, to India is intended to be England's contribution towards the expense of an expedition which has been undertaken in the interest of the two countries.

This being the case, it will be desirable to explain the exact share of the expense which will be borne by England and India respectively. As the 2,000,000l., which England can borrow at 3 per cent., is to be repaid by seven equal annual instalments, and as the first instalment will become due at the end of next year, the amount which England will contribute by foregoing the interest on the loan is somewhat less than 320,000/. This sum, therefore, represents the amount which England will pay towards the expense of an expedition which, it is officially stated, will cost 2,600,000l., and which, in the opinion of almost all independent military authorities, will greatly exceed this amount. But, assuming that the official estimate should prove strictly correct, it appears that India will pay 2,280,000l. and England 320,000l. India, therefore, will contribute more than seven pounds for every pound that is contributed by England. It is scarcely credible that a proposal should have been brought forward which would lead to such a result. It is, perhaps, only fair to conclude that when the real nature of the scheme is understood it will be promptly abandoned.

At any rate it is difficult to suppose that it will ever be sanctioned by Parliament.1 The English people, whatever may be their faults, have never been charged, even by their bitterest detractors, with meanness. But it is not easy to see how we can escape from such a charge, if, when an expedition has been undertaken, not simply in the interest of India, but to maintain the "influence and character of Ed gland in Europe," we compel the Indian people, whether they wish it or not, surrounded as they are with poverty and financial embarrassment, to pay more than seven times as much as is contributed by all the wealth of England.

1 The Bill which authorised this advance of 2,000,000l. to India was discussed in the House of Commons on the 25th of July, 1879, and a resolution against its second reading was defeated by the narrow majority of twelve.