Enough has probably now been said to prove that the time has arrived when, in order to restore the finances of India and prevent them drifting into hopeless embarrassment, it is absolutely essential that the policy of "rigid economy in every branch in the public service," which has been recently announced by the Government, should be carried out with promptitude and thoroughness. The necessity for this economy being fully admitted, it will naturally be asked, What are the measures which have been proposed by the Government to insure it? After what has been said with regard to public works, no detailed reference need be made to the contemplated reductions in this branch of the expenditure.. During the present year the expenditure on public works is to be reduced from 4,599,000l., its amount in 1878-79 to 3,500,000l., and, as previously stated, the amount which is to be borrowed for public works in succeeding years is to be limited to 2,500,000l., with the proviso that the entire amount required is to be raised in India. Considering the large public works establishments which exist in India, and the heavy sums which will be required to provide pensions for the engineers and others for whom, under the reduced scale of expenditure, no employment will be available, and also bearing in mind the serious loss that may be incurred in having suddenly to abandon works which are approaching completion, it may perhaps be fairly concluded that it would scarcely be prudent to make a larger immediate reduction in the public works expenditure than that which is now proposed.

Unless, however, a decided improvement can be effected in the financial condition of India during the next few years, the Government will undoubtedly be compelled still further to reduce the outlay on public works.

In addition to these important reductions in the public works expenditure, the Government have given the most distinct pledges that no effort shall be spared to secure every possible retrenchment in all the other branches of civil administration. It is anticipated that an immediate saving of 250,000l. a year can thus be obtained, and it is evidently thought that a much larger saving can be secured, when sufficient time has elapsed to enable all the civil departments to be thoroughly overhauled. No one who has watched the steady and rapid growth in the cost of the civil administration since the government of India was transferred from the Company to the Crown, can doubt that there is an almost unlimited opportunity for effecting a most important saving if the government is conducted with greater care and thrift. It has been previously pointed out that the cost of administration, excluding expenditure on the army and public works, increased in the fifteen years from 1856 to 1871 from 14,964,867l. to 23,271,082l., and this growth of expenditure has steadily continued up to the present time. It is shown in almost every item in the cost of administration.

Thus, in 1856, the cost of printing and stationery was 128,197l.; in 1871, it was 233,675l., and in the present year it is estimated at no less an amount than 490,000l. net. The advantage which would result from reducing this excessive outlay within proper limits is by no means to be measured by the amount of money which would be saved, for it will scarcely be denied that in the government of India administrative efficiency is often smothered in a mass of paper details. This remark admits of a very wide application, for there is good reason to believe that economy, instead of lessening, would in almost every instance greatly promote administrative efficiency in India. One of the chief defects in the present system of governing that country is the weakening of individual responsibility. Experience has again and again proved that no task is more hopeless than to attempt to fasten responsibility upon a particular department or individual for any mistake that may be committed, or for any waste that may result from laxity of control.

Some years since barracks were erected in India at an enormous cost, and although it was afterwards found that in some instances they were so badly constructed as to be totally unfit for use, it has to this day remained impossible to discover to whom the blame ought to be attached. The subject was most carefully investigated by a select committee of the House of Commons, but it was soon seen that the members of that committee had a tangled skein before them, which no amount of patience or ingenuity could unravel. The responsibility in rapid succession was shifted from the Public Works Department to the various grades of engineers who were engaged in the work, and then again it was transferred from the engineers to the local contractors. The weakening of responsibility is always so much promoted by the undue multiplication of departments, that the rumoured decision of the Government to reduce the number of departments in India, many of which have been called into existence during the last few years, is to be welcomed not only on account of the important saving which will result from the abolition of many highly paid offices, but on account of the influence which it will undoubtedly exert upon the efficiency of administration.

The annual migration to Simla may be referred to as affording another example of the fact that, although economy may be the primary motive for adopting some particular measure, yet other consequences may be produced by it, which are at least as important as the pecuniary saving involved. It has been estimated that on the most moderate computation a saving of 10,000l. a year might be effected in connection with this migration. While, in the present state of the finances of India, it is imperatively incumbent on the Government to effect an economy comparatively so small as 10,000l., such an amount altogether fails to represent the indirect loss which is caused to India by this transfer of the seat of government from Calcutta to Simla during the greater part of the year. The personnel of many of the most important offices is annually removed from Calcutta to Simla during seven months. As a fortnight is occupied both in going and returning, it follows that one-twelfth of the working year is lost. It has lately been well observed that no item in the Indian accounts "could be more safely or more advantageously cut down, if not swept away altogether. Up to about fifteen years ago the idea of removing all the departments to a summer capital seems never to have suggested itself.