The Governor-General might, and often did, spend two or three months at one of the hill sanitaria, but never dreamt of taking with him the whole apparatus of government. . . . Such public opinion and independent criticism as there are in India are to be found only in the Presidency towns, and it is no light evil that the Government should be out of the reach of the wholesome effect of these for over half the year. Moreover, Simla is situated in a remote and inaccessible corner of the Empire, and the Government might be easily cut off for days from all communication with the rest of the country. If, however, the Government cannot make up its mind to give up this luxury, it may fairly be asked whether the officers whose work lies for five months in Calcutta and seven in Simla - in other words, who enjoy an almost perfect climate for the entire year - should receive salaries and have furlough privileges which were originally fixed with the view of tempting equally good men to spend their whole time in the plains."1

As already stated, the Government, with the view of securing economy, have undertaken that all branches of expenditure shall be most carefully scrutinised. It will no doubt be found that by abolishing many unnecessary offices a considerable saving may be effected, but in order to make such retrenchment as is rendered absolutely necessary by the present financial condition of India, it will be essential that something more shall be done. The entire system on which the government of India has been conducted must be changed. The illusion is only just beginning to pass away that India is an extremely wealthy country. Misled by certain signs of barbaric riches, people have too generally supposed that India could afford to have her government carried on upon a lavish scale. There is probably no country in which official salaries range so high, and this remark holds true not only with regard to those who are employed in the public service in India, but also with regard to many of the salaries which are paid at the India Office in London. One who holds a high position in the English Civil Service informs me that he has lately had occasion to make a comparison between the rates of pay in the English and Indian services, and that he finds that in numerous instances, for precisely the same work done in England, a poor country like India pays 20 or 30 per cent. more than is paid by England with all her wealth.

In determining at what amount official salaries should be fixed, it is not sufficient merely to consider whether a particular individual is overpaid. The financial circumstances of the country must also be most carefully taken into account. The worst of all things for a state as well as for an individual is, by living beyond its means, to burden itself with a load of debt. If a comparison is made between the financial resources of England and India, it will be found almost impossible to convey an adequate idea of the poverty of the latter country. In India, with a population of more than 200,000,000, a net revenue is raised of less than 38,000,000l. A much larger revenue than this is raised in England by taxes imposed on articles of general consumption; but in India the mass of the people are in a condition of such deplorable poverty, many of them earning only 3d. a day, that with the exception of salt, which is already heavily taxed, they consume scarcely an article on which a duty can be imposed, and consequently it is found that taxation in India has reached almost its extreme limits.

An expenditure which may be perfectly suited to England may be altogether beyond the means of India; and if India cannot afford to pay some of those who are now receiving seven or eight thousand a year, it is far better that she should get others to do the work for a smaller remuneration than incur debt and thus ultimately be driven to bear fresh burdens of taxation.

1 See Calcutta correspondent of the Ti?nes, July 7, 1879.

It will unfortunately only too surely happen that a policy of retrenchment cannot be carried out without causing much loss and suffering to individuals. If, for instance, the public works expenditure is reduced by one half, many thousands of labourers who are now employed by the Government will have to be dismissed. The Indian newspapers already contain accounts of the suffering which is thus caused by the curtailment of the outlay on public works. Not the least of the many evils that result from extravagance is that, when the inevitable time arrives for retrenchment, many old servants have to be dismissed, and many, through no fault of their own, are deprived of employment to which they have been long accustomed. At such a time it is of the first importance that a Government should mete out even-handed justice, and that retrenchment should not fall upon the poor alone, and leave the wealthy and the influential untouched. The difficulties which must always be encountered by a Government in carrying out a policy of economy are sure to be most formidable; but the Government of India will find that the task which they have undertaken is rendered much more easy if they are able to give proofs that, in order to secure a reduction of expenditure, they do not shrink from encountering the opposition of those whose influence will enable them to make their complaints heard.

In attempting to describe the advantages which will be produced by this new policy of economy to which the Indian Government is now pledged, it is hardly possible to lay too much stress upon the fact that one of the chief agencies on which reliance seems to be placed is to secure a more economical administration by a larger employment of natives in the public service. The question is alike important whether regarded in its political or its financial aspects. There can be no surer way of attaching the people of India to our rule than to place within their reach an education which will fit them for the public service, and then freely to throw open to them all positions which they are qualified to fill. In spite of repeated pledges that no unnecessary barriers should be placed in the way of the natives obtaining admission to the public service, it is now officially acknowledged that the efforts to give these pledges practical effect have been "spasmodic, unsystematic, and altogether incomprehensible to the mass of the native population, while the great increase which has taken place in the number of Europeans in some branches of the public service, and various other acts, may have seemed to them to be in partial violation of this policy.