Wednesday was a day of financial deputations. A great deputation
waited on Lord George Hamilton to explain that the countervailing Excise-duties levied on cotton goods in India are not at all equivalent to the Import-duties levied on the English cottons imported into India. One of the speakers maintained that the former only amounted to 34 per cent. against 5 per cent. imposed on the Lancashire goods ; and another asserted that while the capital invested in the Lancashire exports is of course English, much the greater part of the capital invested in the Indian cotton manufac- tures is English also, so that the effect of the inadequacy of the Indian countervailing Excise-duty is to give a premium of 11 per cent. to the English capitalist in India as against the English capitalist in England. Others of the deputation asserted that as a matter of fact our cotton imports to India have fallen of 221 per cent. in the year 1895 as compared with 1894. Lord George Hamilton, in reply, thought that these last figures much exaggerated the effect of the Cotton- duties. The truth was that the very great quantity of cotton exported last year to India had overstocked the markets, and that therefore much less than would otherwise have been exported had been sent to India this year. He promised
generally to have the effect of the countervailing Excise- duties in India carefully examined, and to make any changes which seemed fair to prevent the English manufacturer in India gaining at the expense of the English manufacturer in England.
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