Lord Hartington's Indian Budget speech on Tuesday was certainly neither
sanguine nor aggressive. He dilated much on the uncertain character of Indian finance, which he illus- trated most effectively. He adhered for once to the system, which he declined to defend, of giving " ordinary " and "extra- ordinary" estimates, the former being calculated without relation to the war estimates, and the latter with them. So stated, he estimates the ordinary revenue for 1880-81 at 266,746,000, and the ordinary expenditure at £66,329,000, giving a surplus of £417,000, but to these estimates he declined to attach any very final character. He estimated the total capital outlay on Productive Works as £139,611,000. During the last thirteen years there had. been an addition to the capital sunk in productive works of £37,000,000. The net charge for interest in that time had increased, by only £482,860, while the net receipts for guaranteed railways and other productive works had increased by £4,040,666, a net im- provement of £3,557,806. As this was the only promising item in the Budget, we are careful to give it. Of the war expendi- ture, we have said enough elsewhere. The Marquis promised absolutely a solid contribution from England to the cost of the Afghan war, on the ground of strict justice, since the Afghan war was made for Imperial purposes ; but declared that this contribution should not be made an excuse for interfering in the foreign policy of India on British grounds, for the future.
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