IN reviewing this work, it is impossible to dissociate it
from the most civilised countries does not attempt."
author, Sir Richard Temple is one of the most notable A.nglo- It is a full answer to this view to remark that the Chinese Indians with whom the present generation is acquainted, and Government differs radically from every other in the world, it has been his fortune to hold more than the usual variety of because it is still a paternal despotism, and as recent edicts show posts during a career rather shorter, in poiut of time, than that the use of opium has come under its ban, it is only a ques- most of his colleagues of equal rank, but atoning for any tion of time when the Pekin Government may feel strong deficiency in respect of seniority by an energy and a capacity enough to enforce its own decrees. The prohibition of its use for work in accordance with the best traditions of the Service would prove a simpler solution of the problem than the put-
lay it down with the verdict that it is much too Blue-hooky. and trustworthy, and that is, in some instances, new.
no new avenues of adapt national al polnwealth, ordinary policy and mode of government be altogether restrained at the result.
would compel us to more thoroughly to the poverty of those under our rule. It may be remembered that the great Mongol Emperor Akbar, MR. ARTHUR ARNOLD ON FREE LAND.* who held a smaller portion of Hindostan than we do, and who
* indict in mess. By Sir Richard Temido, Bart., Sze, London. John
Murray, 1880.
treaties and other arrangements with England. It is manifest, how- ever, that if the Chinese Government shall ever attempt to prevent the importation of an article of luxury much desired by the people, it INDIA IN 1880.* " will bo essaying a task which has rarely been undertaken by any Government with success anywhere, and which the Government iu
of which he has been so distinguished. Sir Richard re- ting of a higher tax upon its importation, and would bo the minds the reader in his preface of the peculiarly varied char- one more in consonance with Chinese custom. For the moment actor of his experience, having served in almost every pro- there is no immediate danger on this score, although the conces- vince of India, and having taken a prominent and responsible Bien made to China by the United States in the treaty now under part in most of the difficult problems, social and political, consideration at Washington may show how much the subject with which the Anglo-Indian Government has had to deal occupies the mind of the Chinese Government ; but it may be during the last quarter of a century. When it is stated accepted as a matter of certainty that the more vigorous the that this volume contains the fruits of that experience, and the authority of the present Emperor, the greater the likelihood of a result of the observations of more than thirty years, it may be supreme effort to put down the use of opium with a strong conjectured that it possesses some exceptional merits. It does hand. In view of such a contingency, the necessity of readjust- not, however, altogether fulfil its promise. The great subject ing the inelastic Indian revenue on some sounder basis becomes is not vivified. There is a great quantity of novel infor- the more imperative, and what that is to be, and how attained,. motion, some original remarks, and much really good writing must long continue to exercise the minds of financiers. At the in. the volume, and yet it is to be feared that it will be found least, our first duty in the future is to reduce expenditure in rather dull reading. The writer is a statesman and a scholar one way or another to within the revenue upon which we are of exceptional parts, and there can be no question that his able to depend uuder all circumstances. Closely connected book will afford instruction to all on many points connected with the question of fivance are such topics as railways, canals,. with India, and our government of it. Nevertheless, it may be roads, irrigation work's, and similar undertakings for the pro-. doubted whether the reader will appreciate as fully as he ought motion of the materia welfare of the community, and on all of the valuable details Sir Richard supplies; whether he will not these Sir Richard supplies information that is always accurate As Sir Richard was Finance Minister during a very trying The great extent of ground covered iu these pages detracto period—a period when the inelasticity of Indian revenue was from their interest, and obscures the value of the few not accepted with the same degree of philosophy that it is at opinions which their author allows himself to express. In present—it is only natural to turn first to those chapters in fact, this reticence appears to us to be the radical shortcoming which he treats of this, the most complicated portion of his of the work. Sir Richard, who has never been charged with not subject. Several chapters are devoted to its consideration, and having the courage of his convictions, carries to excess caution the hostile criticism of many will be at once disarmed by the in hurting the susceptibilities of others, and in stating unplea- statement made on p. 242, that the revenue for Administrative sant truths. While vesting his statements with an air of im- PurPoses can only be considered at forty-three and a half mil- partiality which they rightly deserve, this good resolution has lions sterling ; the remaining twenty-one and a half millions— imposed a restraiut upon the writer that detracts from the rightly figuring in the Estimates as a matter of accounts— vividness of the picture, and makes it rather colourless. At the being derived from special sources, and required for special pur- same time, it may be admitted that India, and our tenure of poses, are not available for the general work of Government, authority in. that country, are delicate subjects for an Anglo- and are, moreover, not derived, either directly or indirectly, Indian statesman to write about; and if Sir Richard Temple's from the pocket of the ordinary taxpayer. As more than seven views appear to us to be often optimist, we can make some millions of this sum are contributed by the Chinese through allowance for the fault, in consideration of the position he occu- opium, and by the native States in tribute, it is clear that from pies, more especially because we fancy we can detect here and the Indian taxpayer a revenue of only thirty-six millions is there throughout his pages that he has himself doubts whether raised ; and, as "fresh taxation is admitted to be impossible,"
the condition of things in India is of the eairuleasi hue the it follows that that sum cannot be increased by the imposi- general reader will certainly imagine it to be from a perusal of tion of fresh taxes. If this statement were to be accepted as
an infallible truth of permanent force, and if there are his glowing pages. But although Indiain 1880 has only the
i . faults which might have been considered inevitable from the
prudence official status of the author, a feeling of disappointment cannot
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