It has been usual to order a Parliamentary inquiry.into the
Government of India every twenty years. The last inquiry, however, was in 1852; and as the Indian Administration has been radically changed since then, the late Government promised to take the matter up. The present Government has decided to fulfil this promise, and Lord Kimberley on Thursday moved the appointment of a Joint Select Committee of both Houses. It appears from his speech that the machinery of government, including the constitution of the India Office, of the Presidency Governments, and of the Civil Service, will be- thoroughly overhauled. There is obviously some desire to limit the scope of the inquiry ; but we trust that the Government does not intend, as some of Lord Kimberley's words would imply, to exclude finance from investigation. Financial abuses grow rapidly in a country like India, and the subjects of Public Works, Pensions, and the animal remittance to this country imperatively require ventilation. The expenditure on the super- vision of Public Works is exceaSiVe FISInit/n0 oaght to ke pur- chased, not granted ; and the remittance is now the grand financial embarrassment.
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