25 MAY 1872, Page 3

Lord Northbrook, it would seem, intends to make his reign

in India a breathing-time for the native populations. In his very first address, made to the Calcutta Trade Association, he told them that his aim would be to "make a reasonable amount of income balance the expenditure," and that "he would not lightly make changes affecting the habits of the people." That is pre- cisely the policy India requires, but to carry it out the Viceroy will have to control the local legislatures, who are evidently determined to use their new powers of taxation effectually. In Bombay they have even, we are told, placed an income-tax on the poor, who have been studiously relieved from it by the central Government,—an act, if it has really been committed, of almost wanton stupidity. The poor will have to pay double the tax to satisfy the collectors, and have scarcely an idea of the difference between general and local taxation, at all events none when the locality is an entire Presidency.