The Indian Budget was published on Thursday in Calcutta,_ and
is on the whole favourable. The account for 1881-82' proves that the revenue was £73,696,000, and the expenditure 271,113,000, leaving a surplus of £1,583,000. The revised. estimate for 1882-83 shows a revenue of 267,914,000, and an expenditure, after providing for the Egyptian Expedition, of 267,854,000, or a minute surplus of £60,000. Major Baring, moreover, hopes that in 1883-84 the revenue will be £67,274,000- and the expenditure 266,817,000, thus leaving £457,000 in the- Treasury. The Government is able to send £1,000,000 home- for the repayment of sterling debt,—quite a new process,—and: the Treasury is satisfied as to its future prospects. Major Baring denies; that the revenue of India is inelastic, and says the increase- in the use of salt is so great, that the reduction made last year is. partly recouped already, and will very shortly be fully made up. The bad features in the situation are the continued fluctuations in the value of silver, and the decline in the sales of opium, due to the increasing growth of the drug in China itself ; but "I see no reason for taking a desponding view of the financial situation at present."
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