NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IT is stated, apparently on authority, that Sir Stafford Northcote has offered the Indian Exchequer to Mr. Childers, Member for Pontefract. As Mr. Childers is a Radical, the offer is creditable to Sir Stafford, and we regret, for the sake of India, that it has been declined. Mr. Childers understands finance, and has a back- bone to his mind—a very rare quality. A strong man is impera- tively required out there just now, for Sir John Lawrence does not understand finance in the least ; the new division of budgets among Presidencies wants extreme care, and there will sooner or later be a mess with those " balances " amounting to a catastrophe. India wants and, as we believe, must shortly have Exchequer Bills, or some day the Government, with its revenue as prosperous as that of England, will stop for want of sixpence in the till. Would not Lord Hobart go ? It would be a shame to send the fittest man in England—Mr. Stansfeld.
