There is in some ways a striking analogy between the
Russian and Indian Budgets. In both, the Budget has grown in import- ance,—that of Russia having doubled in twenty years, and now approaches £90,000,000; while that of India has increased even more rapidly. In both, while there is frequent financial diffi- culty, the money wanted is always forthcoming; and in both there is a singular want of original ability applied to finance. Both Empires, in fact, have great resources which it is very difficult to get at, and both are required to raise from a half-civilised population the money to pay for an expensive civilisation. The present Czar seems to have discovered in M. Vishne- gradsky a reasonably good financier. He tries, at all events, to live without deficits, to raise the value of the paper rouble —which, we may remark, because some of our contemporaries forget it, is based on silver, not gold, and must therefore fluctuate—and to insist that the money collected shall actually reach the Treasury. M. Vishnegradsky understands that war disorganises all Treasuries, and his success is one of many influences pressing the Czar towards peace.
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