The Government of India has at last extorted from the
India Office permission to choke the deficit by putting on a duty of 5 per cent. upon Lancashire cotton. Mr. Fowler has however accompanied this concession, rendered almost in- evitable by an expedition against the tribes of Wuzeeristan, who are aggressively rebellious, by an order to put on a counter- vailing excise-duty upon all cottons of a higher count than 20, that is upon the major part of the Lancashire export. The natives are angry and the Government disgusted, and both with reason. The duty is wanted not for Protection but for revenue, and the countervailing excise, if honestly levied, will cost half the proceeds of the tax, besides compelling us, as the Government admits, to treat native States as foreign States, or in other words, to renew the exploded policy of Transit. duties. The Home Government would have some logical right to prevent the Indian Government from adopting an injurious system of finance ; but it has no right to allow the system, and then spoil its one merit by spending the proceeds on an oppressive excise. Every trader in a native State who exports -will now have to pay blackmail to the Customs police, in order to prevent his goods from being spoiled, under pre- text of searching for taxable muslin.
