The Indian papers are full of gloomy financial statements. According
to the Times' correspondent, the deficit for 1868-69 alone, which was calculated, apart from extraordinary works, at £1,070,000, will be £2,500,000, the difference having been pro- duced by expenditure on barracks and unexpected outlays at home. Indian officials, however, always shift all the blame they can on to Downing Street, and this particular charge is entirely unjust. The India House never, except in the most extraordinary cases, sends out stores except upon indent from the Presidencies, and all pay- ments, except those for stores, can be calculated in Calcutta as easily as in London. It is further stated that instead of a surplus in 1870, there will be a deficit of £2,000,000, owing principally to the famine in the North-West and a fall in opium. We have endeavoured elsewhere to explain the constant recurrence of these blunders, which are due, firstly, to the system which deprives the Presidencies of any interest in economy ; secondly, to the want of a margin in Indian calculations ; and, thirdly, to the long-proved inability of Anglo-Indians to count. They can manage anything except a budget.
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