The Indian Government is very lucky. Sir John Strachey presented
his Budget on Tuesday, and, as usual, the reporters are utterly puzzled by the system of presenting the accounts of three years at once, the perfected accounts of 1878-79, the "partly estimated" accounts of 1879-80, and the "anticipa- tion sketch estimate" of 1880-81. The total result, however, is that the Government, by saving £661,000 on public works and £1,010,000 on the loss by exchange, and improving the land-revenue by £450,000 and the salt revenue by £362,000, and the opium revenue of 1879-80 by £1,900,000, has secured a series of surpluses which will enable it to pay for the Afghan war. That war, it is now estimated, will cost 26,000,000. In addition to this, £3,940,000 has been spent or will be spent on the frontier railways ; and we cannot gather from Renter's telegram whether this amount is provided for or not. We believe not. At all events, partly by economy, and partly by good-luck—for the enormous improvement in opium and in the loss by exchange is accidental—the Government is solvent, in spite of its war. That fact in no way justifies the war, upon which £6,000,000 of Indian money has been wasted, but it undoubtedly will help to reconcile the British people to its policy. The most satis- factory fact in the Budget is that the recent reduction on salt has caused a rise in revenue.
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