Mr. Fawcett, on Tuesday, moved that the House of Commons,
while accepting the contract for the purchase of the East India Railway, would not regard the arrangement as a precedent. He contended, and proved, that the India Office, by carelessness or miscalculation, had paid the Railway Company 23,000,000 too much, ten per cent. more than its shareholders were entitled to receive. The Government, through Mr.. Stanhope, acknow- ledged that they had paid too much, but showed that the railway was worth the money, and baffled Mr. Faw- cett by accepting his motion, which, at the next purchase, will greatly strengthen their hands. India is greatly indebted to Mr. Fawcett for his watchfulness, but we do not know that the Government was wrong. They gave ten per cent. extra for expro- priation, not an unusual bonus, and though the expropriation had been arranged in the original contract, still without the extra payment it would never have boon sanctioned. The whole Railway interest would have fought the proposal to the last. Moreover the Government gained incidentally a great advantage for India. It made successfully a great experiment in Termin- able Annuities,—the only way in which the Indian Debt will ever be seriously reduced.
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