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set to.expenditure from the imperial finances on these
several departments, which are the very departments
in which expenditure may be advocated with a moral
pressure most hard to resist. This system has worked
well financially and otherwise. By decentralizing
some of the financial arrangements, local governments
have been encouraged to exercise greater control over
expenditure, while the absolute control given to them,
within certain limits, has enabled them to spend the
money to the greatest advantage. An extension of
the system would be beneficial. The contracts are
usually made for periods of five years.

The Public Debt.

Large sums of money are required from time to
time for extensive public works ; and, occasionally, to
meet the cost of famines or of wars undertaken for
the protection of the Indian empire, or in its interests.
A very large part of the sums in question is spent on
productive public works, like canals and railways,
which not only repay the interest on the outlay or
even more, but which increase the produce or open up
the trade, and so assist the material progress of the
country. It would be unfair as well as impossible to
meet such charges from current revenue. The works
are constructed, or the wars are fought, for the lasting
benefit of the empire, and it is only fair that the cost
should be spread out over a series of years, or, in the
case of remunerative works, that the principal sum
should remain invested in them. It is. moreover,