T

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FUMIUNEY,

A. WEEKLY JOURNAL OF POLITICS, LITERATURE AND NEWS, _

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Chis is true Liberty, when Free~born Men, having to advise the Public, man speak free——xvRIPrEs.

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EDWARD WHELAN]

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in presence of triumphs, though sufficiently impatient of |per cent. more; and the remainder is* made up of various failure or reyerse. Silence with him is approbation, He limposts, ordinary and extraordinary, the produce of which is is often most satisfied’ when he says nothing. As long as he | trifling compared with their cost of collection, Of the ‘is satisfied, he exhibits an indifference that must be provoking expenditure, the military establishment alone consumes about

to those who strive for his regard. And if the statesmanly fifty-six per cent., and the marine about two. per cent. the

Literature.

OUR HOUSEHOLD QUEEN.

She comes with sunny laughter,

And makes our home divine :-— lsieptotts be not done within the parent isle of his race—that | civil administration costs about twenty-five per cent, the |

| goodly nook wherein he has garnerdd up wealth and power | home establishments about three per cent., and fourteen per | untold, and every acre, right or custom in which is sacréd in | cents goes for the interest of money expended in acquiring

Our household Queen—whose kiases, Are sweet as ripened wine.

CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, MONDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 1857.

And in our arms she'll nestle," When evening's beauty dies ; Like star Seal in the azure Of summer's wealthy skies !

Oh ! we are never weary Of her fair loeks and smiles ;

Her cheeks have dainty blushes— Two little crimson isles !

And there are tints of beauty, About her night and day,

That we feel the winter s th, One blossom touched with May !

About us she will sparkle, Our growing star of love; Beauty-crowned and glory-dowered, W hitely bosomed as a dove ! For she’s our greatest treasure ; We feel that she is given To light our life with splendour— ' A glory-spark from heaven !

And oh! the deepest dimples About her cheeks are seen— The rosy cups of beauty With lips of fruit between ! And eyes that dunce in brightness, Like orbs in silyer set ; And blue as bashful violets, With morning's jewels wet!

She wakes us in the morning With a melody of words ; As from a bush of blossoms Swim out the, songs of birds. The ripest, sunniest gladness On her young heart springs up ; Like fountain babbling diamonds, Or wine in ruby cup! She glides a wave of Deauty, And bome with glory fills; Like star siniles — glitters, O’er faintly moonlit hills. And when the day has ended She lives our angel-guest ; Closes her dear eyes in slumber, Like bird within its nest.

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A GEM, PICKED UP BY THE WAY.

Alone I walked the ocean strand, A pearly shell was in my hand ;

I stupped and wrote upon the sand My naime—the year—the day. As onward from the spot I passed, Vue lingering look behind [ cast-— <A wave came rolling high and fast,

Aud washed my lines away.

And so, methought ‘twill shortly be With every mark ov earth from me; A ware of dark oblivion’s sea

W iil sweep across the place Where I have trod tlie sandy shore Of Time, and been, to be no more ; Of me, my frame, the name I bore,

To leave no track or trace.

Aud yet, with Him who counts the sands, And holds the waters in His hands, 1 know a lasting reeord stands Inscribed against my name, Of all this mortal part has wrought, Of all this thinking soul has thought, And from these flecting moments caught Por glory or for shame!

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(From Blackwood's Magazine for December, 1856.) OUR INDIAN EMPIRE.

In ancient Rome, the triumphal processions that ever and anon passed along the Via Sacra, “ purpling the street,’ served vividly to impress the minds even of the unthinking masses with the far-reaching extent and grandeur of the empire that owned the sway of the Legions, Stalwart Angli and blue-eyed Germans,—Persians and Parthians+ from their Orient hills and sands,—a queen from lonely Palmyra, Jews torn from Jerusalem, dusky slaves from the Nile,—paintings and godlike statues from Greece, alternating | with troops of wild beasts of strange aspect or startling bulk | from the Afriean deserts—passed im turn before the proud | eye of the Roman multitude. Living symbols and brilliant | samples of the various provinces aud conquests were trans-

ted bodily and exhibited solemnly in the Imperial City.

e have a homelier way of doing things now. urope, as she gets older, is losing her regard for pageantry, Far in the depths of Scythia, indeed—~in a region then so waste that Roman Legionary never pressed its soil—we have just Wituessed a sudden outburst of imperial paveantries, with the | fame of whose magnificence Europe jis still ringing, and |

which find a parallel, ovly in the pages of Roman history, |

or in the sculptured processions of the ancient Emperors of | the Orient,

| be looked for in vain under the: present regime. Moreover,

2 | brief-lived authority,—men who had raised themselves to the

his eyes,—but in one of our colonies or empires ‘veyond the seas, it is hopeless to expect from John Bull the slightest | mark of enthusiasm, Quce a-year, and generally in the last days of the session, there is gone through in the Louse of Commons a piece of work which seems to be regarded by every one as a bore. A gentleman rises on the Ministerial benches, and, undismayed by the general secession of the House, delivers a three hours’ speech to the thirty Members or so who still keep their places. At almost any time during the delivery of this oration the proeeedings could be abruptly terininated by a ‘count-out ;” but as it is not a question of home polities, the Minister is allowed to bring his lengthy address to a close. Itis the Indian Budget speech ; and the House has been listening to a report on the state and pros- pects of an empire one-half the size of Eurdpe, and com- prising an eighth part of the entire humana race.’ But with the exception of some Manchester politician, who thinks that India grows too little cotton, or some lawyer, who holds a brief from a deposed Rajah, no one rises to comment or dis- cuss,—the House turns with alacrity to other busivess, and the specch is left to be circulated and criticised by-the press. Our Indian Ewpire constitutes so vast a subject of ingairy that our national Representatives, may be excused from plunging into its abysses, so long as matters go on smoothly. And that India does, oa the whole, progress favourably, is our honest conviction, as well as, we conceive, a fair inference from the seeming apathy of our legislators. In so vast a fabric it is easy to pick out a defective stone, here or there, or even a buttress that does not look seemly by itself; but the same things may be found at home, where we. have been planning and building, and taking down and rebuilding in- cesaantly for generation under much wore favourable cir- cumstances than have surrounded the builders of our foreign ewpire in the East. It is not, however, with the design of defending the East India Company's rule, or of discussing moot points, that we address ourselves to our present sub- ject, but simply with the purpose of passing in review the leading features of our Indian Empire, as a theme worthy of national attention, and as a groundwork fur any. criticisms of detail which may be rendered necessary by the future, British sway now dominates over the whole peninsula of India. All within the outer girdle of mountains, formed by the snow-capped Himalayas aud the sterile Suleyman range, British power is supreme; and from Attock in the north- west, to Comorin in the south, two thousand miles of territory own the guardianship of the Viceroy of England. But here, on the very threshold, a grave error may be commitied, if we do not discriminate. The defence and imperial government of the whole of India rests with Britain, but British Ladia, the territories actually taxed and directly ruled by us, com- prises only half the Peuinsula. In rownd numbers, 690,000 square miles, and a hundred millions of people are directly uuder British rule; while 670,000 Square miles, and fifty millions of people, are ruled by Native princes, protected for the most part, internally as well as externally, by the Com- pany, but contributing little or nothing to the treasury at Valcutta, The consequence of this is, speaking generally, that we have to provide for the defence and imperial govera- ment of the whole of India, while we draw the revenue of only half of it. We need not wonder, then, that the Indian revenue should at times fall short of the charges upon it; or that the large surpluses oceasionally acquired hy the Mogul Emperors, ruling despotically over the entire peninsula, should

uot only are the revenues of half of India still exempted from our control, but the acquisition of many portions of our preseut territories -has been accompanied by obligations so onerous, as to be creditable rather to the generosity than the wisdom of our Indian rulers. It will hardly be credited by the English public, that a million and a half sterling is annually due from the sore-depressed Indian. treasury toa dozen deposed Nawabs and Rajahs, and their families, or to the descendants of the same for ever,—unless. by good for- tune they become extinct. All of these men (except the King of Delhi) were mure mushroom princes,—creatures of yesterday, counting sometimes but a single generation of

musoud by rebellion, assassination, or the sword,—represen- tatives of no nationality, and liable at any time to be sup- planted in the same way as they rose, They never dreamt of pensioning or paying tribute, to their predecessors; and had we, when we established ourselves in their stead by as good a title as ever they posscased, treated them in a similar fashion, they could have had little reason to complain. Policy, indeed, in some cases, demanded that we should

soften their descent from the musnud, and generosity dictated

a similar course ; but clearly the pensions given ought not to have been forall time, but in the shape of terminable and decreasing annuities, And when we find £160,000 still paid to the descendants of Meer Jaffier, a mock Nawab of Bengal, created by ourselves, (!) besides £90,000 to the fami- lies of former Nawabs of the same province,—£116,000 to

‘the country,—being divided on stock and the interest of the

Debt. The three Presidencies contribute in very different measures to the revenue. The Bengal presidency—including the North-west Provinces, Qude and the Punjab—with,a net revenue of sixteen millions, yields a surplus of fully five and a half millions; Madras, with a net revenue of three and a quarter millions, gives asurplus of ha'f a million; and Bombay, with a net revenue of two and a half millions, shows a deficit of'a third of a million. Bengal is thus seen to be the most paying of the three presidencies ; but.as the opium tax may be considered rather as an imperial than a local source of reveuue, and as two and a half millions sterling of this tax ds raised in Bengal, this amount ought to be deducted in comparing the profitableness of the separate presidencies ; and a deduction of more than three-quarters of a million must on the same account be made from the revenue of Bom- bay. Madras grows no opium, and contributes not so far short of its fair share of revenue; but Bombay is in every respect the chief source of loss. The public debt of India amounts to about forty-eight millions, and there is also a bond debt at home of four millions,—and the interest upon these forms an annual charge on the revenue of two anda quarter millions.

The revenue of our Indian empire appears small when compared with that of Great Britain ; but if there be deducted from each the amount of its public debt, it will be found that the available revenue of the two countries is not very dissimilar in amount, ‘The great difference between the financial state of the'two empires does not consist in the larger revenue enjoyed by the British Government in ordinary times, but in the capacity of the United Kingdom to greatly increase its revenue on extraordinary occasions, whereas our Indian territories caunot do so, The enormous amount of realised wealth in the Byitish Isles forms a reservoir from which large drafts may be made by the Government in extraordinary times; but there is little accumulated wealth in India, the great mass of the people having just enough to procure themselves the means of existence. Hence the amazing elasticity of Britain’s finances compared with those of India, or indeed with those of any other country.

In ordinary times the Indian revenue is equal to the charges upon it; and the Public Debt has been occasioned by the extraordinary expenses of war. Wars—wars foreed upon us and inevitable—while adding new provinces to our empire, have been the great impediments to our financial progress. But it is childish to expect to get an empire without having to pay for it. The first Burmese war, in 1824-6, of itseif cost fifteen millions of money. In 1835-6, at the close of Lord Beuotick’s peaceful administration, the financial embarrassment produced by the Burmese war had been allayed, and there was a surplus of nearly a million and a half. ‘Iu the following year the surplus was a million and a quarter; in the next, three-quarters of a million. In the next year (1838-9) the surplus bad altogether disappeared, and the awkward word ‘ deficit” appeared in the accounis, Then came the Affghan war. A British army was pushed across the Indus; and the deficit for the year 1839-40 reached the alarming amount of more than two millions sterling. From this time to the year 1848-9 there has been an average deficiency of a mil- lion and a half a-year.” In consequence, the Debt, which was under thirty millions in 1836, reached nearly forty- seven millions in 1850. In the following year a surplus re- appeared, to the extent Of half a million, and a similar surplus was obtained in 1852-3; but in the three years which have elapsed since then, there has been incurred a deficit of nearly six millions. This deficit, however, unlike its predecessors, is no loss; for it has been occasioned by the Government expenditure on public works, whieh will soon be sources of profit to the State,--and also by paying off a portion of the Indian Debt, on occasion of the conversion of the Five- per-cent. loan into Three-and-a-half per cents. To show the true state of their case, we may mention that the estimated deficit for the current year (1856-7) is £1,635,520, while the amount to be expended on public works is £1,754,000 ; so that, but for this profitable outlay on public works, the yearly revenue would more than equal the yearly expenditure.

(To be continued.)

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Correspondence.

{FOR THE EXAMINER. ]

MUNICIPAL COUNCILS.

{EDITOR axp PUBLISHER.

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also be transacted more economically both by Councils and the public, because all parties residing near home, they do not necessarily incur any considerable expense. But perhaps the greatest advantage of all is the superior thoroughness and justice with which public business is transacted by local Coun- cils, Office-bearers having to attend only to the limited business of their own single Municipality, have far more leisure than those who have successively to take into consideration the infinite and intricate affairs of a whole Colony. The School Inspector, for instance, having but few schools to in- spect, could devote half a day to the examination of each school ; consequentiy each would be more thoroughly examin- ed, and his report more comprehensive and accurate than if he were pressed for time, and attempt to inspect four schools per day; and so of other offices. Thete is also far greater chance for justice being done to merit than when public busi- ness is all entrusted to Parliament or Heads of Departments, residing too remote to allow them to judge for themselves of the merits of parties or cases. One more advantage I must not omit to enumerate, viz: that the institution of local Councils would obviate all necessity for D. Maclean's proposed annual Parliaments. If the experience of Canadian legisla- tors taught them the inadequacy of quadrennial Parliaments, to attend to the multitudinous affairs of many localities with which they could not possibly be conversant, thus suggesting the necessity of local Councils, surely annual Parliaments must be still iess adequate. But [ have already sufliciently demonstrated that s¢verad local Councils can transact the pub- lic business of their respective districts more efficiently than one Colonial Parliament, whether annual or otherwise. But pray, Mr. Editor, can you tell from what source has D. Maclean learned that Councils have failed in Lower Canada ? [I am a constant reader of Lower Canadian papers, but have not yet noticed the most distant hint of the asserted failure in any of them, unless the Editor infers his assertion from the fact of their failing to pay their subscriptions for a contem- plated railroad from Montreal to Ottawa, for which the Legislature refused to grant a charter. Don’t you think, Sir, they have done right in refusing to pay for value never received? What would you think of the proprietor of a steamer who would insist on recovering from our Government the sum which they had offered for carrying the mails, while he had never furnished the steamer? Would it be correct to affirm that the Government had failed? I trow not. CANADIENNE. Head of St. Peter’s Bay, January 23, 1857.

VOTE BY BALLOT.

-To rue Eprror or rae Istanprer.

Sin,—My last two letters to the Islander were to inform the inhabitants that although Republican institutions and vote by ballot are sufficient to preserve the rights of an honest and well disposed community, yet when a community becomes demoralized, and a party of unjust and wicked men combine to defraud the rest, those institutions ean be made to subserve their purpose ; because corruption can be practised and casier concealed by the ballot-box than by voice elections, My first letter of the 10ih November, which was a preface to the second, wa. printed in small type, so that few could notice it ; and at the outset of your comments upon my second letter, you say @ is not true. My object in publishing the letter was also to put the people on their guard, that they should not be imposed on by captious objections to the present form of Government, nor led astray by specious promises of vote by ballot, &e., to induce them to retura to the old system. Lt is, therefore, doubly necessary for me to show from whence { obtained my information. First, to vindicate what I have published, aud, second, to let the people see and judge for themselves whether I ought to be believed. I, therefore, give below some extracts which I have taken from an address of the Vigilance Committee to the people of California, published in the Humboldt Times, June 21st, 1856, as follows :—~

‘sFor years thoy have patiently waited and striven in a peaceable manner, and in accordance with the forms of law, tg reform abuses which have made our City a by-word. Fraud and violence have foiled every effort, and the laws to which the people look for protection, while distorted and rendered effete in practice, so as to shield the vile, have been used:as a powerful engine to fasten upon us tyranuy and misrule, As Republicans, we looked to the ballot-bow as our safeguard and safe remedy, but so effectually and so dead was its voice stiled—the votes de- posited in it by freemen so entirely outnumbered by ballots thrust in through fraud at midnight, or multiplied by the false counts of judges and inspectors of elections at noonday—that many doubted whether the majority of the people were not utterly corrupt. :

‘‘Organized bands of men from mereenary and corrupt motives have parcelled out offices among themselves, or sold them to the highest bidder—haye provided themselves with convenient tools as clerks, in- speetors and judges of elections, and by cunningly contrived ballot- boxes, with false sides and bottoms so prepared, that by means of a spring or slide, spurious tickets concealed therein previous to the election, could be mingled with genuine votes. Of all this we have the most irrefragible proof —that felons and criminals equally as bad bave thus controlled the public funds and property—amassed fortunes with- out having done an honest day’s work with their beads or hands.”’

Some of the above words I have placed in italics, though not so in the original address. ! :

These extracts appear to suit the usurpers of the lands in

the descendant of the Carnatic, a funetionary likewise created by ouselves,—£118,000 to the descendant of the Rajah of Tanjore, a petty military chief—£64,000 to the | families of Hyder and Tippoo, descendants of an upstart |

Tlaving lived for ten years under the operation of Municipal | ;hjs Island, as well as if they had sat for the picture, All Councils'in a sister Province, I conclude that a faithful the Political Alliance. wanted, was to give them the offices relation” of my experience of the advantages resulting from jy the first place, which would have given them the command those institutions, would be well worthy the attention of your | of both revenue and rental, and then vote by ballot to secure tarry-at-home readers at the present juncture, when it is con-| them in the possession for the time to come. For there can templated by our intelligent and patriotic legislators to be no doubt when they proposed vote by ballot they had institute such Councils in this Island, their tools in view, to make false returns at future elections

One of the greatest advantages is the permission to choose in order to keep themselves in power, and to follow tte ex- all local office-bearers from the midst of the scene of their! ample of the felons and criminals of California, Vhere future operations. These have proved to be far more efficient | fraud and corruption have gained the aenentensy mr uling than the old Bench of Magistrates and other public officials, the country, there appears to be no other relief for the

dozzle at M6 1t needs symbol and ceremony, and a mighty usurper, and our bitterest enemy, who fought to the last, and | residing in a distant couuty town, as the former would be | honest and industrious portion of the community, than to

Scow, to pierce the wastes of Muscovite dark-| ness, and make known to the du!l unlettered mujik the might | and resources of the Czar. But the British people know! and read, and their Government speaks to them simply | through blue-boois and the press. It is in this-unostenta-| tious way that, to the nation at large, is made known the condition of the various parts’ of our far-spread_ empire. From Canada and snowy Oregon, from Jamaica and the tropical Islands of the Gulf, from New Zealand and Austra- lia, from India aud our’settleménts in the Pacific, official re- ports are ever pouring into the little island of the North | Atlantic which has bred thedordly race that owns all these. possessions, These reports.,of our prefects are our true. triumphal processions, And if they elicit much more fervid. emotion and lo-pains than ‘saluted tle purple Triumphs of | the Roman chiefs, they at least’ tell their tale more clear] y! and toa wider audience, and give better assurance that the | —— rejoicing is not bestowed upon a mask, but upon a |

ity. _. The proud phlegm natural to the Briton, and the familiar. | ity with success taught him by the marvellous past of his. 108, conspire to make him the most fripaséiBla of ‘then!

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with whom no terms were made,—and other such like pensions —we naturally regret thatthe weakness of the Company | should in those times have been so great, or its discrimination | so little, as to have burdened the future with such deplor-'

‘able obligations, which hamper our empire, und for the sake | local Couneillors, being residents within the Municipality, are | no reason to alter my opinion.

of an unworthy few, lay a million and a half of needless, taxation upon the backs of our Indian subjects.

Nothing can be done without money. Therefore, before | considering what progress has been made in improving the’ social, industrial and political condition of our Indian empire, it behoves us to see what are the “ ways and means ” at the disposal of the Indian Government. At present, the gross revenue of British [ndia amounts in round numbers to, twenty-nine millions sterling ; from which must be deducted | the charges of collection, amounting to about four millions, and the pensions to native princes and other assignments | under treaties amounting to two and a half millions,—leaving a net revenue from all our present possessions of twenty-two anda half millions, Three-fifths af the whole of this net revenue is derived from the land-tax and excise (the latter of these yielding only £1,000,000)—one-seventh from opium, and one-ninth Fon salt ; customs and stamps yield about six

. * a. - . ; on bye a) . ‘ | places ” than a Governor and Council, residing in a distant, the royal assent, and that the members are elected

more conversant with the necessities of their respective Mu- | take the matter in their own hands, = a ete - hicipalities, and more interested in their renewal. Another; The method which I proposed for the election o e Legis- advantage is the institution of local offices, as those of sub-| lative Council is the same In substance as a resolution in-

Treasurer, School Inspector, Road Commissioner, &c. Now, | troduced by me to the House of Assembly ; and | have secn I am aware that an Act for

the election of the Legislative Council in Canada has —_e ub that is no proof of the working of the machine. If it had

far more qualified for selecting ‘the right men for the right

Town or City, whom it would be preposterous to expect to . ' ae a familiar with the circumstances of every district of the Colony, | been in operation for years, and found to deh "Be: , = , or with those best qualified to occupy the necessary offices of | pose, it might then serve for an example to ot . eae each. Another advantage is the appropriation of moneys! If the officers of Government reer ry ole collected in the Municipality to local improvements, instead | people, as i understand you to say, still . ry o a0 of going to the geueral Treasury, to be appropriated to general responsibility. Meu, when they are “gen might * —_ purposes, and possibly never to the benefit of the Municipality | differently to what they promised at their e — ab “me which contributed them. It is also.a great advantage toa what the people expected of them. But the people could not Municipality to have its public affairs attended to with greater | remove them their election cou!d not be recalled. om promptitude than by any Parliament, as Councils can quite under Kesponsible Government the officers are constantly agreeably assemble quarterly for the transaction of business, watched, and their acts must have the approval of a ee y while Parliament cannot be expected to meet oftener than of the peopie’s representatives, who can remove them - a once a year; and then be harassed by the ‘multitudinous | vote when they have bo covfidence in them, and it is left to affairs of various localities, none of which they can appreciate the people to choose again. Men whom a majorily can sup- a tithe so well as resident local Councillors. Business can’ port in office is equal to an clection of the whole people,

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