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clothed and fed. There are a hundred anecdotes of her sweet neighbourliness at home and abroad. As she neared death her face became more and more radiantly happy. Est-il possible qu'on meure si doucement?' she asked a friend with nearly her last breath. Je suis joyeuse, heureuse, je vais vers le ciel ; ce sera si joli de se retrouver tous.' Her last written words were of tender farewell to her 'liebe süsse Mama,' for not one natural sympathy had been lessened by the growth in her of the larger charities.

Madame de la Ferronnays survived but a year. 'Oh!'exclaims her daughter, 'toute la suavité de son âme et de sa vie est devenue plus suave encore dans sa mort ! '

These records of religious life and its relations to morality are welcomed by a larger number of readers in all classes and of all shades of belief than would be readily believed by those who incline to think religious influences well nigh exhausted. These memoirs of a family essentially of the actual world are a revelation of Him who is to many the unknown yet the desired God.

That the De la Ferronnays family took high place in European society is almost a warrant that no fanaticism marred the aspirations of these elect ladies' and finished gentlemen. Religion was for

them an entirely healthy outlet for the nobler emotions, and from their reliques we may see that as their piety grew so their sympathies were enlarged, while their widening culture strengthened and concentrated their aims.

When we remember the failure of some among the best painters of manners to draw that special product of Christian civilisation, a gentleman, we should acknowlege thankfully Mrs. Craven's adequate presentment of our ideal, whether in her portraits from life or in her fictions. The fiascos of the best artists in romance, when they attempt to combine hero and gentleman, suggest that no Attic flavour can replace the Christian salt in perfecting human nature to the point we mean.

Caricature as he is, how we venerate Don Quixote, gentleman and believer! And of modern creations what Pelham or Waverley, what Duke of Omnium or Daniel Deronda satisfies our taste as does the exquisite Christian, Colonel Newcome? The rarity of gentlemen in French and German fiction seems in proportion to the rarity of religious convictions among French and German novelwrights, while where they do exist, however indefinitely, as in George Sand, we find greater power to describe that particular product of the Christian world.

Mrs. Craven has, in this as in other respects, justified the claim of her Church to be the mother of universal and noble art. And in a time when so many are eagerly seeking for the missing link between the human and the divine, and when Manichæism is busy among discouraged Christians, she has done good work by her brave reconnection of the fullest life with ardent piety. She takes up the whole

of love and utters it 'as it existed in her own family, and as she knows it exists wherever there are ardent natures. She tells us what it is to love 'jusqu'à ne pouvoir aimer davantage sans mourir;' she fears no height of emotion in her consciousness of God's good will and power to guide His creatures; and her latest novel, Le Mot de l'Enigme, is a noble vindication in romance of that liberty and developed power which man attains by faith.

It was in the fit order of things that a Catholic trained by such experience as Mrs. Craven's should have pointed above and beyond the controversies forced on her Church to that higher life the key of which, if held by any religion, is a principal title to our respect for it.

In truth she has the gift of opportuneness. She knows how to charm modern ears and how to persuade persons of all tempers and various scepticisms by her sweet presentment of beautiful life. In her novels she delights all who are satiated by false realism when she lets them hear the very heart-beats of intensest emotion and sketches for them things lovely, things of good report.'

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By stress of insight and sympathy with the pain and passion of her fellow-creatures, Mrs. Craven rises almost unawares to theological heights. At last here is a Christian writer of the 'straitest sect,' who yet has the enthusiasm of true civilisation. Recognising the dignity of life, she does not refuse to believe in its best evolution, and she has courage to point out the divine law and beauty in human emotion of the nobler sort. She is of her age in her recognition of what is fair in the physical universe, but she proves herself an artist of all ages in her subordination of material to intellectual and spiritual beauty. Since the Florentines of the fifteenth century, few, if any, have so rendered the charm of Italian landscape as she does in various passages of her novels; but, also like those Florentines and early Venetians, the landscape is but the Paradise wherein dwell noble forms of men and

women.

M. C. BISHOP.

THE PROPOSED LOANS TO INDIA.

IN the February number of this Review I endeavoured to describe the financial condition of India, and I hope to be able in the following remarks to show the additional light which has been thrown on the present financial condition of that country by the Budget which has been lately introduced at Calcutta, and by the financial arrangements which it is proposed to carry out both in England and India during the present year. The simple announcement that an exceptionally large addition to the indebtedness of India is to be accompanied not by an increase, but by a remission of taxation, is sufficient to show the extreme gravity of the financial situation in India. During the current year it is proposed to raise a 4 per cent. loan of 3,500,000Z.1 in India; the Government have already announced their intention to introduce into the House of Commons a Bill which will authorise the Indian authorities to borrow 10,000,000l. in England; and 2,000,000l. is to be advanced, free of interest, by England to India, as a contribution towards the expenses of the Afghan war. It, therefore, appears that in a single year it is proposed either to borrow, or to take authority to borrow, no less a sum than 15,500,000l., an amount which represents more than one-tenth of the entire national debt of India. If it were possible to obtain additional revenue by fresh taxation, no one can suppose that the Indian Government would be so improvident as to sanction proposals which will cause such a large addition to be made to Indian indebtedness, without making any attempt to supply, by increased taxation,

1 The amount of the loan to be raised in India is 5,000,000%., and not, as here represented, 3,500,000l. It appears, however, from the Budget statement for 187980, recently issued at Calcutta (see paragraph 268), that about 1,500,000l. of the 5,000,000l. which it is proposed to borrow is 'needed to discharge, on the 1st of May next, the untransferred portion of the 5 per cent. loan,' and, therefore, the 'net amount thus called for is only 3,500,0007.' I am so anxious not to overstate the financial exigencies of India, that I accept this conclusion, although it is important to bear in mind, as appears from the same paragraph of the Budget statement, that the necessity of raising a still larger loan to meet this year's heavy deficit has only been avoided by resorting to the temporary expedient of providing 1,200,000ễ. ‘from the public balances.'

a portion of the deficit which has to be met. It may, therefore, be concluded that, in the opinion of the Indian Government, the extreme limit of taxation has now been reached in that country, and that, unless expenditure can be reduced, there is no margin from which to make any provision for such contingencies as war and famine, which we are officially told are certain to recur. Constant borrowing must consequently be regarded as the normal condition of Indian finance.

Although it may be thought that nothing can exceed the seriousness of the state of things thus disclosed, the outlook for the future becomes even much worse when it is seen that, in the midst of this embarrassment, the Indian Government are surrounded with influences that compel them to surrender a portion of the revenue, which they themselves admit is altogether inadequate to satisfy the demands now made upon it. The import duties on cotton goods are, during the present year, to be partly remitted, at a cost to the Indian revenue of about 150,000l., which next year will be increased to 200,000l. No one for a moment will even pretend to say that, in the present state of Indian finance, the idea would have been entertained of remitting these duties if the finances of India were administered in the interest of that country alone.

The partial remission of these duties has been defended on the ground that they are protective in their character, and that it is wrong for free-trade England to sanction, in any form, the continuance of a protective duty. It would, I believe, be not difficult to show that these duties are much less protective than is ordinarily supposed. It is important to bear in mind that in the Bombay mills, which are said to enjoy protection at the expense of Lancashire, the manufacture is almost entirely confined to the coarser sorts of cotton goods, upon which, when imported, no duty is imposed. But even if it is admitted that the import duties on cotton goods are as protective as they are alleged to be by the representatives of the manufacturing interest in England, it would be necessary, in order to justify the repeal of these duties, to show either that India could spare the revenue which they yield, or that it could be obtained in some other less objectionable form. When it is remembered that not a single year passes without a most serious addition being made to the indebtedness of India, it at once becomes evident that, as India has no surplus, she cannot surrender a single shilling of revenue without an equivalent amount being added to her debt. As long, therefore, as the state of Indian finance is such that she not only has no surplus, but has annually to borrow in order to make good a heavy deficit, it is impossible to justify any remission of taxation, unless the sacrifice of revenue which such a remission involves is to be compensated for from some other source. No one, so far as I am aware, has suggested new taxation, by which it would be practicable to obtain the

revenue which is yielded by these cotton duties. In considering questions of taxation nothing can be more unwise, than to conclude that that particular tax must be the best which is most in accord with the principles of economic science. The tastes, the habits, and the wishes of the people on whom the tax is to be imposed ought to be most carefully considered, and I believe it will not be denied that of all the taxes which are levied in India, there are none to which the people of that country feel so little objection as the import duties on cotton goods. It is, moreover, particularly worthy of remark, that the repeal of these duties must certainly tend to create greater inequality in the incidence of taxation in India. It will be generally admitted that, owing to the difficulty of imposing taxes which reach the wealthy classes, an unduly large part of the revenue of India is contributed by those who are extremely poor. As the cotton duties are now almost entirely imposed on the finer sorts of goods, which are chiefly consumed by the rich, it is obvious that the repeal of these duties would reduce the amount of taxation paid by the wealthy, and would consequently still further increase the inequality in the taxation borne by the poor.

It is sometimes urged that the real objections to these duties are not adequately understood by the people of India, and that they fail to appreciate the loss that is caused to them by their continuance. But precisely the same remark holds true with regard to every country in which a protectionist tariff is maintained. The people of Canada, for instance, appear to be altogether insensible to the injury which they are about to inflict upon themselves, by the more onerous protective duties with which they seem determined to fetter their commerce. But even if India could afford the sacrifice of revenue which is involved in the reduction of the cotton duties, it is of the first importance most carefully to inquire whether there are not other taxes in India which could with greater advantage be reduced. It is now universally acknowledged, that no circumstance connected with the financial condition of India is so serious as the increased burden which is imposed upon her through the loss by exchange. It need scarcely be remarked that, in order to bring about a more favourable state of exchange, it is necessary either to increase the remittances which other countries have to make to India, or to diminish the remittances which India has to make abroad. If her export trade should increase, there will be a larger amount to remit to India. There will consequently be a greater demand for bills on India, and the price of these bills will advance; in other words, the exchange will become more favourable. At the present time an export duty is levied on rice and some other articles of Indian produce. If these export duties were repealed, the export trade of India might receive an important stimulus, and an influence would thus be brought into operation to diminish the loss by exchange which she