, as I have shown,
as the increased taxation could be amply justified.

One word more. I cannot refrain from calling attention to the remarkable
circumstance that Mr. Gladstone's Government has in a single year adopted
two measures which are highly objectionable from political, economical,
and financial points of view--the Home Rule Bill for Ireland and the
Currency Measure for India; and that both were forced on by arbitrary and
tyrannical action. For just as the Home Rule Bill was forced through the
House of Commons with inadequate examination and discussion, so was the
Currency Measure forced through, not only without adequate investigation,
but in the teeth of the majority of those whose opinions were laid before
the Viceroy, and in the teeth of the majority of the witnesses examined
before the Currency Committee. But arbitrary and tyrannical action seems
to be the order of the day with the Gladstonian Government; and it is
worthy of notice in this connection that it forced an Opium Commission on
India merely to buy a few votes in the House of Commons, and, with the
grossest injustice, provided that India should pay for a part of the cost.
The outcry raised has, indeed, brought about a reduction of the charge
that was to have been made, but, from a statement made in the "Times," I
observe that the Government has clung to the travelling expenses of the
members of the Commission, which are to be charged to India, and probably
with the view of proving that extreme meanness is not one of the national
failings.

As the English reader might imagine that the Indian Government was solely
responsible for this measure being passed into law, I may point out that
the decision of the Cabinet was required and obtained in connection with
the Currency Measure. From such a Government the producers of India, while
they have everything to fear, can have nothing to hope. Our sole hope
depends upon its being turned out, and replaced by an Unionist
administration which will either annul the suicidal policy that has been
adopted, or at least suspend its action till a full and searching
investigation has been made into all the immediate and all the
consequential results that must arise from the measure in question, should
the Government be able to force up the gold value of the rupee. If the
facts adduced in this chapter are substantially correct, the verdict
cannot be doubtful, for these facts prove that the Government proposes to
levy w