Page:The Earl of Mayo.djvu/164

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156
THE EARL OF MAYO


Indian Revenue and Expenditure under Lord Mayo (at the then official rate of ten rupees to the pound)

Year. Revenue. Ordinary Expenditure.

1868-69 £51,657,658 Year of Deficit preceding Lord Mayo's Rule. £54,431,688

1869-70 50,901,081 Year of equilibrium; his first year of office. 50,782,413

1870-71 51,413,685 49,930,695 1871-72 50,109,093 46,984,915

Years of Surplus; his last two years of office.


Lord Mayo did not live to see the permanent fruit of his labours. But I cannot conclude this brief sketch of them more fitly than by a letter which the Financial Secretary to the Government of India wrote to me three years after Lord Mayo's death, when his work had been tested by the touchstone of time.

'Lord Mayo's close personal attention to financial questions never flagged. He had by decisive measures established steady surplus for chronic deficit; he had increased the working power of the Local Governments, while checking the growth of their demands upon the Imperial Treasury. He had established a policy of systematic watchfulness and severe economy. The time was now coming when the results of all his exertions and sacrifices were to be gathered; when the Viceroy would be able to gratify his nature