for controlling, and so diminishing, military outlay. No means for any such control at present existed. The uncertainty which beset the present, future, and even past expenditure in this department was proof enough of the necessity of a change of system. Occasional efforts at retrenchment — such as the appointment of Financial Commissions — might palliate, but could not cure, the chronic evil of inefficient supervision. Lord Ellenborough, in 1842, had touched the weak spot of Indian finance when he complained that there was 'no one officer charged with the duty of viewing the expenditure of the country as a whole, and of considering every item of charge, not by itself only, but with reference to the total charge upon the revenue.' But the reforms instituted in compliance with Lord Ellenborough's suggestion had been inadequate. There was no sufficient concentration of authority and duty in the same hands. The desideratum was to regulate every branch of the public expenditure, civil and military, by a system of exact estimates, formally submitted for sanction to an authority competent to revise them with reference to the necessity of the case and the resources of the exchequer.
Among the more cheerful incidents of Mr. Wilson's Budget was his hearty tribute to the strict and accurate justice which had characterised Lord Canning's War administration. 'The future historian of India,' he said, 'when recording the occurrences of the last three years, if he be a man of fine discrimination, will dwell with pride upon the fact that at that
