MR. GLADSTONEI beg to present a Petition from the Bombay branch of the East India Association against charging upon the Revenues of India all the expenditure of the Afghan War. A summary of their statements on the subject is this—they believe, in the first place, that all Indian opinion is extremely adverse to such a measure. In the second place, they consider that the action and policy of Her Majesty's Government in this war has been directly opposed to the spirit and wording of the 56th section of the Government of India Act, and they ask for a disapproval of it by the House. In the third place, they state that the vote by which this expenditure was sanctioned, on the part of Parliament, was principally founded on the allegation of a surplus Revenue of £1,500,000, by which the charge was to be defrayed; but that that surplus does not really exist, and that the Famine Insurance Fund is absorbed. In the fourth place they state that, although the official estimate of the expenses of the war is £3,000,000, the prevalent belief in India is that it will not cost less than £5,000,000; and they finally refer to a declaration, which they conceive to have been made by Members of Her Majesty's Government, to the effect that the war has been made for European, and not for Indian interests.
§ Notice taken, that 40 Members were not present; House counted, and 40 Members being found present,