Sir Richard Temple, the Finance Minister, was like Lord Mayo in his first year of office. Warned by the disappointments of his predecessors, Sir Richard Temple framed a very cautious Budget for 1869-70, { 141} and estimated for a small surplus of 48,263 pounds. It soon appeared, however, that no amount of caution would avail to prevent the falsification of the Budget estimates under the system upon which they were then made up. The first symptoms which caused Lord Mayo alarm was the discovery that the cash balances in the treasuries proved lower than had been estimated by his predecessor. Lord Mayo's anxiety increased as the actual facts of the financial year previous to his accession, 1868-69, became finally known. Item after item turned out worse than had been expected, until the deficit of 889,598 pounds, as estimated in March, 1869, grew to the vast sum of 2,542,861 pounds, as ascertained from the completed accounts a few months later.
Nor did the disastrous discrepancy appear only in the Actuals of 1868-69. Circumstances occurred to raise a suspicion in Lord Mayo's mind that the same fate might be in store for the finances of the current year, 1869-70. His inquiries led him to order a re-examination of the whole Budget estimates. These estimates, viewed in the light of the actual results of 1868-69, disclosed an inevitable deficit of 1,650,000 pounds for the current year 1869-70, in place of the surplus of 48,263 pounds, as announced by the Budget in March. Lord Mayo's perplexities were increased by the circumstance that Sir Richard Temple, after duly delivering the Budget for 1869-70, had found himself compelled to proceed to England on six months' leave. Sir Richard's experience and knowledge were not { 142} therefore available at the moment when the Viceroy, in his first months of office, found a new abyss of deficit suddenly open under his feet. Fortunately he had the aid of Mr., now Sir John, Strachey, who was carrying on the duties of Finance Minister during Sir Richard's absence.
The disclosures which the last paragraph speaks of with smooth certitude, revealed themselves in 1869 only glimpse by glimpse, and amid a wide divergence of opinion on the part of the responsible advisers of the Government. It required the resolute exercise of his individual will to enable the new Viceroy to tear the truth out of the conflicting accounts, and to get at the whole facts of the situation. 'I am beginning to find,' he wrote to a friend, as early as May, 1869, 'that our finances are not in as comfortable a state as they ought to be. The enormous distances, the number of treasuries, and the complicity of accounts as between each, render accurate forecasts and rapid information almost insurmountably difficult. The waste of public money is great, and I have been obliged to take strong measures, and say some very hard things about it.'[3]