Mogul government, were disposed to draw from it the utmost possible amount which would leave a decent subsistence to the owner and cultivator. Lord Cornwallis, with the concurrence of the company, determined to introduce the system of permanent settlement; by which the proprietor would be assured that, when the tax had once been fixed, he should reap the fruits of whatever improvement he might effect. But it is remarkable that extreme difficulty has been found in ascertaining the real proprietor. There appeared three distinct parties having plausible pretensions to be so considered. These were the great Mogul, in whose place the company now stood; the zemindars, or hereditary officers, who collected the land-revenue and remitted it to the sovereign, retaining a certain proportion; and the ryot, or hereditary occupant, who, provided he paid the assessment, could not be legally ejected. The latter appeared in Bengal under so humble an aspect, that it seemed impossible to recognise his right to the dignified title of a landed proprietor; yet the observations of those gentlemen who have had an opportunity of closely examining the districts where Hindoo institutions remained in full force, seem to leave no doubt that the ryot is the original owner. The Institutes of Menu distinctly recognise land as the property of him who cut away the wood and first cleared and tilled it. Wilks, who had very extensive means of acquiring knowledge relative to Southern India, and whose views upon the subject Sir John Malcolm considers as incontrovertible, seems to have ascertained that the share of the produce which could be claimed by the sovereign did not, according to the ancient Hindoo law, exceed a sixth. In Travancore, indeed, the most southern territory, and the one least affected by foreign conquest, it at this moment varies from a twentieth to a fortieth. tensive encroachments were made by the conquering dynasties professing the Moslem religion; but the rights claimed by these fierce warriors rested entirely on their swords, according to which they held alike as their own the property and the persons of vanquished infidels. Even under the proud sway of Rajpootana, it had become the established maxim of the ryot,- "The government is owner of the rent, but I am the master of the land." It has been maintained, that when reduced to the mere profits of farming,

Ex

he could by no means be considered as proprietor, but only as perpetual lessee. Yet even this narrowed possession is highly valued and proudly boasted of. The Hindoo derives from it an assured subsistence, as the soil cultivated by his fathers, and which, he hopes, will be tilled by his descendants.

On the whole, then, the only dispute appears to lie between the sovereign and the ryot. The zemindar, who merely collected rents for the former, seems to have no substantial claim whatever; yet in Bengal, at the time when the settlement was to be made, he appeared the greatest man in the district, corresponding to the country gentleman or the feudal baron of Europe. He lived with the pomp of a nobleman, and sometimes of a prince; he commanded a body of troops; he possessed even the chief criminal jurisdiction within his limits. The ryots, on the contrary, reduced to the lowest poverty, subject to arbitrary exactions, and to have their annual payments raised at the will of their superior, appeared to rank, not as farmers in our sense of the word, but rather as the villains and bondmen of the middle ages. It was determined, therefore, to consider the zemindars as the actual proprietors, and the ryots merely as renters. The permanent settlement was made upon the former class; and on payment of a fixed annual sum, whether of the description of tax or rental, but never to be increased, they remained in every other respect the clear owners of the property. They were only required to give to the ryots a puttah, or bond, fixing the annual rent on payment of which the latter were to remain undisturbed in occupation of their farms.

Never perhaps did a measure originate in motives so pure, involving so extensive a sacrifice, and yet be productive of so much distress and injustice. It set out with wresting from the ryots, the great body of the agricultural popula tion, rights which though much narrowed and invaded, were still fondly prized. But so impossible is it to predict the consequences of any remarkable change, that the unjustlyfavoured class of zemindars were those to whom it proved the most ruinous. The payments demanded from them amounted in fact to nearly the rack-rent of the whole country. It was therefore difficult for them to avoid falling into arrear. non-payment was speedily followed by a summary process of

But

sequestration, and the sale of the lands; while they had no means of drawing funds from the ryots, unless by a method which, as will presently appear, is beyond measure tedious and dilatory. Before they could realize their rents, the farms were seized and sold for the dues to government; and a most extensive transference of property has been thus occasioned. Nor have the ryots recovered any of their rights by the change. Their poverty precluded any attempt to become the purchasers of the forfeited estates, which fell into the hands of speculators, consisting generrally of the opulent inhabitants of the cities. The evil is done, and cannot well be retrieved; the lands are sold, and no stretch of justice admits of their being resumed. Indeed it seems acknowledged by the greatest opponents of this system that the principle of permanent settlement, whatever mischief its application may in the first instance have produced, by ensuring to the proprietor the fruits of all the improvement he may accomplish, is beginning to produce the most happy effects. Under this encouragement considerable tracts formerly waste have been brought under culture; but Rammohun Roy, in his late evidence before parliament, complains that the ryots, whose poverty renders them little able to make head against a wealthy landlord, are in as unprotected and impoverished a state as

ever.

In a considerable portion of the Carnatic, an arrangement has been more recently attempted on an entirely dif ferent principle. In effecting this measure the ryots were considered as the real proprietors, and upon them the permanent settlement was made by Sir Thomas Munro. That liberal governor, however, was induced, by the urgency and necessity of the company, to fix the rent at 45 per cent. of the produce, which was so high as to leave no probability of its being then paid; but it was hoped that the operation of the system would produce in a short time such an improvement as to render even this high rate not too burdensome. Meantime accommodations were made from year to year according to circumstances; but no final possession was to be granted till the payment reached the standard fixed by the company. It was overlooked in this plan that the permanent grant, out of which the improvement was expected to arise, did not exist; consequently, the

This

benefits naturally flowing from it were looked for in vain. An attempt was then made to form a village-administration, where the potail, or headman, levied the rent from the ryots, and was responsible for its amount; being empowered in case of any deficiency to lay on an extra assessment. arrangement was made first for three, then for ten years; but before the last period expired the system had entirely failed, after great oppression had been suffered on the part of the cultivator. The direct lease was then again resorted to, with a deduction, which indeed Munro had strongly recommended, of a fourth or a third of the rent originally exacted; but hardly any favourable result has yet been obtained, either as to the improvement of the country or the relief of its cultivators.

On the western coast, the rent was fixed, as in Tippoo's time, at 25 per cent. for Canara, and 30 for Malabar; but the rigid exaction of this amount is said to have occasioned numerous sales, and a great transference of landed property. The Bombay government has been engaged in an extensive survey of the Mahratta territory ceded by the last treaty, with a view to a settlement, which may exist first for five, then for thirty years, and afterward be rendered permanent. A great portion of this territory, however, was from political motives assigned to jaghiredars, who held it in feudal tenure under the English government, to whom they paid only a regulated tribute.

The lands of Guzerat, which has always been the most flourishing of the provinces, and where the cultivator has been least oppressed, are let on leases of seven years at the same rate as before.

We are indebted to materials collected by Mr. Rickards for the following general view of the financial transactions of the East India Company for the thirty-five years between 1793 and 1828, in the course of which they obtained such vast accessions to their territorial sovereignty :