property of the land. They dispossessed all classes of landowners, from the prince to the peasant, of their estates, and put them under such regulations and officers for collecting the rent, as they pleased. They became, at once, the universal proprietors and landlords. In the lower provinces of Bengal, Lord Cornwallis in 1793, made what is called The Permanent Settlement, establishing what is termed the Zemindary system; that is, conferring on a certain class of persons the title of Zemindars, or general collectors, and fixing the certain amount of rent, or land-tax, for in India they mean the same thing, which each should pay to government, and leaving them to appoint sub-collectors, and extract what they pleased from the ryots, or cultivators. This is considered the most favorable system in the country, though in this, government has taken no pains to secure the cultivators from the arbitrary exactions of these Zemindars. But a great portion of British India is under what is called the Ryotwarry system; that is, the whole country is divided into portions of a few acres, on which a ryot is placed, and surveyors and collectors of the land-tax, or government rent, are placed over them, to receive the amount of exaction which the government pleases to make, which is reckoned at one half of the whole gross produce of the land. But as this is levied by a money value, and is fixed before the crop is ripe, or the market value is determined by the circumstances of the season, it now frequently amounts to six-eighths of the whole, and if it turns out a year of scarcity, often to the whole and even to more than the whole value of the crop. The principle of government has always been to levy the very highest amount that they can, even, as expressly recommended by Sir Thomas Monro, if it does not leave the miserable ryot seed for another year, or food even for his family. The surveyor comes round every year, and puts a value upon every thing possible, even on young trees that are just planted, and which will not yield a farthing of profit for years to come. Nay, as Mr. Shore tells us, it being the direct interest of the collectors to establish their characters with the government as crack collect'ors,' and 'first-rate collectors,' their only way to do this is by extorting all they possibly can from the people, for in exact proportion with the sum they return to government does their character with it fall or rise, and their way to higher offices is opened or closed. Besides, as no court of justice will listen to complaints against collectors, that being the way to check collection, and as not only are the collectors policemen, but the magistrates also are collectors, redress is as much out of the reach of those who are fleeced as if they had to go up to the moon for it. Thus not only are the tax-gatherers encouraged to raise all the revenue they possibly can by whatever means, but are tempted to every species of individual bribery and extortion for their own benefit.

It may easily be imagined what has been the effect of such system. It has been to reduce the whole population of this vast empire to a state of pauperism. It has annihilated every thing like the substantial farmer, or the accumulation of capital. John F. Thomas, Esq., of the Madras Civil Service, in Notes on Ryotwar, or permanent annual money rents in South India; and on the Duty of Government in periods of Famine,' published in The Madras Journal of Literature and Science,' of January to March, 1839, a paper which every one who would wish to inform himself of the naturally destructive nature of this system should read, gives us a table by which it is shown that in three villages alone in Coimbatore, there was a regular sinking between 1816 and 1831, of the farms into small pauper tenancies, the more substantial ryots sinking during that period in those three villages alone from 78 to 28. The celebrated Bramin, Rammohun Roy, in his Exposition of the operation of the 'Judicial and Revenue Systems of India,' says, 'under both 'systems, the condition of the cultivator is very miserable; in 'the one, they are placed at the mercy of the Zemindars' avarice 'and ambition; in the other, they are subjected to the extortions and intrigues of the surveyors and other government revenue officers. I deeply compassionate both.'-p. 69. This system has tended to prevent all improvement, even to the keeping up of planting of trees necessary for fruit, or for protecting the soil from the burning sun of India. It has left the whole population of the country at the mercy of a single bad season; the drought has come-the ryot has had no stock of corn or rice-a famine has swept through the country, carrying off its thousands and tens of thousands at once.

Such is the present state of India;-is that a well-governed country? The Edinburgh Review tells us that the land is the best and almost sole source of revenue in India. We grant that it is so now, for the government, by thus destroying the vitals of the country, and trampling on the nascent germs of accumulation of capital in it, has taken away almost every other legitimate source of revenue. He tells us too, that this state of things is unavoidable; that wherever the country is divided into a number of small tenancies, there is a disposition to an excess of population, and to a competition for labor which occasions one vast extent of poverty. He bids us look at Ireland for another proof. A more unhappy allusion could not possibly be made. Ireland and British India are exactly parallel instances of countries in which the land is in the hands of great absentee proprietors, and which is divided into such minute occupancies, that no individual can accumulate capital, and where, in consequence, all become wretched in the extreme. So strikingly alike are the circumstances of the two countries, that Howitt, in his Coloni

property of the land. They dispossessed all classes of landowners, from the prince to the peasant, of their estates, and put them under such regulations and officers for collecting the rent, as they pleased. They became, at once, the universal proprietors and landlords. In the lower provinces of Bengal, Lord Cornwallis in 1793, made what is called The Permanent Settlement, establishing what is termed the Zemindary system; that is, conferring on a certain class of persons the title of Zemindars, or general collectors, and fixing the certain amount of rent, or land-tax, for in India they mean the same thing, which each should pay to government, and leaving them to appoint sub-collectors, and extract what they pleased from the ryots, or cultivators. This is considered the most favorable system in the country, though in this, government has taken no pains to secure the cultivators from the arbitrary exactions of these Zemindars. But a great portion of British India is under what is called the Ryotwarry system; that is, the whole country is divided into portions of a few acres, on which a ryot is placed, and surveyors and collectors of the land-tax, or government rent, are placed over them, to receive the amount of exaction which the government pleases to make, which is reckoned at one half of the whole gross produce of the land. But as this is levied by a money value, and is fixed before the crop is ripe, or the market value is determined by the circumstances of the season, it now frequently amounts to six-eighths of the whole, and if it turns out a year of scarcity, often to the whole and even to more than the whole value of the crop. The principle of government has always been to levy the very highest amount that they can, even, as expressly recommended by Sir Thomas Monro, if it does not leave the miserable ryot seed for another year, or food even for his family. The surveyor comes round every year, and puts a value upon every thing possible, even on young trees that are just planted, and which will not yield a farthing of profit for years to come. Nay, as Mr. Shore tells us, it being the direct interest of the collectors to establish their characters with the government as 'crack collect'ors,' and 'first-rate collectors,' their only way to do this is by extorting all they possibly can from the people, for in exact proportion with the sum they return to government does their character with it fall or rise, and their way to higher offices is opened or closed. Besides, as no court of justice will listen to complaints against collectors, that being the way to check collection, and as not only are the collectors policemen, but the magistrates also are collectors, redress is as much out of the reach of those who are fleeced as if they had to go up to the moon for it. Thus not only are the tax-gatherers encouraged to raise all the revenue they possibly can by whatever means, but are tempted to every species of individual bribery and extortion for their own benefit.

6

It may easily be imagined what has been the effect of such a system. It has been to reduce the whole population of this vast empire to a state of pauperism. It has annihilated every thing like the substantial farmer, or the accumulation of capital. John F. Thomas, Esq., of the Madras Civil Service, in Notes on Ryotwar, or permanent annual money rents in South India; and on the Duty of Government in periods of Famine,' published in The Madras Journal of Literature and Science,' of January to March, 1839, a paper which every one who would wish to inform himself of the naturally destructive nature of this system should read, gives us a table by which it is shown that in three villages alone in Coimbatore, there was a regular sinking between 1816 and 1831, of the farms into small pauper tenancies, the more substantial ryots sinking during that period in those three villages alone from 78 to 28. The celebrated Bramin, Rammohun Roy, in his Exposition of the operation of the Judicial and Revenue Systems of India,' says, 'under both 'systems, the condition of the cultivator is very miserable; in 'the one, they are placed at the mercy of the Zemindars' avarice 'and ambition; in the other, they are subjected to the extortions 'and intrigues of the surveyors and other government revenue 'officers. I deeply compassionate both.'-p. 69. This system has tended to prevent all improvement, even to the keeping up of planting of trees necessary for fruit, or for protecting the soil from the burning sun of India. It has left the whole population of the country at the mercy of a single bad season; the drought has come-the ryot has had no stock of corn or rice-a famine has swept through the country, carrying off its thousands and tens of thousands at once.

Such is the present state of India;-is that a well-governed country? The Edinburgh Review tells us that the land is the best and almost sole source of revenue in India. We grant that it is so now, for the government, by thus destroying the vitals of the country, and trampling on the nascent germs of accumulation of capital in it, has taken away almost every other legitimate source of revenue. He tells us too, that this state of things is unavoidable; that wherever the country is divided into a number of small tenancies, there is a disposition to an excess of population, and to a competition for labor which occasions one vast extent of poverty. He bids us look at Ireland for another proof. A more unhappy allusion could not possibly be made. Ireland and British India are exactly parallel instances of countries in which the land is in the hands of great absentee proprietors, and which is divided into such minute occupancies, that no individual can accumulate capital, and where, in consequence, all become wretched in the extreme. So strikingly alike are the circumstances of the two countries, that Howitt, in his Coloni

property of the land. They dispossessed all classes of landowners, from the prince to the peasant, of their estates, and put them under such regulations and officers for collecting the rent, as they pleased. They became, at once, the universal proprietors and landlords. In the lower provinces of Bengal, Lord Cornwallis in 1793, made what is called The Permanent Settlement, establishing what is termed the Zemindary system; that is, conferring on a certain class of persons the title of Zemindars, or general collectors, and fixing the certain amount of rent, or land-tax, for in India they mean the same thing, which each should pay to government, and leaving them to appoint sub-collectors, and extract what they pleased from the ryots, or cultivators. This is considered the most favorable system in the country, though in this, government has taken no pains to secure the cultivators from the arbitrary exactions of these Zemindars. But a great portion of British India is under what is called the Ryotwarry system; that is, the whole country is divided into portions of a few acres, on which a ryot is placed, and surveyors and collectors of the land-tax, or government rent, are placed over them, to receive the amount of exaction which the government pleases to make, which is reckoned at one half of the whole gross produce of the land. But as this is levied by a money value, and is fixed before the crop is ripe, or the market value is determined by the circumstances of the season, it now frequently amounts to six-eighths of the whole, and if it turns out a year of scarcity, often to the whole and even to more than the whole value of the crop. principle of government has always been to levy the very highest amount that they can, even, as expressly recommended by Sir Thomas Monro, if it does not leave the miserable ryot seed for another year, or food even for his family. The surveyor comes round every year, and puts a value upon every thing possible, even on young trees that are just planted, and which will not yield a farthing of profit for years to come. Nay, as Mr. Shore tells us, it being the direct interest of the collectors to establish their characters with the government as crack collect'ors,' and 'first-rate collectors,' their only way to do this is by extorting all they possibly can from the people, for in exact proportion with the sum they return to government does their character with it fall or rise, and their way to higher offices is opened or closed. Besides, as no court of justice will listen to complaints against collectors, that being the way to check collection, and as not only are the collectors policemen, but the magistrates also are collectors, redress is as much out of the reach of those who are fleeced as if they had to go up to the moon for it. Thus not only are the tax-gatherers encouraged to raise all the revenue they possibly can by whatever means, but are tempted to every species of individual bribery and extortion for their own benefit.

The