lilt: £>:•*■■ ^;^-!;':. '■'^:. mm mm mWi 'mm- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 'JL^*^ ^.j). Hitkra oi Itt&ia EDITED BY SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, K.C.S.I., CLE. M.A. (Oxford): LL.D. (Cambridge) ^ OF the; LORD CORNWALLIS HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORIl LONDON, EDINBURGH, AM) NEW YORK L RULERS OF INDIA Zhc flDatQuess CornwaUis AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH RULE By W. S. SETON-KARR, Esq. FORMERLY A PUISNE JUDGE OF THE HIGH COURT OF CALCUTTA AND SOMETIME SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT {j/^ynyyKrzcX>Ct^ FOURTH THOUSAND AT THE CLARENDON PRESS: 1898 O)cfovi PRINTED AT THF CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY US 5 H'l "^ CONTENTS L Early Life and Ajiekican Campaign II. Political Condition op India. The Kevende Settlement' III. Principles and Results .... IV. Reform of the Civil Service . V. Private Life. Social Life in India YI. Perpetual Settlement of Benares . VII. Madras. Bengal : Sale Laws and Resump TIONS VIII. Mission to the Continent. Indian Coere SPONDENCE IX. The Peace of Amiens .... X. Return to India. Policy. Death. Appendix Index PAGES 7-18 19-59 60-73 74-100 lof-iiS 119-137 138-156 157-169 170-177 178-197 199-200 201-203 NOTE The orthography of proper names follows the system adopted by the Indian Government for the Imperial Gazetteer of India. That system, while adliering to the popular spelling of very well-known places, such as Punjab, Lucknow, etc, employs in all other cases the vowels with the following uniform sounds : — ((, as in woman : a, as in fathers : i, as in police : {, as in intrigue : o, as in cold : «, as in hiiW : I't, as in swre : e, a« in grey. 526884 WATTTlVnTLli LORD CORNWALLIS CHAPTER I Early Life and American Campaign The family of Cornwallis, Mr. Ross says with truth, was of some importance in Ireland, as is shown by the family papers. The first of whom we hear anything positive in England was Thomas Corn- wallis, who became Sheriff of London in 1378. He acquired property in Suffolk, and his son and grand- son represented that county in Parliament. One of his successors helped to suppress the insurrection of Wyatt, and was rewarded by the office of Treasurer of the Household. The grandson of the Treasurer was created a baronet by Charles I, supported the Royal cause, and followed Charles II to the Continent. After the Restoration. Sir Frederick became Baron Cornwallis in 1661. The third holder of this title is known as having married Anne Scott, widow of Monmouth and Duchess of Buccleugh. The fifth baron, who was Chief Justice of Eyre south of Trent, 8 LORD CORNWALLIS and Constable of the Tower, was created Earl Corn- wallis and Viscount Brome in June, 1753. His son, born December 31, 1738, is the subject of the present memoir. Charles, second Earl and first Marquess Cornwallis, was educated at Eton ; and, according to the custom of the time, entered the army at the age of eighteen. He was sent abroad in 1757 to acquire some techni- cal knowledge, and joined the Military Academy at Turin. Several amusing anecdotes of his life there are given in letters from a Prussian officer, Captain De Roguin, who appears to have accompanied the young Englishman as a sort of travelling companion and tutor. The discipline of the Academy seems to have been fairly strict, and Lord Brome spent his time in learning to dance and fence, studying the German language, and taking lessons in the riding school. After leaving Turin he visited some of the German courts, served on the staff of Lord Granby, and was present at several actions on the Continent, including the battle of Minden. In 1760 he entered Parliament as member for Eye, but in less than two years he succeeded to the earldom, on the death of his father in June, ] 762. Hitherto there had been nothing extraordinary in the career of Earl Cornwallis. He had benefitted by a public school education. His mind had been opened and his taste improved by foreign travel, and he had seen some hard service at Minden, Labinau, and other EARL V LIFE 9 minor actions against the French. On his return home he continued to pay attention to his military duties and was stationed with his regiment at Dublin. Derby, Gloucester, and Gibraltar. In July, 1768, he married Jemima, daughter of Colonel Jones of the third regiment of Foot Guards. He seems to have been constantly in his place in the House of Peers, and to have voted usually with Lord Shelburne, who eventually became the first Lord Lansdowne, and with Earl Temple. It is significant that notwith- standing the political opinions of his predecessors he was steadily opposed to the scheme for taxing the American colonists, and though he held divers Minis- terial appointments he voted against the Ministry of the day on more than one occasion. In 1770 he was violently denounced by Junius, and by that venomous writer was credited with the intention of 'retiring into voluntary banishment in the hope of recovering some of his reputation.' This attack rests on no more basis of truth than man}^ of the accusations of Junius. But so far from retiring from public life into social exile, it was the fate of Cornwallis from this date to take a decided and prominent part in most important events in America, in India, in Ii-eland, and on the Continent. Practically, his public career may be divided into four portions. He commanded a division of Royal troops and saw much service in the American War of Independence. He was Governor-General and lO LORD CORNWALLIS Commander-in-Chief in India — first from September, 1 786, to October, 1 793, and again from July to October, 1805. He was Lord-Lieutenant and Commander-in- Chief in Ireland for nearly three years — between June, 1798 and May, 1801. He negotiated the Peace of Amiens. It will be the object of this memoir to describe the aims, motives, and character of Lord Cornwallis as an Indian Ruler, and to notice the historical events with which he was connected only so far as may be neces- sary for the comprehension of his character. Average English readers must be credited with a fair know- ledge of the struggle which led to the loss of our American colonies, with the condition of Ireland at the beginning of the present century, and with the French war terminated by the short Peace of Amiens. Similarly, in treating of the Indian administration there will be no detailed account of the two successive campaigns waged against Tipu Sultan. But to the important measures of reform in India introduced by Lord Cornwallis a considerable space will be accorded. And, generally speaking, no facts or anecdotes will bo omitted which tend to assign to this statesman his due place in history, whether as a soldier or a civil administrator. Cornwallis, who by this time had attained the rank of Lieutenant-General, was directed to take command of a division of the English army in America at the beginning of 1776. He had opposed the Ministry AMERICAN CAMPAIGN IT and regretted the contest, but under a sense of military duty he accepted the post. Two years afterwards we find him in England. He returned to America in April, 1778, but again came home and threw up his command ; not from any conviction of the injustice of the war, but owing to the illness of Lady Cornwallis, who pined in the absence of her husband and died at Culford, the family place, on February 14, 1779. This sad event decided him to return to active service, and he was again employed in America till his surrender at York Town. The late Sir John Kaye holds the opinion that ' our success in America had become hopeless even before the first arrival of Cornwallis. And the prospect became still darker when the chief command was entrusted to Sir Henry CHnton in succession to Sir William Howe. According to the late Lord Stanhope, we should not have laid the foundations of our Empire in Bengal but for Clive, and the historian adds that had Clive lived we might not have lost our American colonies ; or at least their independence would have been attained in some other way. While it is almost needless to state that in America we had no heaven-born general on our side, it is fair to add that Cornwallis met and fairly defeated the colonists on at least three occasions. When the English forces had evacuated Phila- delphia with some loss of stores and more loss of honour, Cornwallis, in his first campaign, repulsed the Americans who were closing round his rear with no 12 LORD CORNWALLIS inconsiderable loss. At the siege of Chai-leston he actually as a volunteer formed one of the storming party, and if it be objected that a general officer had no business to place himself in such a position, his example was followed by Sir James Outram in the Indian Mutiny, who charged with the Volunteer Cavalry at the relief of Lucknow and actually resigned the command to General Havelock. On August 18, 1780, by a rapid march from Charleston to Camden and Eugeley Mills, he totally defeated the army of General Gates. In a letter to an officer he says : 'Above 1000 were killed and wounded and about 800 taken prisoners. "We are in possession of eight pieces of brass cannon, all they had in the field, all their ammunition-waggons, a great number of arms, and 130 baggage- waggons : in short, there never was a more complete victory.' Unfortunately, as has been remarked by more than one writer, these temporary successes were never properly followed up. Our movements were hindered by want of transport and by a defective commissariat ; and the British army, though numerically superior to its adversaries, was never strong in discipline or rtiorale. Moreover, while Cornwallis was successful, detachments under other officers were defeated by the colonists. The Royalists and their levies of militia became dispirited and dis- heartened by a series of small failures, and although the campaign of 1780 was on the whole favourable to the Royal cause. Colonel Tarleton suffered a defeat at AMERICAN CAMPAIGN 13 Cowpens, which has been described as the most serious calamity after the surrender of Saratoga. What could be done to repair this defeat was done by Cornwallis. At Guildford he attacked General Greene, who com- manded a force of nearly 6000 men, and on March 15, 1 78 1, he routed this officer and captured his cannon. But here again want of supplies, the general dis- affection of the country, and the failure of energy on the part of the Loyalists, crippled operations ; and although this action is admitted by the American writers to have been a ' signal instance of the steadi- ness of British troops when well commanded,' and though one English annalist compares it to Cressy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, it was only an apparent triumph ; and indeed it may be said to have inflicted more damage on the English than on the Americans. Cornwalhs, who had been wounded in the battle of Guildford, next marched through North Carolina into Virginia, and took up his position at York and Gloucester, on the York River. It is not easy to apportion the blame for the surrender of York Town. The Commander-in-Chief subsequently endeavoured to show that he had not thought favourably of Corn- wallis's march into the Virginian provinces. But it is quite clear that he ordered Cornwallis to act on the defensive and to fortify himself in some suitable position. Cornwallis had also some hope of relief or assistance from the British fleet. But nothing was done with vigour and effect. And when the American 14 LORD CORNWALLIS and French armies, strong in men and material, artillery and engineers, closed round the English forces, nothing was left for the Commander but to surrender his post or to try and cut his way out through the enemy. When the latter alternative had been tried in vain, the surrender of an ex- hausted garrison and crumbling works naturally followed. This event practically put an end to the contest. Cornwallis remained a prisoner of war for about three months and was allowed to leave on parole for England. It is pleasant to note that in his letters he mentions with gratitude and good-feeling the delicacy and courtesy shown to him and others by the French officers. Eventually, after a long and troublesome correspondence about his exchange with Colonel Laurens, an American prisoner of high rank, he was released from his parole at the beginning of 1783. Without analysing the numerous pamphlets and letters in which the responsibility for our failure was long and acrimoniously discussed, it is quite possible to form an estimate of the merits of Cornwallis as a military man and a strategist. That he did not possess the quick perception and the rapid glances which distinguish great captains in the field, may be readily admitted. But there is every reason to think that under a first-rate commander, Cornwallis at the head of a division, or despatched to carry out some distinct combination, or to operate in a particular AMERICAN CAMPAIGN 15 quarter with adequate support, might have won no inconsiderable military distinction. He had been well trained ; he was a good discipli- narian ; he knew when and how to be severe, and he had formed some dis.tinct idea of carrying on a cam- paign. Sir H. Clinton showed his incapacity by recommending desultory measures as a means of reducing the enemy. Cornwallis tells us that he was quite tired of * marching about the country in quest of adventures.' He informs his Commander-in-Chief that the right maxim for the safe and honourable conduct of the war was 'to have as few posts as possible, and that wherever the King's troops are, they should be in respectable force.' He was in favour of offensive operations in Virginia only. He did not foresee the least advantage from destroying goods and property at Philadelphia. He thought it absurd to attempt to turn an unhealthy swamp into a defensive post, which could at once be taken by an enemy with a temporary superiority at sea. In fact, he was for concentrating his efforts on operations in a province where a decisive victory would mean the defeat of his opponents ; and at one time before the surrender of York Town we had firm possession of four important provinces, while another state, Vermont, had shown a desire for union with Canada. Our Loyalists had not then lost all heart, and the ' Americans were reduced to great straits for both money and supplies.' In a very few years, however, the talents and l6 LORD CORNWALLIS experience of Cornwallis were to find scope for their action in a very diflferent sphere, where he would not be hampered by the incapacity of a superior, and where what Gibbon terms the seals and the standard, or the civil and military power, would be vested in the same person. We have it on his own authority that Lord Shelburne in May, 1782, proposed to him ' to go to India as Governor-General and Commander-in- Chief.' It is clear from this, that notwithstanding the disaster of York Town, CornwaUis still possessed the confidence of statesmen high in office, and was thought fitted for important trusts. Yet about the same time we find him complaining that he had been treated very unfairly by the King and Mr. Pitt, and that these two great personages had agreed to expose him to the world 'as an object of contempt and ridicule.' It seems from the correspondence that negotiations with a view to engage Cornwallis in the Admini- stration were not very delicately and judiciously managed. It is curious too that Cornwallis, when turning over the suggestion of India in his mind, should have come to the conclusion that it offered no field for military reputation. Possibly the re- collection of failures in America may have warped his judgment, and the recent defeat and capture of our officers by Haidar AK may have obliterated the memories of Plassey and Baxar. Cornwallis writes thus to Colonel Ross in anticipa- THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP 17 tions which happily were not fulfilled. He does not feel inclined ' to abandon my children and every comfort on this side the grave, to quarrel with the Supreme Government in India, whatever it may be : to find that I have neither power to model the army nor to correct abuses ; and finally, to run the risk of being beaten by some Nabob and disgraced to all eternity.' Cornwall is may have been thinking of the wearisome disputes between Hastings and Francis, and the support withheld by other members of the Council from the Governor-General. In June, 1784, there came a distinct intimation that the Ministers intended to offer him the two posts of Governor- General and Commander-in-Chief, and in February, 1785, he was 'attacked,' as he phrases it, to take the Governor-Generalship. To this proposal, after a consideration of twenty-four hours, he gave a ' civil negative.' This it might be thought would have precluded any renewal of similar negotiations, and during the next year Cornwallis was much taken up with the claims to compensation preferred by the American loyalists, and by the proceedings of a Board or Special Commission for the fortification of our sea- ports, of which; with other distinguished naval and military officers, he was made a member. In the same year he was deputed to Berlin to attend a review of the Prussian army, and was received there with some civility by Frederic the Greats though it is expressly mentioned in a letter to Colonel Ross that B N-^^ 1 8 LORD CORNWALLIS the king showed a marked preference for La Fayette. A conversation between the kino; and the Enghsh General, recorded in the Cornwallis Correspondence, is very curious as showing Frederic's view of the political relations of continental states with each other and with England. In the beginning of 1786, from some cause not clearly explained in Cornwallis's Life and Letters, the offer of India was again made, and with grief of heart, as he puts it, Cornwallis accepted the appoint- ment, sailed in May, and landed in Calcutta in September of the same year. A Bill, on lines which he had himself approved or suggested, enlarging the powers of the Governor-General under the India Bill of 1783, and very properly giving him authority to act on emergencies without the concurrence of his Council, and even in opposition to that body, received the Royal assent after his departure for the East. CHAPTER II Political Condition of India. The Revenue Settlement A short summary of the condition of British India at that time may not be deemed superfluous for the complete understanding of the powers, responsibilities^ and policy of the new Governor-General. We had acquired and had begun in a fashion to administer the fine provinces of Bengal and Behar with a portion of Orissa. The six great Maratha houses with large territories and disciplined forces were still independent. Muhammadan Viceroys ruled over vast tracts of country at Lucknow and at Haidarabad. There were other lesser Nawabs of the Karnatic and of Farukhabad, and Rajas at Tra van- core and Tanjore, who at any moment might require support and countenance as allies, — if they did not become troublesome as enemies. The Presidency of Bombay was comprised within two islands, and some not very important districts on the mainland. Madras was more extensive ; but over the greater portion of India, dynasties, old and young, and potentates of every degree of merits demerit, and obscurity, still held sway, and their representatives were ever ready B 2 20 LORD CORNWALLIS to appropriate to themselves some share in a Mughal empire which when at its highest had lasted only a century and a half, and was now crumbling to pieces. Before dealing with any of the reforms in civil administration carried out by Cornwallis, it is as well to state briefly the result of two campaigns waged against our bitterest and most formidable opponent. Tipu Sultan, the son of Haidar Ali who had sup- planted the old Hindu Rajas of Mysore and ruled at Seringapatam. The war began under the auspices of General Medows as Commander-in-Chief at Madras. Tipu had made an unprovoked attack on our ally the Raja of Travancore, and it was the object of the General, in alliance with the Nizam and the Peshwa, to bring the Sultan to account. But it soon appeared that Medows, though a brave, experienced, and chival- rous officer, had not the strategic qualities which, in a difficult country and against a watchful and wary enemy, were sufficient to ensure success. To add to this, our army was badly equipped and provisioned. The Treasury was empty. The civil government of Madras was incapable. At the close of the year T790, Cornwallis, the Governor-General, made use of his provisional powers and practically assumed command of the army in the field. It is creditable to Medows that he displayed no resentment at his supersession, and that ho con- tinued to carry out the orders of Cornwallis with THE MYSORE CAMPAIGN 11 perfect cordiality and fidelity. In March, 1791, Bangalore was stormed, and Tipu fell back on Seringapatam. Cornwallis followed. But when within ten miles of that city, although he had met and dis- persed the enemy in the field, he found himself unable to follow up his advantage from want of guns and material, and was compelled to return to Bangalore. The disastrous events of this retreat are well known and have been described by historians. Tipu managed to obtain swift intelligence of all our proceedings, while our knowledge of his movements was almost a blank. Our battery train had to be buried. The heavy baororage was abandoned, and the sick and wounded had to be transported on horses borrowed from the native cavalry. Little or nothing was effected in the course of the same year, and Cornwallis wrote to his son. Lord Brome, that he was growing old and rheu- matic and had lost all spirit. He had hopes how- ever of bringing Tipti to terms either by negotiation or by an attack on his capital, and he did not think of leaving India before January, 1793. ^^ ^^® same time the Governor-General expressed his amazement, in a letter to his brother the Bishop of Lichfield, that any man of common sense could have ever imagined that the war could be avoided. It was indeed, to use his expression to Henry Dundas, ' an absolute and cruel necessity.' And it is not surprising to read that the attack made by the Opposition in both Houses, on the Mysore War, was not only a complete failure, but 22 LORD CORNWALLIS that it was really converted into a vote of approba- tion. Towards the close of 1791 warlike operations were resumed with some vigour. The fortress of Seven- droog or Savandrug, described by Colonel Yule as ' a remarkable double-hill fort in Mysore, standing on a two-topped, bare, rock of granite,' and long thought impregnable either by battery or escalade, was taken in the end of September. The capture of three other forts followed. The British Army had been reinforced. The native merchants collected ample stores of grain, and with the aid of a considerable army under the son of the Nizam and a small contingent of Ma- rathas, Cornwallis carried the fortified camp of the enemy in a night attack in which he himself was wounded, forced Tipti to evacuate all his posts to the north of the river Cauvery, and was at last in a position to lay siege to the town. The final over- throw of the Muhammadan usurper was reserved for a statesman who, gifted with remarkable energy and foresight, found India in a better state of prepara- tion, and was aided by officers and diplomatists of the very first rank. But the termination of the two campaigns of Cornwallis is entitled to be termed a real success. The native allies who, it was afterwards ascer- tained, had been in secret communication with Tipu, were content to leave protracted negotiations for peace in the hands of the English soldier and states- THE MYSORE CAMPAIGN 2$ man. Some territory was ceded to us. A consider- able sum was exacted as a fine, and the two eldest sons of Tipu were brought to the tent of the Governor-General and delivered over to him as hostages for the future. A well-known old print of this imposing ceremony is still to be found in country houses in England. A link with the past history of Mysore was long furnished by the third son of Tipu, Prince Ghulam Muhammad, who, younger than his brothers the hostages, survived down to our own times, — a loyal, hospitable, and peaceful subject, residing in the neigh- bourhood of Alipur, who on two separate occasions paid a visit to England. Many Englishmen have a pleasant recollection of the old Prince's hospitality ; his entei-tainment of Viceroys at his residence ; and his black horse with a long tail that swept the ground, as he took his leisurely morning canter round the race-course of Calcutta. Some other incidents in the foreign policy of Cornwallis's administration may be briefly noticed. Sindhia was informed, through the Resident, Major Palmer, that the Governor-General would be ready to intei-pose with his good offices and advice, and to adjust differences between Gwalior and the Vizir of Oudh. But the Maratha ruler was warned at the same time that any insult offered or injury done to the Vizir or his subjects would be looked on as offered to the subjects of the Company. Though the 24 LORD CORNWALLIS time had not perhaps arrived for the open assertion of our position as the Paramount Power in India, the above language was suited to the occasion, and would not have been unworthy of Wellesley himself. The succession to the Kaj of Taujore occupied a good deal of attention. The Government at first supported the claims of Amir Singh who was in possession. On further consideration however, and especially on a letter from the celebrated missionary Schwartz, this decision was altered. SarfijI, the adopted son of the deceased Raja, was placed on the thi"one. Steps were taken to induce the Nawab of the Karnatic to liquidate his debts and observe the stipulations of treaties ; but they had not much effect, and the solution of this difiiculty was also reserved for Wellesley. Captain Kirkpatrick, a very distinguished political officer, was dispatched on a mission to Nepal, where he was kindly received by the Regent, uncle of the Raja, in spite of the strong opposition of a party of nobles who looked with sus- picion on commercial treaties and European inter- course. Indeed, owing to the extensive jealousy of the king and the ministers of Nepal in each succes- sive generation, we have scarcely made any real progress in what is termed the opening up of that kingdom to British commercial enterprise since the mission sent by Cornwallis. With the exception of the campaigns against Tipu, the government of Cornwallis may be said to have been one of peace. The reduction of Pondicherry was THE REVENUE SETTLEMENT 25 one of his last acts, accomplished by a combined naval and military force. After a few discharges from our batteries the town capitulated. And this was of course followed by the temporary cession of all the other French settlements and factories in India. It is now a pleasing task, after this brief recapitula- tion of the political and military events which Corn- wallis directed, or in which he took a prominent part, to turn to the measures of internal reform which entitle him to rank as one of those English states- men who have based our supremacy in India on a solid foundation, and have civilised, disciplined, and improved vast provinces acquired either by conquest or by cession. In reviewing these subj ects the first place will be given to the Settlement of the Land Revenue. Under every respectable government, Hindu, Mu- hammadan, or foreign, the adjustment of the Land Tax has always been one of the primary objects to be attained. The due exaction of the revenue or the Land Tax has been considered the right of every de facto government from time immemorial, whether this power were exercised by a mighty monarch like Asoka or Akbar over splendid provinces, or by some petty Raja with a hill fort and a few square miles of jungle streaked with cultivation. With the more enlightened rulers, such as Akbar or Sher Shah, the due assessment of the revenue and the equitable division of the produce between the cultivator or the village community and the superior landlord, has 26 LORD CORNWALLIS always been a paramount duty. "When we acquired the Diwanl of Bengal in 1 765, our first object was to realise the revenue by annual or quinquennial assessments. Later acquisitions have impressed on our ad- ministrators the necessity of fixing the Government share of the produce on more definite principles, of collecting it by eas}'' processes, of ascertaining the rights and interests of all classes from the superior landlord or tenant-proprietor down to the tenant-at- will, and of stereotyping these rights by a permanent and trustworthy record. It has been justly remarked that until the Land Revenue has been fixed and the Settlement concluded no other improvement should be attempted, or, if attempted, would be likely to succeed. It is vain to look for contentment and acquiescence whether in a foreign or an indigenous rule, or to set about any of those moral and material works which denote progress and civilisation, until the mass of the agriculturists know for certain in what proportions, at what periods of the year, at what places, and under what conditions or guarantees, they are to contribute to the Exchequer that portion of the harvest which they admit to be its due. No one in India, except under a special grant of exemption from the ruling power, has ever imagined that he could hold his Taluk or his allotment without paying something for it. All these considerations were not so fully appre- ciated by the servants of the East India Company under Warren Hastings and Cornwallis as they THE REVENUE SETTLEMENT 2/ have been since. But even then the collection of the revenue had been for twenty years the first and chief care of the merchants and writers who found themselves called from the desk and the counting-house to preside at the local treasury and to replenish it with contributions from a huge district. After the second administration of Lord Clive we, of course, began regularly to collect the share of the Govern- ment, and in some sense to govern the country. At first Englishmen were employed, and they soon felt the need of native collectors and subordinates. Then supervisors were appointed over the collectors. Next came local Councils at Patna, Dacca, and Murshidabad ; and at last there was formed a Board of Revenue of which the President of the Council, and ultimately Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General, became a member. The assessments were made for five years at one period, and for one year at another. The Collectors were paid by salaries and by commission, the former moderate and the latter very large. Abuses pre- vailed as much in the collection of the revenue due to the Government as in the realisation of the rents due to Zamindars. It was the object of Cornwallis almost from the moment of bis arrival, to enquire into these abuses, to redress grievances, and to provide for the contentment of the cultivating community, the security of the Zamindars, and the interests of the East Lidia Company, by one equitable and consistent code and system. With this object the Governor- 28 LORD CORNWALLIS General judiciously sought assistance from the men best able to supply it. It would have been uni-eason- able for Cornwallis or for the historian of that period to expect in Collectors suddenly placed over large districts in Bengal, a minute, accurate, and diversified acquaintance with tenures, village customs, rights, re- sponsibilities, qualities of soils, and value of produce. Still, it is not to be imagined that some of the older Company's servants were destitute of all agri- cultural and revenue knowledge. In Mr. Law and in Mr. Brooke, the father of Raja Brooke of Borneo, the Governor-General found two highly qualified and experienced officers. The celebrated j4)io^2/^z's of the Finances of Bengal, by Mr. James Grant, contains an enormous mass of information, though the conclusions are often unsound and the deductions untrustworthy. But in Mr. Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, the Governor-General found a subordinate and a colleague whose understanding of the revenue and rent system of Bengal and Behar was accurate, extensive, and profound. Shore's Minutes are copious, and one, of June 1789, extends to 562 paragraphs, and covers nearly ninety pages of close print. No one could have written it who had not completely mastered the past history and present condition of the Province. Many of Shore's observations, deductions, and rea- sons are as just and unimpeachable at this hour as they were when written just a century ago. His remarks on native character and proclivities are THE REVENUE SETTLEMENT 29 pertinent at this very day. No one can pretend to understand the origin of the Bengal Zamlndari system who has not carefully studied this text-book on the subject. The diction is clear and perspicuous, in spite of the inevitable introduction of local phrases and terms ; and in handsome language the Governor- General more than once acknowledged his obligations to the writer of these treatises, as they may fairly be termed, though he differed from Shore on more than one important point. There has been, at various times, a good deal of discussion amongst able Anglo-Indian experts as to the precise position and rights of those whom in the Lower Provinces we have termed Zamindars. It is the opinion of some very competent authorities that these Zamindars were originally of various kinds. Some- times they were mere agents nominated for short periods who had bid for the privilege of collecting and paying the Government dues. A very notable example of this class may be found in the Lives of the Lindsays. The Hon. Robert Lindsay, a servant of the East India Company, finding that one Ganga Govind, a native collector, was unequal to the collec- tion of the revenue of the district of Sylhet, himself came forward and tendered for the right to collect, though he was opposed by the Council of Dacca. His offer was accepted by Warren Hastings, and in this way, aided by the monopoly of catching elephants and supplying the bazars of Calcutta with oranges and 30 LORD CORNWALLIS lime, he legitimately acquired a large fortune. In those days such a proceeding was perfectly honour- able and fair. In other instances the native tax-collector, em- ployed at first by the Muhammadan Nawab of Dacca and Murshidabad, was enabled to hand over the same privilege to his son or successor, and as the office thus had a tendency to become hereditary, it was in theory associated with vested rights. But it was often found to be sound policy to entrust the collection of the revenue to the representatives of the old landed aris- tocracy of Bengal, and Shore particularly mentions that at the time of the acquisition of the Provinces of Bengal and Behar, one million of revenue was contributed by the Zamindaris of the Rajas of Bardwan, Rajshahl, Dinapur, Nadiya, Birbhum, Bish- nupur. and Jessor. To this day some of their re- presentatives are in the enjoyment of fine estates. Bardwan is the largest and most flourishing, but Nadiya or Nuddea and Jessor are in the hands of the descendants of Shore's Rdjas. By Rajshahl is meant Nattor, an estate now very much reduced in size and wealth. The Zamindars of Birbhum and Bishnu- pur are sunk almost to destitution, owing to mis- management, the dishonesty of servants, litigation, and general incapacity. In 1789 it was assumed that we were to make the Settlement with the Zamindars, who by descent, prescription, or privilege and use, had been in the habit of collecting rents from hundreds and THE REVENUE SETTLEMENT 31 thousands of cultivators, and accounting to Govern- ment for its proper share or revenue. It has been asserted at several epochs that as Com- wallis declared the Zamindars, with whom his Settle- ment was made, to be the ' proprietors of the soil,' and assured to them in his own language ' the possession of their lands,' and the profits arising from the im- provement thereof, he intended to vest, and did vest them, with an absolute and exclusive right of owner- ship as we understand that term in England. But this is by no means the case. It is quite clear from the lanofuaofe of his Minutes and Letters, as well as from his legislation, that he only recognised in them a limited and not an absolute proprietorship ; that he clearly perceived and was prepared to protect the rights and interests of other parties in the soil ; and that the terms in which he speaks of Zamindars as proprietors must be taken in the Oriental and not in the English sense. He could not practically override what for cen- turies had been the common law of the country. Sir George Campbell, who has the advantage of familiarity with land tenures in the Punjab, in the Upper Provinces, in Gudh, and in Bengal, pointed out some years ago that land in India was a possession in which two and more parties had very distinct, separate, and permanent interests ; and that much of the confused and erroneous language applied to the subject had arisen from overlooking and disregarding 3* LORD CORNWALLIS this elementary fact. Those public servants who either took part in the remediary legislation of 1859 or who, previous to that date, in administering the revenue and the land laws of the Lower Provinces, endeavoured to see that the Ryot had fair play, and who insisted on the limited rights of the Zamlndar, may be certain that this latter view found favour with John Herbert Harington, author of the well-known Analysis. His work, published between 18 15 and 1821, has long been out of print, and of course many of the Statutes, analysed and explained with wonder- ful clearness and precision, have been supplanted by later and better laws. But if any student of past times, or civil servant now employed in the Lower Provinces, wishes to understand thoroughly the gra- dual introduction of our administrative system, the terrible legacies of Muhammadan Viceroys, the diflB- culties encountered in the collection of the revenue and the establishment of law and order, he will study Harington's Analysis. That work is for Indian legislation what Coke on Littleton is for English lav/. Part of Vol. HI. which treats of the Land Revenue is enlivened by a contro- versy with Colonel Wilks who, while writing his Historical Sketches of the South of India, a book of much value, seemed to have completely misunderstood the Zamindarl tenures of Bengal. What appeared to Colonel Wilks ' an inextricable puzzle,' is simplified and made clear by Harington. He began by quoting THE REVENUE SETTLEMENT '3,'}, Shore to the effect ' that the most cursory observation shows the situation of things in this country to be singularly confused. The relation of a Zamindar to Go- vernment, and of a Ryot to a Zamindar, is neither that of a proprietor nor a vassal, but a compound of both. The former performs acts of authority unconnected with proprietary right : the latter has rights without real property. And the property of the one and the rights of the other are in a great measure held at dis- cretion. Such was the system which we found, and which we have been under the necessity of adopting. Much time, I fear, will elapse before we can establish a system perfectly consistent in all its parts, and before we can reduce the compound relation of a Zamindar to Government, and of a Ryot to a Zamindar, to the simple principles of landlord and tenant.' Then Haring- ton himself goes on to say that this was the principal source of all the confusion which had been introduced into the discussions about Indian landed tenures. ' It is by attempting to assimilate the complicated system which we found in this country, with the simple princi- ples of landlord and tenant in our own, and especially in applying to the Indian system terms of appropriate and familiar signification which do not without con- siderable limitation properly belong to it, that much, if not all, of the perplexity ascribed to the subject has arisen.' He follows this up by a definition of the Zamindar as we found him, which for well-balanced antithesis, recognition of rights followed by language c 34 LORD CORNWALLIS of positive limitation, and fair solution of perplexing contradictions, has probably not been surpassed in any Minute, State Paper, or Proclamation on the subject. ' The Zamindiir appears to be a Landholder of a peculiar description, not definable by any single term in our language. A receiver of the territorial Revenue of the State from the Ryots and other under-tenants of the land : allowed to succeed to his Zamindari by inheritance, yet in general re- quired to take out a renewal of his title from the Sovereign, or his representative, on payment of a peshkash or fine of investiture to the Emperor, and a nazardnd or present to his provincial delegate the Nazim : permitted to transfer his Zamindari by sale or gift, yet commonly expected to obtain previous special permission : privileged to be generally the annual contractor for the public revenue receivable from his Zaminddri, yet set aside with a limited provision in land or money, whenever it was the pleasure of the Government to collect the rents by separate agency or to assign them temporarily or permanently by the grant of a Jaghlr or Altamgh4 ; authorized in Bengal since the early part of the present century to apportion to the Pargands, villages, and lesser divisions of land within his Zaminddri, the abwdhs or cesses imposed by the Subahdar, usually in some proportion to the Standard Assessment of the Zaminddri established by Todar Mall, and others ; yet subject to the discretionary interference of public authority, to equalize the amount assessed on particular divisions or to abolish what appeared oppressive to the Ryot : entitled to any contingent emolu- ments proceeding from his contract during the period of hia agreement, yet bound by the laws of his tenure to deliver in a faithful account of his receipts : responsible by the same y. H. HARINGTON'S VIEWS ^S terms for keeping the peace within his jurisdiction, hxit apparently allowed to apprehend only and deliver over to a Musalmdn magistrate for trial and punishment — this is, in abstract, my present idea of a Zamindar under the Mughal constitution and practice.' This was the opinion of the young revenue officer, who had been brought up in the school of Hastings, and twenty-eight years afterwards, with his ripe ex- perience, he saw no reason to alter his language. But he then explains the changes in the Zamlndar's situation and privileges which the Permanent Settle- ment had introduced. Glancing at the reservation to Government of the power to legislate for the protec- tion of dependent Talukdars, Ryots, and other culti- vators, he remarks that the Zamindar was now at liberty to appropriate to his own use the difference between the portion of the produce which was the right of Government, and his own private rent. This share was ah-eady estimated to be treble what it had been before 1793, and looking to this increment and advantage, Harington was prepared to recognise the Zamindars, Talukdars, and all landholders, of what- ever denomination, as ' proprietors in a general sense.' In other not unimportant particulars their position was secured and improved. Heirs and successors were no longer called on to take out a sanad, or deed of investiture, in ratification of their succession. They were not expected to pay the former Peshkash or the NazardTid. No permission was needed for the c 2 36 LORD CORNWALLIS sale or transfer of an estate. As long as the revenue was fully and punctually paid, the Zamindar was no longer subject to temporary or permanent removal from the management of the Zamindari. As he had been relieved fi'om the imposition of new or extra cesses, he was bound to abstain from imposing similar taxes on his Ryots. But he was no longer liable to furnish any accounts of receipts and disbursements, except when such accounts were essential to the ap- portionment of the Public Revenue on the division of an estate between joint-shareholders. Finally, he had been relieved of the charge of the police, and was only expected to aid the regular officials of the Government by preserving the peace and giving information of crimes and heinous offences. And as Harington had previously defined the status of a Zamindar under the Mughal Government and during the administrations of Clive, Verelst, Cartier, and Hastings, he wound up by a definition applicable to his new position under the Cornwallis Code. He had become ' a landholder, possessing a Zamindari estate which is hereditable and transferable by sale, gift, or bequest: subject under all circumstances to the public assessment fixed upon it : entitled, after payment of such assessment^ to ap- propriate any surplus rents or profits which may law- fully be receivable by him from the under-tenants of land in his Zamindari or from the improvement and cultivation of untenanted lands ; but subject never- theless to such rules and restrictions as are already SHORE'S VIEWS 37 established or may be hereafter enacted by the British Government, for securing the rights and privileges of Ryots and other under-tenants of whatever denomina- tion, in their respective tenures ; and for protecting them against undue exaction or oppression.' Cornwallis had two very distinct objects in view. He wished to recognise the Zamindars as landed proprietors with the prospect of an increased rental from the cultivation of the land, and he desired that the Settlement made with them for ten years should be declared permanent and fixed for ever. Here was one of the points in which he differed from Shore, and a large part of the Minutes and State Papers of the day is taken up with long discussions on this head. Briefly stated, Shore held that the capacities of the land had not been properly ascertained: that we had no staff of men possessed of sufficient know- ledge of the vast and intricate subjects of rents, tenures, and agricultural interests ; that great abuses prevailed in the levy by Zamindars of extra cesses from the Ryots ; that it was desirable to diminish the size of vast Zamindaris and to increase the number of small proprietors : that these ends could not be attained without time and trouble; and, in short, that before committing ourselves to an irre- vocable Settlement in Perpetuity it would be prudent and politic to wait. Lord Cornwallis replied that we had not then, and should not have at the end of ten years, any staff of officials capable of entering into 38 LORD COENWALLIS such minute and complicated details ; that a very large portion of the Province was waste and jungle, and that a Permanent Settlement would give con- fidence to the Zamlndars, increase to agriculture, and stability to Government. It is well here to dwell on a fact which of late years has been conveniently or negligently overlooked ; and this is that the share of the Zamindar was in those days reckoned at only one-tenth of his whole receipts. The remaining nine-tenths were to go to the Government. If a Zamindar declined after a trial to engage for the collection of the revenue in any district, and another man became the collecting agent, an allowance, of ten per cent, only, was set aside for the excluded Za- mindar, and the same rule was followed in the case of minors and females. Shore anticipated that on the confirmation of the proposed assessment, the profits of the Zamindar might reach to nearly fifteen per cent. It is not superfluous to state that while we have no absolute certainty as to the net profits of Zamlndars at the present day, we may safely conclude that in very many cases they far exceed Shore's moderate estimate. In another important point Shore and Cornwallis were at issue. There were certain internal duties which the Zamlndars had been in the habit of levy- ing. They were known as sdyer and rdhddri or transit dues, and as taxes on goods exposed for sale in the wholesale and retail markets of the country. It is TRANSIT DUTIES 39 not necessary now to go into these differences at great leng-th, though a knowledge of them may be deemed indispensable to the 3'oung civilian of the present day. The result can be shortly put. The sdyer duties were local and arbitrary charges levied by Zamlndars on goods passing through their estates by land and water. The rdhddri were similar in kind. This word properly means a permission or peraiit for goods to pass : a kind of black mail. Both kinds were for- mally abolished by the Laws of 1790 and 1793. Since that date, though such dues have been occa- sionally levied throughout Bengal by oppressive and high-handed Zamindars, within the memory and cog- nizance of men still living, the theory has been that Zamindars are confined in the collection of their dues to rents of cultivated lands, to fisheries, to pasture, and to the natural yield of the jungle and forest. A little further explanation may be expedient in regard to duties levied by Zamindars, not on goods passing through their estates and in transit from one Zamin- dari or Pargana to another, but on goods brought and exposed to sale at certain distinct places. These are designated by Shore in language applicable to this very hour, as the Ganj, the Bazar, and the Hat. The Ganj is a wholesale market, though articles may also be retailed at such places by the smaller traders. Familiar examples of such Ganjs, which are centres of enormous traffic, are Sirajganj in Pabna, Nalchiti in Bakarganj, and Narainganj in 40 LORD CORNWALLIS Dacca. A Bazdr is simply an assemblage of ten, twenty, or fifty and more houses and shops for the retail of all articles of subsistence. By a Hat is meant a place where vegetables, fruits, and the necessaries of life are exposed for sale, generally on two special days in the week. Sometimes each per- manent bazar has its bi-weekly market or Hat. But quite as often a Hat is held in an open space where there is not a single permanent structure of any kind. On H6i days such places are resonant with the hum of two thousand voices of buyers and sellers. On other days the Hdt is a lifeless, un- tenanted, vacant space. It is very significant when we consider the point of absolute ownership claimed for Zamindars, that there was a considerable amount of discussion on paper whether these Ganjs, Bazars, and Hats should not be taken entirely away from the Zamindars, and separated from their estates. The opinion actually prevailed in some quarters that the rights and privileges of the Zamindars were to be con- fined to arable and pasture, to fisheries and forests alone. In some parts of the Province, the Zamindars did not even claim the Ganj at all. Shore mentions the cases of men who had become proprietors of Ganj and Bazars without any Zamindari rights. In the end, all three descriptions of markets were handed over to the Zamindars within whose estates they were found ; and amongst their rights and privi- leges none, to this day, is more valued or often more MINOR INTERESTS. THE TALUKDARS 41 productive, than the privilege of setting up a new Hat or Bazar. Indeed, down to recent times Bazars were set up by powerful proprietors with the express object of ruining a rival and attracting his buyers and sellers ; and many outrages, fights, and affrays and much litigation used to ensue from such proceed- ings some thirty and forty years ago. It is no disparagement to the discernment of Corn- wallis that he had not such a vivid notion of the interior of a district in Bengal and Behar as was present to the mind of Shore. But it is also clear that Cornwallis had managed to gi-asp successfully some of the main points in the agricultural and revenue sj^stem of the Province and that, as before stated, he did not by any means intend to hand over the whole agricultural and village community to the superior landlords to be dealt with by them on the terms of contract and under the economic laws of demand and supply. To prove this we have only to read carefully his Minutes and Regulations. He was in favour of multiplying smaller proprietors, as he was of opinion that their management was better. He conceded to some smaller Taluhldrs the privilege of payment of revenue direct to the Government Treasury instead of through the superior Zamindar. Such estates in revenue phraseology were called Huzuri in contradistinction to Shikmi Taluks. He laid down the principle that a Zamindar could only receive the customary or established rent, and 43 LORD CORNWALLIS that lie had no right to dispossess any one cultivator for the sole purpose of giving his land to another. He insisted that Zaminddrs should grant pattds or documents specifying the amount which the Ryots were to pay ' by whatever rule or custom it may be demanded.' Every cess or ' benevolence ' known as abvjdb, imposed by the Zamindar, was declared by Cornwallis to be a breach of his agreement and a direct violation of the established laws of the country. He expressly reserved to Government the right to enquire into and to resume alienations of land granted for religious and secular purposes to favourites, Brahmans, astrologers, priests, and other classes : and one of the sections of the Regulation or Law in which he embodied these views contains, as has been shown, an intimation that as it was the duty of the ruling power to protect the helpless classes, the Governor- General in Council, whenever he might deem it proper, would enact such Regulations as he might think necessary for the safety and welfare of the dependent Talukdars, Ryots, and other cultivators of the soil. In many other ways was a limit imposed on the power of the Zamindar. Though permitted to sell and mortgage his estates, he was not by any such transaction to endanger the realisation of the Government revenue. Although private sales of estates were not numerous the shares of joint-proprietors had to be separated. And the separation, which at fii-st only meant that THE ZAMINDAR 43 each shareholder collected his rents by a separate agent, in the end resulted in a division of the terri- torial estate. It then became the duty of the Collector to see that each separate portion or cluster of villages was assessed with its proper amount of revenue. And in any private transfer or any official division of the land, the interest of Government was effectively protected by the action of the Collector. Unless this person had given his sanction to the transaction, the whole orifidnal estate was held liable for the dues of Government. For some time subsequent to the Code of 1793 Zamindars were prevented by law from granting leases beyond a certain term of years and creating perpetual sub-infeudations. The Zamlndar, it has been shown, was to take the bad years with the good, and as he was liable to no enhancement, he was to expect no remission in drought or scarcity. When an estate was put up to public auction, the incoming purchaser acquired his new possession free from any fresh encumbrances created by his predecessor. And at some periods of our rule many ingenious frauds were attempted. Zamindars, who had received a bonus for the creation of an encumbrance or sub- infeudation, purposely allowed their estates to be put up to auction for arrears, then purchased them in the name of a dependent or thii'd person, and tried to annul the subordinate titles which they had them- selves created. This sort of proceediDg had, however, 44 LORD CORNWALLIS very little effect on the actual tenant-proprietor or cultivator. And his position was to some extent safe- guarded by a rule that the Zamindar was not at liberty to enhance the ordinary rent without resorting to a regular civil suit. Actions to fix the rent of a Ryot or to bring it up to the standard of the Par- gana or the neighbourhood became common. The judicial rent now familiar to English readers from its recent introduction into Ireland, was the law of the land in India a century ago. It has never been shown how this necessity of a resort to a judicial tribunal could be compatible with any theory of absolute and unlimited ownership. Still, the position of the Raja, Zamindar, or Chau- dari during and after the administration of Cornwallis was in many respects one of power, privilege, and profit. And something must now be added in regard to what was either conferred on him by law or recognised by judicial decisions. An estate, which is often used as the English equivalent for the term Zamindari or Taluk, in Bengal merely denotes a certain tract of land, with boundaries loosely given or not defined at all, which is burdened with a certain specific amount of revenue. It may mean a single village, a cluster of villages, portions of several villages, or a principality as big as an English county. Each estate bears a separate number on the roU of the Collectorate and is usually described as situated in such or such a Pargand or Chakla. In revenue THE ZAMIndAR 45 phraseology the villages contained in the estate are termed Maiizas : a word which would not be employed by an ordinary speaker talking of the village in which he resided or to which he was bound. But whether the estate were large or small, the Zamindar was entitled to demand his rent from every tenant : and he alone could induct new tenants into their holdings. All waste and untenanted lands were his. He might cultivate them by hired labour, which he rarely or never did, or he might induce new Ryots to settle there under his protection, build houses for themselves, clear the jungle, and break up the soil. In such instances the rent demanded was at first very small. On lands that had been long under cultivation the rent varied with the nature of the crop. There was a moderate rate for rice crops grown on the higher ground, and a heavier rate on rice in the deep land. The better kinds of produce were more heavily taxed than either of the above, such as sugar-cane, tobacco, and pan : and gardens and homesteads usually paid the highest of all. All plots vacated by famine, desertion, or death, ipso facto reverted to the Zamindar. He was allowed to challenge the titles of all who claimed to hold small plots as Lakhiraj or rent-free, and the onus of proving a valid grant from some former authority, empowered to make such a title, was by the judicial couris always thrown on the Lakhiraj dar. It was held in the case of squatters or Ryots who had never 46 LORD CORNWALLIS asked for or received any pattds or titles to their holding, that no period of time could bar the Zamin- ddr's claim to rent. As he was bound to pay the revenue, a demand for rent to pay it constituted a cause of action, and no amount of time in which pay- ment had not been demanded, or had been withheld, could create a title to sit rent-free. In theory it was asserted that most Ryots could not sell or transfer their holdings without the consent of the superior landlord. But in treating of the Ryot's position it will be shown that in this respect practice was at variance with theory. Over jungle, waste, scrub and swamp, the Zamindar had equally clear rights. They were termed Bankar, or forest produce : Jalkar, fishery : Fhulkar, honey and fruits : and Thalkar, what dropped on the ground. When the Zamindar was minded to expend money on his Zamindari, his expenditure generally took the following shape. He might drain a huge swamp by cutting a channel for the overflow of its water into the nearest river. He excavated by paid labour an enormous reservoir which secured a supply of pure water for half-a-dozen villages. He con- structed ghats or landing-places of stone or brick on the banks of rivers or tanks. He dedicated temples and built school-houses. But he never con- trolled the agricultural operations of his tenants, or thought himself bound to provide them with houses or to fence their land. It is clear that Cornwallis did not fully corapre- THE ZAMINDAR Al hend the custom of the country in regard to the spread of cultivation. In the first and most important of his Regulations he expresses a hope that the Zamin- dars would exert themselves to cultivate their lands, and would improve their respective estates, and he assures them that they would enjoy exclusively the fruits of theii" own industry without any fear that the demands of Government would be augmented in consequence of any such increase of cultivation and enhanced value of landed property. From the use of the above phrases we can only conceive the ideal or typical Zamindar whom Cornwallis had in his mind, to be identical with what in England we should call an improving landlord: one who expends capital in planting trees where corn will not grow with profit, in making hedges, clearing out ditches, draining wet lands, and erecting model cottages of the most approved type. Now it has been ah-eady shown that the Zamindar in almost every district did spend con- siderable sums in digging tanks, building temples and ghdts, and cutting canals. But he never spent a farthing on drains, cottages, breaking up jungle and waste land, or in introducing the higher and more lucrative kinds of cultivation on any holding within his estate. The whole of this burden fell on the Ryot. It is true that a Zamindar gave to the Ryot whom he inducted into a plot of ground, the counte- nance which was at all times indispensable in such a country as India. He was occasionally, to such 4H LORD CORNWALLIS tenants, a refuge from the tyranny and encroachment of a rival landholder. But it was the mattock and axe of the Ryot and the exercise of the Ryot's thews and sinews that cut down the jungle and cleared the waste. He worked, as it were, for himself under the Zamindar's shadow. The new ground which he broke up without the slightest help from the superior landlord and his agents, was frequently assessed for some years at a very low rate. It might be a half or a quarter of the usual rental, or a mere nominal rate for the first twelvemonth. Sometimes, from the neofliaence or the indifference of the local manager, a holding might escape taxation for several seasons, or the Ryot might take in additional land beyond the amount specified in his deed of induction. But what- ever might be the fate of the Ryot, and whether his Zamlndar was careless or precise in the assessment and exaction of rent, it is indisputable that all over Bengal the Zamlndar looked on placidly while the tenant-proprietor and the Ryot burnt the jungle grass, broke up the clay soil, sowed the rice, and introduced gradually the more valuable products. It is not necessary in accepting these facts, to cen- sure the Zamindars as a class for not at once filling the exact position of improving landlords which Cornwallis had anticipated. The custom of the country from the earliest times was for the Ryot to toil under the Zamlnddr's protection. But the Zamlndar had often private lands or lands in his THE ZAMINDAR 49 own occupation, termed in the phraseology of the day Nij-jot and Kkds Khdmdr ; and he was not in the habit, in respect of such plots, of showing the tenantry how the yield of the land could be increased by manure, or how on the various levels the cereals, the date-tree, the jute, the tobacco-plant or the sugar- cane, could be sown and grown with profit. Practi- cally in these cases his own servants or hired labourers cultivated the Khas lands and produced very indifferent results. The main object of the Zamindars, for years after 1793, "^^^^ ^^ induct Ryots into waste and culturable lands, as population in- creased and as more space and new villages were required to meet the wants of a growing community. It was one of the cardinal points of the new Settle- ment that Government on the one hand would not impose any additional taxation on any lands within the supposed area of any estate which had been cleared and cultivated, or on account of any luxuriant harvest in any one year. On the other hand, the Zamindar was not to expect remissions or sus- pensions of the revenue when his lands suffered from drought, inundation, or other calamity of the season. He was bound to take the lean and the fat years together and to make the best of both. If he failed in the punctual discharge of his obligations to the State, no excuse could be accepted. His estate, or a portion sufficient to make good the arrears due, would be put up to auction peremptorily and sold to D 50 LORD CORNWALLIS the highest bidder. He was not allowed to plead the default or incapacity of a shareholder, though he could always protect his own interests by paying up the defaulter's portion, and recovering his payments by means of a civil action. The provisions of the Sale Law were stringent, but they were an improve- ment on the ancient mode of compelling payment by the confinement of the defaulter or by his corporal punishment. And a sure and certain spread of culti- vation was the natural consequence of the cessation of Muhammadan oppression and Maratha raids. The operations of nature in that region were always effected on a gigantic scale. If the drought was of long continuance or the inundations widespreading and calamitous, as was often the case in Central and Eastern Bengal, the silt deposited by the overflowing waters elevated and fertilised the soil. The reed and the bulrush made way for the rice crop. The jungle retreated before the axe and the plough. The swamp became firm land. And around new villages and hamlets there sprang up fruit trees, bamboos, and a rich and artificial vegetation almost as dense as the primeval forest which it had displaced. In all this there was an increase to the profits of the Zamlndar. The documents which he was expected to give to Eyots, new or old, were known as -pattds, and the Ryot was bound to hand in exchange for the same what was termed a hahuliyat or acceptance. These two terms have very often,, in judicial decisions, formal THE ZAMINDAR 51 reports, and other documents, been loosely denominated as leases and their counterparts. In truth the patta of an ordinary Ryot has no resemblance to an English lease. No term of years is specified. There are stipu- lations to the effect that the Ryot is not to withhold his rent or fail in payment on the plea of drought or inundation, death or desertion of joint-shareholders, or tenants-at-will without occupancy rights. Timber and fruit trees were not to be cut down. Not that they had been planted by the hand of the Zamindar, but because by their destruction the value of the holding was lessened. Similarly, if a substantial tenant wished to excavate a tank, the Zamindar might, if he chose, put in an objection on the ground that any diminution of the culturable or cultivated area diminished the security for rent. As a matter of fact, however, such objections were com- paratively rare. Many of the Bengal villages suffer from a redundancy of reservoirs not sufficiently deep and not always kept in proper repair. These rights and privileges were coupled with certain liabilities and duties. The Zamindar was bound to provide means to carry the post on what we should call cross- country roads. This postal service rarely went be- yond the transmission of heavy police reports. Besides his obligation to assist the police, the Zamindar was bound to prevent the illicit manufacture of salt and the unauthorised cultivation of the poppy, inasmuch as Government retained the monopoly of opium and D 2 52 LORD CORNWALLIS salt. The Zaminddr was also credited with the main- tenance and pay of the village watchmen. But for many years the postal service between police stations and the magistrate's court, as well as the Chaukidari or village watch system, was on a most unsatis- factory footing. If some of the above responsibilities were occa- sionally inconvenient and irksome, they could also be turned into instruments of power and oppression in the hands of energetic landlords who could afford to have good legal advice and who were well served by active agents and retainers. While inexperienced and indifferent Zamindars were cheated by their ser- vants, baffled by combinations of Ryots, and driven to the expedient of creating sub-infeudations which left them rent-chargers on their own estates ; others, with energy and intelligence and without scruples, managed to avail themselves of every clause and section of the law, and to convert statutory liabilities into sources of profit. They sent their agents to measure holding after holding, and levied rents on all lands in excess of the pattd, as they had a perfect right to do. They sued substantial Ryots for enhanced rents, in order to exact the rates leviable by common custom on the better products. In spite of repeated prohibitions, legal and executive, they demanded and received extra cesses known as ahiudbs at every remark- able incident in their lives : the birth of a son, the marriage of a daughter, the dedication of a temple, THE RYOT 53 the erection of a school, the building of a ghat, the march of a high official through the district, the receipt of a title or a dress of honour from the Government, the termination of a great lawsuit, or any other propitious or unpropitious event : and it may certainly be conceded that, if not in the exact position of an English landlord, the Zamindar was by Lord Cornwallis raised from an uncertain to a well- defined place, and to one of emolument, privilege, and power. It could no longer be altered at the caprice of some wayward autocrat ruling at Dacca or Mur- shidabad. It was stamped with the seal of a foreign power whose representatives were known to be men of their word. It could only be forfeited by inca- pacity or wilful default. And finally the Zamindar might raise money on his estate, mortgage and sell it, and transmit it to his heirs and successors, increased in value, unimpeachable in title, and unafiected by any rise in price or any further claims of the State. In treating of the rights, interests, and position of the Ryot, it would be impossible, in the limits of this memoir, to describe the various Ryotty tenures to be found in the Provinces to which the Perpetual Settle- ment was applied. Many which bear different titles in difierent districts of the Lower Provinces, are in substance and reality almost identical. In some cases the distinctions are more apparent than solid ; and certainly at various epochs, when the position and claims of the Ryots have been investigated, it has 54 LORD CORNWALLIS generally been found possible to class them under three great divisions. Impoi-tant but comparatively few in number, as has been often pointed out, are the tenants who hold land at rates positively fixed before the Perpetual Settlement, or at rates never enhanced or varied since that date. These valuable tenures are commonly denominated istimiYiri, or muJcarraH, and to these titles there is often appended the word maurusi, or hereditary. No claim for enhancement can affect a valid title of this kind. Next in the scale are resident Ryots, who, though not holding nor claiming to hold at unchangeable rates, have been considered to have a right to retain their tenures as long as they pay their rents, and against whom claims for enhancement must be urged and proved by the formal process of a regular civil suit. These have a sort of proprietary right : they form a very considerable and important class ; and much discussion and litigation have ensued in regard to individual cases as well as to the claims of the whole body. The third and last class is that of cultivators without any rights of occupancy. These latter are very often the sub-tenants of tenant-pro- prietors, and as such are variously known as shikini, kurfa, or koljdna Ryots. These terms are almost identical and are perfectly well understood. Of course this class is to be found on large and small estates holding directly under the Zamindar or Talukdar. For all practical purposes it would not be diffi- THE RYOT ^^ cult to assign to tenants in any part of the Lower Provinces a place in one or other of the above cate- gories. They hold either from 1793 or possibly before it, at an unchanged and unchangeable rate. Or they have a right of occupancy and cannot legally be evicted, though by a civil action their rates may be brought up to the scale prevalent in the Pargana in which they reside, or in the neighbouring villages. Or they are sub-tenants or tenants without rights of occupancy, and it may be conceded that in recent times their rents have been the subject of contract. Practically in the first half of this century their rates were settled by custom and mutual understanding. It is essential to lay stress on the occupancy right because doubts have been thrown on its existence, and attempts have been made in the interest of the Zamindars to prove that if ever in existence, it had perished or was so faint as not to merit legal recog- nition. But it is far more correct to say that if the right was not recognised by statute till long after the time of Cornwallis, it was an article of firm belief held by a large proportion of the peasantry. Pay- ment of rent is almost everywhere in India regarded as an obligation from which no cultivator can escape. A regular discharge of this obligation is often put for- ward as a mark of respectabilitj'. Failure or refusal to pay would stamp the recusant as a hadmdish or bad character. But then this admitted obligation was balanced, in the mind of a large number of cultivators, 56 LORD CORNWALLIS by the comforting reflection that there could be no capricious eviction of those who paid. In many districts of Bengal the occupancy Ryot has always played an important part in the spread of cultivation and the improvement of agriculture. He may be known by various denominations. He is the j'o^cZar or the Gdnthiddr or the Khud-Kdsht Rj^ot. This last term signifies a tenant whose homestead and holding are in one and the same village. In many instances his family has lived in the same place for generations. He has erected two, three, and four houses, neatly built of bamboos and wattles, well thatched, with a verandah on more than one side, and the whole raised on a firm foundation of well-beaten clay. The space between the houses ensures privacy. The courtyard and the dwellings are scrupulously clean. They are shaded by fine trees, and the garden adjoining the house is dense with foliage and heavy with fruit. Many of this class, if not rich, are independent and comfortable, and in spite of the antagonism between Zamlndar and Ryot, which has been the normal state of parts of the country for some two or three generations, many more of this useful class have maintained their position than is often supposed. It is the result of a community of interest on the part of the cultivat- ing castes, of a passionate attachment to the native village and the ancestral homestead, and of the popu- lar and well-founded belief that the Zamlndar had at THE RYOT 57 no period the power, and not often the will, to resort to evictions. And instances of abuse of power and of a disregard and defiance of law, police, and magistrates, for particular objects, are no proof of any deliberate intention to override what may be termed the common law of the country. Left to himself in many matters, the Ryot was his own master in all the processes of agriculture and cropping. No Zamindar ever dreamt of insisting on rotation of crops, consumption of straw on the spot, or any of those familiar conditions which tenants in other countries holding under contracts are compelled to accept. The tenant-proprietor and even the non- occupancy Ryot, erects his own dwelling-house, finds his own materials, puts up his slender fences, cuts the channel to conduct superfluous water from his own plot to his neighbour's, maintains the small embank- ments of earth that serve for communication over the plain as well as for boundaries of holdings, expends time and money on the higher and more remunerative species of produce, and in short makes the most of his land without advice, direction, or hindi'ance from the superior landlord. These are distinct and irrefragable proofs of a permanent interest in the land, and yet they are perfectly compatible with the existence of rights and privileges of others. It has been said in a previous part of the memob that the Ryot was ex- pected to notify to his superior any sale or transfer of his own interest. But that duty, though admitted in 58 LORD CORNWALLIS theory, was frequently disregarded in practice It is absolutely certain that the jot or janima of a Ryot had a market value of its own. It was often put up to public auction in satisfaction of a decree of court, and was bid for and bought by purchasers without the least reference to the Zamindar. And almost as often, holdings changed hands by private agreement. Sometimes a Eyot parted with his holding and was reinstated as a mere cultivator. Sometimes he con- veyed it to his own Zamindar, and sometimes again the Zamindar was in the habit of buying hold- ings situated within the estate of a neighbour and a rival, for purposes of intimidation, annoyance, and revenge. In other cases the Ryot's holdings have been purchased openly and fairly, and with a per- fectly lawful object, by the Zamindar himself. If the Zamindar had no spare land of a requisite class, and wished for a small plot on which to lay out a garden, build a temple, or excavate a tank, he was forced to bar- gain with his own Ryot to cede land for the purpose. He would not be supported by law, custom, or public opinion in forcibly demanding a cession of the Ryot's land without compensation or equivalent. In England any such requirement of the superior land- lord would easily be met, at the end of an annual or periodical lease, by the retention of a farm or any portion of a farm in the hands of the owner. But Cornwallis did not find, and he did not introduce, any system of periodical leases or of rents based on contract. THE RYOT 59 Some of the Ryot's rights and customs may at first sight appear conflicting and irreconcilable. But they are in reality quite capable of distinct identification and of severance. Zamindars, on the one hand, usually know per- fectly well how far they can assert their privileges, and when they will be resisted or upheld by the law ; and Ryots, on the other, though pressed for rents, harshly treated by agents, and compelled to supply additional funds for the necessities and the caprices of the landlord, have often successfully met violence by artifice, learnt in their turn the power of combination for safety, and held their ground till their position was defined, stereotyped by statute, and eventually upheld in the courts of law. CHAPTER lU Principles and Results Some additional remarks on the apparent conflict of landlords' and tenants' rights and duties wiU be found in the chapter giving a summary of the legislation rendered necessary as a corollary to the Perpetual Settlement. But a few more words may now be said as to the other effects of that measure on the condition of the country, and as to its fulfil- ment or non-fulfilment of the expectations of its author. The opinions of the press on the policy of the measure are not without their value. The editor of the Calcutta Gazette on the 21st of May, 1789, expressed his satisfaction at the announcement that, in September of that year, the revenue of the Behar province would be fixed in perpetuity. ' We venture to observe,' he said, ' that the main principles admit a positive right of property in the landholders in op- position to a system which has been maintained by some, that the Zamlndars and Talukdars are public officers only, and that the Sovereign is the real pro- prietor of the lands, which he leases out as landlord instead of levying a tax on them as ruler. The most THE PERPETUAL SETTLEMENT 6i important benefits may be expected from this decision. The proprietor, stimulated by self-interest, will improve his estate to the utmost of his ability, without appre- hension of losing the fruits of his improvements from an increase in his payments to Government; and without fear of dispossession from the management of another being more likely to augment the produce of his lands to the State.' About the same time the editor observed that a Settlement of the revenues of this country for a long term of years would produce greater advantages than those which had been in- ferred. ' By allowing a certain return to industry, free from any deduction for the public tax, it is prob- able that extensive plans of improvement would be undertaken, agriculture increase, and commerce flourish. The landlord, secure in the enjoyment of his profits, would be averse to rack-rent his under- tenants, and these in a country where cultivators, not employers, are sought for, would be interested in encouraging the peasantry. In short, a permanent system promises ease to the lower order of subjects, opulence to the middle and higher ranks, and a punctual realisation of the tax of Government.' The editor also stated that the Governor-General had come to the important resolution of taking into the immediate charge of Government the collection of the Ganj, Bazar, Hat, and other duties generally denominated Sayer, both in the estates paying revenue and in the Altamgha, Aima, Jagirs, 62 LORD CORNWALLIS and other Lakbiraj or rent-free tenures. It has teen ah'eady shown that though the above project was discussed and considered, the Ganjes, Bazars, and Hats were left as appendages to the Zamindaris. The Sayer or transit dues were, however, abolished. The editorial written after the Proclamation of the Perpetual Settlement for the three Provinces is, in its way, so remarkable that it has been thought proper to reproduce it in its entirety. It will be recollected that the Indian press was then in its infancy, and that newspapers were not free to discuss every political event. The remarks on a novel and im- portant measure, as it appeared to a writer who, though he cannot be pronounced altogether indepen- dent, had yet undertaken to acquaint the community with the views and intentions of Government, will not be without their interest. They are somewhat analogous to the first criticisms on the appearance of a great historical work or a poem destined to become famous. The editorial of the 9th of May, 1793, is as follows : — ' We have great pleasure in announcing to the public an event which immediately concerns the native landholders, and is certainly an object of the greatest political importance to the welfare of these provinces. The circumstance we mention is a proclamation issued by the Governor-General in Council, declaring that the Jamma which has been assessed on the lands of the different description of proprietors in Bengal, Behar and Orissa, under the Regulations for the THE PERPETUAL SETTLEMENT 6'>, Decennial Settlement of the public revenue, is from henceforth fixed for ever. ' To enter into a detail of the advantages that will, in all probability, be derived from the various articles of this proclamation, by confirming the claims of all ranks of pro- prietors, and abolishing many inferior duties, would lead into a very wide field, which we could but imperfectly explore ; but the great purpose of it, the permanent settle- ment of the land-tax, we consider as involving so much political truth with practical benefit, that we cannot pass it over without endeavouring to illustrate what it is impossible not to admire. ' It has frequently been a subject of controversy among philosophers and financiers, whether the taxation of land should be fixed according to a certain valuation, not aftei"- wards to be altered, or foi'med on a scale which varies with each variation of the real rent of the land, and rises or falls ^\'ith the improvement or declension of its cultivation. Government has, on the present occasion, adoj^ted the former system; and we think, however specious the latter may appear, it is founded on a mistaken principle, as it in argu- ment supposes that considerable improvements will arise, while in fact it at the same moment throws the strongest check upon every species of improvement and industry ; namely, that the Government, which bears no part in the expense, shall bear away a share of the profits of im^irove- ment. ' Under the former system of land-tax, the revenue is rendered certain to the Government as well as to the Individual, and nothing is left to the arbitrary disposal of the one, or the evasion and dishonesty of the other; at the same time the strongest inducement is held out to the pi'o- prietor to improve the value of his estate, for as that is 64 LORD CORNWALLIS improved, not only his general comfort and wealth are increasing, but the very tax itself is rendered more light by bearing a smaller proportion to the increased value and produce. Nor is Government excluded from sharing in these advantages, though in a less immediate way, for the im- mediate consequence of an increase of produce is an increase of the population of the country, whose industry returns again to the fields, or overflows into the manufactories which work upon their productions. 'Such are the effects which must result from the humane and wise principles announced by this proclamation, which opens a new era in the history of our Government in the East, and must be considered by the natives as the greatest blessing conferred on them for many ages. ' During the period of the Muhammadan Government, the assessment on land was subject to numerous and arbitrary impositions ; that assessment, since the English have been in possession of these Provinces, has been variously levied and frequently augmented ; the evil effects of this desultory system were severely felt ; they will now have been com- pletely remedied; the Decennial Settlement placed the revenue on the equitable footing of a fixed unalterable assessment provisionally, until the Court of Directors should give their approbation to it. That Settlement is now confirmed for ever. 'With regard to the amount oi 'Co.q jamma, its moderation is sufiiciently proved by the complete pajTnent of the revenue last year to Government, except in two Zaminddris, not only without a balance, but with the additional collection of former suspensions. 'By these measures a permanent revenue is secured to Government, property to individuals, and a prospect of wealth and happiness is opened to the natives co-extensive PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 65 with the industry and capital they shall think fit to employ in the cultivation and improvement of their lands.' It will be seen from the above that the editor shared in the delusion that the proprietors would themselves expend capital in improving their estates. His anticipations of industrial enterprise and manu- factories were certainly a little premature. But no exception can be taken to the remark that the Proclamation was the commencement of a new era, and that it was in striking contrast to the system adopted by Muhammadan Viceroys, and to a certain extent by the Anglo-Indian Government for more than twenty years. As Cornwallis had anticipated, an immediate impulse was given to cultivation. Invasions of Maghs from Arakan, common in the sixteenth century, and the Maratha raids of the earlier part of the eighteenth century, had come to an end. The agriculturists of Bengal had thus been secured against robbery from without before the time of Cornwallis. They were now in a position to increase and multiply, to found villages in spots tenanted only by the wild boar, the deer, and the tiger, and they had only to contend with the exaction and rapacity of their own countrymen. There was also the semblance and outward show of executive au- thority, and the people began dimly to discern that their lives and properties were no longer held under the good- will and caprice of irresponsible despots. E 66 LORD CORNWALLIS At any rate it is quite certain that, aided by natural agencies, the agriculturists soon began to lessen the area of uncultivated and forest land and to make inroads on the swamps. The copious rainfall, and the overflow of many of the network of rivers which find their way into the Bay of Bengal, have had the effect of gradually raising the level of the soil, silting up the marsh, and replacing the fish-weir and the net of the fowler by the plough. The author of this memoir himself had the advantage of hearing from the mouth of a civil servant^ who began his career in 1793 and ended it in 1845, after more than fifty years of continuous service on the Bengal establish- ment, the opinion which was held by some very competent judges of the paramount necessity of a permanent assessment at the time of the famous Proclamation. It was, he said, such as to leave the Governor-General hardly any option at all. There was difiiculty in some districts in getting well-qualified persons to engage for the realisation of the public revenue. There was even greater difficulty in keeping them to their engagements. Whole districts, easily reclaim- able, were covered with grass jungle and reeds. In others, the primeval forest of Sal and other timber trees had scarcely been touched by the axe. On many of the public roads, or rather on the wretched ^ The late Mr. James Pattle, senior member of the Board of Eevenue for many years, to his death in September, 1845. PRINCIPLES AND RESULTS 67 tracks of communication impassable for wheeled carriages for at least five months in the year, the runners who conveyed the post were constantly carried off by tigers. There was plausibility in the argument that without a guarantee against any increase to the land-tax, the Zamindari system, if not doomed to failure, would never be a success. But it is admitted that the judgment of posterity has endorsed the wiser opinion of Shore. Many of the advantages of a Perpetual Settlement might have been equally attainable by a Settlement for a long term of years. It is only fair, in judging Cornwallis, to take into consideration the stubborn difficulties which he had to face. Many of the subsidiary measures, executive and legislative, necessary for the complete success of the measure, were not immediately carried out. Some indeed were unaccountably and unwarrantably de- layed. A summary of them will be given in the chapter descriptive of subsequent legislation. They included the resumption of invalid rent-free tenures : the creation of facilities for the recovery of rent by sum- mary process ; and the protection of the rights of tenant- proprietors and others, in 1859 and again in 1884. But in one aspect, the Settlement has not received its full meed of praise. Here, for the fii'st time in Oriental history, was seen the spectacle of a foreign ruler binding himself and his successors to abstain from periodical revisions of the land-tax ; almost E 2 68 LORD CORNWALLIS creating a new race of landlords ; giving to property another title than the sword of its owner or the favour of a Viceroy ; and content to leave to the Zamlndars the whole profit resulting from increased population and undisturbed peace. At this distance of time it is not very easy to estimate the exact effect of such abnegation on the minds of the great Zamlndars of Bengal and Behar as well as on the Chiefs and Princes of neighbouring States. It is sometimes said that a policy of this kind is ascribed by natives to weakness and fear. Whatever may be the case in other instances, and however necessary it may be to rule Orientals by fii-mness and strict justice quite as much as by con- ciliation, it can hardly be said that the moderation of Cornwallis was considered as a sign of impotence. It must have been felt all over the Province as a relief, if not a blessing. And though several of the solid fruits of the Settlement in perpetuity might have been equally attained by a Settlement for a long period, it may be argued that periodical assessments might in Bengal have been productive of other evils. Bengal is, more than any other Province in India, the scene of that evasion and subterfuge which are the prover- bial resources of the weak. In other Provinces, as the period for revision draws nigh, a certain amount of distrust and disquietude arises in the minds of the population. Wealth is concealed ; lands are purposely thrown out of cultivation ; and many unfair means are resorted to in order to avoid an increase of rental. GOOD RESULTS IN THE MUTINY 6g There can be no doubt that all these disturbing agencies would have been set actively at work in Bengal. It is not, moreover, easy to over-estimate the advantage of a wealthy and privileged class, who have everything to lose and nothing to gain by revolution. This was clearly seen and acknowledged at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny. There were few large military cantonments in the Lower Provinces in that eventful year. The elements of a great Sepoy revolt, with its inevitable accompaniments of arson, plunder, and an- archy, were not abundant as they were in the Upper Provinces. Even when isolated detachments of Sepoys mutinied as they did at Dacca, Chittagong, and in Birbhum, they met with no countenance from the Za- mindars. The Sepoys were disciplined and trained to fight. They had arms of precision in the midst of an unwarlike population, the bravest of whom could do little more than use a matchlock to kill a wild beast, and a spear to transfix an adversary in a village fight. But after the first outbreak at the Station, where they were resolutely met by a mere handful of Englishmen, the Sepoys took to the villages and the jungles, and then they literally melted away before the impassive demeanour, the want of sympathy, and the silent loyalty of the Zamindars. In other Provinces the system of village communities afibrded no bulwark against the tide of anarchy. That system was in many respects admirable and suited to the community. It had been justly renowned as a field for the 70 LORD CORNWALLIS exhibition of the highest kind of administrative talent. Men of large experience, broad views, and active sympa- thies, had fashioned or had rescued from slow decay, that most wonderful and diversified piece of mosaic known as the pattiddri tenure. They had almost defied the teachings of poHtical economy and had well- nigh arrested the play of social forces by rooting old and hereditary cultivators to the soil. Yet with the outbreak of the Sepoys and the temporary eclipse of British authority, these fabrics, the result of so much experience and philanthropy, collapsed of themselves or were broken up. In Bengal public tranquillity was hardly ruffled. The rebellion of Koer Sing in Behar was a solitary exception. In times of famine and scarcity the co-operation of wealthy Zamindars has been invoked by the Govern- ment, and in many instances ungrudgingly afibrded. Here and there, no doubt,- there were cases where Zamindars were niggardly and selfish. But several experts hold still to the opinion that scarcity is met, relief works are set on foot, and supplies are trans- ported with greater facility, where there are large Zamindarls, than in Provinces where the Settlement has been made with the heads of village communities, or with each Ryot direct as in Madras. The Tirhiit famine of 1873-4 is certainly an instance in point. And in a country where social distinctions and in- equalities still retain their attractions for the masses, the maintenance of some large Zamindarls is quite SHORE'S VIEWS 7 1 in accordance with native feeling, and it has political advantages which compensate or at any rate balance its defects. But, to sum up, it can hardly now be an open question whether Shore's plea for delay would have involved any sacrifice. The Zamindars, with security of tenure and with privileges converted into rights, would have been willing to accept a Settlement for a long term of years. The changes in the constitution, duties, and remuneration of the Civil Service, about to be described, would have enabled the Indian Govern- ment to train vip a race of officials who had a deeper knowledere of aijricultural customs and a more com- plete mastery of administrative principles and details. At any and every periodical revision of the Zamin- dari system, abuses must have been tested by in- creased official knowledge, and remedies would have been applied at an earlier date. This revision would have probably outweighed any disadvantage arising out of the excitement inseparable from a break in :he revenue system. As it has turned out, action for the benefit of tenants and under-tenants has been forced on the Government by the periodical represen- tations of district officers, by the recurrence of formid- able combinations on the part of the agriculturists, and by outrages for which magistrates and judges who sat in judgment on their perpetrators were often compelled to remark that there were divers excuses to be made. Yet it must be remembered that the Settlement 72 LORD CORNWALLIS of the Lower Provinces a century ago was not due to the cries of a down-trodden community and to a long discussion by well-informed writers in a free and independent press. It was what seemed to some men at the time the only way out of a series of difficulties. Taken in its purely commercial and financial aspect, it resulted in a considerable aban- donment of future revenue. As an administrative measure, it obviously required much more of statutory declaration and vigorous executive management to render it complete. But looking at it solely from the poHtical point of view, it was the means of allaying apprehensions and removing doubts, while it proved a strong incentive to good behaviour, and to something beyond passive loyalty in seditious and troublous times. Some of the fundamental principles of the system were practical and sound. The change from the mere collecting native agent, with his status that might or might not become hereditary ; the recogni- tion, as a matter of right, of Rajas, chieftains, and other superior landlords ; the grave and measured language of a Proclamation putting an end to brief and temporary contrivances for the realisation of the dues of the State ; the incentives to prudent manage- ment afforded by the prospect of additional rental; and the sense of security, the limited ownership, and power of transmission and disposal, were, in theory, excellent. zamIndar, ryot, and government 73 Lord Cornwallis had only the experience and the legacies of failure to guide him. Pressed for ways and means, and anxious for reform in more de- partments than one, he committed himself to a policy which, in regard to the three interested parties — the Zamindar, the Ryot, and the Ruling Power — assured the welfare of the first, somewhat postponed the claims of the second, and sacrificed the increment of the third. CHAPTER IV Repoem of the Civil Service It is almost impossible, in this attempt to describe Cornwallis as an Indian ruler, to do more than give occasional extracts from his voluminous correspon- dence and to state a summary of his political views. But now and then a private and confidential letter throws such a light on the perplexities which tried his constancy and statesmanship, and illustrates pro- blems only solved after painful experience, that it is expedient to quote from it at length. Of this kind is a private and confidential letter to Dundas, dated April 4th, 1790. That minister had sent him a list of questions relating to the East India Company as a commercial and a political institution ; to the right of patronage to civil appointments in India ; to the export trade of the Dependency ; to the relation which English forces should bear to the Sepoys ; and to other matters. Changes in administration have left to some of the views of the Governor-General only their historical interest. On other points, his opinions might have weight with administrators of our own time ; and his reply to Dundas is a fitting prelude to LETTER TO DUNDAS 75 a summary of those internal and executive reforms which were to occupy so much of his time and atten- tion, and to leave behind them such good and lasting effects. ' I must acknowledge that I am happy to hear that the principles of that plan were still under delibera- tion, and that it was only upon the supposition that the commercial branch might be left to the Company, and the other departments taken into the hands of Government, that you had stated these queries. Many weighty objections occur to the separation that you pro- pose, for it is almost beyond a doubt with me that no solid advantages would be derived from placing the civil and revenue departments under the immediate du-ec- tion of the King's Government ; and I am perfectly convinced that if the fostering aid and protection and, what is full as important, the check and control of the governments abroad, are withdrawn from the com- mercial departments, the Company would not long enjoy their new charter, but must very soon be re- duced to a state of actual bankruptcy. ' I am not surprised that, after the increased and vexatious contradictions which you have experienced from the Court of Directors, you should be desirous of taking as much of the business as possible entirely out of their hands ; but 1 know that great changes are hazardous in all popular governments, and as the paltry patronage of sending out a few writers is of no value to such an administration as Mr. Pitt's, I 76 LORD CORNWALLIS should recommend it to your serious consideration whether it would not be wiser, when you shall no longer have to contend with chartered rights, to tie their hands from doing material mischief, with- out meddling with their Imperial dignity or their power of naming writers, and not to encounter the furious clamour that will be raised against annex- ing the patronage of India to the influence of the Crown, except in cases of the most absolute neces- sity. ' That a Court of Directors formed of such materials as the present can never, when left to themselves, conduct any branch of the business of this country properly, I will readily admit ; but under certain re- strictions and when better constituted, it might prove an useful check on the ambitious or corrupt designs of some future minister. In order, however, to enable such Directors to do this negative good, or to prevent them doing much positive evil, they should have a circumscribed management of the whole, and not a permission to ruin uncontrolled the commercial ad- vantages which Britain should derive from her Asiatic territories. 'It will, of course, have been represented to you that the India Company formerly was supported by its commerce alone, and that it was then richer than it is at present, and that when their Directors have no longer any business with governing empires, they may again become as thrifty merchants as heretofore. LETTER TO DUNDAS 'n I am persuaded, however, that experience would give a contradiction to that theory, for if they should not have lost their commercial talents by having been Emperors, this country is totally changed by being under their dominion. There are now so many Europeans residing in India, and there is such a com- petition at every wharf of any consequence, that in my opinion even an upright Board of Trade sitting at Calcutta could not make advantageous contracts or prevent the manufactures from being debased ; and therefore, that unless the Company have able and active Residents at the different factories, and unless those Residents are prevented by the power of Govern- ment from cheating them as they formerly did, London would no longer be the principal mart for the choicest commodities of India. ' If the proposed separation was to take place, not a man of credit or character would stay in the Com- pany's service, if he could avoid it ; and those who did remain, or others who might be hereafter ap- pointed, would be Boon looked upon as an inferior class of people to the servants acting under appoint- ments from His Majesty. The contempt with which they would be treated would not pass unobserved by the natives, and would preclude the possibility of their being of essential use, even if they were not de- ficient in character or commercial abilities, and upon the supposition that the Company could afford to pay them liberally for their services. When you add to 78 LORD CORNWALLIS the evils which I have described, and which no man acquainted with this country will think fictitious, the jobbing that must prevail at the India House in a department which is in a manner given up to plunder, you will not, I am sure, think that I have gone too far in prophesying the bankruptcy of the Company. ' In answer to this statement of the impossibility of the Company's carrying on the trade when all the other parts of the administration of the country are taken into the hands of Government, it may be said by people who have reflected but little on the subject, " If the Company cannot carry on the trade, throw it open to all adventurers." To that mode I should have still greater objection, as it would be very diffi- cult for Government to prevent this unfortunate country from being overrun by desperate specu- lators from all parts of the British dominions. The manufacturers would soon go to ruin, and the exports — which would annually diminish in value — would be sent indiscriminately to the difierent countries of Europe. ' As the new system will only take place when the rights of the present Company cease, you cannot be charged with a violation of charters, and the attacks of the Opposition in Parliament will therefore be confined to an examination of its expediency and efficacy. I fancy I need hardly repeat to you that they would above all things avail themselves of any LETTER TO DUNDAS 79 apparent attempts on your part to give an increase of patronage to the Crown, which could not be justified on the soundest constitutional principles, or on the ground of evident necessity ; and could make use of it to misrepresent your intentions and principles, and to endeavour to influence the minds of the natives against you. ' An addition of patronage to the Crown, to a cer- tain degree, will, however, in my opinion, be not only a justifiable measure, but absolutely necessary for the future good government of this country. ' But, according to my judgment, a renewal of the Company's Charter for the management of the terri- torial revenues and the commerce of India for a limited time (for instance, ten or fifteen years), and under such stipulations as it may be thought proper to annex as conditions, would be the wisest founda- tion for your plan, both for your own sakes as Ministers, and as being best calculated for securing the greatest possible advantages to Britain from her Indian possessions, and least likely to injure the essential principles of our own Constitution. * The present Court of Directors is so numerous, and the responsibility for public conduct which falls to the share of each individual is so small, that it can have no great weight with any of them ; and the par- ticipation in a profitable contract, or the means of serving friends or providing for relations, must always more than compensate to them for the loss that they 8o LORD CORNWALLIS may sustain by any fluctuation that may happen in the market price of the stock which constitutes their qualifications. I should therefore think that it would be very useful to the public to reduce the number of directors to twelve or to nine ; and if handsome salaries could be annexed to those situations, I should be clear for adopting means for their being prohibited from having an interest directly or indirectly in con- tracts, or in any commercial transactions whatever, in which the Company may have the smallest con- cern. ' At the same time, however, if one or both of these points should be carried, I would not by any means recommend that they should retain the power of ap- pointing Governors, Commanders-in-Chief, or Mem- bers of Council at any of the Presidencies ; the honour and interest of the nation, the fate of our fleets and armies, being too deeply staked on the conduct of the persons holding the above-mentioned ofiices, to render it safe to trust their nominations in any other hands but those of the Executive Government of Britain. But as this measure, though not in fact deviating very widely from the existing arrangement by which the King has the power of recalling those officers, would at first appear a strong one, and would be vehemently opposed, I would give it every quali- fication that the welfare and security of the country would admit of. I would establish it by law, that the choice of the civil Members of Council should be LETTER TO DUN DAS 8l limited to Company's servants of a certain standing (at least twelve years), which would in the mind of every candid person leave very little room in respect to them for ministerial patronage, and it should be left to the Court of Dii-ectors to frame such general Regulations for the appointment to offices in India as should be consistent with the selection of capable men, and to establish the strictest system that they can devise of check and control upon every article of expenditure at the different Presidencies. ' I would likewise recommend that it should be clearly understood and declared that the Court of Directors should have a right to expect that His Majesty's Ministers should pay the greatest attention to all their representations respecting the conduct of the Governors, Commander-in-Chief, and Councillors ; and that in case satisfactory redress should not be given to any of their complaints of that nature, that they should have a right to insist upon the recall of any Governor, Commander-in-Chief, or Councillors, whom they should name, and that the utmost facility should be given to them to institute prosecutions against such Governors, &c., whose conduct may appear to them to have been culpable, before the Court of Judicature which has been established by Act of Parliament for the trial of Indian delinquents. ' In regard to the military arrangements, I am clearly of opinion that the European troops should all belong to the King, for experience has shown that F 8a LORD CORNWALLIS the Company cannot keep up an efficient European force in India ; this is a fact so notorious that no military man who has been in this country will venture to deny it, and I do not care how strongly I am quoted as authority for it. ' The circumstances, however, of the native troops are very different. It is highly expedient and indeed absolutely necessary for the public good, that the officers who are destined to serve in these corps should come out at an early period of life and devote themselves entirely to the Indian service ; a perfect knowledge of the language, and a minute attention to the customs and religious prejudices of the Sepoys, being qualifications for that line which cannot be dispensed with. Were these officers to make a part of the King's army, it would soon become a practice to exchange their commissions with ruined officers from England, who would be held in contempt by their inferior officers and in abhorrence by their soldiers, and you need not be told how dangerous a disaffection in our native troops would be to our existence in this country. I think, therefore, that as you cannot make laws to bind the King's prerogative in the exchange or promotions of his army, it would be much the safest determination to continue the native troops in the Company's service, and by doing so you would still leave to the Court of Directors the patronage of cadets, and of course give some popu- larity to the measure. LETTER TO DUN DAS 83 * The alternate line to be drawn would give to the Court of Directors the appointment of writers to the civil branches of the service and of cadets for the native troops, and the power of prescribing certain general rules under the description I have mentioned for the disposal of offices by the Government in India, and of calling the Governors, &c., to an immediate account for every deviation from these rules ; but they ought to be strictly prohibited from appointing or recommending any of their servants to succeed to offices in this country, as such appointments or re- commendations are more frequently granted to intrigue and solicitation, than to a due regard to real merit or good pretensions, and such interference at home must always tend in some degree to weaken the authority of the Government in India. 'Upon the supposition of the Charters being re- newed, it appears to me highly requisite for the public good that the right of inspection and control in the King's Ministers should be extended to every branch of the Company's affairs, without any excep- tion as to their commerce : and as altercations between the controlling power and the Board of Directors must always be detrimental to the public interest, whether occasioned by improper encroachments on one side or an obstinate or capricious resistance on the other, it seems particularly desirable that not only the extent, but also the manner in which the Ministers are to exercise the right of inspection and control F 2 84 LORD CORNWALLIS should be prescribed so clearly as to prevent, if pos- sible, all grounds for misapprehension or dispute.' The establishment of a revenue system, which if not entirely new, presented one or more novel features of paramount importance, was not calculated to ensure either the prosperity of the country or the content- ment of the people, unless measures were taken to reform the Civil Service and to appoint as Collectors of districts men who could be relied on as proof against corruption. When Cornwallis landed in India, the whole service was more or less in a transition state. It was still occupied with commercial enter- prise, and yet its members were called on to discharge administrative functions and to fill executive posts. They were often remunerated by gratuities and com- mission, and the acceptance by them of large gratui- ties and of perquisites was common. It was the sur- vival of an even worse state of things when men in the high position of Members of Council had not scrupled to accept lacks of rupees for giving a preference to one Nawab or pretender over another. There had been flagrant instances of corruption at Lucknow, Benares, and Madras, and it must be admitted that the Court of Directors had seen and almost approved a system under which their servants, placed in positions of high trust and of manifold temptations, di'ew small salaries and were allowed to make up for this de- ficiency by large extra lump sums. Even when the Governor-General represented in strong language the THE COLLECTOR OF REVENUE 85 necessity for some reform, the Directors were still of opinion that Collectors should be paid partly by com- mission and partly by fixed salaries, but that the larger part of their remuneration should be the commission. The Resident at Benares, who really wielded almost absolute power in that Province without check or control, drew only 1000 rupees a month, but from monopolies in commercial and other ventures, re- ceived besides four lacks every year. In other places, Collectors engaged in commercial speculation under cover of the name of some relative or friend, and it may be said roundly, that while no Collector drew above 1 200 rupees a month, his irregular and additional gains amounted to far more. Cornwallis saw almost at once that the only mode of preventing abuses, maintaining discipline, and creating a sense of honour and responsibility, was to give liberal salaries and to confine the recipients to their proper work. Trading was henceforth forbidden ; and if commission was still allowed, it was calculated at so much per cent, on the net collections. Even this regulated mode of payment, though perfectly fair and equitable at the time of its introduction, was eventually abolished. There were other anomalies in the constitution and character of the service which could not escape notice. The criminal administration had been left in the hands of the Nawab Nazim and his native subordinates, as will be explained in dealing with the new arrangements for civil and criminal justice. The 86 LORD CORNWALLIS Collectors from the time of Warren Hastings, besides being responsible for the revenue, were vested with certain judicial powers in civil cases. Comwallis goes so far as to state that the Civil Courts of justice throughout the whole of the Company's Provinces had been for many years in the hands of the Com- pany's servants. The Collector, in addition to his revenue duties, held in this capacity what was termed a Mai Adalat, or court in which he decided all cases regarding the rights of the landholders and culti- vators, and all claims arising between them and their servants. It was resolved to abolish these Mai Adalats, in which the civil servant was Judge as well as Collector, and to transfer all judicial powers and the decision of all rights and all civil suits to regular judicial tribunals. It may here be mentioned by anticipation that six years after the departure of Cornwallis, Collectors were again vested with power to settle, in a summary enquiry, all claims for the rent of the current year due from ryots to Zamindars. But with this exception the Collector, after i793) was confined to his proper functions, which were quite sufiicient to occupy his attention and to increase his store of official knowledge. The districts over which such Collectors presided were enormous in extent. The district of Jessor touched the Twenty-four Par- ganas on one side and the lUjshahi District across the Ganges on the other; and it was not for thirty or forty years afterwards that the size of these and THE COLLECTOR 87 other zillahs were curtailed by the formation of smaller independent districts, such as Barasat, Bogra, Pabna, and others. The Collector, to sum up, was placed by Cornwallis in a definite, important, well-salaried post. He was responsible for the land revenue of a vast tract, which in amount varied from ten to twenty lacks of rupees. He looked after the estates of minors, and of landowners incapacitated by lunacy or other causes. He was the Superintendent of all estates held Wids, as it is termed, on those in which, the Government had acquired the Zamindari or landholder's, as well as the sovereign right. He was paymaster of pensioners and allowances for compensation. He was the re- cognised authority for the division of estates between irreconcilable shareholders. He alone could appor- tion the liability for revenue of each share. He col- lected the tax on spirituous liquors. He was to put up the estates of defaulting proprietors to public sale. He was formally placed under the Board of Revenue, with which he was regularly to correspond. The popular idea of a Collector in England is or was an individual with a note-book and certain forms and schedules and demands, calling at inconvenient times for the Queen's taxes or the parish rates, and viewed with aversion and dislike by householders. From the time of Cornwallis the Anglo-Indian col- lector became a Court of Wards, as well as a Court of Exchequer, and on his moderation, good faith, skill. 88 LORD CORNWALLIS and management, there depended the welfare of in- habitants who even in those epochs of forest waste and jungle, not seldom amounted to a half or one million of souls in a single district : together with the realisation of the State dues. The Perpetual Settlement and the relegation of the Collectors to their proper and essential duties was now accomplished. But a great deal remained to be done before the Civil Service could be said to have entered on the entire executive and judicial administration of Bengal and Behar. The machinery for the detection and punishment of crime had been left, as already remarked, in the hands of the Nawab Nazim, who might be termed the titular sovereign of the country. The consequences were ruinous to property and life. The Faujdar of Hugli, a metropolitan district, re- ceived ten thousand pounds or a lack of rupees a year, and dakditi, or gang robbery with violence, was rife in the very neighbourhood of Calcutta, on the confines of the Maratha Ditch, and indeed all over the Lower Provinces. Criminal trials were conducted by native Judges. It is true that there was already a Court of Appeal known as the Sadr Diwani and Nizd,mat Adalat, and that the English Collector of revenue was sup- posed to overlook the proceedings of the native magistrates in the districts; to see that witnesses were duly examined ; and that the proceedings were conducted with some fairness and impartiality. But THE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL COURTS 89 the preamble to several of the Regulations or Laws of 1793, shows that there must have been much confu- sion, diversity of practice, and uncertainty of jurisdic- tion in the civil and criminal courts. Indeed, the language of the preamble of one of these laws is so significant and illustrative of the incompetence of the native officers, and of the inability of the English Collector to interfere to any good purpose, that it must be here quoted in extenso. In Reg. IX of 1793 ^^®^ Governor- General sums up the case for a complete change in the following terms : — ' I. Pursuant to the Eegulations passed by the President and Council on 21st August, 1772, Criminal Courts, denomi- nated Faujdarl Addlats, were established in the interior parts of the Provinces for the trial of persons charged with crimes or misdemeanors : and the Collectors of the revenue, who were covenanted servants of the Company, were directed to superintend the proceedings of the officers of those Courts, and on trials to see that the necessary witnesses were sum- moned and examined, that due weight was allowed to their testimony, and that the decisions passed were fair and im- partial. By the same Regulations, a separate and superior Criminal Court was established at Murshidabdd, under the denomination of the Nizdmat Adalat, for revising the proceedings of the Provincial Criminal Courts in capital cases, and the Committee of Eevenue at Murshidabad was vested with a control over this court, similar to that which the Collectors of the revenue were empowered to exercise over the Provincial Courts. Upon the abolition of the Committee of Revenue at Murshidabad, the Nizdmat Adalat was removed to Calcutta, and placed under the charge 90 LORD CORNWALLIS of a Ddrogha or superintendent, subject to the control of the President of the Council, who revised the sentences of the Criminal Courts in capital cases. The above arrange- ments continued in force, without any considerable alteration, until 1 8th October, 1775, when the entire control over the department of criminal justice was committed to the N4ib Nazim. The Nizdmat Addlat was in consequence re-estab- lished at Murshid^bdd, and the Ndib NAzira appointed native officers, denominated Faujddrs, assisted by persona versed in the Muhammadan law, to superintend the Criminal Courts in the several districts, and to apprehend and bring to trial oflfenders against the public peace. This system was adhered to, without any material variation, until 6th April, 1781, when the institution of Faujddrs not having answered the intended purposes, the general establishment both of Faujddrs, and the Thdn^ddrs or police officers acting under them, were abolished. Faujddri Courts, however, were continued in the several divisions, subject as before to the control of the Ndib Ndzim or superintendent of the Nizdmat Adi'.C'i^H-;/v/f'a iilF y>0 liiiii ill ■^^m