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'OLITICAL & FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS 
 OF BRITISH INDIA, 
 
 AS SET FORTH IN A PETITION OF THE BRITISH 
 
 INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF CALCUTTA TO 
 
 BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, 
 
 JOHN 1 DACOSTA 
 
 ^"0 it bo it : 
 
 W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. 
 
 , 1880. 
 PRICE ONE SHILLING. 
 
POLITICAL SL FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS 
 OF BRITISH INDIA, 
 
 AS SET FORTH IN A PETITION OF THE BRITISH 
 
 INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF CALCUTTA TO 
 
 BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN DACOSTA. 
 
 W. H. ALLEN & CO., 18, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. 
 
 1880. 
 PRJOE ONE SHILLING, 
 
3/6' 
 
16, Hanson Place, 
 London, 5th August, 1880. 
 
 Str, 
 
 The numerous petitions which have been 
 received from India during the last two years, praying for 
 inquiry into the administration, or for relief or reform, 
 cannot fail to awaken serious concern, when they are 
 viewed in conjunction with the increased taxation simul- 
 taneously imposed in that country, and ivith the growing 
 discontent among its people, of which we have so frequently 
 heard of late. 
 
 Under these circumstances I have ventured, in the 
 accompanying paper, to draw attention to the latest petition 
 which has arrived from India, addressed to the two 
 Houses of Parliament. While the Prayer of the Memorial 
 and the suggestions contained in it are marked by a 
 rare degree of moderation, it ivould scarcely be possible to 
 exaggerate the importance of the questions raised in it, or 
 the critical condition of things which has led the petitioners 
 to seek relief at the hands of Parliament. 
 
 My endeavour, in the accompanying pages, has been 
 
 M43588 
 
to present the principal features of the petition in a concise 
 form, and to offer such explanations on the subjects 
 reviewed in it, as seemed to me likely to assist in the 
 formation of a correct judgment regarding them. I shall 
 esteem myself amply rewarded for the pains I have taken 
 if what I have stated can induce you to give due considera- 
 tion to the memorial from India, and to use your influence 
 in urging Parliament, after a full discussion of the 
 important matters submitted in that document, to deal with 
 them as may then appear just and expedient. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Sir, 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 J. Dacosta. 
 
 To 
 
POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL EEQUIREMENTS 
 OF BRITISH INDIA, iv- 
 
 THE Petition of the British Indian Association of 
 Calcutta states that, in the time of the East India 
 Company, the periodical renewal of the Company's 
 Charter afforded opportunities for inquiring into 
 the condition of the people and the effects of the 
 measures and laws which had, from time to time, 
 been carried out and enacted ; that the evidence 
 thus collected by the Parliamentary Committees 
 of 1813, 1833, and 1853 offered valuable sugges- 
 tions and resulted in improved administration ; 
 that no comprehensive inquiry has been held since 
 1858, when the Government of India was trans- 
 ferred to the Crown ; that important changes have 
 meanwhile been introduced for the better adminis- 
 tration of the country and the good of the people, 
 which have in many instances been attended with 
 contrary results ; and that the tendencies and 
 effects of the recent policy of administration 
 pursued in India have, by constant changes in 
 law and interference with vested rights and 
 interests, unsettled the minds of the people and 
 evoked dissatisfaction and discontent throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land. 
 
 The Petition prays, therefore, for the appoint- 
 
ment of a Commission to inquire into the general 
 condition of the country, and suggests certain 
 measures of reform which may be summed up 
 under the following heads : 
 
 .1; The non- official members of the Legislative 
 . !.'..", Councils to be elected by the people, 
 id the deliberations of the Councils to 
 be extended to financial matters. 
 
 II. The expenses of the Afghan war to be 
 
 borne hy England and India in fair 
 proportions. 
 
 III. The establishment of improved inter- 
 
 mediate Courts of Appeal, and a revision 
 of the new Criminal Procedure Code. 
 
 IV. The removal of the obstacles which prevent 
 
 natives from entering the Civil Service 
 on the terms of the Charter of 1833 and 
 the Queen's Proclamation of 1858. 
 
 V. The repeal of the Vernacular Press and the 
 
 Arms Acts. 
 
 VI. Permanent fixity of the land tax in those 
 
 provinces where such fixity does not at 
 present exist. 
 
 I. Non-official Members of the Legislative Councils. 
 
 Under the Councils' Act of 1861 (24 and 25 
 Viet. cap. 67) non-official members have been 
 admitted in the Legislative Councils for nearly 
 twenty years ; but the experiment has not been 
 attended with the desired success, owing partly to 
 
rulers of native principalities and their ministers 
 having been appointed members, although they 
 were not affected by the laws enacted by the 
 Council in which they sat, and had therefore no 
 direct interest in its deliberations ; and partly to 
 the ambiguous position of the other non-official 
 members who, while they were supposed to 
 represent the people, could scarcely help, as 
 Government nominees, feeling, in some measure, 
 bound to support the Government from whom 
 they had received their appointment. Moreover 
 the non-official members are not answerable to 
 any constituency, and the insignificant minority in 
 which they stand, offers no encouragement to 
 persist in expressions of opinion distasteful to the 
 Government, and destined, by the very constitution 
 of the Council, to be without practical effect. 
 
 When Parliament directed that non-official 
 members should take part in the deliberations of 
 the Legislative Councils, it could have had no 
 other intention than that of enabling those 
 Councils to ascertain, through such members, the 
 feelings and opinions of the people with regard to 
 the measures which were under consideration. 
 This intention was necessarily frustrated when 
 persons were appointed who, as in the case of 
 independent princes and their ministers, did not 
 reside among, or have community of interest with 
 the people who were affected by the decisions of 
 the Councils; and the Petitioners submit that 
 members chosen by the people would best be able 
 
6 
 
 to represent popular views and feelings in the 
 Councils in question. 
 
 Twenty years ago, when the Councils' Act was 
 framed, it was believed by many that popular 
 election would not answer in India. Whatever 
 grounds may then have existed for such belief, 
 the municipalities in the Presidency towns, the 
 working of which has been favourably reported on 
 by the Local Governments, and which are composed 
 largely of members elected by the ratepayers, has 
 shown that the system of popular election is 
 understood in the large towns in India, and could 
 be successfully carried out at the present day. To 
 substitute, therefore, in the Indian Councils' Act 
 popular election for appointment with regard to the 
 non-official members of the Legislative Councils, 
 would effectually be to carry out the intention of 
 the Parliament by which that Act was passed ; 
 and for this purpose the Petitioners suggest, as a 
 tentative measure, that the election of the non- 
 official members of the Legislative Councils should 
 be intrusted to the Municipal Boards, which are 
 themselves constituted partly by election ; and that 
 the elective system in municipalities should be 
 extended to all the large towns in the Empire. 
 
 As regards the consideration of financial matters 
 by the Legislative Councils, the want of a con- 
 trolling power for the protection of the Indian 
 taxpayer has been much felt of late years. When 
 it was proposed to abolish the East India Company, 
 the late Mr. John Stuart Mill warned the Govern- 
 
ment of the injury which the interests of India 
 would suffer, unless some influence were created 
 for their protection ; and the waste and extrava- 
 gance which have characterized the subsequent 
 administration of the country, the present im- 
 poverished condition of a large section of the 
 people, and the serious financial embarrassments 
 of the Indian Government, clearly show that the 
 means devised for the protection of the interests 
 in question have proved very inadequate. 
 
 The untrustworthy and misleading character of 
 the last two Budget Statements, and the nature of 
 taxes recently imposed, which press with undue 
 severity on the poor while wealthy official and 
 professional classes are exempted from them, indi- 
 cate distinctly the want of a local power of control 
 over the finances of India ; and such control, the 
 Petitioners suggest, might safely be entrusted to 
 the Legislative Councils, as long as the Viceroy 
 retains, under the usual conditions and respon- 
 sibility, the power to veto any law passed, or 
 disallow any vote recorded by the Councils ; and 
 to issue Ordinances for a limited period, irrespective 
 of the Legislative Councils, for carrying out par- 
 ticular measures of an urgent nature. 
 
 II. Expenses of the Afghan War. 
 
 The injustice of burdening India with the 
 
 entire cost of the Afghan war having already been 
 
 recognised by leading members of the present 
 
 Government, it may be unnecessary to say any- 
 
8 
 
 thing on the question, beyond calling the attention 
 of Parliament to Section LY. of Act 106 of 1858, 
 which provides that : " Except for preventing 
 or repelling actual invasion of Her Majesty's 
 Indian possessions, or under other sudden and 
 urgent necessity, the revenues of India shall not, 
 without the consent of both Houses of Parliament, 
 be applicable to defray the expenses of any 
 military operation carried on beyond the external 
 frontiers of such possessions by Her Majesty's 
 forces charged upon such revenues.' 7 
 
 .* Improved intermediate Courts of Appeal and revision 
 of the New Criminal Procedure Code. 
 
 The Petitioners are satisfied with the con- 
 stitution of the Courts of first instance, which 
 have of late considerably improved in character, 
 and are presided over by officers generally possessed 
 of good legal education and training ; but the 
 Appellate benches are recruited from the Coven- 
 anted Civil Service, the members of which, in the 
 majority of instances, have had no legal training 
 whatever, and are called, under certain rules of 
 promotion, to preside in the Appellate Courts, 
 when too young and too deficient in judicial ex- 
 perience 
 
 The Government of India, having been made 
 aware of the shortcomings of these intermediate 
 Appellate Courts, was engaged for some years in 
 maturing a scheme for their improvement. The 
 Scheme was ultimately framed with the concurrence 
 
of tlie Chief Justice and ofcher judges of the High 
 Court of Bengal, and of two successive Lieutenant- 
 Governors of that province, and was, in due course, 
 approved by the Viceroy in Council : but it has 
 not received the sanction of the Secretary of State 
 for India. The Petitioners pray for its adoption, 
 or for any other measure likely to effect the 
 judicial reform, the necessity of which has been 
 recognised. 
 
 It is also suggested that the Court fees, which 
 are levied in the shape of a stamp duty, might 
 with advantage be reduced, as they are at present 
 excessively heavy, and virtually amount to a tax 
 upon justice, seeing that, after defraying the 
 necessary expenses of the judicial establishments, 
 their proceeds leave a surplus, which is carried to 
 the general revenues of the State. This suggestion 
 is confirmed in a remarkable manner by the follow- 
 ing passage in the Eeport of the Deccan Riots 
 Commission: " There is 'another cause which 
 requires mention as tending to make the action of 
 the Courts oppressive, namely, the high costs of 
 suits ... So long as these costs do not exceed 
 the actual cost of litigation, the charge is fair. 
 But the income from the 88 subordinate Courts 
 last year was Es. 1,689, 744, while the expenditure on 
 the Courts was only Es. 690,717. These Courts 
 thus yielded a net revenue of nearly Es. 1,000,000. 
 . . . The object of Courts is not to yield 
 revenue ; and it is plainly proper that any surplus 
 that may be derived from them should be devoted 
 
10 
 
 to improving the administration of justice in them, 
 and not to any other object. There appears reason 
 to think that some of the miscellaneous Court 
 charges are unduly burdensome." Page 53, 
 paragraph 117. 
 
 The Petition points further to the evil effects 
 of the changes which have in late years been 
 introduced in the criminal law. The liberty of the 
 subject has been considerably curtailed under the 
 New Criminal Procedure Code, which has unduly 
 increased the summary powers of magistrates, 
 checked appeals by giving the Appellate authority 
 power to enhance punishment, a thing unknown, 
 I believe, in any other part of the British do- 
 minion ; permitted the Crown to appeal against 
 an acquittal, a power equally objectionable, and 
 legalized the arrest of persons on mere suspicion 
 and without affidavit. These innovations cannot 
 fail to be productive of great injustice and suffering, 
 in a country where the police are notoriously 
 corrupt and the public press is very weak. 
 
 The Government were not without warning as 
 to the mischievous tendencies of the changes 
 which were made in the Criminal Law : the follow- 
 ing passage occurs in a letter addressed to them 
 by one of the judges of the High Court of Bengal. 
 "As one of the judges whose duty it will be to 
 administer the new law. ... I feel bound to 
 endeavour to dissuade the Government from pass- 
 ing a measure, one principal object of which 
 appears to be to obliterate, as far as possible, the 
 
11 
 
 arrangement of the law of criminal procedure 
 which seven years ago Sir James Stephen, after 
 the fullest consideration, adopted as the most 
 intelligible and convenient." The evil from the 
 new clauses, however, has been greatly aggravated 
 by the indiscriminate and reckless manner in which 
 the Executive in India have availed themselves of 
 legislation so exceptional and partial in its nature. 
 For instance, in a murder case tried last year by 
 the Sessions Court of Backergunge, when the 
 accused were all acquitted, the Government first 
 appealed against that acquittal, and then on the 
 day of hearing, finding the evidence deficient, it 
 announced its wish not to proceed with the pro- 
 secution of one of the accused because he was not the 
 principal offender. The appeal against the alleged 
 principal offender was heard in the High Court of 
 Calcutta in May last year, when the following 
 judgment was delivered : " This is an appeal 
 against an order for acquittal. The Sessions judge 
 and the assessors who had the witnesses before 
 them and observed their demeanour have rejected 
 the evidence adduced by the prosecution as un- 
 worthy of credit. In appeal we are asked to set 
 aside this concurrent opinion of the judge and 
 assessors, and accept the evidence as reliable. 
 Under these circumstances it appears to us that 
 the evidence must be unexceptionally good to 
 warrant us to act upon it. We have carefully con- 
 sidered that evidence and the argument of the 
 learned counsel who appeared before us in 
 
12 
 
 support of appeal. . . . We dismiss the appeal 
 because the evidence is not so clear and con- 
 vincing as would justify us in appeal to come to 
 a different conclusion from that of the judge and 
 the assessors." 
 
 The following judgment of Mr. Justice Straight, 
 reported in the Indian Herald for June, 1880, will 
 still better illustrate the reckless manner in which 
 appeals against acquittal are generally preferred 
 under the new Code : " In disposing of this case 
 I feel bound to make one or two observations in 
 regard to these applications by Government under 
 Section 273. In my opinion it was intended that 
 the powers therein given to the Executive to ask 
 the interference of the High Courts with judgments 
 of acquittal should be but sparingly used, and that 
 the appeals thereby provided for should only be 
 preferred where the lower Original Appeal Court 
 has gone absurdly or obtusely wrong upon ques- 
 tions of fact, or has passed an erroneous decision 
 in which blunders of law and fact are combined. 
 . . . It would, to my mind, be most mis- 
 chievous were this Court, except upon strong 
 provocation, to interfere with the determinations 
 of fact in favour of accused persons by magistrates 
 and judges. To adopt a contrary course would 
 introduce elements of uncertainty and a want of 
 finality into criminal procedure altogether foreign 
 to English notions of jurisprudence." 
 
 Then as regards the abuse of the summary 
 powers vested in magistrates and the oppression 
 
13 
 
 exercised by the police in arrests upon alleged 
 suspicion, scarcely a mail arrives from India with- 
 out bringing the report of a case illustrating some 
 of these evils. The following passage in a judg- 
 ment of the Sessions Court of Chittore, in a case of 
 alleged extortion tried in November, 1878, will 
 show how deficient the magistrates in India some- 
 times are in the most elementary notions of 
 judicial impartiality, and similar cases of which 
 reports are published are by no means unfrequent, 
 although they form but a small proportion of the 
 cases which actually occur, the larger number 
 remaining uninvestigated by superior authority 
 under the summary power clauses in the new code. 
 The judge of Chittore said : " It appears to me 
 that Mr. Cox by his proceedings has gone peril- 
 ously near the commission of an offence under 
 Section 330. That the information of the payment 
 was in the first instance extorted from the weavers 
 under the influence of fear was freely admitted by 
 Mr. Cox, and having been so extorted, I am of 
 opinion that very little reliance can be placed on 
 their subsequent evidence. Mr. Cox's explanation 
 is that without those stringent measures he could 
 not obtain the truth. He admits that he had from 
 the first made up his mind that the truth was that 
 the accused were guilty, and he was not satisfied 
 with repeated denials of payment. He wanted the 
 truth, that is, he wanted the men to say what he 
 thought to be the truth ; and until they said so, 
 he did not record their statements. It never 
 
14 
 
 seemed to occur to Mr. Cox that information so 
 elicited was worthless." 
 
 The tendency of magistrates to abuse their 
 powers and to act in an arbitrary manner is greatly 
 encouraged by the clauses in the new code which 
 exempt their decisions from appeal in a large pro- 
 portion of the cases tried by them ; and this ten- 
 dency has been increased by the inaction or the 
 extraordinary leniency of the Government in those 
 instances in which the shortcomings of magistrates 
 were exposed in judgments of the High Courts in 
 their appellate jurisdiction. 
 
 IV. Admission of Natives in the Civil Service on the 
 terms of the Charter of 1833 and the Queen's 
 Proclamation of 1858. 
 
 By the Charter Act of 1833 it was provided 
 that no native of India should, by reason of religion, 
 birth, descent or colour, be disabled from holding 
 any office whatever under the East India Company ; 
 and the Queen's Proclamation of 1858 declared : 
 " It is our wish that all subjects of whatever race 
 or creed be freely and impartially admitted to all 
 offices or services the duties of which they may be 
 qualified by their education, ability, and integrity 
 duly to discharge. " The Petitioners submit that 
 the above-mentioned provision in the Act of 1833 
 was entirely disregarded, and that the pledge 
 involved in the Queen's Proclamation has remained 
 unredeemed. When the Indian Civil Service was 
 thrown open to public competition, the natives of 
 India were placed at a very great disadvantage by 
 
15 
 
 London being made the only seat of the com- 
 petition ; and when the limit of age for the 
 candidates was subsequently reduced from 21 to 
 19, it operated as a bar to the appearance of Indian 
 candidates. 
 
 In 1870, another Act of Parliament was passed, 
 authorising the appointment of natives to all or 
 any of the offices which had previously been 
 confined to the Covenanted Civil Service ; but it 
 was only in 1879 that the Secretary of State issued 
 rules enabling the Government of India to appoint 
 " native gentlemen of good family and education " 
 to offices under this Act. The gentlemen who 
 have been appointed under those rules, (the 
 petitioners submit) have been gazetted, not as 
 belonging to the Covenanted Civil Service, but 
 as being members of the Native Civil Service, a 
 branch which had previously not existed. Since 
 the petition was signed, however, certain rules have 
 been promulgated according to which a native 
 Civil Servant is said to be a member of the Cove- 
 nanted Civil Service of the Presidency to which he 
 belongs : but, while his pay is on a smaller scale 
 (a difference which might be justified by the reason 
 assigned for it) the rules do not extend to him the 
 privileges as to promotion which are enjoyed by 
 the European members of the Service. Virtually, 
 therefore, the Covenanted Civil Service is still 
 closed to natives of India, in violation of Her 
 Majesty's Proclamation and contrary to the Act of 
 Parliament of 1870. 
 
 The Petitioners submit that if competition is 
 
16 
 
 considered necessary in selecting persons for the 
 public service in the United Kingdom, where there 
 are so many salutary checks upon abuse of patron- 
 age, it is much more necessary in India where the 
 influence of public opinion is comparatively weak. 
 They also allege that the new rules, by confining 
 the appointments to men of good family, and by 
 not laying sufficient stress upon intellectual attain- 
 ments and good moral character, are not calculated 
 to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the people, 
 or contribute to the efficiency of the public service. 
 
 V. Repeal of the Vernacular Press and Arms Acts. 
 
 The Prime Minister and other leading members 
 of the Liberal party having, in recent public 
 utterances, strongly condemned both the above- 
 mentioned Acts, and fully stated the grounds of 
 their condemnation, it is to be hoped that the 
 repeal of those Acts will not be long delayed. 
 
 The maintenance of the Vernacular Press Act 
 is exercising a dangerous influence by encouraging 
 agitation in India, on a subject in which the 
 people of that country have the sympathy of the 
 civilised world, and in respect of a concession 
 which, under all the circumstances, cannot long be 
 withheld. As regards the Arms Act, it must be 
 borne in mind that the measure not only deprives 
 the people of the means of defence against the 
 attacks of wild animals, and leaves them exposed 
 to the depredations of the Dacoits with which parts 
 of the Bombay Presidency are greatly infested ; but 
 that it is necessarily interpreted by the people as 
 
17 
 
 implying mistrust in their loyalty, a feeling which 
 they resent as unwarranted, in view of the proofs of 
 attachment which they have so frequently and so 
 unmistakeably manifested to British rule. 
 
 VI. Permanent fixity of the Land Tax. 
 
 Some misapprehension and consequent diversity 
 of opinion exists regarding the policy of perma- 
 nently fixing the land-tax in India. Those who 
 are in favour of the policy maintain that the con- 
 trary system of periodically revising the tax and 
 arbitrarily enhancing it at every opportunity, dis- 
 courages the application of capital to agriculture, 
 and tends thereby to impede the development of 
 that important industry. The opponents of the 
 policy, on the other hand, say that a permanent 
 settlement involves a sacrifice of the additional 
 revenue which, in the course of time, the land 
 might, by enhanced assessments, be made to 
 yield, through improved culture, extension of 
 trade and the increase in the money value of 
 produce, which ensues from the depreciation of the 
 precious metals. 
 
 In Bengal the land-tax, as a rule, is permanently 
 fixed ; while in Bombay and the North- Western 
 Provinces it is generally settled for long periods 
 not exceeding thirty years, and, in the greater part 
 of Madras, is annually liable to revision and 
 enhancement. A careful comparison of the results 
 yielded by these three systems might enable a cor- 
 rect judgment to be formed of their respective merits. 
 
18 
 
 Permanent Settlements. 
 
 Bengal, before 1793, was in a very backward 
 state of cultivation, and the Government was 
 unable to collect the land-tax in its entirety. Had 
 the waste lands been cleared and brought under 
 the plough, the greater yield of the estates might 
 have enabled the owners to satisfy the Government 
 demand ; but, under the system of periodical 
 assessments which then prevailed in Bengal, the 
 profits of capital expended in such clearances 
 would have been exposed to absorption in the 
 revenue demand at the next settlement ; and this 
 risk effectually prevented capital from flowing into 
 a channel where it was much needed. The state 
 of things which existed at the time is succinctly 
 described in the following passage of a Minute of 
 the Governor- General, dated the 18th September, 
 1783 : " I may safely assert that one third of the 
 Company's territory is now jungle, inhabited only 
 by wild beasts. Will a ten years' lease induce any 
 proprietor to clear that jungle and encourage ryots 
 to come and cultivate his lands, when, at the end 
 of that lease, he must either submit to be taxed 
 ad libitum for the newly- cultivated lands, or lose all 
 hopes of deriving any benefit from his labours for 
 which, perhaps, by that time he will hardly be 
 repaid ? " 
 
 The Government, therefore, with the view of 
 inducing the landowners to improve their estates, 
 
19 
 
 fixed in 1793 the land-tax in perpetuity, deciding 
 at the same time that all estates in respect of 
 which the tax was not punctually discharged 
 should be sold for arrears of revenue. Much capital 
 and labour were needed for clearances and extension 
 of cultivation, and for the regular payment of the 
 revenue, until the land could be rendered sufficiently 
 productive to satisfy all the demands made upon it. 
 Many landowners, who were unable to procure the 
 necessary funds, lost their estates which were 
 attached for arrears, and were bought by men pos- 
 sessed of sufficient capital to fulfil the onerous 
 conditions imposed. Ultimately the policy of 1793 
 was so far successful, that Bengal became the best 
 cultivated of all our Indian provinces, and that the 
 land revenue in that presidency has for many years 
 past been collected with a regularity unknown in 
 the rest of India, and at a comparatively small 
 cost. 
 
 The following extracts from the reports of the 
 Lieutenant Governors of Bengal will testify to the 
 present condition of that province, under the 
 permanent settlement. Sir George Campbell, in 
 the Administration Keport for 1872-73, said: 
 " The revenue of the permanently settled estates 
 in Bengal has for years been realised with great 
 punctuality. Losses sometimes occur through 
 famine, epidemics, the devastations of cyclones 
 and other calamities of seasons ; but under the 
 conditions of the Settlement, no such pleas can be 
 urged as excuses for non-payment ; and, as a rule, 
 
20 
 
 the large present excess of the annual rental over 
 the Government demand, enables the present 
 holders to meet that demand even in the most 
 disastrous years." Sir Richard Temple, as maybe 
 seen from the Blue Book on the Moral and Material 
 Condition of India for the following year, said : 
 " The deficiency of the collections consequent on 
 the famine, was very small, and such suspensions 
 of revenue as were granted were given as a reward 
 for exceptional exertions in relieving distress. The 
 result is creditable to the working of the permanent 
 settlement." Sir Ashley Eden, the present Lieu- 
 tenant- Governor, in a speech in December 1877, 
 shortly after receiving his appointment, said, in 
 reference to the Eastern districts which he had 
 just visited: " Great as was the progress which 
 I knew had been made in the position of the 
 cultivating classes, I was quite unprepared 
 to find them occupying a position so different 
 from that which I remembered them to occupy 
 when I first came to the country. They were 
 then poor and oppressed with little incentive 
 to increase the productive powers of the soil. I 
 find them now as prosperous, as independent, and 
 as comfortable as the peasantry, I believe, of any 
 country in the world ; well fed, well clothed, free 
 to enjoy the full benefit of their labours and to hold 
 their own and obtain prompt redress for any wrong." 
 In the Western districts of the Presidency the 
 condition of the cultivators is less prosperous ; 
 but the foregoing remarks regarding the great 
 
21 
 
 extent of cultivation and the punctual payment 
 of the land revenue apply to these districts as 
 well as to Eastern Bengal. 
 
 Periodical Settlements for Long Terms. 
 
 In Bombay and the North- Western Provinces 
 agriculture had suffered from the wars which 
 preceded the introduction of British rule ; and the 
 return to prosperity was very slow under the system 
 of temporary land settlements, which was adopted 
 in those provinces. Over-assessment of the land- 
 tax was the main cause which checked progress and 
 kept the agricultural classes in poverty and desti- 
 tution. This statement is fully borne out by the 
 settlement reports of 1840-50, from which it may 
 suffice here to give the following extracts taken 
 from the Blue Book on the Deccan Riots Commission, 
 1878, page 10, paragraph 33 : 
 
 " The over-estimate of the capabilities of the 
 Deccan, acted upon by our early Collectors, drained 
 the country of its agricultural capital, and accounts 
 for the poverty and distress in which the cultivating 
 population has ever since been plunged." " This 
 district is suffering from the evils that a high 
 nominal assessment, with constant remissions and 
 balances, is certain to produce." " Under our 
 management the district appears to have recovered 
 little, if at all ; and even now little more than a 
 third of the arable land is cultivated. . . . All 
 this betokens a state of abject poverty." "In the 
 Ahmednagar district the rates adopted in 1818-19 
 
22 
 
 proved much too high, and it was necessary to 
 resort to remedial expedients to save the ryots from 
 ruin. . . . The more unfavourable character 
 of the results must mainly be attributed to a 
 greater degree of over-taxation." 
 
 Many years elapsed before the baneful effects 
 of assessing the land-tax too high were officially 
 recognised and denounced. As late as the year 
 1841 it was found necessary to warn over-zealous 
 settlement officers against that fatal error, and the 
 late Sir George Wingate, a highly-distinguished 
 Revenue Officer in the Bombay Presidency, 
 recorded in that year the following sentence in one 
 of his settlement reports : " No unnecessary 
 reduction can injure the country, and the Govern- 
 ment revenue can only suffer to the extent of such 
 reduction. An error upon one side involves the 
 ruin of the country ; an error on the other, some 
 inconsiderable sacrifice of the finance of the State ; 
 and with such unequal stakes depending, can we 
 hesitate as to which should be given the prepon- 
 derance? " 
 
 A similar state of things obtained likewise in 
 the North- Western Provinces, which came under 
 British rule in 1802, and were subjected to frequent 
 revisions of the land-tax until 1834, when wiser 
 counsels prevailed and assessments were fixed for 
 thirty years. These long settlements afforded the 
 encouragement of which agriculture stood in need, 
 and when the Crimean war and the hostilities in 
 United States of America led to an active 
 
23 
 
 demand for Indian agricultural produce, causing a 
 considerable rise in its market value, and the 
 opening of railways further aided in the develop- 
 ment of trade, the Indian cultivator was enabled, 
 not only to satisfy the land revenue demand in full, 
 but also to improve his farm and his dwelling ; to 
 increase his stock of cattle, excavate irrigation 
 wells, and even lay by savings for future con- 
 tingencies. This statement likewise finds con- 
 firmation in passages of the Blue Book already 
 mentioned : 
 
 " The re-action in agricultural prosperity under 
 light assessment and a system at once simple and 
 rigid, was as rapid as the decline of the district had 
 been under the opposite conditions. During the 
 period which followed, the district reached a very 
 high standard of prosperity before the year 1860. 
 In 1862 began the period of extraordinary prosperity 
 caused by the rise in the price of cotton, which 
 followed the American blockade. In those years 
 the ryots would, under ordinary circumstances, 
 have suffered severely from the constant deficiency 
 in rainfall during five successive seasons. In 1862 
 the Poona and Ahmednagar districts had enjoyed 
 fixed assessments, the former for twenty years and 
 the latter for ten years." Pp. 11 and 18, paragraphs 
 34, 35, and 51. 
 
 In the midst of this sudden prosperity, the 
 land settlements, commenced in 1834, began to fall 
 in, and the Government, regardless of the transient 
 nature of the circumstances whence the prosperity 
 
24 
 
 had chiefly arisen, based the new settlements on 
 the exceptionally high prices of produce which 
 had ruled for a short period only. The land-tax 
 was suddenly increased by about 60 per cent, on an 
 average, the enhancement in some cases exceeding 
 100 per cent, of the rates previously in force. 
 Meanwhile the restoration of peace in Europe and 
 America caused the produce markets to subside 
 into their normal condition ; but the new settle- 
 ments, in spite of protests from the people and 
 warnings from revenue officers, were maintained 
 with slight modifications only, and soon resulted 
 in agrarian disturbances and in a steady decline in 
 agriculture; while the sole object for which the 
 tax had been enhanced, viz. : the raising of 
 additional revenue, remained unaccomplished. 
 
 For a time the cultivators met the increased 
 demand from their savings, and, when these were 
 exhausted, with the assistance of the money lender : 
 but the new tax was so much out of proportion to 
 the productive value of the land, that a great 
 number of cultivators became hopelessly indebted 
 and the money lenders were not disposed to risk 
 further advances. The revenue, in consequence, 
 fell into arrears, and thousands of farms in the 
 Bombay Presidency were annually put up for sale, 
 for the recovery of the land-tax, many of which 
 found no purchasers ; while in the North- Western 
 Provinces and in Oudh, a large number of landed 
 proprietors became deeply involved in debt. The 
 same Blue Book might again be quoted in con- 
 
25 
 
 firmation of the foregoing statement: it says at 
 page 27, paragraphs 72 and 73: u During the same 
 period (1870-74) there has been a very marked 
 increase in the difficulty of collecting the land 
 revenue : at the same time the area of cultivation 
 contracted all over the Presidency wherever the 
 poorest soils had been brought under the plough 
 during the period of artificial prosperity from 1862 
 to 1866. In the Appendix will be found the 
 opinions of revenue officers connecting this de- 
 crease in cultivation with the pressure of debt." 
 
 Much land had thus been thrown out of cultiva- 
 tion, and the people had been stripped of the 
 greatest part of their savings, when the drought of 
 1876-77 overtook the country : this will account 
 for the appalling severity of the famine which 
 followed, and the helpless condition of the people 
 under that calamity. The millions which were 
 then expended in attempts to save life have 
 imposed a burden that far exceeds any ad- 
 ditional revenue which the recklessly enhanced 
 assessments could reasonably have been expected 
 to yield. This consideration alone should suffice 
 to show the great advantage of permanent fixity 
 in the land-tax over the system of periodical and 
 arbitrary revisions : but irrespective of the large 
 expenditure necessitated by the famine, the 
 periodical system failed in its direct and sole object, 
 which was the increase of revenue, as may be 
 seen from the following figures taken from the 
 thirteenth number of the Statistical Abstract. 
 
CO 
 
 26 
 
 
 8 
 
 Tt< CO 
 
 ^ co" 
 
 04 O 
 
 CO U5 
 
 TH O 
 
 ^ CO O 
 
 ^4 rH OS 
 
 t- rH^ 
 
 of oo* 
 
 00 CO 
 
 
 
27 
 
 Tims, notwithstanding the large increase made in 
 the assessments previously to 1869, the collections 
 of the above ten years exceeded on an average 
 those of 1869 hy only 392,220, a sum insufficient 
 to cover the additional collecting charges which 
 are incurred in the provinces subject to periodical 
 settlements, as compared with Bengal, where the 
 permanent settlement facilitates the recovery of 
 the land revenue. These additional charges in 1878 
 may be estimated at 625,355, thus : in Bengal 
 302,946 was spent in coUecting 3,696,210 of 
 land revenue. On the same scale the collection of 
 11,220,877 would have cost 919,676, while the 
 actual cost shown in the Finance and Revenue Accounts 
 of the year (pp. 16 to 18) was 
 
 . 
 In the North- Western Provinces . 402,269 
 
 Madras 465,354 
 
 Bombay 677,408 
 
 Total . . J~545,031 
 
 Whence it appears that the land-tax in these 
 provinces, had it been permanentely fixed in 1869, 
 would have yielded annually 233,135, or in the 
 above ten years 2,331,350 of net revenue, in 
 excess of the sums actually realized : while, judging 
 from the effects of permanent settlements in other 
 parts of India, much of the heavy expenditure 
 incurred for famine relief would have been spared, 
 and other sources of revenue would have become 
 more productive from the prosperity which the 
 
28 
 
 permanent limitation of the Government demand 
 upon land would have been instrumental in 
 creating. 
 
 Annual Settlements. 
 
 In small portions of the Madras Presidency the 
 land-tax is permanently fixed, producing annually 
 half a million sterling, and further small portions 
 consist of estates granted for services, or belonging 
 to religious institutions, which are held at quit 
 rents : the remainder, or about four-fifths of the 
 cultivable area, is subject to the Ryotwaree system 
 under which the ryots or cultivators are looked 
 upon as the tenants of the State, and the Govern- 
 ment demand upon them is annually liable to 
 revision and enhancement. Under this system 
 the land-tax is designedly fixed at so high a figure 
 that it could be completely realized only in years 
 of exceptional prosperity ; while ordinary seasons 
 invariably have resulted in heavy uncollected 
 balances, which are held over for recovery in 
 prosperous years, and portions of which have, 
 from time to time, as ryots are found to have 
 been hopelessly ruined, written off the registers as 
 irrecoverable. 
 
 The inevitable consequence of such a system 
 is that the cultivators are kept in a chronic state 
 of indebtedness, and have little or no inducement 
 to improve their farms, a state of things which 
 will at once account for the destitute condition of 
 the Madras peasantry, and the low standard of 
 
29 
 
 agriculture in that Presidency. It can, therefore, 
 be no matter for wonder that the effect of the 
 prolonged drought of 1876-77 upon a population 
 thus impoverished and on land so poorly cultivated, 
 should have been the death of millions of the 
 inhabitants and the loss of one-fourth of the land 
 revenue. The collections in 1876-77 amounted to 
 3,296,575, or 1,248,438 less than in the 
 previous year, the deficiency being entirely in 
 respect of the annually settled fields, the owners 
 of the permanently settled estates having, in spite 
 of the famine, been able to satisfy the revenue 
 demand in full. In 1877-78, about 3,000,000 acres 
 of the land subjected to the Eyotwaree system 
 were thrown out of cultivation ; and in 1878-79 
 (the latest year for which the Administration 
 report has been published) the Eyotwaree cultiva- 
 tion was still short of the average before the 
 famine by about two millions of acres. The col- 
 lectors of the revenue, moreover, had to resort in 
 that year to coercive measures of severity (such as 
 the imprisonment of defaulters in addition to the 
 sale of their personal property and their farms, their 
 families meanwhile being left destitute), in a con- 
 siderably larger number of cases than in preceding 
 years. 
 
 It might be unnecessary to prosecute further 
 the examination of the results of the Eyotwaree 
 or annual settlement system, as its short-comings 
 have recently been brought to light in so appalling 
 a form by the famine in Madras. Besides, all 
 
30 
 
 authorities on the subject of the land revenue in 
 India are now agreed in condemning annual re- 
 visions of the tax, and opinions are divided only 
 as to settlements for thirty years and settlements 
 in perpetuity. 
 
 We purpose therefore reverting to a consideration 
 of the condition of things in Bengal under the per- 
 manent settlement, and in Bomhay and the North- 
 Western Provinces, under periodical settlements. 
 The facts stated in preceding pages, and which rest, 
 as may have been observed, upon authentic testi- 
 mony, irresistibly point to the conclusion that a 
 permanent settlement of the land-tax, while it is 
 nowise detrimental to the interests of the Ex- 
 chequer, is 'essential to the prosperity of a people 
 subsisting by agriculture. The question which 
 naturally arises then is, Why have permanent 
 settlements not long since been introduced in all 
 the provinces in India ? The answer will suggest 
 itself upon a review of the following circumstances. 
 
 Why has the land-tax not been permanently fixed 
 throughout India? 
 
 The Government of India twenty years ago 
 clearly perceived from the beneficial development 
 of the settlement in Bengal, and the unsatisfactory 
 condition of the other provinces, that a permanent 
 limitation of the revenue demand upon land was 
 essential to the prosperity of the country. The 
 President of the Commission appointed to enquire 
 
31 
 
 into the circumstances of the famine of 1860, after 
 comparing them with those of the famine of 1837, 
 when the drought had been less severe, observed 
 in his report : " Foremost among the means 
 whereby society in Northern India has been so 
 strengthened as to resist, with less suffering, far 
 heavier pressure from drought and famine in 1860 
 than in 1837, I place the creation, as it may 
 almost literally be called, of a vast mass of readily 
 convertible and easily transferable agricultural 
 property. I have before described the condition 
 of agricultural property antecedent to these settle- 
 ments,* and it will probably be admitted, without 
 serious qualification, that a state of things more 
 likely to weaken the society living under it could 
 scarcely be conceived. To great and unequal 
 pressure of public burdens . . . and arbitrary 
 interferences, have succeeded assessments rarely 
 heavy, titles recorded and easily understood, long 
 leases, and the enjoyment of all the profits during 
 the currency of such leases. The natural results 
 of such a change in so vital a part of the social 
 economy have grown more and more apparent. 
 Land has obtained an increasing marketable value. 
 Its value as a security has doubtless been largely 
 made use of in mitigating the pressure of famine. 
 Such then having been the general results of the 
 protracted fixity of the public demand, the security 
 of titles, the general moderation of assessments, 
 
 * The thirty years settlements commenced in 1834 and com- 
 pleted in 1842, 
 
32 
 
 the recognition and general record of rights . . . 
 the inference seems irresistible that, to intensify 
 and perpetuate these results, we must proceed still 
 further in the same healthy and fruitful direction. 
 The good which has been done by partial action 
 on sound principles is both a justification and an 
 encouragement to further advances; and enter- 
 taining the most earnest conviction that State 
 interests and popular interests will alike be 
 strengthened in an increasing ratio by the step, 
 the first and, as I believe, most important measure 
 I have respectfully to submit, is the expediency of 
 fixing for ever the public demand on land, and 
 thus converting the existing settlement in a settle- 
 ment for perpetuity." 
 
 The above Eeport was fully endorsed by the 
 superior officers of the Government. Mr. Money, 
 of the Revenue Board, North Western Provinces, 
 said : " The policy of removing the bar to im- 
 provement, which is now presented by the uncer- 
 tainty of the Government demand, and the 
 arguments which have been adduced in favour of 
 a permanent settlement, appear to me unanswer- 
 able." Mr. Muir, now Sir William Muir, summed 
 up the benefits to be derived from a permanent 
 settlement in the following terms : 
 
 1. Saving of the expenditure now incurred by 
 the necessity of periodical assessments. 
 
 2. Deliverance of the people from the vexations 
 prevalent at every settlement. 
 
 3. Freedom from the tendency to depreciation 
 
33 
 
 of property towards the close of each temporary 
 settlement. 
 
 4. Prosperity arising from increased incentive 
 to improvement and expenditure of capital. 
 
 5. Greatly increased value of landed property 
 by content and satisfaction among the people. 
 
 And replying to the objection that a permanent 
 settlement involved a sacrifice of some prospective 
 land revenue, Sir William Muir said: ''Allowing 
 the widest scope and fullest consideration to all 
 the objections that can be urged against departing 
 from the system of temporary settlements, the 
 advantage of a settlement in perpetuity appears 
 to me vastly to outweigh them all, and I most 
 decidedly advocate the measure. " 
 
 Sir George Edmonstone, the Lieut. -Governor 
 of the North- Western Provinces finally appended 
 the following remarks to the Eeport : " I do not 
 in the least doubt that permanency in the settle- 
 ment of land revenue will be productive of all the 
 advantages which Colonel Baird Smith and Mr. 
 Muir in greater detail have depicted. Judging by 
 the effect of settlements for long periods, it may 
 safely be anticipated that the limitation of the 
 Government demand in perpetuity will in much 
 larger degree lead to the investment of capital in 
 land. The wealth of the agricultural classes will 
 be increased ; the prosperity of the country and 
 the strength of the community will be augmented ; 
 land will command a much higher price. The 
 prospective loss which the Government will incur 
 
 o 
 
34 
 
 by relinquishing its share of profits arising from 
 extended cultivation and improved productiveness 
 will be partly, if not wholly, compensated by the 
 indirect return which would be derived from the 
 increased wealth and prosperity of the country at 
 large." 
 
 Lord Canning expressed the same conviction 
 as to the great benefits which would ensue from the 
 permanent limitation of the revenue demand upon 
 land, and he proposed to effect such limitation 
 1st. Through " the sale of waste lands in per- 
 petuity, discharged from all prospective demands 
 on account of land revenue." 2nd. Through " the 
 permission to redeem the existing land revenue by 
 the immediate payment of one sum equal in value 
 to the revenue redeemed." His opinion is re- 
 corded in the following terms in the Government 
 Resolution of 1861 relating to the above-mentioned 
 measures : " His Excellency in Council sees no 
 reason to doubt that, so far as either measure 
 might take effect, it would be in every way bene- 
 ficial. As to the waste lands, there could be no 
 
 question His Excellency in Council 
 
 has still less doubts as to the beneficial results of 
 permitting a redemption of the land revenue. He 
 believes that increased security of fixed property 
 and comparative freedom from interference of 
 fiscal officers of the Government will tend to 
 create a class which, although composed of 
 various races and creeds, will be peculiarly bound 
 to the British rule ; while, under proper regula- 
 
35 
 
 tions, the measure will conduce materially to the 
 improvement of the general revenue of the Em- 
 pire." 
 
 After long daliberation, the Secretary of State 
 for India authorised permanent settlements to be 
 granted to all estates in the North- Western Pro- 
 vinces where a " full, fair and equitable rent had 
 been imposed under existing temporary settle- 
 ments," and concluded his despatch in the follow- 
 ing terms : " After the most careful review of all 
 these considerations, Her Majesty's Government 
 are of opinion that the advantages which may 
 reasonably be expected to accrue, not only to 
 those immediately connected with the land, but 
 to the community generally, are sufficiently great 
 to justify them in incurring the risk of some pro- 
 spective loss of land revenue in order to attain 
 them, and that a settlement in perpetuity in the 
 districts in which the conditions required are or 
 may hereafter be fulfilled, is a measure dictated 
 by sound policy and calculated to accelerate the 
 development of the resources of India, and to 
 insure in the highest degree the welfare and con- 
 tentment of all classes of Her Majesty's subjects 
 in the country." 
 
 This was in 1862. Meanwhile, the remark- 
 able prosperity which had sprung up among the 
 cultivating classes in India, under the circum- 
 stances already mentioned, attracted the attention 
 of revenue officers ; some of whom, failing to per- 
 ceive that the profits of agriculture could not per- 
 
36 
 
 manently be maintained at the extraordinary 
 height which had been reached through excep- 
 tional and temporary causes, argued that a great 
 advantage would be gained for the Government 
 if the existing settlements which were about to 
 expire could be revised and enhanced in propor- 
 tion with the increased ability to bear taxation, 
 which they attributed to the cultivators. They went 
 on to argue that a permanent settlement might 
 afterwards be made at the enhanced rates, whereby 
 a very large addition would be secured to the 
 revenue of the State. The fallacy of these 
 arguments has now been demonstrated by actual 
 results, but was not equally evident at the time 
 to those who were placed at a distance from India ; 
 while the prospect they held out of a large 
 prospective addition to the revenue, caused the 
 Secretary of State to hesitate in carrying out the 
 decision arrived at in 1862. New conditions were 
 proposed, and six years were occupied in references 
 between England and India, which ultimately left 
 the project of a permanent settlement in abeyance 
 for an indefinite period. 
 
 The trivial nature of the objections raised 
 will appear from the following passage of a 
 Minute of the Honourable Edmund Drummond, 
 Lieut. -Governor of the North- Western Provinces, 
 written in reply to the Secretary of State's 
 despatch of 1866. Referring to the possible 
 sacrifice, alluded to in the despatch, of about 
 200,000 of prospective revenue contingent on 
 
37 
 
 the successful development of our great irri- 
 gation works (a contingency which has not 
 occurred), Mr. Drummond, after exposing the ex- 
 aggerated character of the estimate, said: " Even 
 if this calculation were adopted, I cannot think 
 that for such a sum as this we should, at the last 
 moment, hesitate to fulfil the expectations we 
 have raised, and withdraw the promised boon of 
 a permanent settlement ; nor does it appear to me 
 befitting a great Government to seem to grudge 
 a sacrifice which is as nothing when compared 
 with that which must result from the future rise 
 of prices and enhanced value of land generally, 
 which has been freely accepted. ... To sum 
 up briefly the conclusions to which I have been 
 led after full and anxious consideration of this 
 difficult subject, I am of opinion that, as a measure 
 of large and enlightened policy, the permanent 
 settlement of these provinces should be carried 
 generally unhampered by further conditions." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the policy of extend- 
 ing permanent land settlements in India, which 
 had been urged by the highest authorities com- 
 petent to express an opinion on the subject, was 
 eventually abandoned upon the recommendation 
 of subordinate officials who were virtually irrespon- 
 sible advisers, and upon the ground of financial 
 advantages, which events have entirely falsified. 
 
 The Evil Results of Periodical Settlements. 
 Before considering the objections which are still 
 
entertained in some quarters to the policy of 
 permanently fixing the land tax in India, it might 
 be as well to show, in greater detail, what have 
 been the results of the assessments which were 
 imposed and maintained, in supersession of the 
 Secretary of State's despatch of 1862. 
 
 It has already been seen that no financial 
 advantage can be credited to the new settlements, 
 and the following extracts will show the irritation 
 and discontent they engendered, the suffering they 
 inflicted on the agricultural classes, and the ruin 
 they brought upon large tracts of the country. 
 
 The Administration Keport, North-Western 
 Provinces, for 1871-72, shows the increased severity 
 which the Government had to exercise for the 
 recovery of the land-tax, the number of dustuks 
 (processes) issued during the preceding three years 
 having been 81,891, 98,885, and 101,146 respec- 
 tively. The landlords, in their turn, were com- 
 pelled to sue their tenants, and an alarming amount 
 of litigation ensued, regarding which the Lieut.- 
 G-oyernor appended the following significant remark 
 to the report : " The antagonism of classes whose 
 interests lie so closely together, and who have 
 hitherto been connected by so kindly a bond, is 
 one of the greatest political dangers of the day." 
 The following extracts will show, in a still more 
 direct manner, the disastrous action of the enhanced 
 assessments on the material condition of the 
 country. The Commissioner of Allahabad says in 
 his report on the Futtehpore district : " The 
 
39 
 
 imposition of the ten per cent, cess fell heaviest on 
 the villages which were least able to bear it ; many 
 villages broke down and many more were threatened 
 with ruin ; " and the Collector of the district 
 reported, at the same time, that " many of the 
 landholders who had failed to pay the revenue 
 were imprisoned ; that their personal property had 
 been sold, and their estates been attached for 
 arrears of revenue." The Pioneer, the organ of an 
 official section, remarked about the same time? 
 with reference to the Bundelkund district, "if 
 speedy relief be not given, the entire social order 
 will be in danger of dissolution ; the people are 
 crushed by misfortunes ; the landlords are hope- 
 lessly involved in debt ; the population has 
 diminished ; the land is going out of cultivation, 
 and the cattle and farm stock are deteriorating." 
 The Collector of Cawnpore, in a paper on the 
 settlement of that district, said : " The margin 
 left for the cultivator's subsistence is less than the 
 value of the labour he has expended on the land. 
 . . . This district has the benefit of water com- 
 munication by both the Ganges and the Jumna ; it 
 is intersected by the East Indian Railway, and is 
 partly traversed by the Ganges Canal, yet the land 
 is only worth five years' purchase, and the state of 
 the average cultivator is one of hopeless insolvency 
 and misery." 
 
 Nor do the above-mentioned facts (and many 
 others of a similar nature might be quoted from 
 official documents) disclose the full extent of the 
 
40 
 
 evil. The settlements, which are incessantly at 
 work in one district or another, are a constant 
 source of irritation and suspicion ; while the 
 employment of a host of underlings for collecting 
 the data upon which the settlements are based, 
 offers a wide field for bribery and corruption, 
 extortion and oppression. The following short 
 extract from Mr. Auckland Colvin's admirable book 
 entitled Memorandum on the Revision of the Settlements 
 in the North- Western Provinces, will suffice to show 
 how urgent the necessity for relieving the distress 
 and anxiety of the cultivating classes is considered 
 by the revenue authorities themselves, that is, by 
 those who have the best opportunities of forming a 
 correct judgment on the subject. Writing in 1872 
 Mr. Colvin says : " In 1874, twenty-six years will 
 have elapsed from the date on which the first 
 districts in the North- Western Provinces were 
 placed in the hands of a settlement officer. Others 
 were begun twelve years ago, and are not yet 
 sanctioned. One of these is not yet even com- 
 pleted. These facts are significant to those who 
 know what the settlement of a district means ; the 
 value of property depreciated until the exact 
 amount of the new assessment is declared, credit 
 affected, heart-burning and irritation between land- 
 lord and tenant, suspicion of the intentions of the 
 Government, a host of official underlings scattered 
 broadcast over the vexed villages. Nothing can 
 equal the injury inflicted by a slow, uncertain 
 settlement, dragging its length along, obstructed 
 
41 
 
 by conflicting orders and harassed by successive 
 administrations, and finally threatened with anni- 
 hilation at the moment when it seems to have 
 nearly finished its course. Little wonder that we 
 hear of the land needing rest ! " 
 
 Objections entertained at the present day to the extension 
 of permanent settlements in India. 
 
 It may now be desirable to weigh the objections 
 which are taken, at the present day, to the policy 
 of extending permanent land revenue settlements 
 in India. Those who are opposed to such a policy 
 may be classed under three heads : 
 
 I. Indian officials who opposed the movement 
 
 twenty years ago, and recorded their 
 opinion on the subject in official docu- 
 ments. 
 
 II. Authorities in England who are personally 
 
 unacquainted with India, but who, believ- 
 ing that the difficulties of the land question 
 at home might have been avoided, had 
 the land been held as State property, 
 desire to experiment upon India. Their 
 objections practically, however, are based 
 upon certain evils alleged to have resulted 
 from the permanent settlement in Bengal. 
 
 III. Disinterested persons whose judgment on 
 
 the matter has been formed upon the 
 opinions of individuals belonging to the 
 first or second of the above-mentioned 
 classes. 
 
42 
 
 Class I. The Indian officials under the first 
 head are now few in number, and they base their 
 opposition at the present day upon the same 
 arguments as those which served them twenty 
 years ago, ignoring the subsequent events which 
 have exposed the fallacy of those arguments. Of 
 the rest of the Indian officials, all those who have 
 had long experience in the land revenue depart- 
 ment, recognise the very serious evils which are 
 inseparable from periodically recurring settlements ; 
 and many of them are eloquent in their description 
 of the sufferings and injustice which similar 
 settlements are instrumental in inflicting. More- 
 over, actual results having now shown that 
 periodical settlements, in order to prove financially 
 successful, need an amount of judgment and inde- 
 pendence on the part of settlement officers, such 
 as, on a continuity, has been found unavailable ; 
 and that apparently small errors in assessments 
 may bring ruin upon the country, the majority of 
 Indian officials, who have acquired experience in 
 both permanently settled and periodically settled 
 districts, will be found in favour of an extension of 
 the system of permanent fixity in the land-tax. 
 
 Class II. The second class bring the following 
 charges against the permanent settlement of 
 Bengal : 
 
 1. That it involves a sacrifice of revenue. 
 
 2. That it gratuitously conferred proprietary 
 rights which have led to sub-infeudation 
 
43 
 
 or under-t enures, whence a landed class 
 has sprung up, which intervenes between 
 the landlord and the cultivator, and 
 intercepts a material portion of the produce 
 of the land, to the detriment of the 
 country. 
 
 3. That the cultivators, among whom some 
 were believed to have possessed proprie- 
 tary or permanent occupancy rights, were 
 all promiscuously placed by the settle- 
 ment in the position of tenant s-at-will, 
 whereby a number of them suffered 
 injustice, and all were subjected to oppres- 
 sion at the hands of the landlords. 
 1. The first objection has, by the facts men- 
 tioned above, already been shown to be entirely 
 groundless ; and while experience has further dis- 
 closed the fact that attempts to increase the revenue 
 by means of periodically enhanced assessments, 
 have almost invariably resulted in over-taxing the 
 capabilities of the country, the following figures will 
 show that permanent fixity in the land-tax, irrespec- 
 tive of the regularity which it ensures in the collec- 
 tions, leads to the creation of wealth whence 
 additional revenue is obtainable. At the time the 
 permanent settlement was introduced in Bengal, the 
 income of the State was derived almost exclusively 
 from land; but new sources of revenue were de- 
 velopedunder the influence of that settlement, which 
 at present yield considerably more than the land, 
 and the productiveness of which has been steadily on 
 
44 
 
 the increase. The figures alluded to are taken 
 from the Finance and Revenue Accounts for 1877-78 : 
 
 BENGAL. Revenue from sources other than 
 
 Land Revenue. land. 
 
 Gross 3,698,210 Excise Net 656,206 
 
 Charges 302,946 Stamps 1,043,757 
 
 Salt 2,679,405 
 
 Customs 1,090,385 
 
 Provincial taxes 2,691,103 
 
 Net Jb'3,393,264 Total Net 8,160,856 
 
 In the other Presidencies the same items 
 were 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 Gross 3,494,884 
 
 Charges 465,354 
 
 Net 3,029,530 Total Net 2,214,650 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 Gross 3,662,346 
 
 Charges 677,408 
 
 Net 2,934,938 Total Net 4,130,260 
 
 Thus the produce of the miscellaneous taxes 
 was greater in Bengal hy 28 per cent, than in 
 Madras and Bombay taken together ; and the 
 above figures, moreover, point to the injurious 
 effect which oppressive land settlements have 
 upon the prosperity of the country. In Madras, 
 for instance, where the evil in question, under the 
 annual settlement system, operated with con- 
 
45 
 
 tinuous severity, the miscellaneous taxes, which 
 are derived from accumulated wealth, produced 
 much less than the land revenue ; while in Bom- 
 bay, where long settlements permitted the accu- 
 mulation of wealth, the miscellaneous sources were 
 much more productive than the land. 
 
 It is true that the total revenue per head of 
 population is larger in Bombay than in Bengal, 
 but the revenue is steadily increasing in the latter 
 presidency, while it tends to decline in the former. 
 In Bombay much of the land revenue during the 
 past ten years, ever since the enhanced settle- 
 ments came into force, has been recovered through 
 the sale of farms, entailing ruin upon cultivators 
 and the destruction of agricultural capital. Many of 
 the farms attached for arrears found no purchasers, 
 and much land has in consequence been thrown out 
 of cultivation. In the Administration Eeport for 
 1877-78, the area assessed as arable, but which 
 was not taken up for cultivation, was returned for 
 the surveyed districts alone, or about half of the 
 Presidency, at 2,238,272 acres. A similar course 
 cannot fail to lead to a diminution of revenue 
 from land ; while the wealth whence the other 
 items of revenue are derived, and which owes its 
 own creation to the prosperity of agriculture, 
 cannot be expected to increase while agriculture 
 remains depressed. 
 
 2. With reference to the second objection, it 
 must be observed that there is at present no question 
 
46 
 
 of either conferring proprietary rights or of alter- 
 ing titles ; the question is simply whether the land 
 tax, where it is now periodically revised, is to be 
 permanently fixed. Then as regards the Tinder- 
 tenures complained of, it is an error to look upon 
 them as an evil ; they consist of leases and sub- 
 leases for limited periods or in perpetuity, by 
 means of which the large landed proprietors ob- 
 tained the funds they needed for clearing their 
 waste lands and assisting ryots to settle upon and 
 cultivate them; and the return enjoyed by the 
 lessees is the price which the landed proprietors 
 paid for the pecuniary assistance afforded to them. 
 The arrangement had this advantage over mort- 
 gages, that it interested the lessees in the work of 
 clearances and extended cultivation from which 
 their remuneration was to be derived, while it pro- 
 portionately relieved the landed proprietors, many 
 of whom found the task set them by the per- 
 manent settlement to be above their powers. 
 These under-tenures, therefore, while they have 
 not been prejudicial to the landlords, appear not 
 to have proved injurious to the cultivators either, 
 judging from the generally prosperous and still im- 
 proving condition of the Bengal ryot, as compared 
 with the poverty in which, according to official 
 reports, the cultivators in periodically settled pro- 
 vinces are still plunged. It might be supposed 
 that the multiplicity of under-tenures, by leading 
 to complications and the chances of error, would 
 interfere with the free transfer of interests, and 
 
47 
 
 require establishments burdensome to the State ; 
 but such in reality has not been the case, transfers 
 of landed interests being quite as numerous in 
 Bengal as in any of the other provinces, while the 
 charges in the land revenue department in Bengal 
 are considerably lighter than in the presidencies 
 where periodical settlements prevail. 
 
 3. The third objection consists of two parts, 
 viz., the alleged violation of the proprietary rights of 
 certain cultivators, and the subjection of all the 
 ryots to the oppression of landlords. Official docu- 
 ments anterior to the Permanent Settlement of 
 1793 state that several years were employed in 
 efforts to ascertain all existing rights, and that the 
 information obtained was of so conflicting a cha- 
 racter as to be practically useless. At all events, 
 the question as to proprietary rights having been 
 violated by the settlement of 1793 is irrelevant to 
 the present discussion, since it is not proposed, 
 when permanently fixing the land-tax, to make any 
 alteration in respect of private rights, which would 
 continue to be protected, as they are now, by the 
 law courts of the country. Then, as regards the 
 charge of allowing the ryots to be oppressed, it 
 would imply that the cultivators who are not 
 tenants upon estates included in the permanent 
 settlement, are better off than those of Bengal. 
 Facts, however, point in exactly the opposite 
 direction, showing the Bengal ryots to be generally 
 prosperous and those of Madras, Bombay, and the 
 
48 
 
 North- Western Provinces to be more or less im- 
 poverished and destitute, in proportion to the 
 frequency and severity of the settlements to 
 which they have been subjected. 
 
 Class III. Opponents under this class, namely 
 persons who have formed their judgment on the 
 matter in question, upon the opinions of others, 
 are perhaps the most numerous. One typical case 
 may, however, suffice to show that the ground upon 
 which they base their antagonism to permanent 
 settlements, has been accepted by them without 
 that scrupulous examination which the importance 
 of the subject requires. 
 
 Mr. James Caird, C.B., in his Notes on the land 
 and people of India, published in the Nineteenth 
 Century for August last, said : " There are believed 
 to be twelve millions ryot holdings in the province 
 of Bengal one half of which yield less than 10s. 
 each of yearly rental to the proprietors. The 
 latter pay to the Government, under permanent 
 settlement, ,3,600,000, and receive from their 
 tenants 13,000,000. The difference, upwards of 
 j9,000,000 a-year, is not the whole cost to the 
 Government of the permanent settlement, for 
 thousands of acres of fertile land are left in jungle 
 in many parts of the Presidency, from the inertness 
 of the descendants of the fortunate zemindars to 
 whom the public property was made over for a quit 
 rent about a century ago. The object of intro- 
 ducing a class of large proprietors was attained by 
 
49 
 
 elevating the revenue agents to that rank, and 
 overlooking the interests of the ryots who for the 
 most part were the real landowners of the 
 country .... Whatever may be said of the 
 principle of that settlement, the inconsiderate 
 haste with which it was carried out, has, in more 
 than one shape, entailed a heavy loss on India. " 
 
 Nothing, however, can be more mistaken than 
 the account thus given of the permanent settle- 
 ment by Mr. Caird. 
 
 To reckon the loss of revenue from the per- 
 manent settlement at the difference between the 
 actual revenue and the rental of the landlords, 
 implies that, but for that settlement, the entire 
 rental could be taken by the Government as 
 revenue. If this were possible, how is it that in 
 the North- Western Provinces, where no permanent 
 settlement exists, the Government demand is com- 
 puted at only half of the landlord's rental, and, 
 even in this proportion, is not realisable with 
 regularity ? Unrecovered balances have annually 
 to be held over in those provinces, and remissions 
 have frequently to be made of revenue found to be 
 irrecoverable. There is nothing to show that the 
 Government could collect in Bengal a larger pro- 
 portion of the rental as revenue, than it has been 
 able to do in the North- Western Provinces, and 
 Mr. Caird's error in this respect will, when rectified, 
 reduce his estimated loss by 6,500,000. But there 
 is another error in his account ; his estimate 
 implies that 13,000,000 of rents could be collected 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 from twelve millions of tenants at the same cost as 
 3,600,000 of revenue is now collected from a 
 comparatively small number of landlords. It has 
 been seen that the charges incurred in collecting 
 11,220,877 of land revenue in Madras, Bombay 
 and the North- Western Provinces amounted in 
 1877-78 to 1,545,031. On the same scale, the 
 collection of 13,000,000 would cost 1,790,002 or 
 1,487,056 in excess of the present charge, 
 302,946 incurred in Bengal. The alleged loss, 
 by the rectification of the two errors, would there- 
 fore be reduced from 9,400,000 to 1,412,944. But 
 even this reduced estimate rests upon the sup- 
 position that Bengal would have been as extensively 
 cultivated and yielded as large a rental as at 
 present, even if it had not received the encourage- 
 ment and protection afforded by the permanent 
 settlement. Such a supposition is inadmissible in 
 the face of indisputable evidence to the contrary 
 and against the unanimous declaration of all the 
 authorities on the subject. 
 
 Mr. Caird goes on to charge the legislation of 
 1793 with a further loss of revenue, viz. : of that 
 revenue which the Government might have 
 obtained from the thousands of acres of land which 
 he says are left uncultivated in Bengal. Now the 
 area of Bengal is 156,200 square miles ; that of 
 Bombay, 124,102. In the latter Presidency (or 
 rather in a portion of it only, as has already been 
 seen) 2,238,272 acres of arable land were returned 
 as left uncultivated in the last published report on 
 
51 
 
 the subject. On what ground then does Mr. Caird 
 assume that the non-cultivation of a few thousand 
 acres in Bengal is due to the permanent settlement, 
 when a much larger proportion of the Bombay 
 Presidency, to which the permanent settlement 
 does not extend, is likewise left uncultivated ? 
 
 The other inaccuracies in Mr. Caird's statement, 
 such as styling the zemindars of 1793 fortunate ; 
 alleging that they had previously not been landed 
 proprietors, and that inconsiderate haste had marked 
 the introduction of the permanent settlement, do 
 not affect the question with which we are imme- 
 diately concerned. Nevertheless, it might be as 
 well to notice them, as they are parts of a state- 
 ment which seems to embody all the objections 
 hitherto raised to the settlement of 1793. By 
 that settlement the landlords were permanently 
 taxed to the extent of nine tenths of their rental ; 
 and, as the small margin left to them was insuffi- 
 cient for management and maintenance, a great 
 number of the so-called fortunate zemindars lost 
 their estates through their inability to satisfy the 
 revenue demand ; while the others had, for a series 
 of years, to raise funds in order to make up the 
 amount of the tax payable to the Government. 
 Few of the descendants of the original zemindars 
 are now possessed of the lands which their fore- 
 fathers held, the majority of the present land- 
 owners or their immediate ancestors having 
 purchased their estates from the Government or 
 from previous holders, at prices based on the 
 
52 
 
 condition of permanent fixity in the revenue 
 demand. 
 
 Then, with regard to the alleged inconsiderate 
 haste, it is negatived by the Governor- General's 
 Minutes of 18th September, 1783, 3rd February, 
 1790, and numerous other documents, which fore- 
 cast the permanent settlement, and show that the 
 measure had been under consideration for at least 
 ten years. Lastly, as regards the proprietary rights 
 of the zemindars prior to the permanent settlement, 
 Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, in the case of 
 Freeman v. Fairlie (Moore's Indian Appeals, vol. I. 
 page 341) says : " These documents are, in the 
 first place, the Eegulations of 1793, distinguished 
 by the name of permanent regulations. I think 
 that it is to be collected from these regulations 
 that the proprietors of land in India had an 
 absolute ownership of the soil ; that the soil was 
 not vested generally in the sovereign, but that the 
 proprietors held the property as their own, with 
 the power of disposing of it absolutely ; and that, 
 if not disposed of, it descended to their families." 
 
 It is deeply to be regretted that, upon a question 
 of vital importance, a question literally of life and 
 death to millions of our fellow subjects in India, 
 Mr. Caird, when making his statement, should 
 have omitted all notice of the overwhelming 
 authorities which I have quoted on the other side ; 
 authorities which include Governors- General, 
 Governors, and other Indian officials of the highest 
 rank, 
 
53 
 
 The eminent position in which Mr. Caird stands 
 before the public, as a member of the Indian 
 Famine Commission, entitles him, of course, to 
 respect ; but it would be idle to set his testimony 
 on a point of this kind above the authorities I have 
 named. This much it would be reasonable to say 
 even if his statements in the Nineteenth Century 
 were the result of his personal observations. But 
 upon a closer view, it will be seen that the parti- 
 cular statements which are alluded to here, were 
 recorded upon the writer's very first entrance in 
 Bengal, when he could but very partially have 
 observed the condition of things in that province. 
 This becomes clearer still when it is found that 
 facts more relevant to the object of his journey, 
 such as the greater extent of cultivation, the more 
 prosperous condition of the cultivators and the 
 consequent power of the people to tide over 
 seasons of drought, in Bengal than in the provinces 
 he previously traversed, are passed over in silence ; 
 and that, while attention is drawn to the large 
 rental in Bengal; its rapid growth, under the 
 influence of the permanent settlement, from 
 3,000,000 to 13,000,000, is passed over without 
 observation. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Enough has doubtless been said in the foregoing 
 pages to show the great importance of the questions 
 which are raised in the petition of the British 
 
54 
 
 Indian Association of Calcutta. Of the six 
 points specified at the commencement of this 
 Paper, four need little discussion under a 
 Liberal administration, since the principles 
 involved in them and their applicability to India, 
 have repeatedly been proclaimed by the leaders of 
 the Liberal party ; while the prayer for judicial 
 reform and for the fulfilment of a pledge given in 
 the Queen's proclamation on a most solemn occasion, 
 will doubtless enlist the sympathy of Conservatives 
 and Liberals alike. The Press Act and the Arms 
 Act were, it is true, passed under a Conservative 
 Government ; but to a large number of Conserva- 
 tives they seemed to have been based upon an 
 erroneous estimate of public opinion and feeling in 
 India ; and as Indian questions have hitherto, as a 
 rule, been dealt with, uninfluenced by party feelings, 
 it is earnestly to be hoped that those, upon whose 
 decision the fate of India so greatly depends, will 
 consider with impartiality the suggestions sub- 
 mitted in the memorial. 
 
 Opinions are likely to differ chiefly upon two 
 points. Few, perhaps, will deny the necessity or 
 the expediency of granting popular representation 
 to the people of India, as the principle of the 
 measure was recognised twenty years ago by 
 Parliament ; but opinions differ as to the form and 
 extension which should be given to such a measure. 
 Difficulties in these respects, however, are lessened 
 by the extraordinary moderation which marks the 
 request of the petitioners, and by their suggestion 
 
55 
 
 that those forms should be adopted, which have 
 already been tried with partial success and are 
 susceptible of extension and improvement. 
 
 Then as regards permanent fixity in the land- 
 tax, it must be remembered that the policy is one 
 which, after a long investigation, has not only been 
 approved, and its application strongly urged by the 
 highest authorities, but that the Secrerary of State 
 for India declared in reference to it, that " after a 
 careful review of all the circumstances, Her 
 Majesty's Government were of opinion that a 
 settlement in perpetuity (under the conditions 
 mentioned in the despatch) was a measure dictated 
 by sound policy and calculated to accelerate the 
 development of the resources of India, and to 
 insure in the highest degree the welfare and -con- 
 tentment of all classes of Her Majesty's subjects 
 in that country." 
 
 It should further be remembered that land 
 owners in India, on the faith of the above- 
 mentioned despatch of 1862, laid out capital and 
 otherwise exerted themselves towards fulfilling the 
 conditions imposed in it ; and that the realization 
 of the hopes held out in that despatch has been 
 left in abeyance without any public declaration 
 having been made of the reasons for which a 
 policy initiated upon such high grounds was 
 tacitly annulled. To those who inquired into the 
 subject it is known that the retrograde move was 
 made on the representation of subordinate officials 
 whose influence exceeded their responsibility, and 
 
56 
 
 whose good intentions seem likewise to have been 
 greater than their sagacity this seems to be 
 acknowledged in official circles. 
 
 The position of the Government in the matter 
 is therefore an anomalous position, and one 
 which they cannot continue to hold without loss 
 of dignity, until they have satisfactorily accounted 
 for the abandonment of a policy so unreservedly 
 announced. Meanwhile they are open to the 
 charge of neglect in respect of a measure publicly 
 declared to be necessary for the welfare and con- 
 tentment of all classes of Her Majesty's subjects 
 in India. 
 
 The fallacy that pervades the reasoning adopted 
 by the opponents of the perpetual settlement will 
 be apparent when that reasoning is applied to other 
 lands and other settlements than those of Bengal. 
 Since 1793 millions on millions of acres in 
 Australia. Tasmania, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, 
 Canada, and other vast territories, have fallen to 
 the disposal of the British Crown. In dealing 
 with them, the Crown, or the local authorities 
 empowered by the Crown, preferred the mode of 
 selling for a capital sum, to that of reserving the 
 consideration money by the stipulation of a quit 
 rent proportioned to the capital value at the time 
 of the sale. Financially, however, the result 
 would have been the same had a quit rent been 
 agreed upon, since such rent would have been 
 necessarily the equivalent of the interest derivable 
 from the capital sum. If, therefore, the whole 
 
57 
 
 increase in the rental in Bengal, since the 
 introduction of the permanent settlement, con- 
 stituted a loss to the Government of India, as 
 Mr. Caird asserts, the increase in the rental value 
 of all the lands in the colonies, sold by the Crown 
 during the same period, must likewise be taken 
 as the measure of the losses sustained by the 
 Crown upon the latter transactions. But has any 
 economist or statesman ever represented these 
 transactions in such a light ? The above logical 
 deduction from the principle adopted by Mr. Caird, 
 leading, as it does, to an obvious absurdity, 
 might of itself suffice to expose the fallacy of his 
 reasoning with regard to the permanent settlement 
 of Bengal. 
 
 The great value of the settlement in question 
 is now apparent, not only in the punctual realiza- 
 tion of the land revenue, but in the vast increase 
 in the cultivated area of Bengal, in the value of 
 the products raised in that province, and in the 
 general prosperity of its inhabitants. In short, 
 the effect of that settlement has been to change 
 into a comparative garden what had literally been 
 a howling wilderness filled with wild beasts in 
 Lord Cornwallis's time. In the minutes drawn up 
 by that large minded and far-seeing nobleman 
 may be found a whole armoury of weapons in 
 defence of the course which he pursued. In the 
 settlement so made by him he conceived that he 
 had laid the foundation of the people's prosperity, 
 and he knew that their prosperity was the surest 
 
58 
 
 guarantee of their loyalty and reverence towards 
 the sovereign he so long, so well, and so faithfully 
 served. And events have shown that he was not 
 mistaken ; for in the prosperity of the people, and 
 in the loyalty to their rulers which they have 
 always shown, no part of India can rival Bengal. 
 Such is the tree, and such have been the fruits ; 
 and the Government would consult its own 
 interests best by extending the system that has 
 produced such results, and by not listening to the 
 suggestions to its detriment which I have had 
 to combat. 
 
Binder 
 
 laylord Bros., Inc. 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 . M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. 
 
 W43588 
 
 n 
 
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