THE 
 
 LAND AND LABOUR OF INDIA, 
 
THE 
 
 LAND AM) LABOUR OF HDIA, 
 
 BY 
 
 W. NASSAU LEES, LL.D, 
 
 N 
 
 WILLIAMS AND NOKGATE, 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ; 
 
 AND 
 
 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 
 1867. 
 
 
GENERA 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 FOUR years ago I ventured to publish a small 
 work treating- of the history and mode of conduct- 
 ing certain agricultural enterprizes in India, in 
 which the people of England are interested. Not 
 expecting that the subject, notwithstanding its 
 importance, would prove very attractive to the Eng- 
 lish public, the edition was small, and the book was 
 soon out of print. It was reviewed, however, very 
 generally, and its reviewers, as a rule, were far 
 more kind and considerate in their estimates of any 
 little merit the work may have possessed, and 
 far more lenient to its many defects, than I had 
 anticipated they would be, or indeed than I had any 
 right to expect. Some portions of the subject I 
 ventured to discuss were very difficult, particularly 
 those involving considerations of the land tenure in 
 India, and the duties and obligations of Government 
 in regard to the development of the wealth of the 
 country. My views on many points were opposed 
 to received opinions in England ; and some of my 
 
 99492 
 
iv 
 
 critics considered them at variance with sound prin- 
 ciples of political economy, and consequently erro- 
 neous. I was not surprised at this ; and had there- 
 fore no complaint to make against it. My chief 
 ohject in writing- at all was, that I believed then, as 
 I believe still, that though the principles of political 
 economy are the same all over the world, it is to 
 their judicious application to the circumstances and 
 conditions of things around us, rather than to a 
 blind adherence to the bald principles of the science 
 itself/ that we must look for the happiest results. I 
 thought, therefore, that I might serve some useful 
 purpose by attempting to show how widely different 
 are the conditions and circumstances of this great 
 Empire and its peoples to the conditions and cir- 
 cumstances of Europe and the peoples of any of the 
 great nations it contains ; and how it was the in- 
 ability of Englishmen generally to appreciate this 
 fact, which rendered so many well conceived projects 
 for the benefit of India barren of good results. 
 
 If, however, the many objected to my notions of 
 what was good for India and her people, and differed 
 from me in my opinion as to what, as between her 
 people and the dominant race, was equitable and 
 just, there were a few, and amongst them those 
 
whom, from their better acquaintance with the social 
 systems of Oriental peoples, I might naturally have 
 looked for a closer sympathy with the subjects I 
 ventured to discuss, who begged me to publish a 
 second edition. The book had no literary merit, 
 and my object in publishing it was not to court 
 literary fame. I sought rather to render my ex- 
 periences of a country and a people, and their insti- 
 tutions, which it is admitted on all sides Englishmen 
 find it so very difficult to understand, useful to the 
 many, who, whether resident in India or elsewhere, 
 have not had equally good opportunities of observa- 
 tion with myself. But the demand for the work had 
 not been such as to induce me to suppose that it 
 would be widely read, and I did not therefore fur- 
 ther obtrude my opinions on the public. 
 
 Circumstances however have altered materially 
 since then. When my Review was written (1862), 
 the operatives of the manufacturing districts of 
 England were suffering from the severities of the 
 famine which followed the stoppage of the cotton 
 supplies which ensued on the breaking out of the 
 American war. A cry had been raised in England 
 with the view of inducing Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment to compel the natives of India to grow suffi- 
 
VI 
 
 cient cotton to keep the looms of Manchester and 
 Lancashire in full work, and thus save the trade of 
 the cotton spinners from ruin, and the operatives 
 from starvation. But no guarantee was offered that 
 the cotton would be bought when grown, nor any fore- 
 thought or regard shown for the lamentable conse- 
 quences that would have overtaken the people of 
 India, if millions of acres of land having been 
 sown with cotton, the American war should have 
 ceased before the crop was reaped. 
 
 I had hoped that some more solid benefit to 
 India than enriching the cotton dealers of Bombay 
 would have resulted from the circumstances of Eng- 
 land in 1862 ; but unfortunately those who pressed 
 their views in the direction above-mentioned on Lord 
 Halifax (then Sir Charles Wood), while thousands 
 of their countrymen were suffering from want around 
 them, had not any more practical measures to 
 propose for the regeneration of the agricultural 
 interests of this country, and for the relief of the 
 poor starving operatives at their doors, than dis- 
 cussions on the abstract principles of political 
 economy. I had hoped also that the lesson which 
 experience had taught, and I had humbly laboured 
 to expound in 1862, if read at all, would not be 
 
Vll 
 
 unproductive of beneficial results from a different 
 point of view. I had hoped, for famine was then 
 stalking abroad in this country, that the great 
 want of India, a comprehensive system of canals 
 and works of irrigation and drainage, to save rich 
 provinces from devastation and their populations 
 from frequent decimation, would long have been 
 taken into serious consideration; that the orders 
 regarding the redemption and permanent settle- 
 ment of the land revenue would have been re-con- 
 sidered ; and that some amelioration would have 
 been made in the laws which are now yearly 
 impoverishing India, by suffering an appreciable 
 portion of the population her most precious wealth 
 to be transported to foreign lands. 
 
 But my hopes were not realized. A terrible 
 famine visited Orissa, a rich and populous Province, 
 and parts of Lower Bengal, last year. When at 
 its height, when the people were dying of starvation 
 at the rate, it is said, of four thousand a week, in 
 the year 1866, the authorities, who held in their 
 keeping the land revenues of Bengal, adopted a 
 course very similar to that adopted by the cotton 
 spinners of Manchester in 1862. At the time the 
 
viii 
 
 public expected them to be up and doing, when the 
 curtain was raised they were found sitting 1 round a 
 board of green cloth discussing " sound principles/' 
 and refusing to supply food for the starving mil- 
 lions around them, although the public were will- 
 ing to pay for it, because, to use their own words, 
 " On general grounds they had a very strong ob- 
 jection to interfere with the course of trade." 
 Indeed, if their own expressions are any guide 
 it would seem as if they looked on approvingly at 
 the rise of prices which was gradually placing food 
 altogether beyond the reach of these poor unfortu- 
 nate people, for on the 22nd of May, 1866, they 
 addressed Government as follows : " No doubt the 
 " present high prices are partly due to a renewed 
 ci failure of the crops this year. A legitimate cause 
 " that may rightly and safely be left to produce its 
 " own effect^ 
 
 The Lieut.- Governor of Bengal has been plenti- 
 fully accused of neglecting the starving multitudes 
 committed to his care, and whether justly or unjustly 
 it is not for me to say. But, if every other act of his 
 Government was a mistake, he deserves praise for 
 the censure conveyed in the following paragraphs of 
 
IX 
 
 his Secretary's (the Honourable Ashley Eden's) letter 
 of the 28th May last : 
 
 2. a It will be seen from the accompanying* copy 
 " of a telegram from the Superintending 1 Engineer, 
 " Cuttack, received under endorsement from the Public 
 " Works Department of this Government, No. 76 T, 
 " dated the 26th instant, that, in that officer's opinion, 
 " it is rice that is wanted in Orissa, not money , and I 
 (< am to request that the Board will be good enough 
 " to consider the question of importation with reference 
 " to the price of rice, and the possibility of importing 
 " it at a cheaper rate than it can be purchased on the 
 " spot, and not with any reference to the propriety or 
 " otherwise of Government interference, or to the fear 
 " of underselling- local dealers. 
 
 3. " With reference to paragraph 6, I am to say 
 "that if the possibility of a renewed failure of the 
 " crops has any effect in maintaining present high 
 " prices, this is an additional reason for alleviating 
 " present distress by the application of means provided 
 u by private charity. I am therefore to request that 
 " the Board will give renewed and immediate attention 
 ff to the question of importing rice in the distressed 
 
 " districts, and to add that the Lieutenant-Governor 
 
 I 
 
"is not at all satisfied that the information in the 
 " Board's possession is such as to support their 
 u confident opinion that such importation is unne- 
 
 " cessar 
 
 4. " With reference to paragraph 8, 1 am to request 
 " the Board will furnish the Eelief Committees with 
 '* general instructions for the disposal of the money 
 " placed in their hands, to furnish weekly statistical 
 a returns of the number of people relieved at each 
 "station ; the quantity of food distributed ; the labour 
 " performed, and other useful particulars ; so that the 
 " Board may know what is being done, and be in a 
 " position to furnish a comprehensive report, when 
 ' the necessity for further relief has ceased." 
 
 Apart altogether from considerations of humanity 
 in the present under-populated state of India, the 
 disappearance off the face of the earth of a million of 
 people, most of them cultivators of the soil, is a loss of 
 wealth to this country, and a loss of revenue to the 
 State, that years of prosperity and plenty will not 
 replace. But this is a view of the case, which the 
 lie venue authorities probably could not comprehend, 
 and which, until this rich and wealthy country has 
 the benefit of a Minister of Commerce and Trade, 
 
XI 
 
 is not likely, I fear, to be well understood, or very 
 generally appreciated either here or in England. 
 
 An office, however, has within the last few 
 months been created by the Secretary of State, 
 which is specially charged with the duty of examining 
 into the wants of the country, in regard to canals 
 and works of irrigation ; and I have been given to 
 understand that orders have been issued to stay 
 further action in the matter of the redemption of the 
 land revenue, or the general institution of a perma- 
 nent settlement. I have been induced, therefore, to 
 publish some extracts from my previous observations 
 on these subjects, in the hope that they will attract 
 more attention now than they did four years ago. 
 With the experience of the last few years, I might 
 perhaps have re-written my remarks with advantage ; 
 but I preferred to leave them as they before stood, 
 resting content with purely verbal corrections in the 
 text, and a few foot notes, to which I have appended 
 the date in which they were written. And my 
 reason for so doing, is that, however opposed to 
 received opinions in England, my views on some 
 portions of the very difficult subjects I have treated 
 may appear, I am convinced that the general policy 
 
xii 
 
 I have proposed will be found to be for India, not 
 only the best in the end ; but the only one that can 
 be adopted with the concurrence and good will of 
 the people, and at the same time afford a reasonable 
 prospect of success. 
 
 CALCUTTA, 15th January, 1867. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Of sound Principles of Trade, as applied to Agricultural 
 
 Experiments in India . . ,1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of certain Peculiarities in the Circumstances and Condi- 
 tion of India, not found in the countries of Europe 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the Millions of Acres of Culturable Land that now 
 lie waste in India ; how to bring them into Cultiva- 
 tion . . . . .56 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of the Rights of the People of India in the Soil ; Rights 
 
 of Occupancy . . . .98 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Rights of the State, or the Community in the Soil, 
 
 and their Sale or Commutation . . 129 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of the Population of India, and the erroneous opinions 
 
 which prevail regarding it . . 191 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Of the enormous "Wealth of India, and the absence of 
 Capital available for works of public or private enter- 
 prise ..... 227 
 
 APPENDIX 249 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF SOUND PRINCIPLES OF TRADE AS APPLIED 
 TO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 
 
 IN the discussions which have lately taken place 
 in Great Britain regarding the Cotton Famine, the 
 Free Traders of Manchester have been liberally 
 accused of abandoning 1 the principles of sound poli- 
 tical economy, and plentifully sneered at for propos- 
 ing to the Government of India to turn " Cotton 
 Merchant."* The Manchester Chamber of Com- 
 merce in reply on the 16th July, 1862, passed the 
 following Resolution : 
 
 " That any direct interference with the regular course of 
 production and trade, either by the Government of this country, 
 or by any private association, by undertaking to purchase, or 
 giving a guarantee, of a remunerative price, for all the cotton 
 that might be produced, would be contrary to sound principles 
 of trade, and being only temporary, and precarious in its 
 nature, would not be likely to provide for the permanent suc- 
 cess of its cultivation." 
 
 I see no occasion for the sneers on the one hand, 
 nor the Resolution on the other. The Governments 
 of half the Countries in Europe, are Tobacco Mer- 
 
 * See The Times of 3rd July, 1862, letters signed an Old 
 Indian, and many others. 
 
 B 
 
chants. The Government of India has been an 
 Opium Merchant for years, with great advantage 
 to the revenues of the State ; it is still a Tea Mer- 
 chant with very great prospective benefit to its sub- 
 jects both European and Native, and to the com- 
 mercial interests of both England and India ; and 
 would that, in the latter sense, the Government of 
 India were also a Cotton Merchant, is a sentiment 
 that I am sure will be heartily echoed by every one 
 tvho feels for the lamentable circumstances of the 
 starving Operatives of the manufacturing districts 
 of England, and who takes any real interest in the 
 welfare of India. A historian tells us that an 
 Emperor once set fire to his Capital and sung an 
 ode while the flames reduced it to ashes. It is not 
 true. Nor have we here a parallel. Yet, I honestly 
 confess, that the melancholy reflection such an 
 idea gives rise to, involuntarily occurs to me when I 
 observe people in the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, while grim Famine is stalking outside their 
 doors, with nothing more practical to propose, than 
 a discussion on the abstract principles of political 
 economy, which have nothing whatever to do with 
 the question !* 
 
 When a very much greater quantity of any 
 commodity is thrown on a market, than the buyers 
 in that market require, or will readily carry off, as 
 
 * This is precisely what the Bengal Board of Revenue did 
 when a million of people were perishing for want in Orissa last 
 year : January, 1867. 
 
regards that commodity, there is said to be a glut. 
 The natural consequence is that prices fall. 
 
 When the converse takes place, i. e. when a very 
 much lesser quantity of any commodity than is re- 
 quired, is offered for sale, the market is said to be 
 stinted. The natural consequence is that prices 
 rise. 
 
 But 7 in both cases, values remain the same ; and 
 by the common lam, which, in markets regulated by 
 recognized principles of commerce, compels an equi- 
 librium between real and apparent values, disturbing- 
 influences removed, prices are soon adjusted. 
 
 All this, however, pre-supposes realities, actual 
 existences, to deal with. But cut these off) and 
 how stands the case ? Supposing, for instance, one 
 country to be wholly dependent on another for the 
 supply of any particular commodity, and a rebellion 
 suddenly to break out in the former, or a war 
 between the two. The supply is, of course, sud- 
 denly stopped. As regards that particular com- 
 modity in the market, then, howsoever great tha 
 demand, there can be neither real nor apparent 
 value. It is non est, and trades existing on it are 
 starved. Or if, from a similar cause, the supply, 
 though not entirely cut off, should be reduced so 
 low as to meet but an inappreciable portion of the 
 demand, the result is much the same. This is called, 
 I believe, a Crisis ! 
 
 The laws and principles of Political Economy, as 
 far as with the aid of modern authorities I have been 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 able to make myself acquainted with them, will not 
 help any one here. Smith, who walks about the 
 market with his breeches pockets full of sound prin- 
 ciples as they are called, will then be no better oft* 
 than his neighbour Jones, who flings the said prin- 
 ciples overboard at once : and a few months later 
 or after supplies in stock have been worked off* 
 while Jones, if he has made good use of the interval, 
 to seek, or create by his own exertions, a new source 
 of supply, may possibly be floating buoyantly on the 
 surface, Smith will have sunk to the bottom, never 
 to rise again. And it is for the purpose of averting- 
 these calamities, which, when they befall us, no 
 Government aid, no human knowledge or skill 
 will suffice to ward off, that wise Nations avoid 
 being- dependent on any one foreign Country for 
 supplies necessary to the well being of any large 
 body of their people. It seems almost ludicrous to 
 be talking* " first principles/' at this hour of the day. 
 But, if people re ill preach, and will act, as if they 
 supposed the pharmacopoeia of Economic Science, 
 contained remedies for all the ills that trade is heir 
 to, and pertinaciously ignore the fact, that the mar- 
 kets of the commercial world are subject to per- 
 turbations altogether outside and beyond the control 
 of its Laws, there is no help for it. 
 
 The Cotton Spinners were quite right when they 
 asserted that the Cotton Merchant should no more 
 grow his own cotton, than the Miller should grow 
 his own wheat. According to universal custom, a 
 
grower is one thing 1 a manufacturer another. But 
 if in a time of failure in cereal crops, a miller could 
 obtain supplies of wheat, by growing- it himself, at 
 home or abroad, and by no other means, I am not 
 prepared to say that that miller would be the wisest 
 in his generation, who sat down in his counting- 
 house, and refused to do so ; because it was not in 
 accordance with c sound principles of trade/ 
 
 There are other points as regards the principle 
 portion of the subject, which, having 1 a material 
 bearing 1 on the questions relating- to India, it is im- 
 portant should not be lost sight of in discussing 
 matters of the kind where India alone is concerned, 
 or where commercial relations between her and the 
 mother country are called into existence. In the 
 first instance, it must be recollected that propositions 
 based on principles of Political Economy, are true, 
 only, in so far as the conditions and laws which 
 regulate them are allowed free and unrestricted 
 action. Thus, the entire theory of value and prices, 
 as here alluded to, rests on the assumption of a state 
 of society, in which that healthy competition which 
 arises from the self interest of all parties concerned, 
 exists. Here the idea has not yet been born. 
 Again, in drawing conclusions in accordance with 
 the laws of this Science, such an amount of know- 
 ledge on the part of buyers and sellers, as will 
 admit of both making themselves acquainted with 
 the ordinary circumstances and conditions of the 
 trade in which they are engaged, and sufficient 
 
6 
 
 intelligence to enable each to know what is best for 
 his own interests, must be premised. Neither the 
 one nor the other can be predicted of Indian traders 
 generally. Nor would I be understood to restrict 
 the circumstances under which conclusions drawn 
 from premises so based, will be true, to these cases 
 only. The laws and conditions by which proposi- 
 tions in Economic Science are determined, must be 
 recognized, accepted, and acted on by both parties 
 in their dealings, or they will be, in a great measure, 
 if not wholly, inoperative. And this must be ob- 
 vious : for, to take a case in point, suppose our 
 friend Smith, in full prescience, himself, of the 
 remedies which the principles of his science suggest 
 for the indisposition or malady under which his 
 trade may be suffering-, quietly to recline in his easy 
 chair, in the confident assurance that his distant 
 relative Jones, who alone possesses the means of 
 relief, will, for his own advantage, at once hurry to 
 his assistance and, from ignorance of Smith's 
 deplorable circumstances, or failing to see that his 
 interest lies in relieving his sufferings, or from any 
 cause whatever, Jones does not do so, Smith's trade 
 will, in ordinary course, languish, and ultimately 
 die. 
 
 But leaving* this unfortunate victim of sound 
 principles in the slough in which he has been 
 involved by his own folly, let us attempt some 
 diagnosis of the disease of his trade. It is not 
 very long ago since the elder Smith, Adam Smith, 
 
as he was called, took England, or rather Europe, 
 by surprise, by presenting- the world with his 
 e Wealth of Nations/ Now Adam Smith knew a 
 great many things that his contemporaries did not 
 know. In his speciality, it may very fairly be said, 
 that he was far in advance of his age. Yet expe- 
 rience has shown that Adam Smith's knowledge 
 was defective ; and that his opinions, on very many 
 points, were erroneous. The statement of this fact, 
 is no disparagement to the great reformer. It 
 would simply be very disparaging to civilized 
 Europe to suppose that she had stood still on the 
 same spot where he left her so many years ago. 
 But Europe has not stood still. She has vindicated 
 civilization, and progressed very far in advance of 
 her old position, so far, that, as Mohammadans 
 call the age preceding the mission of their Prophet, 
 the ' days of ignorance/ modern Economists would 
 not, I dare say, care to dispute the point with me, 
 were I to distinguish the period prior to the appear- 
 ance of the c Wealth of Nations/ as compared with 
 the present, by some such epithet. Certainly, look- 
 ing at the very long time it has taken Europe to 
 acknowledge the general truth of many sound 
 theories propounded by the elder Smith, they will 
 admit that, had the writings of Mill, llicardo, De 
 Quincey, and many others who have since success- 
 fully attempted a practical adaptation of the theories 
 of this science to the progressive advance in know- 
 ledge and social philosophy of succeeding periods, 
 
8 
 
 been exhumed from the debris of some ancient ruin, 
 a century before the birth of Adam Smith, they 
 would not have been received as Gospels. I use 
 the word progressive advisedly, because it must not 
 be forgotten that propositions in Economic Science, 
 unlike those in Ph} T sical Science, will not admit of 
 being- solved within limits bounded by the abstract 
 principles of the Science itself, and that if any 
 attempt be made to apply principles, without due 
 regard to the circumstances and conditions, social, 
 political, educational, &c., of the nation concerned, 
 it will end in the total absence of any result what- 
 ever, or such a failure, as will be more likely to 
 bring discredit than anything- else, on those prin- 
 ciples it is sought to vindicate and uphold.* 
 
 If then, it be admitted that the principles of 
 Political Economy, as understood and recognized 
 in Great Britain at the present time, would not have 
 been applicable in their full integrity to the circum- 
 stances of Great Britain in the ' days of ignorance/ 
 it will, naturally, I may say, follow, that to look for 
 happy results from conclusions, based on the un- 
 qualified application of these principles to circum- 
 stances as existing in the days of British feudalism, 
 
 * I am very much afraid that it is to a somewhat similar 
 cause, this Country is partly indebted for the destruction of 
 the Indigo trade in Bengal, for the present very lamentable 
 condition of the Tea Trade in Assam and Cachar ; and for the 
 death by starvation of a large number of the million of human 
 beings who pi-rished miserably in Orissa last year : January, 
 
9 
 
 would be to expect, more than this Science contem- 
 plated accomplishing* more than was ever dreamt 
 of in the philosophy of its best and greatest masters. 
 Without stopping-, however, to draw any com- 
 parison between the conditions and circumstances of 
 Great Britain in the earlier stages of her commercial 
 development, and those of India in her present con- 
 dition, I will pass on to say, that Englishmen, 
 generally, in dealing 1 with the questions of the 
 nature of that under review, are too prone to adopt 
 a line of argument, and more unfortunately still, a 
 line of conduct, not very dissimilar to that which 
 when exhibited to them in the above light most 
 people of common sense will readily admit not to 
 be the wisest. In other words, forgetting altogether 
 what Mr. Mill so aptly terms the dynamics of Poli- 
 tical Economy, they are far too apt to look at 
 economic propositions affecting* India, from the 
 statical point of view. Now before sitting- down to 
 examine a great question connected with the welfare 
 and material progress of England from the Political 
 Economy point of view, there are an infinity of 
 things, peculiar to England, to be taken into accu- 
 rate account, if it be desired to obtain a result which 
 will exhibit the least possible amount of error. And 
 when we take into consideration, the enormous area, 
 the large population, the great number and diversity 
 of races and languages, the numerous divisions of 
 caste, the different stages of education and civiliza- 
 tion of its various provinces and districts, and count- 
 
10 
 
 less other circumstances in which India is antipodal 
 to England, and regarding many, if not most of 
 which, moreover, the knowledge of the best informed 
 on Indian matters is deficient, sound Economists 
 will not dispute, that if the same laws which regulate 
 the system in England, without any allowance what- 
 ever being made for antagonism of ideas and differ- 
 ence of circumstances, be applied to India, they will 
 be met by disturbing influences quite sufficient to 
 upset the most accurate and nicely balanced calcu- 
 lations. 
 
 For after all, what is a system of Political Eco- 
 nomy ? Surely it is not a compound of aphorisms, 
 or syllogisms ! Nor yet, the heaping up of a stan- 
 dard of infallible principles, to which all cases, 
 occurring in nations in all stages of civilization, may 
 be referred, as to an undeviating Law I I do not 
 think so. As I understand it, it is, from our pre- 
 sent point of view, simply the judicious application 
 of such general principles regarding the production 
 and distribution of wealth, &c., as experience has 
 approved, to the business transactions of a nation 
 [or the world], as will best tend to the greatest 
 development of individual industry, and be most 
 conducive to the public good [or the welfare and 
 prosperity of mankind]. And if this definition be 
 right, it is quite sufficient to demonstrate that this 
 Science must be most intimately bound up with what 
 is called Social Philosophy : that it is eminently 
 practical, and has nothing in common with system/ 
 
11 
 
 of metaphysics, dialectics, or physics. Nor is there 
 anything- new in all this. Yet are these remarks not 
 irrelevant. For, any person who reads the discus- 
 sions being 1 carried on in every public journal in Great 
 Britain, cannot fail to perceive that the great Na- 
 tional question which now troubles England, is dis- 
 cussed by almost all, if not by all persons concerned, 
 as if it admitted of being- decided on economical 
 premises alone. The time may come when it will be 
 possible to do this. Some people of volatile imagi- 
 nations, disregarding- organic differences in the bony 
 structure of birds and beasts, still cling 1 to the hope 
 that we may yet fly. Countless skilful mechanics, 
 indeed, have constructed wing-s so cunning-ly de- 
 signed, that in their dreams they have soared beyond 
 even their own imaginations. But, like the artist of 
 the ' Happy Valley' who ' waved his pinions awhile 
 to g-ather air, then leaped from his stand, and in an 
 instant dropped into the lake,' all have similarly come 
 to grief. And such no doubt, to the end of time, 
 will be the fate of all, who by a misapplication of the 
 abstract principles of Political Economy to the pur- 
 poses of purely speculative reasoning-, attempt to 
 solve questions, essentially practical in their nature, 
 and inseparably bound up with the social condition, 
 and progress of the human race. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF CERTAIN PECULIARITIES IN THE CIRCUM- 
 STANCES AND CONDITION OF INDIA, NOT FOUND 
 IN THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. 
 
 IN India, we have very many stages of civiliza- 
 tion. By no means an infinitesimal part of the 
 country, is still, in the undisputed possession of wild 
 beasts.* Others are occupied by demi-savage races. 
 Large tracts of country are inhabited by semi-barba- 
 rous tribes. In a few districts the state of society is 
 nomadic. But, taking 1 a general view of the whole, 
 the great bulk of the middle and lower classes of the 
 people of the mofassil\ of India, may be said to be 
 in the Agricultural stage of civilization. Of course 
 there are, and were, when England was peopled by 
 Ancient Britons, many populous towns and flourish- 
 ing cities ; but by reason of the enormous distances 
 and great difficulty of intercommunication, these do 
 not exercise any material influence on the state of 
 society in the interior. The masses the hewers of 
 wood, and drawers of water, the tillers of the soil, have 
 
 * See Official Returns showing the number of natives de- 
 stroyed annually by alligators, tigers, wolves, and other wild 
 animals, and those who die from the effects of snake-bites. They 
 average some thousands ; yet the fifth portion of such cases, 
 are never reported. In Sindh, alone, the number of deaths 
 from snake-bites, is enormous. 
 
 f Ihe country, as opposed to cities or towns. 
 
13 
 
 little, indeed I may say no education whatever ; their 
 food is a few handfuls of rice, it may be wheat OF 
 pulse ; their clothing- covers their nakedness no 
 more. In many parts of the country the substrata 
 of the people hardly know what money is. Their 
 transactions, though nominally regulated by the cir- 
 culating- medium, are almost entirely carried on by 
 barter. They literally have nothing but the land, 
 and their interest in that generally consists only in 
 the right to live on and cultivate it a right, which 
 though indisputable, is often limited by the will of 
 their Zamindar, or what is a more secure tenure, the 
 custom of the country. Their crops however are 
 almost invariably under hypothecation to the money 
 lender of the village, or in remote regions to the no- 
 minal lord of the soil. In the North West, in Oude, 
 the Panjab, and some parts of Central India, the 
 people are better off; but in some parts of the Madras 
 Presidency the condition of the people is not so good. 
 Throughout India generally the raiyit, can seldom 
 call the crop his own. The cities and large towns 
 are, it is quite true, full of busy people well-to-do, rich 
 merchants and opulent bankers, who carry on much 
 trade ; yet, though efforts have, for some time, been 
 made by the Government to improve their condition, 
 by diffusing more widely amongst them the means of 
 obtaining education, the cultivators of the soil, who 
 are legally peasant proprietors, if generally happy 
 and contented, are still as ignorant as they are poor, 
 and live in a state of society little, if at all, removed 
 
14 
 
 from that in which their forefathers lived a thousand 
 years ag*o. I need hardly say, it is very primitive. 
 
 We all recollect the corn laws, their action, the 
 excitement their proposed abolition gave rise to in 
 Great Britain, and the intention and objects of that 
 measure. Before the abolition of protection, the 
 universality of some of the most important theories 
 of Political Economy had not been submitted to the 
 test of practical proof; and on this account, the result 
 of that great measure was doubtless looked for with 
 deep anxiety, by the thinking- part of Europe. That 
 it has triumphantly vindicated the truth of those prin- 
 ciples on which sound Economists took their stand, 
 I need not mention ; but I desire to draw attention 
 to the warm and animated discussions that took place 
 in the House of Commons at the time, and the very 
 strong- party of protectionists as they were called, 
 that rallied round the leaders that opposed this 
 measure, as evidencing- that, short a time ago as this 
 was, free England had not then, generally, given in 
 her adhesion to all the principles of a science which 
 now, it would appear, an influential section of her 
 people expect to be well known and acted on in re- 
 mote regions of the despotic East. But it will be 
 long-, centuries I am afraid, before India will be in 
 a position to comply with this expectation, at pre- 
 sent wholly unreasonable. Nor do I think a blind 
 adherence to the naked principles of Economic 
 Science, as applied to an island many centuries in 
 advance of her in civilization, will in any way tend 
 
15 
 
 to bridge the interval, or be conducive to the pros- 
 perity and happiness of the people ; but on the con- 
 trary, I consider that the adoption of such a course 
 will be productive of the very opposite results. 
 
 For, let us suppose some of theStates of Rajpoot- 
 anah, in the centre of which lies the little British 
 possession of Ajmeer, to be visited by a severe fa- 
 mine. As is the custom in like cases, the corn mer- 
 chants would, of course, buy up all the grain in 
 Ajmeer, and sell it in the dearest market within 
 reach. Now according* to the Common Law, as 
 much grain as was displaced by the purchases of 
 the corn speculators, should, for the same cause that 
 led to its displacement, pour into Ajmeer from other 
 neighbouring sources, and the equilibrium of prices 
 throughout the country be maintained. But, un- 
 fortunately, there is no Zollverein in Rajpootanah. 
 The native chiefs whose territories, on all sides, hem 
 in our little State, being non-principle men, not a 
 stone of corn would be allowed to pass their fron- 
 tiers. Consequently, in the prosperous native States, 
 the price of grain would never rise at all, while 
 British subjects would have to purchase it at famine 
 prices, a privilege which, could they understand 
 that they were the martyrs of 4 sound principles of 
 trade/ they might, perhaps, appreciate ; but being 
 very simple, and very poor people, entirely ignorant 
 of the many and hard fought pitch-battles that have 
 been fought on the floor of the British House of 
 Commons, between Free Traders and Protectionists, 
 
10 
 
 I have no doubt they would prefer adopting' the 
 customs of their own country, and would consider 
 the neighbouring- Rajas wise rulers, and their own 
 Government, either, very imbecile, or very cruel and 
 oppressive. Nor do I cite altogether a supposititious 
 case. Something- very similar actually did occur in 
 this district last year ; and such cases are almost 
 daily occurring 1 in some part of this vast Empire. 
 As I write i the Famine in the Deccan seems to 
 have become most severe, specially in the district of 
 Ahmednug'g'ur. The coarsest grain sells in British 
 territory at 8 seers for the rupee, but it is affirmed 
 that our own police obtain it at the rate of 16 seers. 
 On the Nizam's side of the Godavery the usual 
 coercion of the grain dealers has been resorted to, 
 and the rate of 18 seers prevails. But a cordon of 
 the Nizam's police all along* the frontier prevents all 
 intercourse from our side. The people of Ahmed- 
 nuggur let their cattle go wild, and themselves flock 
 in hundreds to the Railway works. The wells are 
 dried up, no rain having- fallen since June. We 
 fear this will affect seriously the cotton crop, July 
 being the sowing season.' * 
 
 Such visitations, human foresight cannot avert, 
 but it may be worthy of consideration, whether, for 
 the maintenance of an abstract principle, or an idea, 
 it is sound economy to suffer a whole district to be 
 
 * ' Eriend of India' newspaper, 25th September 1862. The 
 famine in Orissa last year is of course a stronger case in point. 
 January, 1867. 
 
17 
 
 devastated, . and hundreds of thousands of poor 
 people to perish with hunger, or be utterly ruined. 
 Famines, the visitation of God, are of too frequent 
 occurrence in all parts of India to create a very 
 lasting* impression in any, but their frequency and 
 their severity, renders it all the more imperative 
 that every protection that sympathy can suggest or 
 human ingenuity can devise, should be afforded to 
 the people against sufferings which, if all are 
 powerless to prevent, might yet by some means be 
 alleviated. From the badness of present means of 
 intercommunication in India, we are often compelled 
 to witness the singular and sad phenomenon, of 
 plenty reigning- in one province, and famine raging 
 in another.* Much has been done, and more is 
 being done by the Indian Government, to ameliorate 
 the circumstances of the country in this respect : but 
 it has often occurred to me to think, that a question 
 bearing so directly on the material prosperity of 
 the nation, and so interwoven with the welfare of 
 millions of Her Majesty's subjects, might be 
 placed on a different basis to that which it usually 
 occupies ; and that it would be well for competent 
 persons to examine, whether the outlay that would 
 be required to cover India with a network of roads 
 and irrigation canals, is not already exceeded by 
 the immense amount of wealih annually, and for 
 
 i 
 
 * Grain was selling in some parts of India last year, at one 
 maund or SOlbs. for the rupee ; while in Orissa, no more than 
 10 Ibs. per rupee could be obtained. Jan. 18G7. 
 
18 
 
 ever, lost to the country, by those fearful visitations 
 which periodically occur, with terrible severity, in 
 large provinces, and from which India, in some part, 
 is seldom entirely free. 
 
 We have before us a Continent as large as Great 
 Britain, and, Russia excepted, half the rest of Europe 
 besides. Its configuration is peculiar. A stupendous 
 chain of mountains, the highest and most massive in 
 the world, stretches along the entire north and north- 
 eastern frontier ] high table land occupies the centre ; 
 chains of mountains, or ghats, run down the south- 
 eastern and south-western coasts at some distance 
 from the sea. Mighty rivers take their rise in these 
 heights, performing in their course to the sea the 
 double duty of fertilizing and draining the countries 
 through which they pass. But the distribution of 
 these great arteries with their tributary veins, is not 
 equally favourable to the whole country, arid when, 
 as is often the case, a prolonged cessation of rain 
 takes place in any part, the result is one of those 
 frightful calamities with which North Western India 
 has lately been visited. On the other hand, when 
 rain is excessive, floods sometimes occur, which, sub- 
 m erg-ing the country on both sides of the river for 
 thousands of square miles, destroy the crops of the 
 cultivators.* 
 
 The mean quantity of water discharged by one 
 of these rivers, (the Ganges,) into the sea, through- 
 
 * It was a catastrophe of the latter kind which intensified 
 the famine of Orissa of I860. Jan. 1867. 
 
19 
 
 out the whole year, is 80,000 cubic feet in a second, 
 or 6,912,000,000 cubic feet per diern. But during 
 the rainy months the quantity is 405,000 cubic feet 
 in a second ; and, as the water of the (granges yields 
 about one part in four of sediment, it is calculated 
 that during- the flood seasons, there daily passes 
 down this river, a mass of matter equal to seventy- 
 four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of 
 Egypt. It is the alluvial soil thus transported by 
 the great rivers of the world, gradually deposited 
 and silently accumulated through ages, that has 
 formed those deltas, the productive resources of 
 which surpass those of all other lands. And the 
 most remarkable perhaps of these, is the delta formed 
 by the Ganges and Brahmaputra, the entire of 
 which will one day, probably, be reclaimed, and 
 form the richest tract of country in India.* 
 
 We are thus taught an instructive lesson by 
 nature, who, if she takes a portion of the water 
 which the Earth sends forth, returns it to her in the 
 form of rain, giving back to succeeding generations 
 of man, rich and fertile plains in lieu of the sediment 
 received with the waters. Consequent, in some 
 measure, on causes of this nature, the revenues of 
 the province of Bengal are nearly equal to a third of 
 the revenues of the whole peninsula of India ; and, 
 
 * A Company, the Sunderbund Eeclamation Company, was 
 projected in 1865, or two years after this was written, for the 
 purpose here indicated, but withdrawn in consequence of the 
 financial crisis in Bombay, which followed the conclusion of 
 the American War. January, 1867. 
 

 20 
 
 setting* aside the questions of humanity, and profit, 
 and taking- into consideration, only, the immense loss 
 of productive labour and wealth to the country by the 
 destructive ravag-es of famines, if future experience 
 establishes, even problematically, that a judicious 
 system of roads and water- works, would relieve it 
 from these visitations,* there would clearly be room 
 for the outlay of many millions sterling-, at a noble 
 profit. The time for such a mig-hty undertaking-, if 
 feasible, may not be come ; but the necessity for the 
 consideration of this, or any other measure bearing 1 so 
 directly on the existence of the population, is always 
 present. For, a famine, it must be recollected, is 
 not quite the same in its effects and results in this 
 country, as it is in most countries in Europe. There, 
 there is, for the most part, an interval between the 
 failure of the crops and the period of utter starva- 
 tion, in which husbanded stores and private charity, 
 serve to keep the wolf from the door. Besides 
 which there are many out-lets. In the last famine 
 which took place in Ireland, upwards of a million of 
 people found labour and plenty within a ten days' 
 voyag-e of their homes. But here, how are the pea- 
 sant proprietors and cultivators prepared for such a 
 calamity ? In place of the husbanded store, there 
 is the debt to the Mahajan or Buniya;^ and charity, 
 where all are involved in like distress, is hopeless. 
 
 * See my lamented friend Col. Baird Smith's remarks, 
 regarding the Ganges Canal, in his report on the Famine of 
 1861. 
 
 f The money-lender or corn- dealer. 
 
21 
 
 Emigration, again, is barred by distance ; but were 
 it not so, want of means would render it impossible. 
 When famines then, occur in India, the people let 
 their cattle run wild, and deserting their homes, 
 wander about the country in search of food. The 
 Indian's love for his village-home is proverbial. To 
 desert it is his last resource. Thousands faint on 
 the way and perish ; and those who reach a great 
 city ? or some of those public works that Government, 
 in such cases, usually press on with more than con- 
 templated energy,* survive but to commence the 
 world a- fresh, with a heavy debt (if not remitted) 
 for the year's revenue of the land, that yielded no 
 
 * From a Besolution of Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of 
 Bombay, passed last month (Sept. 1862), honourable alike to 
 his wisdom as a statesman, his ability as an economist, and 
 his humanity as a man, I make the following extracts : 
 
 " The high prices to which grain has risen, and which, after 
 making allowance even for the effects of the recent fall of rain, 
 are 75 to 100 per cent, above the average prices of the last two 
 years, renders the provision of permanent and steady employ- 
 ment for all who require work, essential, to prevent great 
 distress, if not actual want, during the ensuing season. * * * 
 This state of things is aggravated by the prohibition placed by 
 His Highness the Nizam on the exportation of grain from his 
 Provinces, which usually furnish large quantities of grain to 
 the Eastern districts of the Zillas and Southern Mahratta 
 Country. * * * As it is of the utmost importance that 
 measures for relief should not be delayed, until the people are 
 bordering on starvation and have lost all heart : ,f His Excellency 
 in Council desires that the Public Works Department will 
 take immediate steps through the Executive Engineers, in 
 concert with the Collectors and local Native Officers, to 
 organize the gangs of workmen on such of the works above 
 mentioned as may be selected by the local Officers for imme- 
 diate execution." 
 
 t The adoption of an opposite principle by thfiLEoard of 
 Revenue in Bengal was a material cause of the/interestsjof the 
 famine in Orissa in 18G6. January, 1867. 
 
22 
 
 produce, and for the advance received from the 
 money-lender on the hypothecation of the crop that 
 was never reaped. 
 
 If such, then, is a true outline of the physical and 
 social condition of India of 18G2, it will not occasion 
 surprise if persons interested in its welfare and 
 with some knowledge of its circumstances, should 
 view, with some alarm, the daily increasing 1 tendency 
 of Englishmen to apply to India, in full detail, 
 systems of Political Economy, adapted to a people 
 in a high state of civilization, living- under a consti- 
 tution free as air a constitution which, if granted 
 to India but for a day, the first act of the legisla- 
 ture would be to vote every Englishman out of the 
 country. 
 
 Now, although I say this deliberately, I would 
 not be understood to imply that the British Govern- 
 ment is obnoxious to the natives of this country, 
 I simply mean to assert, that the ideas, the charac- 
 teristics, the religions, &c. of the two nations are 
 Distinct ; that the masses here are too ignorant to 
 have any political opinions at all; and that in respect 
 of place and power, the upper ten thousand of India 
 are in no way dissimilar to other people a fact 
 which the rebellion of 1857-68, I think, pretty 
 clearly established. But be this as it may, it will 
 not follow that, because they are willing to under- 
 take the task of managing their own affairs, they 
 are competent to perform it efficiently. On the 
 contrary, to place before the public satisfactory argu- 
 
23 
 
 ments and proofs of the converse of this proposition, 
 is the sole object of this digression. For, what I 
 desire to maintain is, that in proportion as the great 
 mass of the people of India, because they are in a 
 very early stage of civilization, are unfitted for self- 
 g'overnment, in such ratio is it the bound en duty 
 of the paramount authority, to interpose, and by 
 the initiation of improvements, adapted to the cir- 
 cumstances of the country, gradually to lead the 
 various races committed to its charge, up to that 
 point in civilization, from which questions affecting 
 the material progress of the Empire, may, with 
 advantage, be examined from a purely English point 
 view. 
 
 I do not suppose that there is any very great 
 originality in these views, and their soundness must 
 be so apparent to every competent thinker on the 
 subject, that it would be needless to dwell on them 
 here, were it not that we have daily-recurring in- 
 stances of their being overlooked, or forgotten, by 
 very able men, accustomed for years to deal with 
 economic questions only as affecting nations in a 
 high state of Civilization. It would be impossible, 
 perhaps, to find a happier illustration of what I 
 mean, than the imposition of an income tax in India. 
 Many Indian questions, involving commercial and 
 other special considerations, may have been com- 
 plicated or involved in failure, by being dealt with 
 by persons without any experience or special train- 
 ing in the department to which the particular 
 
24 
 
 question to be decided belonged. But in this matter 
 no such cause is assignable. The question was dealt 
 with by one of England's best financiers a gentle- 
 man sent out purposely to India, as being perhaps 
 the most competent person in the country to restore 
 a financial equilibrium, and one long accustomed to 
 deal with similar questions in England. The late 
 Mr. Wilson's idea was, ' that a principle good in 
 one place, is good all over the world ;' * and, if it 
 was sound Economy in England, 'that those who 
 enjoy the protection of the State must pay for it in 
 accordance with their means/| he thought it must 
 also be sound in India ; and on these points no one 
 will dispute with him. He was aware of the success 
 which had attended the application of this principle 
 to a tax on incomes in England, and that no tax 
 there was more easily collected, or better calculated, 
 on any sudden emergency, to enable a Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer to turn a deficit into a surplus. Why 
 the same very simple rule should not hold good here 
 though informed by the writer of these remarks, 
 as well as by many abler men he could not 
 
 imagine. 
 
 Now the late Mr. Wilson was undoubtedly a very 
 
 able man. He saw before him a yawning 1 chasm. 
 
 / 
 
 He saw also that it was hourly widening, and that 
 unless immediate and extraordinary measures were 
 
 * I quote from memory of a speech delivered in England 
 previous to his sailing for India. 
 
 t Speech by the Eight Hon. James "Wilson, in the Legis- 
 lative Council of India, 18th February, I860. 
 
25 
 
 taken to fill the void, it would involve him in ruin. 
 He set himself manfully to his task, and the despe- 
 rate situation in which he found himself placed, is 
 some excuse for his attempting- to ward off impending- 
 destruction by a measure which, if some warned him 
 to avoid, the European portion of the outside public 
 of the metropolis urg-ed him strongly to adopt, as 
 the surest, the safest, and the most just. But, had 
 Mr. Wilson's life not been early sacrificed at the 
 shrine of public duty, he would have lived to learn, 
 as his able successor, Mr. Samuel Laing-, almost 
 immediately discovered, that a tax, the incidence of 
 which in one country may be comparatively %ht, 
 equable, and just, in another may be unjust, in- 
 tolerable, and oppressive. For, if the amount that 
 will be willingly contributed by a people, be a fair 
 test of the suitableness and propriety of a tax and 
 I really do not think it is possible to find a better 
 no competent authority will now dispute that double, 
 if not treble, the amount collected, by every means 
 of extortion I am afraid, from the native portion of 
 the community on account of income tax, would 
 have been willingly contributed by them in many 
 other ways. Europeans were unanimously in favour 
 of a tax on income in preference to any other kind 
 of tax, arid Natives were as unanimously ag-ainst it, 
 and this fact alone g-oes a great way to aid me in 
 support of the position here taken up ; viz., that, if 
 principles remain the same, it is to their judicious 
 application all Governments, arid especially new 
 Governments, must look for success. 
 
so 
 
 There is perhaps no part of the wide range of 
 subjects embraced by the term Political Economy, 
 that is more difficult to define than what are called 
 the functions of Government. So vexed a question 
 is this that, though all may assent to the general 
 and broad principles on which other parts of the 
 system are based, on this point hardly two persons 
 will be found to think exactly alike. There are 
 two doctrines, however, which, though each admits 
 within itself of many shades of opinion regarding 
 details, may be said to form rallying points for two 
 great schools of Economists. The disciples of the 
 one, advocate the interference of the Government in 
 the business affairs of the people, on the ground that 
 it tends to advance the material progress of a nation. 
 Those of the other approve the laisser-faire principle, 
 and consider the interference of Government a mis- 
 chief, and the greatest hindrance to a nation's 
 progress. The former principle is adopted, for the 
 most part, by the continental nations of Europe. 
 The latter finds favour, and is often stretched to the 
 extreme limit, in Great Britain. Possibly it is the 
 experience afforded by the working of the opposite 
 principle, in nations where the interference of Go- 
 vernment has not always been exerted for the good 
 of the people, that has rendered Englishmen so 
 inveterate against the doqtrines of that school, as to 
 lean to the opinion that, if Government interferes 
 with the business transactions of the people at all, 
 it must be for evil. 
 
27 
 
 The fundamental principles of the one school are, 
 that the persons intrusted with the Government of a 
 Country, by their superior knowledge arid ability, 
 must be more competent judges of what is good for 
 the people than they are themselves ; and that by 
 their power and command of resources they are 
 better able to carry out all undertakings with effi- 
 ciency. It is thought, too, that highly cultivated 
 and wholly disinterested persons, such as are usually 
 placed in charge of State affairs, are more likely to 
 study the interests of the people collectively, than 
 persons whose sole principle of action is individual 
 self-interest. 
 
 The fundamental principles of the lauter-faire 
 school, on the contrary, are that every thing con- 
 nected with what may be called the c business of 
 life/ is best managed when intrusted to those who 
 are immediately concerned in it, without the meddling 
 interference of Government officials ; that individuals 
 are the proper guardians of their own interests; 
 and that the stronger the self-interest, the more 
 certain is the guarantee that undertakings will be 
 well and efficiently carried out. 
 
 Both admit that there are certain functions which, 
 of necessity, appertain to Government ; and these 
 are divided into the necessary, and the optional, or, 
 as I prefer to term them, the obligatory and the 
 expedient obligatory, as signifying those functions 
 which a Government cannot neglect without sacrific- 
 ing the interests of the State or of the people ; and 
 
28 
 
 expedient, as signifying those which may be neg- 
 lected without fear of these results, but from the 
 performance of which much, or the greatest, good, 
 jnay be anticipated. But here arises a difficulty 
 which sets both schools at issue, and regarding which 
 few of the disciples of either can agree amongst 
 themselves, viz. which are the obligatory, and which 
 the expedient ? Volumes have been written, are 
 daily being written on this subject: but none of the 
 arguments adduced from the ' abstract principle' 
 point, can possibly carry anything convincing with 
 them, for the very simple reason here dwelt on, that 
 the subject cannot be separated from social consider- 
 ations. The fundamental principles of both schools 
 if rightly applied, may be productive of very happy 
 results ; but if misapplied, of quite the reverse. 
 Indeed, there can be no comparison between the two 
 doctrines, for each properly contemplates an entirely 
 different order of things. The one pre-supposes a 
 state of society in which the people are not suffi- 
 ciently enlightened to manage their own affairs ; 
 while to admit the truth of the other, it is absolutely 
 necessary to assume an amount of education, intelli- 
 gence, and many other qualifications on the part of 
 the people, that will warrant the belief, that they 
 are the best judges, not of what they like, but, of 
 what is good for them, and this again requires not 
 only a highly cultivated, but a peculiarly constituted 
 society. Thus, if we take twenty highly cultivated, 
 and highly educated men, and set them around a 
 
29 
 
 board groaning* with delicacies, served by a chef of 
 distinguished merit, it will not follow that all, or 
 even a majority of them, will eat and drink only 
 those thing-s which are good for them, or that the 
 proportion of the twenty that will do so, will be the 
 same, if their number be composed of Eng-lishmen, 
 Frenchmen, Germans, Indians, Chinamen, or any 
 other of the gTeat families which compose the human 
 race. So it is with the business of life ; and it is, 
 consequently, wholly impossible to define, or deter- 
 mine, the proper functions of Governments in the 
 abstract, for it is abundantly clear, that those func- 
 tions which are obligatory in one state of society, 
 will be only expedient in another, probably un- 
 necessary in a third, and possibly mischievous in a 
 fourth. 
 
 When, therefore, I asserted elsewhere, that Go- 
 vernment intervention was necessary to solve a great 
 Indian agricultural question, I had no intention 
 whatever of combating- the abstract doctrine, that 
 matters of business or trade are best cared for when 
 left in the hands of those interested in them. Such 
 undoubtedly is the case where people have all the 
 qualifications necessary to render them the best 
 guardians of their own interests ; and looking- at the 
 cotton question as one of demand and supply con- 
 sumption and production, it will follow, that the 
 Indian authorities were unmistakably rig-lit, both 
 economically and politically, in declining-, in the 
 interest of England, to interfere between the cotton 
 
30 
 
 spinners of Lancashire and Manchester, and the 
 cultivators of India. 
 
 My object was rather to suggest to those who in 
 England's distress, see India's opportunity, and 
 desire to obtain for her from the present or any 
 similar crisis, those permanent advantages which 
 universal opinion seems to have decided her natural 
 and physical circumstances render her capable of 
 securing, that, looking- at the question from a higher 
 point of view, and in the interest of India, the case 
 is reversed \ and that the principle of non-interfer~ 
 ence, if sound in the one case, will be unsound in the 
 other, in direct proportion to the difference between 
 the state of society in the two countries. And, if I 
 have dwelt at length on the point, it is because there 
 has of late appeared a tendency, on the part of some 
 writers, to carry the laisser-faire doctrine beyond its 
 natural and legitimate limits, a course which, in a 
 country where the first g'rey dawn of modern civili- 
 zation is struggling* hard to make itself visible in the 
 darkness around, would be nothing short of advocat- 
 ing the abdication of one of the most sacred duties 
 of a Government situated as is the British Govern- 
 ment in India. For though, to arrest altogether 
 the onward tide of civilization when once it has set 
 in, is not easy, yet the neglect by a Government of 
 its obligatory functions and what duty can be more 
 obligatory than instruction cannot fail in a very 
 great degree to check its progress. 
 
 All great questions affecting the material pro- 
 
31 
 
 gress of a nation, and especially those connected 
 with agricultural experiments, may be viewed from 
 two stand-points the scientific and the commercial. 
 And it will be admitted that the business of the two 
 is so entirely distinct, that if those to whom one 
 appertains, meddle with the other, they are sure 
 to mismanage it. It will not be denied also, that 
 the two go hand in hand, neither being indepen- 
 dent of the other. In countries in an early stage of 
 civilization, the former, it will be apparent, properly 
 appertains to Government, for this reason, that 
 the people, from poverty and ignorance, are clearly 
 unequal to the performance of the task ; and, con- 
 sidering its bearing on the welfare and existence of 
 the people, the duty, in regard to agricultural 
 experiments of national importance, may well be 
 placed among those that are obligatory. In countries 
 in an advanced stage of civilization, the case, like 
 all others, is different. The people are so highly 
 educated, and so wealthy ^ that they are well able 
 to, and, generally, do perform efficiently the duties 
 of both departments, for themselves ; although no 
 country has yet reached that highest state of 
 advancement, of the Government of which it may be 
 said, that to aid the people in the discharge of the 
 first office, is not an expedient function. 
 
 The Government of India has always, moreover, 
 recognized these principles. I say recognized, 
 because, as must indeed be obvious, a Government, 
 the greater portion of whose surplus means has 
 
3-3 
 
 been absorbed by expensive wars, and whose time 
 and attention bave in infancy been devoted to 
 measures of self-preservation, in youth to foreign 
 conquests, and in manhood if it may yet be said 
 to have entered that period of its existence to 
 the work of consolidating- its Empire, has had little 
 opportunity of doing more. Hence it is that the 
 sources of immense wealth, existing dormantly in 
 this great peninsula, are yet so partially developed. 
 AVe have good ground for supposing that Tobacco, 
 Silk, Flax, Wool, and many other products which 
 are in such demand in Europe and America, as to 
 be sources of immense wealth to the countries from 
 whence the supplies are drawn, might be produced 
 here, of as good quality, and as cheap, if not cheaper, 
 than in any country in the whole world; and 
 amongst the number we may, with much reason, 
 place Cotton. 
 
 But with cotton, as with all products of commer- 
 cial value, for the supply of which there is any 
 competition, assuming natural capabilities for pro- 
 ducing them in the quantity and of the quality 
 desired, there is the equally important question of 
 cost of production to be decided, before it can be 
 expected that private persons will invest their money 
 in novel speculations, especially if attended, as 
 cotton cultivation in India appears to be, with con- 
 siderable risks. But as quantity depends generally, 
 on conditions already known, the desiderata to be 
 ascertained by experiment are reduced to two, 
 
33 
 
 quality and cost of production. And the grand 
 question at issue is : Whose interest whose duty 
 is it, to satisfy capitalists on these points that of 
 the people of the buying- or selling- of the con- 
 suming* or producing" Countries? There is little 
 difficulty in determining- that this duty if duty it 
 may be called ; vests in the people of the producing- 
 Country, for an opposite conclusion, would lead us 
 back to that simple state of society in which each 
 consumer (trader, family, or individual) supplies his 
 own wants. Independent, moreover, of this view, 
 as at the present day, no civilized nation supplies 
 all its own demands, to adopt the principle that the 
 consumer should be a producer also, would necessi- 
 tate his carrying- on his operations in a dozen, or it 
 mig-ht be, a hundred different places, many of them 
 under foreign rule, which would be impossible. 
 
 But, it may be urged, if the people of the pro- 
 ducing- country are infants, as the law defines that 
 term, and incapable of performing this office for 
 themselves, will not the duty then devolve on the 
 party, next most immediately interested in its due 
 performance the consuming- nation ? I venture to 
 think not ; but rather on the Government of the 
 producing- Country, which in such circumstances 
 is, in loco parentis, and bound, always supposing* it 
 to be manifestly for the good of the country to 
 discharge those obligations which her wards, by 
 reason of their tender years, are unable to discharg-e 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 for themselves.* Hence, we have the term Pa- 
 ternal Government, as signifying-, I assume, a 
 Government suitable to a country the people of 
 which are in a state of infancy -, and unfitted for the 
 management of their own affairs, or self-government. 
 As long then, as a country has a Government, in no 
 case can it be fairly said that the duty of developing 
 the natural resources of that country, devolves on the 
 people of another country. Nor, would it be wise 
 in any Government to dispute this position, for that 
 Government that would shift this responsibility from 
 its own shoulders, and impose it on those of irre- 
 sponsible agents, would retain no higher place in 
 the affections of her children, than that of a step- 
 mother, and would hardly have the same just right 
 to lay claim to advantages derivable from their in- 
 creased ability to bear taxation on attaining the age 
 of manhood. 
 
 This is a question certainty involving very high 
 and important considerations a question which 
 perhaps it would be better to leave in the hands 
 of men more accustomed to deal with those pro- 
 blems of political philosophy which Governments 
 are daily called on to solve, and one which I 
 should not have touched upon, were it not for 
 a confident conviction that the interests of both 
 this country and England will be better served, if 
 questions regarding India, involving interests of 
 
 * These remarks apply to experimental or model cultivation 
 only. January, 1867. 
 
85 
 
 great national importance be treated philosophically, 
 if at the same time practically, instead of being left 
 to be worked out on the principle of a theory wholly 
 inapplicable to her .present circumstances, by the 
 hap-hazard operations of individuals irresponsible 
 agents, acting often under the exciting influence of 
 a self-interest, which need not necessarily conduce 
 to the welfare of the country; and if by these 
 remarks I can direct the attention of deeper thinkers 
 to the subject, and thus contribute to a better un- 
 derstanding of the position and condition of India 
 in comparison with other nations of the world, I 
 shall have accomplished my end. 
 
 I would not, however, be understood to advocate 
 a French centralization, nor any of those strange 
 doctrines in economic science with which we are 
 occasionally favoured from that country ; nor yet 
 do I mean by the use of the term philosophical, 
 the introduction of that speculative theorism, so 
 much decried a few pages back. Of all systems 
 this latter is the most abominable the most mis- 
 chievous ; because, being* propped up by what are 
 called ' sound principles/ it often deceives or 
 mystifies the public, as a rule not the thinking 
 portion of the people, into the belief, that a policy 
 apparently so well considered and surely based, 
 will, in the end, be conducive to the best interests 
 of the country, whereas, all the while, it simply 
 indicates a total absence of originality of ideas, a 
 grievous want of common sense, and is the greatest 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 possible impediment to a nation's progress. On the 
 contrary, I advocate what appears to me to be the 
 most practical, and only practicable, method of 
 obtaining* the end all interested in India must have 
 in view, the development of her great natural 
 resources, in a manner, at once, the most expedi- 
 tious, and most beneficial to the country. 
 
 For, to take an illustration from common life, let 
 us suppose our old acquaintance Jones, to come into 
 the possession of an estate as large as Yorkshire. 
 His first business would naturally be to have his 
 property surveyed. His next probably to ascertain 
 its value, i.e. its capabilities for production, and 
 natural sources of wealth. Well, let us further 
 suppose him to discover that his property not only 
 contains the fine arable land in possession of the 
 tenantry already established on the estate; but large 
 tracts of virgin soil suitable for growing tea, coffee, 
 cotton, flax, hemp, &c. &c., lying waste and un- 
 cultivated; rich mines of coal, iron, copper, salt; 
 dense forests of valuable timber, &c. Now what 
 would be the proper course for Jones,* or any wise 
 man of business, under the circumstances, to pursue, 
 for the improvement of his property, the welfare of 
 his tenantry, and his own advantage ? 
 
 This seems a very simple question. It is one, at 
 least, that individuals find little difficulty in solving 
 daily, very much to their own and their country's 
 benefit. But let us follow the fortunes of Jones and 
 his estate. What will he do with it ? Well, having 
 
37 
 
 satisfied himself that his property, i.e. his lands, his 
 minerals, his timber, &c., are good, and that they can 
 be worked at a large profit, he will certainly not allow 
 his immense wealth to lie long dormant ; but will 
 proceed at once to take measures to develop it. 
 This he may of course do in many ways. The 
 usual method adopted is for a proprietor to let out 
 his waste land on such advantageous terms for a 
 limited period, as will induce his surplus tenantry to 
 bring it under cultivation ; or, should population be 
 scant, to effect that object by the introduction of 
 foreign labour. This Jones will probably do. With 
 regard to other sources of wealth, the return being 
 usually so valuable, he will very likely work them 
 himself or should his tenants be so enlightened, 
 active, enterprizing, and wealthy, as to be qualified 
 for undertaking such operations, he might find it 
 advantageous to effect an arrangement with them, 
 by which the undertakings would be worked, some- 
 thing on the metayer principle, i.e. the tenants 
 finding the capital and labour, and the proprietor 
 receiving a royalty of one half of the profits. This 
 plan would equally well effect the desired end the 
 lower strata of the people being enriched by the 
 working expenses, the higher by one half of the 
 profits, and the lord of the soil by the other. 
 
 But it remains to be considered what course 
 Jones would pursue if his tenants were all very 
 simple people, and possessed of neither enterprize nor 
 wealth sufficient to render them an efficient means 
 
38 
 
 to the desired end. The first idea that suggests 
 itself is, that in such circumstances, Jones would 
 be Forced to adopt the first mentioned plan ; that is, 
 having first satisfied himself, by the most careful 
 inquiry and examination, or by experiment, that he 
 had good ground to assume a profitable result, to 
 undertake the task himselfprovided he had capital 
 to carry it out, or security or credit on which to 
 borrow. And the latter contingency, of course, 
 assumes, that the anticipated return from the working 
 of the several sources of wealth on the estate, would 
 far exceed the normal rate of interest of money at 
 the time. 
 
 But, it will be objected, if Jones should have nei- 
 ther capital, nor credit, or be incompetent, or a 
 lunatic, or though none of these, should yet, for any 
 other cause, be unable or unwilling, to work out his 
 own prosperity, what would he do then ? Would he 
 not be obliged to sit down and wait until he should 
 be more favourably circumstanced or be compelled 
 to advertize in the journals of foreign countries far 
 and wide, that he had a fine estate capable of yield- 
 ing untold wealth in iron, gold, fibres, tea, cotton, 
 silk, and abundance of labour, and that any one who 
 liked was welcome to come and make his fortune 
 thereon, in the hope that some rich and enterprizing 
 people would come and help him. No. I do not 
 think it at all likely that Jones would adopt either 
 of these courses. Because, by the jirst, he would 
 probably cut off all hope of ever realizing the object 
 
39 
 
 of his aims ; and by the second, he would certainly 
 postpone the prospect to such an indefinite period, 
 that his grandchildren might never live to derive 
 any advantage from the result. For, supposing 
 Jones to be a good man of business and competent 
 to manage his own affairs, he would at once under- 
 stand, that people with money would require a far 
 better guarantee, Jirst, for the existence of the untold 
 wealth, and second, for the cost of producing and 
 bringing it to market, than was contained in his 
 simple assurance, before they could be induced to 
 withdraw their capital from undertakings in which, 
 if the profit were small, the security was unexcep- 
 tionable, to invest it in operations undertaken for 
 the improvement of an estate, separated by an im- 
 mense distance from their supervision and control 
 or before they would themselves leave .their homes 
 and set out with their capital to his assistance. If 
 he were a cautious man, too, he would foresee, that 
 even if a few responded to his invitation and failed, 
 as almost all pioneers do, it would damage the credit 
 of his scheme, and thus materially injure his pros- 
 pect of success. He would further be aware, that 
 careful speculators would view a prospectus holding 
 out prospects of brilliant success, but unsupported 
 by satisfactory data, with much suspicion, and would 
 naturally argue somewhat in this wise. ' How is it 
 if these speculations which Jones wishes to float on 
 the market, will eventually afford dividends unheard 
 of in Europe, that he does not work them, himself?' 
 
40 
 
 And if he were to allege that he had neither capital 
 nor credit, they would reply, ' Well, Sir, if with such 
 a noble estate, pregnant, as you tell us, with latent 
 wealth, you have not credit sufficient to enable you 
 to put your projections before the public, in such a 
 manner as ordinary people of business find necessary 
 to enable them to obtain the confidence of capitalists, 
 there must be some enormous risk, some mismanage- 
 ment in the interior economy of your estate, or some 
 other cause unknown to us, that unfits it for resi- 
 dence, or that renders your schemes uncertain or 
 unsafe, and makes it more advisable for us to keep 
 our money where it is or, at least, to hold back 
 until such time as we see people come from your 
 estate, laden with your iron, your copper, your cot- 
 ton, your tea, who will satisfy us that they are good 
 of their kind, and tell us what it has cost them to 
 produce them/ In the mean time, if Jones' income 
 and expenditure were closely balanced, he would be 
 compelled, on every sudden pressure, to raise his 
 rents, to enable him to live as he was accustomed to, 
 to construct roads, build bridges, and to perform 
 many other functions obligatory on all good land- 
 lords. Or, should the Sovereign, or the paramount 
 authority, have fixed the tenure of his lands, this 
 source of increase would be cut off ; and his only 
 alternative then would be the Money Lender ! 
 When this failed, i. e. when his credit was gone, or 
 so far gone, as to render it possible for him to obtain 
 money only at a ruinous rate of interest, he would 
 
41 
 
 be thrown back on his original position, and, aban- 
 doning all hope of improving his property, he would 
 be compelled to let it go to ruin, or, at best, to sit 
 down in inactivity with a heavy millstone of debt 
 about his neck, leaving the community of his ten- 
 antry in the same state of poverty as that in which 
 he found them. 
 
 And in such circumstances, it is very clear, that 
 the last state of Jones, would be worse than the 
 Jirst. 
 
 Jones, therefore, if a man of business and wise, 
 would not entertain either of these ideas ; but know- 
 ing that in entering on speculations promising a very 
 much larger return than the interest he was already 
 paying for borrowed money, every day passed in 
 inactivity was certain loss, he would immediately 
 set about developing the resources of his estate him- 
 self if he could. Or, commencing such experi- 
 mental operations as would enable him to lay his 
 projects before the public, with such convincing data 
 -such positive proofs of success, as would at once 
 guarantee the whole of his shares being taken up, 
 and insure him besides a handsome premium for the 
 risks incident on new experiments if he could not. 
 That Jones, if equal to the management of large 
 operations, should, tentatively, undertake the develop- 
 ment of the resources of his own estate, in preference 
 to having* recourse to foreign agency, would cer- 
 tainly be better for the community of his tenantry, 
 individually and collectively, and for himself. And 
 
42 
 
 this is clear. Because, while in both cases, the 
 working" expenses would go to enrich the labourers 
 (his tenantry), in the latter, receiving- all the profits 
 himself, he would be able not only to live with 
 greater splendour, but to spend a very large sur- 
 plus, in works for the improvement of his property, 
 and for the public good. In other words, the entire 
 portion of Jones 7 wealth would still remain on his 
 estate, the unproductive being* made productive 
 and the productive, as the natural result of the 
 greater prosperity of his tenantry, being increased 
 many fold. 
 
 But as the major part of the success of all under- 
 takings is good management, and as experience has 
 pretty well established that no system of checks 
 fully compensates for the absence of the e master's 
 eye/ it is quite possible that Jones, if possessed of 
 a very large estate, might find himself somewhat 
 embarrassed on this score. His time would be much 
 occupied with other pressing matters. He would be 
 busy examining the accounts of the collectors of his 
 rents ; looking after the settlement of disputes and 
 the punishment of offences ; giving instructions to 
 his engineers for the construction of works of utility, 
 canals, roads, bridges, &c. ; and other business con- 
 nected with the management of his estate ; and could 
 probably devote but a very moderate amount of 
 time and attention to operations undertaken with 
 the view of opening up new sources of wealth. It 
 would be a sine qua non, therefore, if he decided on 
 
43 
 
 retaining- this department in his own hands, that he 
 should retain at the same time an intelligent and 
 efficient agency, under a chief of ability, in concert 
 with whom he might work out his plans. And the 
 interest of the whole community living on the estate, 
 and of the proprietor himself, would be so great in, 
 and so bound up with, the result, that the necessity 
 for this would strike him at once. For always 
 supposing Jones to be a practical man he would 
 comprehend, that if he looked on this portion of his 
 business as secondary, and left it to be worked out, 
 in a hap-hazard manner, by persons fully occupied 
 with other duties, who had not moreover the special 
 knowledge necessary for rightly understanding it, 
 the whole of his borrowed capital would very likely 
 be exhausted in undertakings which, under such 
 circumstances, it could hardly be expected, would 
 turn out otherwise than expensive failures, barren 
 of results. 
 
 It often happens, however, that great landed 
 proprietors are not fond of entering into mercantile 
 or business speculations; sometimes from a mistaken 
 notion that such transactions are unbecoming the 
 dignity of high personages. Now Jones, being one 
 of a mercantile people, would not, probably, have any 
 scruples, on this score, about turning a penny for 
 his own or his people's advantage, provided he could 
 do so honestly. And it is a very singular fact 
 that, in those quarters where his nation is so much 
 sneered at on this account, we find the most august 
 
44 
 
 personages in the land violating the very principle 
 they profess to uphold. Thus, no one can travel 
 very far over the continent of Europe, without 
 running against Royal Manufactories of all sorts 
 manufactories for clocks, watches, porcelain, glass, 
 tapestry, &c. ; and workshops for every description 
 of material on the excellence of which may depend 
 the efficiency of the public service. Much may be 
 said, it is true, on the comparative merits of different 
 systems in regard to the latter ; but at present we 
 will not interrupt the course of our illustration, but 
 continue to accompany the progress of our worthy 
 friend Jones in his praiseworthy exertions for the 
 improvement of his estate. 
 
 But, if Jones would have no scruples about under- 
 taking business transactions, on the score of dignity, 
 it is more than probable that he would desire to 
 refrain, as much as possible, from interfering in 
 these transactions, from a well-grounded belief that 
 such a course would have a tendency to dwarf the 
 intellects, and paralyse the energies of his tenantry, 
 the tbews and sinews from which he hoped to 
 derive his strength the main source of all his 
 wealth. If Jones, then, were a man of sound 
 judgment, he would abandon any short-sighted 
 notions he might have had, of looking ultimately 
 to large profits derived from these sources, as a 
 legitimate mecins of recruiting his own finances, or 
 of improving his estate, His object would rather 
 be to hold such property in trust until the intellects 
 
45 
 
 and energies of his tenantry were so far deve- 
 loped, that they would be qualified for relieving- him 
 of his duty, using- the surplus profits, in the interim, 
 to supplement the deficiency in the contributions of 
 the tenantry to the general fund, caused by their 
 poverty-stricken and helpless condition. He would 
 carefully avoid entering- into competition with his 
 tenantry, and in this view would not occupy the 
 field a moment longer than necessity compelled. 
 There would however, of course, be an under standing- 
 bet ween Jones and his tenantry, on his making- over 
 his lucrative business, with all rights of direct par- 
 ticipation in the profits, and engaging to retire from 
 business altogether, that the loss should be made up 
 to him, either by a handsome roya%, or such other 
 arrang-ement entered into, as would make him a 
 joint participator in the general prosperity of the 
 community, and thus better able to increase the 
 efficiency of all departments maintained for the 
 public good. 
 
 But, if Jones should be compelled, or for any 
 reason should determine, to resort to foreig*n ag-ency 
 for the purpose of developing- the resources of his 
 estate, he would be relieved of the trouble and 
 expense of organizing and supervising- a large de- 
 partment to superintend and carry out operations 
 on an extended scale. The necessity, however, for 
 undertaking them on an experimental and smaller 
 scale, and of working them out to a point that 
 would enable him to satisfy those he wished to 
 
46 
 
 attract to his help, that they were good and would 
 pay, would still remain. This business, moreover, 
 would have to be very carefully and skilfully per- 
 formed, under the superintendence of competent 
 persons ; or experiments that should succeed, would 
 fail, and after the expenditure of much money Jones 
 would be no nearer the end of his aims than he was 
 before. On the other hand, if he would save himself 
 the trouble and expense, he must forfeit, as is usual 
 in such cases, considerable advantages. For, though 
 the condition of the operative classes would be much 
 improved by the working expenses, the profits would 
 not return to the country to be again spent in it, 
 but would go to enrich the foreign proprietors of 
 the stock. Still, on the principle that ' half a loaf 
 is better than no bread/ if Jones saw no other 
 means of developing his wealth, than by having 
 recourse to foreigners, he would probably lose no 
 time in adopting active and energetic measures for 
 attracting them to his estate. The working expenses 
 would certainly much enrich his people, and so 
 improve their condition that in time they might, in 
 turn, become developers, and at no very distant 
 date the necessity for the employment of foreign 
 aid might disappear altogether. 
 
 It will thus appear that there are three plans that 
 Jones, or a person situated like him, might adopt 
 for working out his prosperity. To leave the task 
 in the hands of his tenantry. To undertake it him- 
 self. To avail himself of the agency of foreigners. 
 
47 
 
 And in each case, the method I have pointed out 
 is that, I believe, which an ordinary man of business 
 would be compelled to adopt to obtain his end. 
 
 Now, the business transactions of a Government 
 differ in no way from the business transactions of an 
 individual, except perhaps in the greater magnitude 
 of their proportions; and consequently one great 
 secret of their success will always be, that they are 
 conducted on proper business principles. India 
 therefore, in my humble opinion, should adopt one 
 or other of these plans whichever appears to the 
 wisdom of her rulers most suitable to her present 
 circumstances and act upon it, as would any good 
 man of business, without delay. Thus, for instance, 
 if India has no interest in producing- cotton for 
 England, India is quite right to remain supine, and 
 to allow England to look for her supply of cotton 
 here, or there, or any where else she pleases, and 
 to adopt her own measures for obtaining it. For 
 that India should be turned into a field for growing 
 whatever England requires, altogether irrespective of 
 the interests of the people of the country, would be 
 a doctrine too monstrous to admit of argument for a 
 moment. But if India thinks that her climate and her 
 soil are suitable for the growth of cotton, and she de- 
 sires, for her own advantage, to secure a trade in this 
 article of fifteen or twenty millions sterling per annum, 
 but has not the means of doing it, then it is her busi- 
 ness and nobody else's business, to satisfy capitalists 
 on all those points regarding which cautious persons 
 
48 
 
 require information, before they will invest their 
 money in undertakings of this kind. But in any case, 
 where it is proposed that thousands of square miles 
 of any country should be placed at the disposal of 
 persons operating 1 in foreign markets, and millions of 
 people employed in cultivating- it, it will be for the 
 Government of that country carefully to consider 
 whether the distribution of profits will be such as 
 fully to compensate for the consequences resulting 
 from the displacement of produce, now for the most 
 part grown for home consumption. 
 
 In regard to lands now r lying waste, the case is 
 different. The results of placing them under culti- 
 vation with cotton, or with any other staple most 
 remunerative to the cultivator, provided the labour- 
 market will bear the strain, can bring nothing but 
 unmixed good to all parties concerned. But the 
 point in regard to the development of Indian sources 
 of wealth, that must be considered before any other, 
 is good management. It is quite superfluous to add 
 that without this nothing can succeed ; and unless a 
 Minister of State -or call him what you will be 
 appointed in India, whose special duty it shall be to 
 look after this department, there will be, not simply 
 a want of good management, but no management at 
 all, and things will go on much in the hap-hazard way 
 they have done hitherto, experiments being taken 
 up vigorously while a Governor-General interested in 
 their success holds the helm, and as quietly dropped 
 in the reign of his successor. I have not the slightest 
 
49 
 
 doubt that the archives of the Indian Government 
 could pour forth folios of reports, replete with most 
 valuable information regarding the natural products 
 of India, called for, but never used. Hence it is 
 that the same blunders, as remarked by Dr. Royle, 
 are committed over and over again and the Go- 
 vernment in time of need, is so often found running 
 here and there for information, which sometimes it 
 has paid very large sums of money to obtain, and 
 which might be found c shelved ' in the dusty pigeon 
 holes of some Secretary's office close by. Under all 
 circumstances there surely ought to be some one at 
 hand, better informed on these matters than any one 
 else in the country, whose business it should be to 
 counsel and advise the Government. As I write 
 the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce is deliberating on 
 its reply to a solicitation from the Government of 
 India for advice regarding the packing of seeds and 
 cultivation of cotton. I doubt not that the Cham- 
 ber's reply will contain as much information as could 
 be expected from any respectable body of ten or 
 twelve Englishmen of common sense whose business 
 is buying and selling, and not one of whom possibly 
 may have ever cultivated an acre of ground with 
 any staple whatever. Were there a Minister 
 specially charged with this duty, it would be proper 
 for him in all matters of national importance, to 
 obtain every information from private sources avail- 
 able, throughout the length and breadth of the land, 
 to analyse, and condense it, estimating the opinions 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 of all at their proper value ; and this risume, embody- 
 ing 1 also his own conclusions, he would submit to the 
 Head of the Government, who would then be in a 
 position to pass a final order. But I cannot help 
 thinking- that the Government of a country in the 
 circumstances of India, that has not such an officer, 
 and is dependent wholly on desultory sources of in- 
 form ation ; is altogether disqualified from efficiently 
 carrying 1 out any experimental operation of commer- 
 cial importance whatever ; and but very ill qualified 
 to render those private individuals whom it invites 
 to take on themselves the trouble, the risk, and the 
 cost of these undertaking's, that assistance which 
 they have a rig-lit to expect. 
 
 Eng-land has her Board of Trade with its Presi- 
 dent, a Minister of State. Almost every Govern^ 
 ment in Europe of any respectability, has its Minis- 
 ter of Commerce. And until India has her 
 Minister, with an efficient staff competent to take 
 charge of the vitally important and responsible duties 
 which in this country attach to such an office, I do 
 not think that the undirected and desultory efforts 
 of Government officials, or private individuals, will 
 effect a tithe of what mig-ht be accomplished in this 
 direction, with better management, in a quarter of 
 the time, thoug-h it is quite possible that they may 
 do a great deal of mischief. 
 
 We have seen what an able Minister in a very 
 short time has effected in Finance j* yet the work 
 
 * Mr. Samuel Laing. 
 
51 
 
 he had to accomplish was light in comparison to 
 what is left for a Minister of Commerce. Measuring 
 the extent of the improvement in the condition of 
 the people of India that may be effected, by that 
 which has taken place within the last few years, it 
 needs not an over sanguine temperament to believe 
 that, with the rails and electric wires which are now 
 interlacing each other, all over this vast Continent, 
 it is possible to crowd into the short space of a 
 generation, improvements in material prosperity, 
 that in older countries have been the work of cen- 
 turies. I say a generation, not that that period 
 would be necessary to effect in India a creation of 
 wealth unparalleled in the history of nations ; but 
 because the intellectual development of a people is of 
 slower growth, and must always be a work of time. 
 Many nations have grown rich in less than one 
 generation. But no nation on the face of the 
 globe, has made much intellectual progress in 
 less time. Nor will India. Yet until India is 
 educated, be it in one, or be it in ten generations, 
 the full development of her great natural resources 
 cannot be looked for; and until the fulness of 
 that time is come, the duty will be a burden on her 
 Government, which for its own sake, for the sake of 
 its subjects, it will be compelled to accept : for, let 
 it perform the task through its own agency, through 
 the agency of foreigners, or by any other means, 
 the responsibility will rest \*here it was at the begin- 
 ning, with the Government, and the Government 
 
 E2 
 
52 
 
 will not be able to shake it off. The Government, 
 therefore, if it desires to be free, should be active and 
 not passive ; seizing- with avidity on every opportu- 
 nity of opening 1 up new fields of wealth, and pre- 
 paring- them for those who it decides shall work 
 therein. But let Finance, Education, Commerce, 
 these three, be placed on a sound basis let there be 
 a competent head appointed for each, and I have little 
 doubt that all necessity for the direct interference of 
 Government will soon vanish, and India, wealthy, 
 enlig-htened, and prosperous, putting- off her swad- 
 dling- clothes, will walk alone, leaving- her Govern- 
 ment to look after such affairs of State only, as 
 older nations, b} r the common consent of the people, 
 think it better for their national honour and welfare, 
 should be manag-ed by persons appointed for the 
 purpose. 
 
 And here I think it as well to mention that there 
 is no necessity to see in this view a tendency to turn 
 the Government of India into a ( Royal Merchant 
 trading- to the East Indies/ or to establish it on the 
 model of the old Merchant Company of celebrated 
 memory ; nor yet a desire to support in the abstract, 
 the principle of a Government supply of capital. 
 Nothing- of the kind. I simply assert that the natives 
 of this country are not in a condition to work out 
 their own prosperity, nor to initiate or carry out such 
 experimental operations, as are necessary to induce 
 others to undertake the task for them, and that if the 
 Government of the country, does riot do the work, 
 
53 
 
 or encourage, or set up others to do it for them, no* 
 body else will. 
 
 ( In India/ I have observed elsewhere, ' we have 
 as yet no communes, no town councils, no mayors 
 or corporations, no religious and charitable societies, 
 &c. those noble institutions, which, while rendering 1 
 Englishmen a self-governing people, make the office 
 of Home Secretary comparatively a sinecure.* A 
 civil commissioner there, is a viceroy the Govern- 
 ment, both King and Father. Is a bridge, jail, church, 
 or school to be built, a road, railway, or canal to be 
 made, a country to be drained, cleared, or watered, 
 Government must do the work it alone must bear 
 the cost. No aid from interested parties is solicited, 
 or expected. No advice which local experience might 
 elsewhere render valuable, is looked for, or tendered. 
 The Government of India is the natives' Kamdenu 
 the cow upon whom all have a claim, and whose 
 powers of supply are deemed alike everlasting and 
 inexhaustible. To bear the herculean weight of its 
 burdens it must be provided with the shoulders of an 
 Atlas.'f 
 
 * Since the above was written municipalities have been in- 
 troduced into India ; but the municipality of Calcutta is already 
 nearly half a million sterling in debt ; and it has been stated in 
 the debates in the Governor General's Council, that the Octroi 
 duties in some towns are interfering with Imperial taxation. 
 Englishmen being birds of passage in India, it is very difficult 
 to entrust them with powers of taxation, and natives do not 
 understand the principles on which such institutions are formed, 
 nor do they appreciate what Europeans think essential to health 
 and comfort. 
 
 t instruction in the Oriental Languages considered, specially 
 
54 
 
 If, in the mean time, outsiders come ; by all means 
 encourage them, help them, and give them every fa- 
 cility for helping- themselves, provided at the same 
 time, they help India ; but good precautions must 
 be taken to ensure that they discharge both duties. 
 To cover India with thousands of middle-men, who 
 should take the place of the native money lenders, 
 as I have seen proposed, would certainly effect a 
 change : but I am not so certain that that change 
 would be for the better. On the contrary, it might, 
 indeed most probably it would induce a very much 
 worse state of things than that w r hich at present 
 exists for, whether true, or whether false, the native 
 cultivators would always believe that these middle- 
 men were backed by the whole weight and power of 
 the Government; and there is no reason to assume 
 that evils which existed for years under a somewhat 
 similar system with Indigo, in Bengal, would not be 
 perpetuated with other crops. The money lender is 
 undoubtedly in some respects a great evil : but he is 
 also in some respects a great good. Could Govern- 
 ment be the means of scattering far and wide over 
 the country a system of small commercial banking 
 establishments, undoubtedly it would confer a lasting 
 obligation on the people could it, by any means, 
 alleviate the evils of the present system of advances 
 it would be doing much good. But to do either, in 
 present circumstances, seems almost impossible ; and 
 
 as regards the East India Civil Services, and as a National 
 Question, pp. 22. London, 1856. 
 
55 
 
 the wisest thing", therefore, that Government can do, 
 is, instead of attempting* to substitute one evil fol 
 another, to take the best measures for making 1 the 
 peasant-proprietors of India altogether independent 
 of money lenders, European or Native, at the very 
 earliest possible date. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE MILLIONS OF ACRES OF CULTURABLE LAND 
 THAT NOW LIE WASTE IN INDIA, HOW TO BRING 
 THEM INTO CULTIVATION. 
 
 IT cannot be supposed, however, that the results 
 which I have foreshadowed in the preceding* chap- 
 ter, will be obtained without much difficulty, pro- 
 bably some disappointments, and certainly very 
 great care and attention on the part of the con- 
 trolling 1 authority.. It is impossible when examining- 
 undertaking's involving- extensive agricultural opera- 
 tions, to exclude considerations connected with the 
 three principal elements of their vitality, viz.. Land, 
 Labour, and Capital, their relation to one another, 
 and to circumstances as existing- around them. For, 
 these considerations, as affecting- cost of production, 
 it is obvious, must enter if not directly more or less 
 remotely, into all questions connected with the com- 
 mercial policy of a nation : and, if they be over- 
 looked, complications in reg-ard to one or other, will 
 be certain to arise, that may endang-er altog-ether 
 the success of the undertaking's, and under any 
 circumstances cause much embarrassment. At the 
 outset then we are met with the necessity of solving- 
 problems, involving fundamental principles in a 
 comparatively new science, which, however students 
 
57 
 
 may have previously settled such problems to their 
 own satis faction, are still disputed by the ablest 
 economists of our times. 
 
 With the general ignorance that prevails regard- 
 ing the condition and circumstances of India, it will 
 be difficult for Englishmen to understand, how diffi- 
 culties could arise in disposing of Questions relating 
 to these matters, in this country. (The general belief 
 is, that, in India, there are millions of acres of land 
 unowned and unclaimed millions of people starving 
 for want of employment, and countless heaps of 
 riches gold and silver and precious stones, &c., 
 tied up in old stockings and such like receptacles of 
 hoarded wealth.^ But such an idea, if not purely 
 imaginary, is certainly very wide of the truth, and 
 no means will better serve to dispel the illusion" than 
 a concise review of the actual facts of the case. 
 
 First, in regard to land, it is a mistake to suppose 
 that all the waste and uncultivated land in India, 
 is, like the vast tracts in America an^l Australia, 
 unowned and unclaimed. ^Much of it has become 
 waste after seasons of famine. Some has been laid 
 waste by the ravages of predatory tribes or hostile 
 neighbours. More is allowed to lie waste from the 
 indolence of the people, and their unwillingness to 
 cultivate a rood more than is sufficient for their bare 
 subsistence.) [But a large portion of such land is 
 uncultivated, waste, forest and jungle, because the 
 people have not the capital and enterprise to effect its 
 reclamation/) The bursting of bunds, the eccentri- 
 
' 68 
 
 cities of mighty rivers, too, often devastate miles of 
 cultivated lands. For generations land may thus 
 remain waste, and during the interval the right in 
 the soil will, so to speak, lie dormant ; but let Go- 
 vernment attempt to dispose of the land, or let any 
 one attempt to reclaim or cultivate it, and it will 
 soon he found that this right is fondly cherished, 
 and will be stoutly maintained by some village 
 community, or some representative of the ancient 
 possessor. In the Wynaad district of Madras, in 
 which coffee cultivation has been so successfully 
 introduced, Government has had experience of this, 
 and the fact is well known to all who know India. 
 And there is yet another, and far more powerful 
 cause than any here given, but this I shall notice 
 under* a different head. 
 
 Of the 13,554,333 acres of cultivable land said 
 to be waste in the Madras Presidency, only a very 
 limited extent is said to be 4 at the absolute disposal 
 of Government, the remainder being subject to 
 certain established rights of the village commu- 
 nities. 7 * 
 
 In Bombay, the land suitable for cultivation at 
 the disposal of Government, is defined to be ( of the 
 poorer sort/ and in small detached patches, except 
 in districts which are so unhealthy as to be pro- 
 nounced deadly to Europeans. 
 
 The Lieutenant-Governor of the N. W. Provinces 
 
 * Official Correspondence Return to an order of the House 
 of Commons, dated 30th May, 1862. 
 
59 
 
 states, that with the exception of the tea tracts, the 
 lands at the disposal of Government in the districts 
 under his charge 'offer very little temptation for 
 the embarkation of British capital by reason of the 
 sparseness of the population, the difficulty of com- 
 munication, and the deadliness of the climate in 
 which they are situated/ 
 
 In Bengal, except in the Soonderbuns, Assam, 
 Cachar, Arracan, Chittagong, and some Hill dis- 
 tricts, there is little or no land at the disposal of 
 Government. 
 
 In Oude, of culturable waste land, there is said to 
 be 428,243 acres, but this amount it is stated will 
 be greatly diminished by grants to natives. On the 
 prospect held out by the remainder of these acres, 
 the Chief Commissioner thus remarks : ( The cost of 
 felling- the trees and grubbing* up the brushwood is 
 very heavy. Cultivators must be attracted by 
 liberal advances and very low rents ; and if sickness 
 breaks out, which it usually does in a newly cleared 
 tract, all will take to flight. It is a well known fact 
 that not one European grantee out of twenty has 
 succeeded. Those who have ultimately prospered 
 were heavy losers at first, or bought out the first 
 possessors who were ruined. This was Mr. Cooke's 
 case. The very largest settler in Goruckpoor was 
 ruined by clearing the forest too fast ; he cut down 
 the tall timber before he had made sufficient arrange- 
 ments for bringing the land under the plough, and 
 the consequence was, that an impenetrable brush- 
 
60 
 
 wood sprung 1 up which it would have cost him a 
 fortune to clear.' 
 
 In the Punjab a very large extent of culturable 
 land is said to be available, viz. 7,626,785 acres. 
 But here ag'ain we find the same objection raised. 
 The Financial Commissioner in his report on the 
 subject says, ' These lands are not suited for the per- 
 manent settlement of Europeans, but the upper 
 portion of them would afford a fine field for European 
 capital and enterprise. The area suited from its 
 climate for the colonisation of Europeans is very 
 limited indeed. In fact the 800 acres at Kotgurh, 
 is the only tract at the absolute disposal of Govern- 
 ment which can be pronounced both suitable for 
 colonisation, and desirable from its known productive 
 powers, for the investment of capital/ 
 
 In the Province of Nag-poor there are 526,081 
 acres of land, a great portion of which it is reported 
 might be profitably cultivated. 
 
 It is said that in Mysore there are 2,9 17, 36 1, and 
 in the assigned districts of Hyderabad, 1,710,880 
 acres of land uncultivated : but of the former it is 
 stated by General Cubbon, the late Commissioner, 
 that ' even if the climate were more favourable, there 
 are not many (of these lands) on which European 
 capital, skill, and energy could be exerted with 
 profit to the capitalist or instruction to the people, 
 except the coffee tracts in the Hilly Western 
 Districts, for the soil in general has proved unfavour- 
 able to the production of cotton, indig'o, and the 
 
61 
 
 finer qualities of tobacco ; while in the careful culti- 
 vation of the various kinds of grain and oil seeds the 
 natives of Mysore require little teaching 1 .' He adds 
 that the Sovereignty of Mysore being 1 vested in the 
 Raja, and the powers of administration being- exer- 
 cised, in trust, on his account, the lands could not 
 be released from all demand for revenue ; and the 
 same objection is raised by the Resident at Hydera- 
 bad. 
 
 It is a fact, moreover, satisfactorily established 
 by the investigations of the most competent medical 
 men who have turned their attention to the subject, 
 and, as regards India, especially by those of the late 
 Doctors Mackinnon and Spilsbury, that Europeans 
 born in tropical climates, and not reared in cold 
 countries, die out in the third generation, or if not, 
 become idiotic, or, at best, so physically and intel- 
 lectually weak and degenerate, as to be devoid of 
 every trace of that energy, enterprise, and vigour, 
 which are the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race. This is now tolerably well known, 
 and the idea of colonising India generally, has, I 
 believe, consequently been abandoned. 
 
 It will be seen, thus, that, as regards the plains, 
 the Government of India has little to dispose of, and 
 that that little is not worth the acceptance of those 
 who can obtain all they require, if land be their 
 desideratum, in regions far more congenial to their 
 constitutions and habits. I have given these statistics 
 then, not because they were necessary to enlighten 
 
62 
 
 Indian Statesmen, who must know, or who certainly 
 ought to know these facts ; but because I desire, to 
 exclude from the whole, the discussion of a question 
 which ought to be confined to a comparatively 
 limited part. 
 
 When people talk, generally, of the Secretary of 
 State of the Government of India, throwing 
 obstacles in the way of European settlers obtaining 
 land in India, they evidently talk at random, and 
 without a knowledge of the true facts of the case. 
 The Secretary of State and the Government of India, 
 as far as regards powers of absolute disposal, have 
 little more concern with the great area of the plains 
 of Hindostan, than Her Majesty's Ministers have 
 with the broad lands of England. But that the 
 subject may be more clearly understood, and follow- 
 ing out the principle of looking at these questions 
 from a business point of view, I will add, that were 
 it otherwise were, for instance, the rights of the 
 people in the soil to be confiscated to-morrow, and 
 all the cultivated and culturable land in India to be 
 put up to public auction the next day, except in 
 unpopulated and wild tracts, and a few districts 
 favoured by a soil and climate suitable for growing 
 an extraordinarily remunerative crop requiring 
 European skill in its management, not an acre of it 
 would come into the possession of Englishmen, for 
 the sound and very simple reason, that it would be 
 worth the Natives 9 while to pay more for it I And 
 this, moreover, is a view, that, for the right under- 
 
63 
 
 standing of the land question in its relation to 
 European settlers in India, it is highly important 
 should be carefully borne in mind. 
 
 Of the land actually at the disposal of the British 
 Government in India, exclusive of those lands men- 
 tioned as available in the Punjab, about 189,108 acres 
 in the Gorukpoor district, some 600 square miles of 
 rocky hills in the Benares Division, and 2,028 
 square miles in Sindh, the following- table will give 
 an approximate idea. 
 
 Pegu 28,111 square miles. 
 
 Jubbulpoor Division, N. W. P. . 25,180 ditto. 
 
 Tenasserim and Martaban Provinces 14,176,011 acres. 
 
 Arracan 4,860,000 ditto. 
 
 Cossyah and Jyntiah Hills . . 453,000 ditto. 
 Assam (4 out of 7 districts) . . 4,469,533 ditto. 
 Dehra Doon (Himalayan Kange) . 141,652 ditto. 
 Darjeeling (ditto) . . . 250,000 ditto. 
 
 Kamaon, G-urwah, Simla, &c. (ditto) No Returns. 
 
 Soonderbuns .... 809,648 ditto. 
 
 Cachar ..... 200,000 ditto. 
 
 Besides some thousands of miles of moun- 
 tains and plain, covered with forest. 
 
 ^r.,, (Space enough to accommodate any 
 
 ' 1 number of European settlers. 
 
 The above abstract is as complete as the state- 
 ments furnished to Government enable me to make 
 it ; but it is yet very incomplete. None of the land 
 here returned has been surveyed, 
 
 In all the above-mentioned districts rules for the 
 grants of lands were published, Government offering 
 them to the public on the easiest terms. 
 
 Thus, in the Soonderbuns, the whole of the grant 
 
64 
 
 was to be rent-free for twenty years, and one-fourth 
 rent-free for ever ; the remainder being- assessed at 
 about three farthing's an acre per annum from the 
 twentieth to the thirtieth year ; five farthings a 
 year for the next ten years ; two pence a year for 
 the next ten years ; and three pence a year from the 
 fifty-first to the end of the ninety-ninth year. 
 After the expiration of ninety-nine years, the grant 
 was to be liable to survey and resettlement, and to 
 such f moderate assessment ' as might ' seem proper 
 to the Government of the day, the proprietary right 
 in the grant, and the right of engagement with 
 Government remaining to the grantee, his heirs, 
 executors or assigns, under the conditions generally 
 applicable to the owners of estates not permanently 
 settled.' 
 
 In Aracan, the lands were divided into five 
 classes, forest lands on hills, forest lands on plains, 
 bush jungle, reed and long grass jungle, short grass 
 jungle and fallow lands. These were given rent- 
 free for periods of 34, 24, 16, 8, and 4 years, sub- 
 ject then to rents increasing from 6d up to Is 6d an 
 acre per annum, for periods varying from eight up 
 to sixty-four years, after which setting aside one 
 fourth which was to be rent free for ever, they 
 were to be subject to assessment, not exceeding 
 that of lands of similar quality in the pergunnah 
 or district immediately adjoining the estate. 
 
 The rules for the grant of waste lands in the 
 Tenasserim Provinces were very similar to those 
 
65 
 
 promulgated for Arracan for the first fifty years. 
 From that up to the ninety-ninth year they ranged 
 d an acre higher. 
 
 In Assam and Cachar one fourth of the grant, as 
 usual, was to be rent-free for ever ; and the remainder 
 rent-free for fifteen years. On the expiration of 
 this period, it was to be assessed at 4cZ an acre per 
 annum for the first ten years ; and for the next 
 seventy-four years at S^d an acre. After ninety- 
 nine years, the grant was to be subject to the same 
 rule as that applicable to grants in the Soonder- 
 buns. 
 
 About the Hill Sanatarium at Darjeeling, grants 
 were permitted to be sold for Us. 10 an acre. 
 
 In the Himalayan Range of the Upper Provinces, 
 where the climate is most healthful and invigorating 
 to the European constitution, one fourth of the grant 
 was to be rent-free for ever. The term of the first 
 lease was to be for twenty years. For the first four 
 years, the grant was to be held rent-free ; in the 
 fifth year about l^d an acre per annum was to be 
 charged on three fourths of the grant ; 2^d in the 
 sixth, k\d in the seventh, and so on \\d an acre 
 being added in each year, till, in the last year, the 
 maximum rate of 2s an acre was reached.* 
 
 Nothing short of giving the land away, certainly, 
 
 * By orders of the Lieut. -Governor, N. "W. Provinces, dated 
 29th September, 1860, the lease was extended to 50 years (the 
 maximum rate, 2s per acre, not being reached till the 25th 
 year,) and the resumption clause abrogated in regard to all 
 cultivated land. 
 
C6 
 
 could be more liberal than the spirit of these rules. 
 Land for twenty years for nothing at all, and for 
 seventy-nine more, at an average rate of two-pence 
 an acre per annum, surely leaves little, as regards 
 assessment, to be desired. But light nominal in- 
 deed as these assessments were, except in the tea 
 districts, and to a very limited extent in the Soon- 
 derbuns, they did not serve to attract settlers to the 
 places left vacant for them. The square miles in 
 Pegu, the millions of acres in Arracan and the 
 Teriasserim Provinces, are as barren of European 
 settlers to-day, as if the Government had really 
 placed those obstacles in the way, they are so often, 
 with more rashness than reason, accused of having* 
 ever ready to bar the colonist's ingress. These 
 lands have no market value at present, and are not 
 taken up, for the plain and simple reason that e it 
 will not pay ;' or, what is the same thing, the pro- 
 spect of profit is not sufficiently bright, to induce 
 people to undertake the risk and cost involved in 
 making the experiment, in climates uncong-enial to 
 their constitutions, their tastes, their habits, and 
 their associations. Government then, at present, or 
 until some fortuitous combination of circumstances 
 gives these lands a real value, may offer them for 
 nothing*, with very great safety ; though, if it has 
 any particular desire to plant settlers upon them, it 
 would be perhaps wiser, instead of offering the public 
 a gift of doubtful value to pay people to go there ! 
 And to satisfy ourselves that this view is correct, 
 
C7 
 
 and that the result is to be traced to economic laws, 
 and not to any laws of the land, we have only to 
 turn our attention to Assam and Cachar, provinces 
 which, in consequence of the impenetrable jungle 
 and rank vegetation with which they are over- 
 gTown and begirt, and the deadly and noxious 
 miasma and malaria generated thereby, have always 
 been looked upon as the penal settlements of 
 Bengal. The rules under which land was offered 
 to the public in these provinces, were not more 
 favourable than those promulgated for Arracan, 
 Pegu, the Tenasserim Provinces, and other places. 
 On the contrary, instead of a twenty and thirt} r - 
 four years' rent-free tenure, in Assam and Cachar 
 only a fifteen years' rent-free hold was granted ; 
 and at Darjeeling, the very high price of 1. an 
 acre was demanded. Yet, for the last six years, 
 developers and their agents have been hurrying 
 to these places crowding into them so fast that, 
 as before mentioned, Government could not de- 
 marcate and survey grants of land as quick as 
 they were willing to take them up.* Nothing then 
 can be more clearly demonstrated than, that previous 
 
 * Since the above was written, from a variety of causes, 
 some within and some beyond the control of Grovernment, the 
 tea interests of Bengal have been ruined, or so nearly ruined 
 that people are now hurrying out of the tea districts as fast 
 as they before crowded into them ; and the large wastes 
 reclaimed by them are fast relapsing again into jungle. Those 
 who wish to know more of this subject may refer to my 
 Memorandum written after a tour in Assam in 1864-65 
 January, 1867. 
 
 F2 
 
08 
 
 regulations regarding' the tenure of land, have had 
 as little to do with driving European settlers away 
 from some provinces covered with wastes, as they 
 have had, or, in the present circumstances of India, 
 existing regulations will have, in attracting them 
 into others. For the one result an economic law can 
 be found quite as readily as for the other, without 
 laying any thing on the shoulders of a Government, 
 certainly over-burthened already. Settlers were 
 attracted to these places, as soon as it was satis- 
 factorily established that their soil and climate were 
 adapted for growing- a highly remunerative crop, 
 and not one moment sooner. Had it not been dis- 
 covered that the TEA PLANT was indigenous to 
 Assam and Cachar, had not the Government, after 
 considerable trouble and expense, proved that this 
 plant would grow and flourish on the slopes of the 
 Himalayas, these regions would have been as un- 
 tenanted now by Europeans as are other provinces 
 where there are forests as dense, and jungles as 
 malarious as those skirting the lower range of the 
 mighty mountains that form the North Eastern 
 boundary of the Peninsula of India. The fact is, 
 point out where there is money to be made, and, if 
 the trouble and danger be not very great, most men 
 will go there. But give an Englishman a certainty 
 even a fair probability of the money, and the 
 trouble and danger will not enter into his calcula- 
 tions at all. Na} r , possibly he will like the under- 
 taking all the better for these accompaniments. 
 
69 
 
 Certainly he will do so, if the danger to be appre- 
 hended is from something- that he may kill, tigers, 
 elephants, buffaloes, rlrinoceri, game birds, and the 
 like. 
 
 The waste-land question in India, therefore, I am 
 justified in saying, was one of profit and not one 
 of tenure. 
 
 It is quite true that the great liberality of the 
 rules for the grant of waste lands above cited, was 
 qualified by conditions, some of which were obstruc- 
 tive. Grantees, for instance, were bound to clear 
 and render fit for cultivation one eighth of the grant 
 in five years, one fourth in ten years, one half in 
 twenty years, and three fourths in thirty years. 
 Government, again, reserved to itself the right of 
 making such roads and bridges as it might think 
 proper, on lands so granted, and also the right to 
 all such timber, stone, and other materials as might 
 be necessary for keeping the said roads and bridges 
 in repair. Objection was taken to these conditions, 
 and when we come to look at the penalty involved in 
 non-compliance with the first mentioned, I am not 
 at all surprised. 
 
 In Assam, Dacca, Cachar, Silchar, and the Soon- 
 derbuns, in regard to clearances, it was provided : 
 
 "That on failure of all or any of these four 
 conditions the fact of which failure shall after local 
 enquiry conducted by the Collector (Soonderbuns 
 Commissioner) or other officer, be finally determined 
 by the Board of Revenue- the entire grant shall be 
 
70 
 
 resumed, and the grantee shall forfeit all right in 
 the lands, both those which may be yet uncleared, 
 and those which may have been cleared and brought 
 into cultivation." 
 
 Thus, let us suppose our old friend Jones to have 
 taken a grant of 10,000 acres, and at the end of 
 twenty years to have brought one-half, or 5,000 
 acres, under cultivation. To clear and plant jungle 
 land in Assam costs about 20 an acre. Five 
 thousand cleared acres, therefore, would be worth, in 
 actual expenses to Jones, 100,000. But 5,000 
 acres planted with tea plants of from 6 to 8 years' 
 growth, would be worth, at present market rates, 
 100 an acre, and 5,000 acres at that price would 
 be 500,000. Now it may have been right to im- 
 pose certain conditions regarding clearances to pre- 
 vent land jobbing, and in swampy and jungle dis- 
 tricts on sanatary grounds; nor do the conditions 
 fixed, seem to have been severe or unreasonable. 
 But, in the absence of fraudulent practices rendering 
 extraordinary legislation a necessity,, it appears to 
 me, that a rule giving power, as this does, to a 
 Board, on the simple ascertainment of failure to 
 fulfil any one of these conditions, and without any 
 enquiry into the cause, to confiscate Jones', or any 
 one else's property, to the value of half a million 
 sterling or more, or less, as the case might be, could 
 not be desirable ; and that the enforcement of its 
 provisions, would not only be the arbitrary and 
 unjust exercise of a despotic power, but that the 
 
71 
 
 retention of such a clause in the Revenue Statute 
 Book, would reflect discredit if not disgrace on the 
 Government of any civilized nation. 
 
 The intentions of the framers of this rule were 
 doubtless the very best and purest. They desired 
 not to sacrifice the interests of the country to those 
 of individuals, and they could not devise any other 
 means of accomplishing- it. I am not aware, more- 
 over, of this clause having occasioned much incon- 
 venience though the rage for tea-planting being of 
 very recent date, the time for putting them in force 
 had not fully arrived and I am certain that in 
 practice no injustice would have been perpetrated. 
 The existence of the rule however, rendering, as it 
 did, the tenure of every acre of a grant precarious 
 for the space of thirty years, or more, was a blot 
 which could not have been allowed to disfigure the 
 revenue code of any province in India, had there 
 been a minister of commerce, well acquainted with 
 the principles on which business transactions are 
 carried on, at the right hand of the Viceroy, for no 
 rule could possibly have been framed better calcu- 
 lated to defeat the very object the British Govern- 
 ment had in view. It would seem, too, as if some 
 such light had already begun to dawn in Bengal. 
 For, in the rules promulgated for Arracan, provision 
 was made for due notice being served on the 
 grantee, requiring him to show cause, why the whole 
 of his land should not be resumed, and directing 
 judicial proceedings, open to appeal in the usual 
 
7:2 
 
 manner^ in each case. A proposal likewise came 
 up from Bengal to the Government of India in 
 I860; to modify this clause of the waste land regu- 
 lations : and to provide that in case of failure to 
 comply with all, or any, of the clearance conditions, 
 ' such portion of the grant only as shall remain 
 uncleared; or not rendered fit for cultivation at the 
 time of the enquiry shall be resumed/ the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, while he considered the conditions to 
 cultivate the whole of the culturable land of the 
 grant, and certain portions thereof within certain 
 intermediate terms; indispensable, c seeing no reason 
 for making the whole grant forfeited on breach of 
 those conditions.'* 
 
 The rights reserved by Government in the grant; 
 again were open to some objection, while the rights, 
 real or imaginary, preserved to the natives, of 
 grazing* cattle and cutting timber, if they did not 
 annihilate all security of property; were certainly 
 prohibitory of all industry and enterprise. The 
 following, indeed, reads like an extract from the 
 chronicles of the King of Oude; or the Ruler of 
 some other native State; yet it is taken from a Blue 
 Book on waste lands situated in territories under 
 British rule. 
 
 f After spending nearly 40;000 in the three 
 estates of Hope Town and Arcadia alone; in re- 
 claiming the waste lands ; bringing* a population into 
 
 * Bengal letter, No. 1998, dated 8th August I860, to Secre- 
 tary Government of India. 
 
73 
 
 the Boon from the plains, building* mills, machinery, 
 canals, draining-, &c., the Government ruled that 
 our proprietary right was inchoate only, and there- 
 fore not complete even in lands brought under culti- 
 vation/* 
 
 ( Permission was given to any one who sought it, 
 to fell and carry away the timber in our forests, on 
 the payment to Government of a price for the privi- 
 lege and right of so doing, and which was collected 
 on its leaving* the Boon, not as a toll or tax, for the 
 tax upon timber and other articles imported had been 
 abolished in ISSG.f Our right to protect and pre- 
 serve our property was disputed or overruled by the 
 Government, until the right for which we had been 
 struggling was annulled, by the destruction of all 
 timber, even to the seed-bearing trees. We were 
 compelled to submit to trespassers from the plains, 
 who brought ^ with them extensive herds of murrain- 
 infected cattle into our grants, by which hundreds 
 of our cattle perished. We have had lime-burners 
 cut down our finest timber for fuel for their kilns, 
 because the Government had reserved to itself and 
 to the public the right of taking limestone from 
 lands, provided the price for the privilege was paid 
 to them.'J 
 
 * The opinion of counsel was taken on this subject, both in 
 India and England, which declared the proprietary right of the 
 grantees to be complete. Note by Col. Thomas. 
 
 t See Acts XIV. of 1836, and'XIV. of 1843. 
 
 J Letter from Lieut. -Colonel C. F. Thomas, Joint Proprietor 
 and sole manager of East Hope Town and Arcadia Grants, to 
 the Superintendent Dehra Dhoon, dated 10th October 1859. 
 
74 
 
 If then the intentions of the Indian Government 
 were pure and disinterested in this matter, and this 
 I think will not be questioned, it is abundantly clear 
 that the regulations for the disposal of waste lands 
 required most careful revision, and some modification. 
 This appears, moreover, to have been for some time 
 felt by the Government of India ; and, that atten- 
 tion was not earlier directed to the subject^ was 
 probably attributable to the total absence of settlers, 
 or to circumstances, before alluded to, which com- 
 bined to keep the hands of the supreme authorities 
 ever full with matters affecting- the stability of the 
 British rule, or having* for their object the consolida- 
 tion of the Indian Empire. The time, however, had 
 now come for seriously considering 1 the question of 
 waste lands in India. Tea cultivation in Assam, 
 Cachar, and the N. W. Himalayas, and Coffee cul- 
 tivation in the Wynaad district of Madras, had 
 made considerable progress, and were found to offer, 
 not only safe, but hig-hly profitable investments for 
 capital. It was, moreover, essential to the success 
 of these undertaking's, that the operations should be 
 carried on under the superintendence of Europeans. 
 Enquiries, also, had, from time to time, been made 
 of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for information 
 regarding* these lands ; and Lord Stanley, on the 
 
 Blue Book, 16th June 1862. In forwarding the letter from 
 which the above is extracted to Government, the Superin- 
 tendent made no comments. I assume therefore that he was 
 satisfied to allow judgment to go by default ; otherwise I should 
 not have reprinted the passage. 
 
75 
 
 16th March, 1859, had addressed the Viceroy in 
 these terms : 
 
 ' 1 observe it stated in the papers which accom- 
 pany your letter under reply, that the extent of 
 culturable land in the Punjab, at the absolute dis- 
 posal of the Government, is very limited. With 
 reference to applications which may be made in this 
 country for grants of land under such conditions as, 
 after considering my despatch of the 22nd Decem- 
 ber last, No. 2, you may be prepared to recommend, 
 it is very desirable that Her Majesty's Government 
 should be informed of the extent of land capable of 
 cultivation at the disposal of the Government, not 
 only in the Punjab, but throughout British India, 
 and I desire that you will take such steps as may 
 be necessary for obtaining* that information- } T OU 
 will then submit it to me in a condensed form, ac- 
 companied by a statement of the conditions which, 
 having* regard to the difference in the systems of 
 revenue administration prevailing- in the respective 
 localities, you would recommend for disposing* of 
 such lands, either for terms of years or in perpetuity, 
 to persons desirous of bringing 1 them into cultivation. 
 Your report should distinguish, as far as possible, 
 the present state of these culturable tracts ; whether 
 they are covered with timber forests, or consist of 
 grass plains interspersed with j heels, capable of 
 being 1 drained, or if they are tracts requiring- expen- 
 sive artificial means to make them productive. Her 
 Majesty's Government will then be enabled to afford 
 
76 
 
 to applicants in this country an amount of informa- 
 tion respecting* the facilities offered to persons pro- 
 posing- to settle in India for agricultural purposes, 
 which they are not now in a condition to furnish. 
 All such applicants will, of course, be required to 
 make their arrangements with regard to the occupa- 
 tion of land with the local authorities.'* 
 
 On receipt of these orders, information was imme- 
 diately called for from the different Governors and 
 Lieuts. of Provinces by the Governor-General. The 
 local Governors, ag"ain, called for reports from all 
 Commissioners of Revenue and other officers of ex- 
 perience under their authority, and a variety of 
 opinions, with details of considerable interest, were 
 collected, and submitted to the Supreme Govern- 
 ment for consideration. In the mean time, a second 
 despatch from the Secretary of State sanctioned 
 the commutation of annual payments by one pay- 
 ment, and the terms were notified in the ( Gazette.'f 
 By this measure, that the Home Authorities had 
 taken up the question, was noised abroad. An 
 extraordinary excitement followed. From the thou- 
 sands of square miles in Pegu and Jubbalpoor 
 from the millions of acres in Arracan, in the Tenas- 
 serim Provinces, in Chittag-ong*, &c., it is true, not 
 a sound was heard ; and the demands of the tea 
 planters of Darjeeling-, and the coffee planters of the 
 
 * Despatch of the Secretary of State, dated 16th March, 
 1859. 
 
 + See Calcutta Gazette, 17th August, 1859. 
 
77 
 
 Wynaad had been satisfied. A small voice spoke 
 in the Boon of Dehrah. But for the rest, the great 
 wastes of India were silent, or if their stillness was 
 broken, it was but by the roar of the tiger, which 
 proclaimed them untenanted by man. In Calcutta, 
 however, a cry was raised by the owners or agents 
 of some half dozen tea concerns in Assam and 
 Cachar a cry, not for the removal of the resump- 
 tion and other objectionable clauses of existing rules, 
 not for a new set of rules for the Provinces with 
 which they had any concern ; but for the sale in fee- 
 simple of the whole of the waste and uncultivated 
 lands throughout India at 6s an acre ! Nothing 
 short of this, it was asserted, would meet the wants 
 of capitalists, planters, and settlers. The withhold- 
 ing of this, it was put forth, retarded all European 
 enterprise, for the establishment of cotton planta- 
 tions, tea, and other agricultural enterprises. For 
 this the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal was ad- 
 dressed, for this the Governor-General in Council 
 was petitioned, and for this the strongest pressure 
 of the Press was brought to bear on the Supreme 
 Authority in India. No delay could be tolerated. 
 The necessities of the planters were imminent ; and 
 it was considered harsh and unjust on the part of 
 the Indian Government, to refuse any longer that 
 which the Lieut.-Governor of Bengal had so strongly 
 recommended, that which, it was asserted, had 
 been already conceded by the Secretary of State, 
 when he sanctioned the redemption of the land-tax 
 
78 
 
 in Madras, and the commutation of annual pay- 
 ments in Bengal.* 
 
 It is quite true that in August 1860 the Lieut.- 
 Governor of Bengal had transmitted to the Govern- 
 ment of India the draft of a new set of rules for the 
 disposal of the waste lands in the provinces under 
 his Government, providing for the sale of grants as 
 a ' valid heritable and transferable tenure in per- 
 petuity/ subject however to the conditions previously 
 in force regarding clearances, except as regards the 
 penalty of forfeiture, which included only such 
 portions of the grants as might not have been 
 brought under cultivation ; and the mind of the 
 Calcutta public was in the state above described, 
 when these rules were brought before the Supreme 
 Government for consideration. One Member of 
 Council wrote a Minute, strongly advocating the 
 sale out-right of all waste lands ;| another drafted 
 a set of rules for carrying the measure into effect ; 
 and His Excellency the Viceroy, after considering 
 in Council the opinions of all his Lieutenants and 
 their subordinates on the general question, published, 
 on the 17th October 1861, a Resolution, in which he 
 sanctioned the sale of all unassessed wnste lands 
 
 * These are the men who have done so much injury to the 
 interests of tea cultivation in Eastern Bengal, one of the finest 
 and most promising agricultural enterprises ever undertaken 
 in India. Yet these very identical men and their friends, are 
 now clamouring to be relieved of the lands they so eagerly 
 purchased at ten times their actual value, because they cannot 
 pay for them. 
 
 f See Parliamentary papers "Waste Lands (India). 
 
79 
 
 in India, e in which no right of proprietorship or ex- 
 clusive occupancy was known then to exist, or to 
 have existed in former times and to be capable of 
 revival/ at 10s an acre for cleared, and 55 for un- / 
 cleared land : 
 
 ' As regards the sale of waste lands/ observed 
 Earl Canning* in introducing* this Resolution in 
 Council, " there can be no question of the substantial 
 benefits, both to India and to England, which must 
 follow the establishment of settlers who will introduce 
 profitable and judicious cultivation into Districts 
 hitherto unreclaimed. His Excellency in Council 
 looks for the best results to the people of India* 
 wherever in such Districts European settlers may 
 find a climate in which they can live and occupy 
 themselves without detriment to their health, and 
 whence they may direct such improvements as 
 European capital, skill, and enterprise can effect in 
 the agriculture, communications, and commerce of 
 the surrounding country. He confidently expects 
 that harmony of interest between permanent Euro- 
 pean settlers and the half-civilized tribes, by whom 
 most of these waste Districts, or the country adjoin- 
 ing them, are thinly peopled, will conduce to the 
 material and moral improvement of large classes of 
 the Queen's Indian subjects, which for any such pur- 
 poses have long been felt by the Government to be 
 almost out of the reach of its ordinary agencies. 
 
 ' But it is the firm conviction of the Governor- 
 General in Council that, in order to obtain per ma- 
 
80 
 
 nently good results from such measures, it is indis- 
 pensable not only that no violence be done to the 
 long- existing- rights which, sometimes in a rude, 
 sometimes in a complicated form, are possessed by 
 many of the humblest occupants of the soil in India, 
 but that these rights be nowhere slighted or even 
 overlooked. Scrupulous respect for them is one of 
 the most solemn duties of the Government of India, 
 as well as its soundest polic} r , whatever may be the 
 mode in which that Government may think fit to 
 deal with rights of its own/ 
 
 In these two paragraphs (which, with two paras, 
 regarding the redemption of the land revenue, are 
 probably the only portion of the Eesolution drafted 
 by his Lordship's hand) we learn the objects and 
 reasons of this great statesman and upright and good 
 man, for a measure which will mark a memorable 
 epoch in the fiscal laws of the British Government 
 of India, and which, as effectually overthrowing 
 all those barriers, said to have been hitherto set up 
 between British enterprise and the development of 
 India's wealth, rendered the solution of this ques- 
 tion, which has so long occupied the attention of 
 English and Indian statesmen, a matter of time 
 alone. 
 
 But the terms of the Eesolution, were not accepted 
 in their integrity in England. Her Majesty's 
 Government, while it cordially participated in 
 the sentiments contained in the second of the para- 
 graphs above quoted, considered the proposition 
 
81 
 
 i to divide all the unassessed and unclaimed lands 
 throughout India into two classes, those which are 
 ' encumbered with jungle/ and those which are 
 not, and to sell the lands of each class at a uniform 
 price per acre, without any regard to their situation 
 or to their presumed fertility ? as c untenable / and 
 directed that the plan followed in most of the 
 British colonies should be followed, and the lots for 
 sale put up to auction, and sold to the highest 
 bidders above 5s an acre. It also objected to the 
 provisions for placing purchasers in possession before 
 the lots had been regularly surveyed ; and to the 
 manner in which prior claims of occupancy or rights 
 of property, were disposed of; ruling that all lots 
 should be surveyed and their boundaries demarcated 
 before sale, and be sold subject to any ' rights of 
 property/ or other claims that might be established 
 in a Court of competent jurisdiction. The Resolu- 
 tion had further given power to all holders of grants 
 which had already been given for a term of years 
 at progressively increasing rents, to redeem the 
 future land revenue at the highest rate fixed during 
 the currency of the grant, provided it did not exceed 
 the rate fixed as the price in fee-simple of wastes ; 
 but the latter provision Her Majesty's Government 
 considered, fixed the price for such lands within too 
 narrow limits, and disallowed it. 
 
 For the rest, the orders of the Governor-General (i 
 were allowed to stand. All waste and unassessed 71 
 lands at the absolute disposal of the Government of 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 India, therefore, may now be put up to auction at 
 an upset price of 5s per acre, and sold in fee-simple 
 to the highest bidder, the purchaser being called on 
 to pay 10 per cent, of the purchase money down, 
 and being permitted to pay the balance by instal- 
 ments within 10 years, subject to an annual charge 
 of 10 per cent, on the portion of the purchase money 
 unpaid, until the whole is liquidated. 
 / The proposal to sell out-right 100,000,000^acres^ 
 more or less, of land, an area far exceeding in ex- 
 tent many principalities of Europe, would, at any 
 time, and in any country, be a question requiring- 
 very serious consideration ; but when such a ques- 
 tion arises in a country the main source of the re- 
 venues of which is the rent derived from land, the 
 necessity for thought and reflection is much inten- 
 sified. Lord Canning, doubtless, conceived that in 
 introducing this measure he was acting in the spirit, 
 and in full accord with the principle, of the despatch 
 of Lord Stanley, which contemplated disposing of 
 these lands in accordance with his recommendation, 
 either ' for terms of years, or in perpetuity ;' and 
 with his ripe experience of India, that he should be 
 unwilling to leave a measure, fraught with interests 
 of such magnitude to the country he had governed 
 for six years so successfully, to be carried out by a 
 new Viceroy is perfectly intelligible. In this sense, 
 it is probable, he acted ; and as he had no defined 
 instructions from Home, it is not surprising that 
 differences of opinion should have arisen on points 
 
83 
 
 of detail between the two powers. These differences 
 have been freely commented upon, the public 
 journals teeming- with articles, as regards the waste 
 land question, generally adverse to the modifications 
 of Her Majesty's Government. That necessity 
 compelled the publication of these differences was 
 unfortunate ; for there can be no question, that in 
 the present condition of the people of India, it is of 
 paramount importance that the authority of the 
 Viceroy should, if not in reality, in appearance, be 
 almost supreme ; but the occasion, as involving an 
 act to be felt, in its effects, for ever, was one of that 
 singular importance to the future of India, that had 
 the highest authority, refrained out of deference to 
 a principle in favour of which it can hardly be 
 doubted considerable concession was made to insist 
 on such modifications in the Resolution as were 
 conscientiously believed to be essentially necessary 
 for the protection of the interests of the State, or for 
 the good of the country, the act would have been 
 criminal. Many of the arguments, moreover, 
 brought forward in England, against these modifi- 
 cations, as being applicable solely to countries very 
 differently circumstanced, lose all their force when 
 brought to bear on India. 
 
 It is not competent to me, however, to discuss 
 this portion of the subject. Nor is it necessary. 
 The question which was agitated, is decided the 
 cause which was tried, has been gained ; ajid hence- 
 forth Englishmen can come and buy as much of the 
 
 G 2 
 
waste and unoccupied land of India, as they choose 
 )\ to pay for, at whatever rate, over 5s an acre, the 
 ) market of the day shall decide them to be worth. 
 Time will satisfy all parties as to the quantity, 
 out of the tea districts, the}^ will take. 
 
 My own opinion on the general question, viewing 
 it both from the settler's or self-interest stand-point, 
 and from a higher point of view, is, that the sale of 
 all the waste lands in India was altogether unneces- 
 sary, that the agitation for it was mischievous, 
 and that its concession was inexpedient. 
 
 I think that the sale of these lands in fee-simple 
 was unnecessary, first, because, as regards security 
 of title and right of property, the only essential 
 points involved in the question, all the advantage 
 that could possibly result to a settler or capitalist, 
 could have been obtained by other means, without 
 raising a question which in India must always be 
 involved in difficulties. Secondly, I think that it 
 was unnecessary, because nobody wanted it ; if we 
 except a few persons in two divisions of Bengal, 
 who wished to dispose of some tea estates in the 
 London Market, and who believed that this kind of 
 title best suited English ideas and would conse- 
 quently take more readily with buyers, and some 
 others interested in tea land in the same districts, 
 who, not understanding their own interests, were 
 led away by popular excitement. And thirdly, I 
 think that the measure was unnecessary, because, 
 if the object of the Government consisted in attract- 
 
85 
 
 ing* European settlers into the districts in which 
 waste lands are situated, in those districts from 
 whence the cry for the sale of land in fee-simple 
 emanated, that object had been already gained without 
 it. At the very time, the cry for the fee-simple 
 was being 1 raised in Calcutta, scores of Europeans 
 were pouring- into Assam and Cachar, a hundred 
 and fifty thousand acres had been already leased, 
 and more was being- daily applied for far more 
 than to bring- one third part of which into cultiva- 
 tion there was even a remote prospect of getting 
 either capital or labour for. Or were it true that 
 both these desiderata could be obtained which, 
 however, was not the case, the seed for the 
 only crop it was desired to grow, could not be 
 procured but in the most limited quantities, for 
 the supply did not equal a tenth part of the wants 
 of those already in possession of the field. Instead? 
 therefore, of there being the slightest necessity for 
 attracting Europeans to those wastes from whence 
 the cry came, by the concession demanded, the 
 necessity, if necessity there was at all, lay entirely 
 the other way, and consisted, rather, in warning 
 an excited public against too hurriedly rushing into 
 a field w r hich, looking at the circumstances of the 
 cultivation in progress, was over-occupied already ; 
 or placing such checks as would serve to keep the 
 immigration of Europeans within the limits pre- 
 scribed by the circumstances of the Province, and 
 the cultivation in question. Indeed it became 
 
8G 
 
 ridiculous to argue the necessity part of the sub- 
 ject, after the offer to purchase the fee-simple 
 had been made to the settlers at Madras, and 
 declined ! * 
 
 I think that the agitation for the sale of waste lands 
 in fee-simple was mischievous, because the demand, 
 including* in its scope the whole of the immense wastes 
 of India, and involving' the abandonment by the 
 State of its claim for revenue from these lands for all 
 time to come, required more cautious legislation than 
 would a simple request for the removal of the objec- 
 tionable clauses of existing- rules, and hence it fol- 
 lowed that the rules under which it has been thought 
 advisable or expedient to sanction this measure, 
 though possibly suitable for large capitalists, are 
 very much less favourable to the great majority of 
 Europeans already established in Assam, Cachar, 
 and the Himalayas, and any that under present 
 circumstances are likely to go to these places, than 
 those previously in force. Under former rules, a 
 developer, or his agent, proceeded with his little 
 capital to the spot upon which he wished to settle, 
 and looked out for a bit of land suitable for the crop 
 he wanted to grow. Having found it, he applied 
 for it and the moment the Board of Revenue's 
 sanction was obtained, he was put in possession of 
 
 * The truth of these remarks, written in the latter part of 
 1862, is fully borne out by the ruin that has been brought on 
 countless people in England and India, by the collapse, in 
 great part from the causes here indicated, of tea in 18GG 
 Jan. 1867. 
 
87 ^_ 
 
 it. He was not hampered in any way there was no f 
 survey, no advertisement, no auction. One-fourth 
 of his grant was rent- free forever. For the remain- 
 der, he was not asked to pay a single sixpence to 
 Government, or to any one else, for fifteen years, and 
 then only about 6d an acre per annum, for eighty- 
 four years to come. By this arrangement he was 
 enabled to expend the whole of his means, minus 
 the cost of his own support, on his land, and double, 
 or, in tea, quadruple his little capital before the Go- 
 vernment asked him for one farthing of revenue. 
 
 And in what position I would ask have his friends 
 placed him ? He now goes to the spot, and, after con- 
 siderable labour and trouble and some loss of time, 
 having selected, to the best of his judgment, a plot of 
 land suitable as regards soil, climate, and position, 
 for his wants, he applies for it, and is not put in 
 possession. As soon as is practicable* it is, at the 
 applicant's expense, surveyed. It is then advertised, 
 and, after the expiration of one month, is put up to 
 auction and sold probably to somebody else, who, a 
 thousand miles off, may have been advised by letter 
 that the spec is a good one, or possibly to some 
 one nearer at hand, who, not having* taken any 
 trouble, nor expended either time or money in its 
 selection, is, of course, in a position to pay more 
 for it. But if the land is knocked down to our 
 settler, he must pay 10 per cent, of the purchase 
 
 * One surveyor has been sanctioned for Assam, a province 
 containing some five or six millions of acres of waste laud. 
 
88 
 
 money down, and 10 per cent, on the balance for 
 ten years to come, or forfeit it if he fails. Thus, if 
 Jones had taken a grant of 4,000 acres, under the 
 old rules, he would have nothing to pay for fifteen 
 } T ears, and then only an average of tid an acre on 
 three fourths, or 75 per annum, for the next eighty- 
 four years ; but if he now takes a similar grant, be 
 must pay down, in addition to the cost of the survey, 
 c. &c. 1,000, or 100 within three months of 
 the day of sale, and 90 per annum until he is able 
 or willing to pay the balance, under pain of having 
 the grant sold in satisfaction of the Government 
 claim. But the cruelest part of the arrangement is, 
 that, while under the old rules, he had a good title, 
 holding his land, as he now must, subject to any 
 4 rights of property ' third parties may establish in it, 
 under the new, he has not a saleable title at all.* 
 Under these circumstances, to my mind, the last 
 state of Jones is very much worse than the first. 
 On this point, however, we are saved the trouble of 
 surmising. Will settlers who hold grants under the 
 old, commute under the new rules ? 
 
 I think that the concession of the sale of waste 
 lands in fee -simple was in expedient for many rea- 
 sons. In ordinary sales the seller fixes, with refer- 
 ence to the demand, present or anticipated, the price 
 he will take, and holds until he gets it ; or, watching 
 the fluctuations of the market, he often exercises a 
 
 * No law on this subject has yet been passed. 
 
89 
 
 sounder discretion by lowering 1 his price, to such a 
 sum as will leave him a fair profit. Failing- his ob- 
 taining- this, if the article will not spoil, he holds for 
 another season, or carries it to another market. Thus, 
 a seller, may fix a price beyond what a buyer will 
 give, and a buyer may offer a price below what a 
 seller will take. Under ordinar}^ circumstances, 
 however, though the sellers fix the price, the buyers 
 reg-ulate it, the action of each always supposing 
 healthy competition operating- to establish an 
 equilibrium. This, I believe, is termed the i market 
 value f and as regards buyer and seller it may be 
 considered mutually arrived at. If, however, a seller 
 has a monopoly, of any commodity, for which there 
 may be a demand, the case is different. He then 
 fixes his own price, and buyers, unable to regulate 
 it, have no alternative but to pay it or go without. 
 This may be called the seller's price, the limit to 
 which, can be determined only, by equalizing the 
 ratio the necessities of the parties bear to each other, 
 or that of the quantity in demand to the quantity 
 of the commodity for sale.* Another case is the 
 
 * Mr. Mill (Principles of Political Economy, p. 543) objects 
 to the term ratio, on the double ground of its being unprecise, 
 and inappropriate. It may be so ; for, to speak of a ratio 
 between two varying magnitudes is mathematically absurd. I 
 use the term, because it is current ; and he has not, unfor- 
 tunately, left us any better to define the operation by which 
 an equilibrium is effected by which the terms of the equation 
 are made equal. In objecting that the quantity in demand is 
 not fixed, but varies according to the value, he says : " The 
 demand, therefore, partly depends on the value. But it was 
 before laid down that the value depends on the demand. From 
 
90 
 
 converse of this, viz., that in which the monopoly lies 
 with the market, in which case the price is fixed by 
 the buyers, as, for instance, in auction sales without 
 reserve. This, however, is a species of sale, which, 
 in consequence of the greatness of the risk, is never 
 resorted to except in markets where the competition 
 is known to be such as to guarantee to the seller a 
 good, if not the highest price or in what may be 
 termed ' forced sales. 7 When we read that Mr. 
 
 's property has gone to the 'hammer/ we need 
 
 not to be told that he is no longer in a position to 
 put his own valuation upon it. There are very many 
 points in connection with this subject to be considered 
 before the phenomena of values and prices can be 
 rightly understood. My object, however, is not to 
 define laws, but simply to cite the different kinds of 
 valuations of property adopted in the ordinary busi- 
 
 this contradiction how shall we extricate ourselves?" He then 
 lays down the following equation of value. " Demand and 
 Supply, the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied, will 
 be made equal ;" and defines "the value a commodity will bring 
 in any market" to be " no other than the value which in that 
 market gives a demand just sufficient to carry off the existing 
 or expected supply." Now this is quite intelligible to any 
 person with a tolerable knowledge of the subject, who reads 
 Mr. Mill's lucid explanation ; but his definition does not leave 
 it clear whether the value regulates, or is regulated, by the 
 demand, or neither, or both ; and as he uses the word value to 
 define both the operation and the result of it, we are not left 
 a very great choice of terms. Value is no doubt, as it were, 
 a compensating balance between demand and supply ; but how 
 to define the operation by which it adjusts itself, or is adjusted, 
 and at the same time express that the value will be highest 
 when the demand is greatest and the supply least, and vice 
 versa, is a difficulty the resort to mathematical phraseology 
 has not surmounted. 
 
91 
 
 ness transactions of life. If I have done so cor- 
 rectly, there \vould appear to be three the mutual 
 valuation of seller and buyer, the valuation of the 
 seller, and the valuation of the buyer; and the 
 conditions of sales under each of these denominations, 
 which for our purpose may be considered essential, 
 are : for the^rstf, a market in which to negotiate 
 the transaction ; for the second, such a demand as 
 will guarantee to the seller a fair profit ; and for the 
 t hirdy such active competition as will ensure him 
 against loss.* 
 
 Now the question "in regard to the thousands of 
 square miles of waste lands in India, is : Are any 
 one of these conditions found ? And I think I may 
 safely answer they are not. That there is no 
 market will not be disputed ;f that generally there 
 is no competition will not be denied ; and that the 
 demand is confined to the tea and coffee districts, if 
 not patent to all before, the cotton famine has satis- 
 factorily proved. If, then, these things be true, 
 and the condition of affairs is really as I have 
 sketched it, no further arguments, I should think, 
 are wanting to prove that circumstances are not 
 such as to render the present a favourable time for 
 
 * I once saw a horse, certainly worth 10, sold at auction S ( 
 for five shillings. 
 
 f By a market I mean a city, town, or place, where informa- 
 tion can be obtained by purchasers, from a Government Office, 
 agencies, or other sources, and where brokers, <&c., and other 
 appliances for determining the market value of the thing for 
 sale exist. 
 
a general sale out-right of all the waste land in 
 India. 
 
 Again, it is an implied condition of mercantile 
 transactions, that both parties, buyer and seller, know, 
 or are supposed to know, both the intrinsic value of 
 the commodity to be sold, and their own inter- 
 ests. Now, independent of situation in regard to a 
 market, &c., a necessary condition to determining 
 the value of any land, is a knowledge of its natural 
 properties, or to use more definite terms, its capa- 
 bilities for production ; and to do this, plainly, some 
 knowledge of the nature of the soil and its mineral 
 ^ wealth are necessary. /The geological survey of 
 s . India has not extended to a hundredth part of the 
 \ uncultivated part of the country.* It is only the 
 other day that the climates of Assam and Cachar, 
 were looked upon as deadly to human life, and their 
 soils as capable only of producing dense jungle, and 
 the rankest vegetation. The capabilities of the soils 
 of much of the great wastes of India are as little 
 known, as those of these now coveted lands were 
 then. No one then can possibly be in a position to 
 say what is their value. Hence, probably, the de- 
 termination to sell them by auction. But here, 
 again, we are forced on the horns of a dilemma, for 
 it has been already shown, that, in the absence of 
 
 * A more important reason for not selling wastes now, is 
 / the progress of railroads, which will, of course, give a very 
 high value to all culturable wastes in their vicinity, which may 
 now be worth nothing. January, 1867. 
 
93 
 
 the most active competition, this species of sale is 
 precisely that in which there is the greatest possible 
 risk of loss ; and to fix a limit, or upset price as it 
 is called, to any purpose, it is an essential that the 
 value of the thing- to be sold be ascertained, which 
 in regard to this land, has been determined to be, at 
 present, impossible. Gladly would I get out of this 
 difficulty, but truly I do not see the way. 
 
 I am fully aware of the differences of opinion 
 regarding- the relative values of land and capital in 
 wastes reclaimed, and that some economists have 
 g-one so far as to assert that the whole is capital, 
 and that waste land, therefore, has no value.* But 
 we have only to consider the length of time over 
 which this outlay is spread, and to place against it 
 the accumulated wealth of the produce of the land, 
 and the fallacy is transparent. When rich deposits 
 are taken from the bottom of the Sea, or other place 
 where they are not now utilized, and laid on barren 
 rocks, that land may be called capital ; but if so, it 
 is capital not invested in, but capital converted into 
 land, and its value is determined, not by the cost of 
 its formation ; but by its fertility and advantages in 
 relation to other lands in the neighbourhood. The 
 
 * Mr. Carey, an American Economist, in his " Principles of C 
 Political Economy," asserts that all the land in any country is [ ) 
 not equal in value to anything like the capital that has been 
 laid out on it ; or, in other words, that to bring the land of auy 
 country to its present condition, from a state of primeval 
 forest, would not pay. He concludes from this that ail rent is 
 the result of capital expended, which theory, if true, would 
 vitiate the principles of a tax on land. 
 
94 
 
 exchange value of land, like that of everything* else, 
 is affected b} r circumstances proximity to markets, 
 population, roads, rivers, climate ; but there is still 
 its power of production, which the absence of any 
 or all of these, though it may put it out of the 
 market, cannot annihilate. The diamond in the 
 mine, gold in the rock, any of the precious metals, 
 so locked up, are subject to very similar laws, and 
 it appears to me absurd to argue, that the one has 
 intrinsic worth, while the other which has inherent 
 powers of producing the most precious of all kinds 
 of wealth the necessaries of life has none. 
 
 Thus, if two pieces of land, one suitable for grow- 
 ing opium, and the other capable only of producing 
 rice : or two mines, one a gold and the other a 
 copper mine, were situated in the same locality, and 
 at a considerable distance from a market, it is quite 
 intelligible that, the expenditure of capital and labour 
 required to produce the opium and the rice, and to 
 work the gold and the copper mine being, respectively, 
 precisely the same, the opium land and the diamond 
 mine should have a high exchange value, while the 
 rice land and the copper mine would be unsaleable. 
 Yet need not the rice land and the copper mine be 
 valueless. As the electric fluid in the Leyden Jar 
 is imprisoned till approached by the conductor, so 
 would be the natural properties of the rice land and 
 the copper in the mine, until advancing 5 civilization, 
 improved communication, or other circumstances, set 
 them free. In an old country, therefore, the object 
 
95 
 
 of a wise man with valuable property in land, or 
 wealth in mines, should not be to give them away, 
 or to sell them, at a nominal value, to the first person 
 who would undertake to cultivate the one or to work 
 the other, but rather to endeavour, if within his power, 
 to bring- them within those influences which would 
 give them a value in exchange, in proportion to 
 their natural value, and then, and unless to do this 
 was nearly impossible or the prospect indefinitely 
 remote not till then, to sell them. 
 
 It will follow, I opine, then, that if circumstances 
 reg-ulate the price of land, its natural properties as 
 well as the capital that may have been laid out on 
 it, determine its value. 
 
 If an upset price mean anything*, in regard to a 
 number of commodities for sale of the same denomi- 
 nation but of different values, it oug % ht to mean, the 
 lowest price the seller can afford to take, or will take, 
 for the least valuable ; because, if it be fixed with 
 reference to the most valuable, or the averag-e value 
 of the whole, a larg-e proportion will not sell at all. 
 Now a larg-e proportion of the immense wastes of 
 India is worth no more than the deserts of Arabia 
 Petrea, and the rest ascends in the scale of fertility, 
 like the lands of all other countries by regular de- 
 grees. What 6s may represent in relation to the 
 whole, I do not know. It has been calculated with 
 reference to the terms of the present leases of 99 
 years, that in selling- these leases in the tea districts 
 of Assam and Cachar at that rate, Government 
 
96 
 
 would not be a loser. But the return to labour 
 and capital expended on tea lands, including 1 all 
 expenses of clearances, is several hundred per cent, 
 more than that upon any land under cultivation in 
 India, except perhaps opium lands. If then, all 
 thing's considered, 5s represents the value of this 
 kind of land, it must follow that no other waste land 
 will sell at all or, allowing 1 the necessary marg-in 
 for the operation of secondary influences, if other 
 lands will sell at this rate to any great extent, that, 
 in the absence of a very active competition, these 
 lands will be sold much under their value, and, 
 ultimately, very larg-e sums of money be lost to the 
 State.* 
 
 These reasons lead me to the conclusion that 
 there are, at present, no proper means of determin- 
 ing 1 the value of any of these lands ; and that while 
 the determination to auction them will be Avholly 
 inoperative, except in a few districts, to secure the 
 State against ultimate and serious loss in those 
 
 * The Secretary of State directed in his despatch that " the 
 several Governors and Lieut.- Governors should be instructed 
 to fix, after communication with the chief Local Authorities, 
 a minimum price suited to the circumstances of the various 
 descriptions of land which they may find to be at their dis- 
 posal in each district of their Presidency or Province." There 
 is little or no waste land available in the Bombay or Madras 
 Presidencies, and as five shillings has been fixed as the uni- 
 form upset price for Bengal and the North West Provinces ; 
 and as the terms on which leases were granted in Arracan, 
 the Tenasserim Provinces, Pegu, the Punjab, and most other 
 places were not more favourable than those granted in Bengal, 
 it may be assumed that this price will, indeed must, regulate 
 the whole. 
 
. 
 
 97 
 
 districts where there is a present demand, the 
 fixing 1 of a uniform rate of 5s an acre as a minimum 
 limit, will effectually shut out from all possibility of 
 reclamation, such tracts as the Soonderbuns, and 
 the great proportion of the immense wastes of 
 India. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE EIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA IN THE 
 SOIL: EIGHTS OF OCCUPANCY. 
 
 I WILL now venture to discuss the rights of cul- 
 tivators and others in the soil ; but before entering* 
 on this portion of the subject, I will notice another 
 difficulty, and by no means a minor one, in the way 
 of the sale of wastes. I allude to the hucks, or rights 
 of the natives therein, those hucks the scrupulous 
 respect for which Lord Canning- declared to be one 
 of the most solemn duties of the Government of 
 India, and which declaration Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment most cordially approved. Now it must be 
 borne in mind that the native idea on the subject of 
 these hucks is peculiar and very strong, amount- 
 ing even to the assertion of a right of property) 
 or, at least, of joint-ownership. 'These rights con- 
 stitute occupancy, pre-emption, right of grazing 
 cattle, cutting wood, grass, &c., use of water-courses, 
 and general right to the products of all waste lands, 
 mines, quarries not worked, &c., rights of way, rights 
 to certain municipal offices, family rights, &c. To 
 the general English reader it may appear that little 
 difficulty would beset the path of a Statesman in 
 disposing of rights to which no title could be made 
 out 5 but to all familiar with the early history of 
 Property, and the constitution of society in the Patri- 
 archal form, it will be apparent, that this subject is 
 
99 
 
 one involved in some complication. That the state 
 of society in the greater part of India is of the true 
 archaic type, Mountstuart Elphinstone,in his History 
 of India, has already acquainted the public. A 
 right of occupancy here is not, as Blackstone has 
 supposed, a c kind of transient property in/ It is 
 asserted to be an inalienable right of possession, of 
 which the holder cannot be dispossessed without 
 injustice. A competent expounder of the native 
 feeling- in regard to what they consider their Tiucks 
 or rights, says : 
 
 ' The following* is an example of the regard the 
 people have for their rights. In every village there 
 are Mirdhas, who are by profession robbers. Each 
 of these holds 10 to 20 beegahs of land, for which 
 he is expected to prevent others from committing 
 robbery in his village. For the sake of this right 
 to their land, though they are all professional 
 thieves, they sometimes suffer losses ; still they 
 make good robberies committed by others, rather 
 than leave their Hucks over the land. They abstain 
 from committing robberies in each other's village. 
 Here is another remarkable instance, there is one 
 Chiefdom in Bundlekund called Duttia, where there 
 is no regular Police ; yet we hear travellers generally 
 experience no sort of inconvenience on the road, 
 for there the village Police system of the sort above 
 alluded to is in force.* This mode is also observed 
 
 * This primitive system of police, or black mail as it may be 
 called, is by no means confined to native states. In the neigh- 
 EC 2 
 
100 
 
 in many Native States. Joshees, Poorohits, and 
 others, above alluded to, as Astrologers, religious 
 Mendicants, &c., formerly held lands or received 
 payments in cash either from the Native Govern- 
 ments or Zemindars. Though the British Govern- 
 ment refused to sanction such grants, yet the 
 Zemindars give them out of their own Hucks. Tirth 
 Boorohits, or the Priests at sacred places, such as 
 Benares, Allahabad, Muttra, &c., also receive grants 
 of lands and cash from Zemindars. These persons 
 even apply their Hucks and lands and other property 
 connected with it to any purpose they like ; they 
 give in grants and dowry, and mortgage it ; yet 
 the Hucks are entirely volunta^ ; but the claim of 
 the owner on them is, by common consent, held to 
 be so strong that they are treated like legal property. 
 This may show how the people of Hindoostan value 
 their Hucks. Indeed, in some cases, they, in order 
 to retain their Hucks in their family name, become 
 converts to another religion or even give their lives. 
 These Hucks, therefore, should not be taken away 
 by the Government, or made subject to sale by the 
 
 bourhood of Delhi there is a large village inhabited entirely by 
 Goojurs, all professional thieves, of whose services the Magis- 
 trate makes valuable use. During the three years my Eegiment 
 was quartered there, I had one of these gentlemen constantly 
 in my pay. He stuck his spear in the compound or grounds 
 of my house, and no more. He came on the 15th of every month 
 and took his Us. 4 (eight shillings). For the remainder of the 
 month I never saw him ; yet I slept more secure than if I had 
 had a sentry at every corner of my house. I speak of the times 
 before the mutiny of 1857. Whether or not the same system 
 is now in force I cannot say. 
 
101 
 
 c=f 
 
 process of any Court for personal debts. They 
 should be treated as entailed property, of which the 
 life interest only can be alienated. The result from 
 preserving- and increasing- the existing- Hucks will 
 be g-ood. But it will be much better from continu- 
 ing- the system which Lord Canning* has commenced 
 of establishing- new rig-hts of the above description, 
 by giving- Estates, Talooks, &c.'* 
 
 In another place the Eaja says : < Institution of 
 a new enquiry into grants. Selling- rights (Rucks)- 
 which the subjects value dearer than their lives, and 
 many other thing's which will be described here- 
 after, are contributing- to the dissatisfaction of the 
 subjects/ 
 
 I have heard it said moreover, by other native 
 gentlemen, not inferior in status, or of less intelli- 
 gence than the author of these Observations, that 
 the right of occupancy in India, is an exclusive and 
 permanent rig-lit, which cannot be alienated or pur- 
 chased, except with the consent of the holders. The 
 savage races who dwell on hills and in jungles, are 
 the owners of those hills and jungles ; the tribes who 
 squat on lands are the owners of those lands; 
 villagers, who, like the patriarchs of old, graze their 
 flocks on vast pasture lands, who cut grass or fire- 
 wood in forests, have, if not an ownership in those 
 lands and forests, a prescriptive title to these rights 
 
 * Memorandum of Observations on the Administration, of 
 India by Raja Dinker Rao of Grualior, Member of the Gover- 
 nor- General's Council for making Laws, p. 8. Home Office, 
 Calcutta, 1862. 
 
10'2 
 
 under the law of ancient custom, a law in India 
 something- like an act of Parliament, of which they 
 cannot be deprived without injustice, and which 
 prohibits the sale of such lands, otherwise than 
 encumbered with these rights. " It is assumed," 
 says the Secretary of State in his despatch, "that 
 half-civilized tribes will be ready to appreciate a 
 community of interests between the European 
 settlers and themselves. 1 apprehend, on the con- 
 trary, that passionately attached as they are known 
 to be to their ancestral lands, they mig-ht naturally 
 reg-ard the intrusion of European strang-ers as an 
 encroachment and a wrong- inflicted on themselves." 
 And such in many, if not all, places is undoubtedly 
 the case. In the Palialam Valley of Kang'ra, a spot 
 some have thought to rival, in the picturesque beauty 
 of its scenery, the vale of Cashmere, there are about 
 50,000 acres of pasture and other land admirably 
 fitted for tea cultivation ; but not one acre will the 
 / few scattered villag-e communities permit to come 
 into the hands of Europeans, at ten times its actual 
 value, as estimated by the normal rates of the 
 district. On this point I am well informed, for 
 holding* property in the Valley, I was anxious to 
 add to it by securing- more land ; and the following- 
 extract of a letter from my ag'ent will as well illus- 
 trate my subject, as the success which attended my 
 attempts. 
 
 a I have used all my powers of persuasion, to 
 L_induce the Zemindars to sell me enough land to 
 
103 
 
 complete the Raipoor estate; but though 1 have 
 offered as hig'h as fifteen and twenty rupees an acre,* 
 prices before unheard of in the country, all my efforts 
 have proved unavailing. They steadily refuse to 
 sell a single rood. They say, e Why have you come 
 here ? We don't want you. We know you only 
 wish to deprive us of our land, and then make coolies 
 of us to work on your estates, but we are determined 
 you shall not have the land/ There is, therefore, a 
 combination amongst them, not to sell any land to 
 Europeans, and no man dares to break it." 
 
 These ideas will doubtless give way before the 
 advantages the solid benefits which invariably flow 
 from the introduction of capital :| but, that they 
 exist and that such claims are now put forth in 
 many parts of India, is indisputable. Indeed there 
 can be no better measure of the importance attached 
 to hucks in land by the natives, than the distaste 
 with which they view the encroachment of Euro- 
 peans. 
 
 It is true that the waste lands for sale are sup- 
 posed to be unincumbered with hucks, and at the 
 absolute disposal of Government ; but though there 
 
 * The Zemindars can sell, it must be recollected, nothing 
 but the proprietary right, subject, after the expiry of the 
 settlement, to any assessment the Government chooses to 
 impose. 
 
 f In parts of Assam the price of grain has risen four / i 
 hundred per cent in four years, since the introduction of tea \ I 
 planting, thus placing the Government in a position to double 
 the land tax, and still leave the cultivator more than twice as 
 rich as he was before. 
 
104 
 
 is little definite knowledge on the subject, it would 
 seem that such is not the case, or why the provision 
 for gelling- these lands subject to any i rights of pro- 
 perty' that may be established in them hereafter ? 
 The inference is inevitable, that the proposal is 
 nothing more nor less, than to sell that with which 
 the seller admits he can give but a doubtful title 
 a title that would not be recognised in any country 
 of Europe on the security of which, as it stands at 
 present, no English capitalist would advance a 
 shilling ; and it is consequently of some little import- 
 ance to examine carefully into the rights of the case, 
 so that what is done may be equitable, and that the 
 State, the natives, and the settlers, may receive, 
 each and every, their just dues. 
 
 Native Rulers, brought up in the atmosphere of 
 native society, have doubtless been imbued with its 
 ideas. It may be asked, then, have they respected 
 these rights ? On the contrary History satisfies us, 
 that if they have silently acquiesced in their subjects 
 appropriating waste lands, they have seldom failed 
 to vindicate the principle of Adverse Possession, 
 by respecting no rights that did not pay, and 
 others only so long as it suited their convenience. 
 The British Government, however, has not a like 
 immunity from its own acts, and this fact has long 
 since been discovered by our Indian subjects, and is 
 often, I am afraid, turned to account to advance 
 claims to which neither Ancient Law, nor Ancient 
 Custom have given any sanction. As if, moreover, 
 
105 
 
 the mail of legal enactments and public opinion 
 were not sufficiently binding", instead of depending 
 for a character on the uprightness and integrity of 
 its acts, Government is for ever making- pledges 
 and promises, which the very necessities of numerous 
 societies in various and progressive stages of 
 development, render it impossible for it to keep. 
 Successive Governments, consequently, while con- 
 tinually breaking the pledges of their predecessors, 
 are as actively engaged in forging fresh chains for 
 their successors to wear, and in their turn to burst ; 
 and it is thus that gradually, but steadily, has been 
 accumulated a solid basis for that idea, now fixed, 
 of the bad faith of the English race. 
 
 In the present case we have two races brought 
 into collision as competitors for rights of property 
 and other rights in the soil, the one we may say in 
 the first or lowest, and the other in the last or 
 highest stage of development; and both, as might 
 be expected, imbued with the most opposite views 
 of justice, rights of property, and their own inte- 
 rests. The situation is, in this particular, peculiar, 
 and calls therefore for the most careful consi- 
 deration, lest, by adopting a process of trans- 
 mutation too much in accordance with the ideas 
 which regulate the views of the one party, violence 
 be done to the feelings of the other or by a blind 
 and indiscriminate regard for traditionary rights, the 
 true functions of a Government be abandoned, and 
 the progress of the country be materially retarded. 
 
106 
 
 In all other respects, however, it is not new. 
 The student of the history of Property is aware, 
 that a state of thing's similar to that existing in 
 India, has afforded matter for thought to the law- 
 givers of all civilized nations, from the earliest ages 
 of which we have a historic record. The systems 
 of occupant-village-community- family- tribe- and 
 joint-ownership are known to have existed amongst 
 the people of most countries in the earlier stages of 
 their progress, from the days of the Romans, and 
 more lately in Austrian and Turkish Sclavonia, and 
 in many provinces of the vast Russian Empire 
 down to our own times. The difficulties which beset 
 the Governments of these countries in administering 
 the affairs of the State, and the people themselves 
 in transacting their own business, in consequence of 
 the fetters with which proprietary rights were tram- 
 melled, are now well known to jurists, and the neces- 
 sity which improving- organizations of societies im- 
 posed on lawgivers of getting rid of them, has been 
 made patent by successive laws on the subject, from 
 that of the Usucapion of the Romans, to those of 
 Limitation amongst ourselves. 
 
 Regarding rights of Occupancy, with which we 
 have now more immediately to do, the latest and pro- 
 bably the highest authority on the subject says: 
 
 4 Before pointing* out the quarter in which we 
 may hope to glean some information, scanty and 
 uncertain at best, concerning the early history of 
 proprietary right, I venture to state my opinion 
 
107 
 
 that the popular impression in reference to the part 
 played by Occupancy in the first stages of civiliza- 
 tion directly reverses the truth. Occupancy is the 
 advised assumption of physical possession ; and the 
 notion that an act of this description confers a title 
 to " res nullius," so far from being characteristic of 
 very early societies, is in all probability the growth 
 of a refined jurisprudence and of a settled condition 
 of the laws. It is only when the rights of property 
 have gained a sanction from long practical invio- 
 lability , and when the vast majority of the objects of 
 enjoyment have been subjected to private ownership, 
 that mere possession is allowed to invest the first 
 possessor with dominion over commodities in which 
 no prior proprietorship has been asserted. The 
 sentiment in which the doctrine originated is 
 absolutely irreconcileable with that infrequency and 
 uncertainty of proprietary rights which distinguish 
 the beginnings of civilization. Its true basis seems 
 to be, not an instinctive bias towards the institution 
 of Property, but a presumption arising out of the { 
 long continuance of that institution, that every thing / 
 ought to have an owner. When possession is taking / 
 of a a res nullius," that is, of an object which is not, 
 or has never been, reduced to dominion, the possessor 
 is permitted to become proprietor from a feeling 
 that all valuable things are naturally the subjects of 
 an exclusive enjoyment, and that in the given case 
 there is no one to invest with the right of property 
 
108 
 
 except the Occupant. The Occupant in short, 
 becomes the owner, because all things are presumed 
 to be somebody's property, and because no one can 
 be pointed out as having' a better right than he to 
 the proprietorship of this particular thing.'* 
 
 If this view of the case be the correct one, and 
 much that we find existing around us, goes a con- 
 siderable way to prove that it is, popular notions 
 would seem to be an unsafe guide ; and I think, 
 therefore, that before any attempt was made to sell, 
 outright, the waste lands in India, it would have 
 been desirable that some definitive some fixed prin- 
 ciples regarding 4 rights, real or traditionary, should 
 have been laid down by competent authority, not 
 only to entitle the possessor to sell, but to prevent 
 those blunders the commission of which has so ham- 
 pered successive administrations of India, in their 
 anxious endeavours to ameliorate the Government 
 of the country. Fiscal questions, vitally affecting 
 the future welfare of large provinces questions that 
 have occupied the most serious attention of the pro- 
 foundest thinkers on these subjects in all ages, are 
 here not unfrequently decided off-hand, on the 
 recommendation of settlement officers, or collectors, 
 by chief Civil Authorities, who if they could find the 
 time fully to consider their bearings, can hardly be 
 expected to possess the qualifications necessary to 
 
 * Ancient Law, by II. Sumner Maine, p. 256. 
 
109 
 
 deal satisfactorily with them. /Aremarkable instance 
 of this may be found in the Kangra Valley, to which 
 I have before alluded, where a few years ag*o, a 
 British settlement officer quietly made over the pro- 
 prietary rights of the State in 50,000 acres of land 
 that would now be invaluable, to a few village com- 
 munities without any stipulation whatever, simply, 1 
 believe, because he did not know what to do with 
 them. There were no people to cultivate this land ; 
 the village patriarchs could use comparatively but a 
 very small portion of it for grazing their flocks , 
 and now Europeans, who would fill this beautiful 
 valley with industrious people, and enrich it with 
 wealth, are shut out of it, because they are not of 
 the Gens of the villager proprietors, who, sooner 
 than admit aliens within their brotherhood, will spend 
 all the small resources of their community in pur- 
 chasing*, at an enormous premium, any small plot 
 of land that, by accident, may come under the 
 Government hammer. For twenty years to come, 
 these villagers have been endowed with the power of 
 preventing thousands of acres of productive land, to 
 which they never had the shadow of a title, and for 
 which they do not pay, and never have paid a farth- 
 ing*, from being* cultivated, and thus of depriving 
 Government of the revenue it mig'ht derive from these 
 lands, or, in other words, of the means of making- 
 roads, bridges, &c., and otherwise improving the 
 property of the State. It is a singular fact too, 
 that while the acts of Her Majesty's and the Supreme 
 
110 
 
 Governments evince the deepest anxiety to further 
 the introduction of British enterprise and capital 
 into those districts now unpeopled and waste, we 
 find these large landed proprietors exempted, not 
 only from all taxation, but from the payment of 
 any revenue on account of their immense possessions, 
 while a few British settlers have to purchase or pay 
 revenue for their petty holdings, and an enormous 
 premium to these monopolists for a proprietary right 
 to which they never had a title, should they be for- 
 tunate enough to induce any to suffer them to obtain 
 an acre of land. Surely this state of things indicates 
 some misconception of the true circumstances of the 
 position, or of the motive springs which regulate the 
 action of monopolists, or of societies in an archaic 
 stage of development. 
 
 Most certainly it is imperative on a Government 
 in the position of the British Government in India, 
 scrupulously to respect all the just rights of the 
 people in the soil or otherwise \ but it is equally its 
 duty carefully to investigate all claims on the State 
 of any class, be they European or Native, and espe- 
 cially if supported by traditionary evidence, which 
 may either retard the improvement of the country, 
 or involve the imposition of unjust burdens on the 
 whole community. And, when the interests of the 
 State and the country may be sacrificed, in the 
 manner above mentioned, it will be apparent that 
 some standard should be adopted, more in accord- 
 ance with principles based on sound experience, 
 
Ill 
 
 than the varying- opinions of settlement authorities 
 are likely to be, if it be desired that the land tenure 
 of the whole country shall ever be placed on that 
 solid basis, the singularly important relation it bears 
 to the revenues of the State, demands. 
 
 And if the present age is at fault in regard to 
 some of the links of such a chain of evidence as 
 would enable us to trace back the history of proprie- 
 tary rights to their first origin, in India we are not 
 altogether helpless. We have Institutes older than 
 Justinian's, and the advantage of having conquered 
 conquerors with a good code of laws, which, if never 
 fully in force, have furnished the ruling idea, and 
 hence the guiding principles in disputed points, for 
 many centuries. 
 
 Hindoo Law, it is true, is not always very clear 
 on any point ; but the following extracts will afford 
 some insight into the views of Indian law-givers f/ 
 regarding rights of occupancy and property in the 
 soil : 
 
 Nerasinha purana. " Thrice seven times exter- // 
 minating the military tribe, PARASU KAMA gave the j j 
 Earth to CASYAPA, as a gratuity for the sacrifice of 
 a horse." 
 
 On which the Commentator remarks. 
 
 " By CONQUEST, the earth became the property of 
 the holy PARASU RAMA ; by GIFT, the property of 
 the sage CASYAPA ; and, committed by him to 
 Cshatriyas for the sake of protection, became their 
 protective property successively held by powerful 
 
112 
 conquerors, and NOT BY SUBJECTS CULTIVATING 
 
 THE SOIL." 
 
 " BUT, annual property is acquired by subjects 
 on payment of annual revenue : and the king- can- 
 not lawfully give, sell, or dispose of the land to 
 another for that year. But if the ag*reement be in 
 this form, f you shall enjoy it for years;' for as 
 many years as the property is granted, during* so 
 many years the king- should never give, sell, or dis- 
 pose of it to another. Yet if the subject pay not 
 the revenue, the grant, being* conditional, is annulled 
 by the breach of the condition ; and the king may 
 grant it to another." 
 
 YAJNYAWALCYA. "AND the king* shall receive 
 a sixth part of unclaimed property occupied by any 
 other person.'' 
 
 " SINCE the word King here/' says the Commen- 
 tator, u denotes lord of the soil ; and since the culti- 
 vator, being* owner of that land, is so far equal to 
 the king ; he would be entitled to the sixth part of 
 the unowned property occupied by him. The 
 answer is, the word king* may be explained lord of 
 the soil to exclude another king : but a royal pro- 
 perty is supposed in the use of the word : ' the culti- 
 
 | ' "" """' w ' i^ 
 
 vator has a subordinate usufructuary property, not \ 
 a royal property : and SKI CBISHNA TERCALANCARA 
 thinks there may be, in the same land, property of 
 various kinds, vesting in the king, the subject, and 
 so forth. It should not be objected, if that be the 
 case, why cannot the king give the land to another, 
 
113 
 
 in the same year for which revenue is paid 
 Because a seller or giver may, by sale or gift, 
 annul his own property, and invest another with 
 similar property, but cannot create property of 
 another nature (for a sale by a subject cannot create 
 property of another nature, namely ro} 7 al property ;) 
 therefore, usufructuary property being raised by a 
 conditional gift to the subject, the king cannot 
 again create property in the same thing, by a gift to 
 another." 
 
 ie But whence is it deduced, that such property 
 vests in the cultivator ? There is no proof of it. 
 His property is not by occupancy; for the king 
 being a more powerful owner, his occupancy cannot 
 be maintained : it is not by sale ; for no sale has 
 been made : it is not by gift from the king on con- 
 dition of revenue ; for, were it so, his property 
 cannot be annulled without the assent of the 
 
 owner." 
 
 " SOME hold, that the subject is invested with 
 ownership by a gift from the king on condition of 
 revenue. If he go elsewhere and revenue be not 
 paid, the gift is cancelled by the breach of the con- 
 dition. It should not be objected, that his interest 
 in the land would be equal to the king's ; for the 
 king's assent is not given in such a form. Thus, the 
 king assenting in these words, f let a subordinate 
 usufructuary property be held by thee, while my 
 property remains in this land, which belongs to 
 me;' such property is created, as is described by 
 
 T 
 
114 
 
 the terms of his assent. Nor should it be objected 
 that in this case property is not created, nor is effect 
 given to an existent property, but mere possession 
 as of a thing- pawned. This would be inconsistent 
 with the explanation of husbandman, as given by 
 CHANDESWARA and others ; that is, c owner of the 
 field/ " 
 
 " A specific agreement should be made, when the 
 land is delivered, that it shall be enjoyed year by 
 year, until a greater revenue be offered by another 
 person/' 
 
 " OTHERS hold, that the king- has no property in 
 the soil, nor power to dispose of the subject's abode, 
 because all have a right in the soil ; since the earth 
 was created for the support of living animals, as 
 expressed in the Sri Bhagavata : ' The Earth, 
 which GOD created for the abode of living creatures;' 
 and because MANU has only declared, that the sub- 
 jects shall be protected by the king." 
 
 " BUT, in fact, without property in the soil, there 
 can be no certain rule for the protection of the 
 subjects." 
 
 (C And if it be argued, that the positive necessity 
 of supposing a proprietary right, and the consequent 
 obligation on the king* to protect the inhabitants of 
 that country, of which he is proprietor, should not 
 be affirmed, because such property is not deduced 
 from positive precept ; we answer, the exclusion of 
 every other authority is naturally implied ; and it is 
 positively required, that there be c a right of pro- 
 
115 
 
 perty co-ordinate with the non-existence of a deter- 
 mination not to exclude other authority/ 
 
 " IF a potent subject be able, independent of the 
 king*, to resist invaders, and even to seize the lands 
 of others ; shall his property be deemed independent 
 of the king? No; for that subject ought to be 
 punished by the king*, if he transgress the law : but, 
 if the sovereign be not able to inflict punishment on 
 him, even he is king." 
 
 The subject's property in the soil is weaker than 
 the king's, for the subject is weaker than the king : 
 but it is founded on the reason of the law, and on 
 settled usage : therefore the land of one subject 
 oug*ht not to be sold by the king to another. 
 
 (f THE meaning of the text, which describes the 
 earth as the abode of living creatures, is positively 
 this ; the property is his, who uses the land, where 
 he resides, and while he uses it : and thus, when 
 land belonging to any person is sold by the king, 
 it is a sale without ownership." 1 * 
 
 But, turning from Hindoo Law, let us examine 
 the Laws of our predecessors, which superseded 
 Hindoo Law, wherever the authority of the Emperor 
 extended. 
 
 NOQAYAH. u Waste Land," says the Canon, u is i 
 land, unproductive in consequence of want of irriga- 
 
 * Digest of Hindoo Law, with the commentary of Jagan- 
 natha Tercapanchannana. Golebroke. The great importance 
 of this portion of the subject must be my excuse for the length 
 of these extracts. 
 
 i2 
 
11G 
 
 tion, and the like, for which no owner is known, and 
 situated at such a distance from all populated 
 places, that the sound of the voice of man cannot 
 reach its borders. Whoso cultivateth such land, is 
 the owner thereof, provided he hath done so with the 
 permission of the Soltan.* Should he have made a 
 fence round it, he may hold it for three years. At 
 the expiration of that time, should he not have 
 brought it into cultivation, the Soltan may take it 
 away from him, and give it to another. Whoso 
 shall have dug a well in waste land, with permis- 
 sion as aforesaid, for him is a circuit of forty 
 cubits on all sides ; and whoso shall have opened a 
 spring, for him are similarly five hundred cubits. 
 It shall be lawful for the owner to prohibit any 
 other person from doing the like within this circuit ; 
 and if any person shall dig a well or open a spring 
 on the border of the circuit of him who shall have 
 first dug a well or opened a spring, for him is an 
 enclosure, only on three sides thereof, &c." 
 
 QODOORI (apud the Hidayah). " And the Set- 
 tler, though of another religion, acquires property, 
 in the land he shall have cultivated, equally with 
 the Moslim ; because it is by the cultivation of waste 
 land that property is acquired therein always as- 
 suming the permission of the Soltan, which in the 
 
 * In the original the words I have rendered 'owner thereof 
 are malaka-ho^ on which the Commentator says, i. e. he shall 
 acquire property in the land he shall have cultivated no more. 
 The word also I have translated Soltan, is I?nam, which means, 
 a Leader, or the highest legally coDstituted authority. 
 
117 
 
 case of a Settler as aforesaid, is, in the opinion of all 
 the Doctors, essential." 
 
 " Some Lawgivers hold/' says the Commentator, 
 " that in the case of a Moslim, the permission of the 
 Soltan is not essential to the acquirement of property : 
 but Aboo Haneefah is of a contrary opinion, and his 
 opinion has been given the preference by Qazee 
 Khan, an 4 is approved." 
 
 And in the Fatarca-i Alamgeeri * it is thus 
 written. 
 
 " The Soltan hath power to bestow waste land.f 
 And if he shall have made a grant of such land to 
 any one, he shall let him alone for three years; 
 when, should the grantee not have cultivated it, it 
 returns to him (the Soltan) and he may give it to 
 another, for property in waste land is acquired only 
 by cultivation" 
 
 The English Rules of Proceedure, the only Law 
 at present on the subject, differ more or less, in 
 every Province in India. The demand, however, 
 
 * This is a collection of legal opinions and precepts in six 
 large quarto vols. prepared by order of the Emperor Alamgeer. 
 In India, and indeed also in Egypt, Arabia, and Turkey, an in- 
 disputable authority. 
 
 f But he has no power to give away cultivated land, which 
 is the property of the cultivator, or the person in whose posses- 
 sion it was when the country was conquered, or originally 
 settled. The King can dispose only of his own right in the 
 soil, and that right consists solely in ushur (a tenth) with mos- 
 lims, and Khiraj (revenue that may be fixed), with others. 
 And this he cannot remit, except in favour of the ahl-i mdsdraf 
 (the Ulema, the devotees, the poor, maimed, halt, blind, &c.) 
 All grants of rent-free land made except in accordance with 
 this rule, are illegal. January, 1867. 
 
118 
 
 for Wastes being*, for the most part, confined to one 
 Presidency, the following- will serve as a type of the 
 whole. 
 
 BENGAL. " If before the day of sale a claim of 
 proprietary, or occupative, right in any part of the 
 land be preferred, the Collector shall investigate the 
 claim, and ; if satisfied that it is groundless, shall 
 reject it and proceed with the sale." 
 
 " If on investigation any such claim should ap- 
 pear to be well grounded, the Collector may either 
 reject the application for purchase of the lands or 
 refer it for the orders of the Commissioner. In the 
 former case the applicant may appeal to the Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 " The Commissioner may direct the Collector 
 either to reject the application, or to proceed with 
 the sale of the land, either unreservedly on the con- 
 ditions prescribed in Eule 9, or, if any claim to 
 right of proprietorship, occupancy, or use in any 
 part of the lands be established to the satisfaction 
 of the Commissioner, with a special reservation of 
 such tight, or exclusive of the area in which such 
 right exists. If the application for purchase of the 
 land be rejected, the amount deposited as cost of 
 Survey will be forfeited.' 7 
 
 NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES. " Where it is 
 evident that there exist rights of property, or of ex- 
 clusive occupancy, either active or latent, the appli- 
 cant will be informed that the case cannot be taken 
 up under the Grant Rules, excepting in favour of 
 
119 
 
 the party originally possessed of those rights, or 
 who has purchased them from such party." " It 
 will be an important part of the Collector's duty to 
 make certain that any transfer of such rights shall 
 have been made with a complete and fair under- 
 standing- on the part of all concerned." 
 
 (( In case of there being* any doubt as to whether 
 existing- rights are of the exclusive character neces- 
 sary to bar alienation, the Collector will report the 
 case through the Commissioner to the Sudder Board 
 of Revenue. If the rights claimed, though not ex- 
 clusive, should appear to the Sudder Board of 
 Revenue to be such rights of pasturage, wood cut- 
 ting, &c. as commonly obtain in the Hill Districts, 
 and are entitled, as ' existing rights in a rude form/ 
 to protection under paragraph G of the Resolution 
 of the Governor General in Council, No. 3264, 
 dated the 17th of October 1861, the Board will in- 
 struct the Collector to endeavour to bring the 
 applicant for the Grant, and the parties who possess 
 a right to use the spontaneous products of the soil 
 within the tract applied for, to a mutual agreement 
 as to the terms upon which (if any) any hereditary 
 and transferable property in the soil may be given 
 to the former, subject to the exercise of their custo- 
 mary right by the latter. If an amicable arrange- 
 ment be come to, the Collector will report the parti- 
 culars for the information and sanction of the Sudder 
 Board of Revenue. Otherwise the Collector will 
 proceed to estimate the value of the prescriptive 
 
120 
 
 rights, as above, on a liberal basis, and will submit 
 the case, through the S udder Board of Revenue, to 
 the Government in view to the payment of full com- 
 pensation." 
 
 All written laws must necessarily have been 
 framed after Societies had advanced some stages 
 be} T ond the most primitive state. It is futile then, 
 to hope, by the examination of codes of laws, to 
 ascertain how property in the soil was first, or is 
 naturally acquired. Nor would it be of any prac- 
 tical use to do so. The first laws of peoples, are 
 valuable, however, as giving" us the nearest possible 
 view of an interesting subject, and the concurrent 
 testimony of the lawgivers of many nations in an 
 early stage of civilization in favour of certain funda- 
 mental principles, especially if consonant with our 
 own sense of right, is useful as an index to guide us 
 when legislating for a people less advanced than 
 ourselves, in preserving to them those privileges, to 
 which they may be justly considered to have a pre- 
 scriptive right. 
 
 Now Hindoo and Mohammadan Law differ in 
 at least one important particular as regards land 
 tenure generally. According to Hindoo Law, 
 though the subject may obtain a subordinate or 
 usufructuary property by cultivation, the royal or 
 superior right of property in the soil, vests in the 
 Sovereign. Nor can he divest himself of it, except 
 by sale or gift. By the Mohammadan Law, on the 
 contrary, should a King* on subduing a country by 
 
121 
 
 force of arms, have recognized and confirmed the 
 rights of the people, or concluded a treaty of peace 
 and made a settlement with them, the proprietary 
 right in the soil vests in the people, subject always 
 to the claim of the State for khiraj or revenue.* 
 
 But from the extracts and observations cited 
 above, it will be seen that as regards the reclamation 
 of wastes, according to neither Hindoo nor Moham- 
 madan Law, can mere occupancy confer any right 
 of property whatever. 
 
 Indeed the prominent features of both the Hindoo 
 and Mohammadan systems are, that they clearly 
 lay down the principle, that to create property in 
 waste land, it is essential that such land be occupied 
 with the consent of the Sovereign ; that it be culti- 
 vated j and that revenue be paid for it. Failing the 
 first of these conditions absolutely, or the latter two 
 within the limits defined, the Sovereign can take the 
 land away and give it to another. 
 
 The prominent feature of the English system, I - 
 am afraid, is, that it does not clearly define any 
 principles. The collector is informed that where 
 there exist ' rights of property or of exclusive occu- 
 pancy either active or latent,' or other exclusive 
 rights, the land cannot be sold ; but what consti- 
 tutes a right of property, or what a right of occu- 
 pancy, the public and the collector the latter 
 
 * The Mohammadan Law has been the law of the land, if 
 it can be said that there ever was a law of the land in India, 
 for the last three or four hundred years. January, 1807. 
 
122 
 
 probably a young* military officer, but a few years 
 emancipated from regimental duty, are left in un- 
 happy ignorance. No limit defines the extent of 
 land over which a rig-lit of occupancy may exist. 
 No bounds limit the period within which a proprie- 
 tary right can keep land out of cultivation, within 
 which the power of the occupant or proprietor, to 
 debar the State from obtaining* its just dues, is re- 
 strained. Yet, without a knowledge of what con- 
 stitutes a valid rig-lit, how shall a developer select 
 his land how shall a collector satisfactorily decide 
 disputes ? without a revenue, how shall the Govern- 
 ment discharge those functions which, converted by 
 its own act from expedient into obligatory, such 
 developers as do settle, will have a right to compel 
 it to observe ? I cannot clearly see how these diffi- 
 culties can be got over, and therefore, I think, that 
 until these points shall be first decided the attempt 
 to sell these lands is premature. 
 
 For though the testimony of the present circum- 
 stances of India is confirmatory, in a high degTee, 
 of Mr. Maine's opinion, that the notion that occu- 
 pancy confers a title to " res nullius," is not charac- 
 teristic of societies in an early state of civilization ; 
 and the Law is clearly against the existence of any 
 permanent and inalienable rights in land, as long 
 as it is uncultivated and waste, all the difficulties 
 which have hitherto been supposed to surround 
 this subject are not, unfortunately, removed. The 
 area of this peninsula an area so immense as 
 
123 
 
 almost to preclude the possibility of people, accus- 
 tomed to frame their ideas on the scale of an island 
 comparatively so diminutive as Great Britain, form- 
 ing- any very accurate opinion on the subject 
 has hitherto placed it beyond the power of any of 
 the Sovereign Rulers who have governed India, 
 to bring* it under the control of one system of laws. 
 The variety of races, moreover, which inhabit India, 
 differing' many degTees in civilization, would render 
 the adoption of any one system, in its integrity, 
 at present inexpedient. Ruling- Sovereigns, again, 
 prior to the succession of Her Britannic Majesty, 
 have never even fully established their authority 
 within one half of the extent of territory over 
 which they nominally have held swa}', and thoug-h 
 British rule, has for a considerable time been 
 tolerably firm over the greater portion of Hin- 
 dostan proper, it is only within the last few years, 
 i. e. since the year 1858, it can be said that 
 the work of consolidating- the Empire has com- 
 menced. Up to this day then, no Government of 
 India has been in a position to assert those rights 
 which leg-ally belonged to the Crown, and hence it 
 has been, that in different forms, and under varying 
 conditions, many have been appropriated by the 
 subject. These rights have been allowed to exist, 
 to use the expression of Earl Canning, in a ( rude 
 form/ because the Government itself has existed in 
 only in a rude form ; and the real question is, how 
 shall the Government,, now that it finds itself in a 
 
124: 
 
 position to assert its authority over the whole of its 
 Empire, deal with rights, which, though its un- 
 doubted property, it has, from its own weakness or 
 inattention, silently permitted others to possess 
 themselves of? The rights of property in the soil 
 viewed from European and Native stand-points are 
 so different, and foreign conquerors, changes in 
 dynasties and laws, local circumstances, &c., have 
 created so many and so great a confusion of tenant 
 rights throughout the country, that questions liable 
 to arise out of such a situation involve some nicety. 
 They ought not, therefore, to be left to be decided 
 by young collectors, or individuals, buyers or sellers, 
 Native or European. My endeavour has been to 
 disencumber the position of some of the difficulties 
 with which it was supposed to be surrounded. But 
 to frame a rule, or at least to lay down such broad 
 principles as commissioners and collectors can apply 
 to the circumstances of the localities in which they 
 may be placed, without risking 1 , a sacrifice of the 
 interests of the State, the Country, or the People, 
 is clearly the business of the Crown, whose property 
 these rights are, and not the business of either oc- 
 cupiers or intending settlers, and until the Crown 
 has done so, it cannot be said that it is in a position 
 to sell. ' ' Kings/' says the Hindoo Lawgiver before 
 quoted, a were created by GOD to decide the various 
 contests between subjects concerning occupancy and 
 the like, and to maintain just proceedings therefore 
 the king, as lord of his subjects, is called lord of men 
 
125 
 
 (nerapati.) By his own power, the king- prevents 
 others from seizing- the land over which he has 
 dominion ; hy his own power, he legally seizes the 
 land over which others reign \ therefore he is not 
 subordinate to the subject." And this would seem 
 to be the common sense view of the case. 
 
 But the point, as regards disposing outright of 
 waste lands, in India, requiring the gravest atten- 
 tion, is the introduction into the Country, generally, 
 of a novel principle, a principle altogether foreign 
 to the fiscal laws of the land, and the traditions and 
 ideas of the people ; and it was partly for the better 
 elucidation of this portion of the subject that I have 
 extracted so largely from Law books 
 
 In regard to the origin of property in the soil 
 most Nations seem, as if instinctively, to start from 
 the same point to recognize one great principle, 
 m., that the Earth is God's.* In Hindoo Law, 
 the King holds under a deed of gift, originally 
 granted by the sixth incarnation of the Deity, who 
 wrested the Earth from the dominion of tyrant 
 warriors ; and in selling land the King sells his 
 sovereignty, for the obligation to protect, except in 
 the case of Brahmanas, i. e. the Church, implies the 
 payment of revenue, and a promise of one King* 
 cannot bind his successor. In practice, moreover, 
 the idea of a King disposing of his property or estate, 
 
 * For in truth, there is no other Lord of the Earth but one, \ 
 THE SUPREME GOD. Jaffannatha, on a text of MANU. 
 
 The Earth is the Lord's. He gives it unto whom hepleaseth. j 
 QORAN. 
 
126 
 
 while able to protect it, is unknown. Hindoo Sove- 
 reigns, if revenue is not paid, imprison and otherwise 
 punish their subjects, seize their lands, cultivate 
 them themselves, give them away, or make such 
 other arrangements as will insure their receiving* 
 their just share of the earth's produce ; but I have 
 A not heard that Hindoo Rulers have ever adopted the 
 system of selling* land. 
 
 According* to Mohammadan Law, in countries 
 that have been settled, the proprietary rig-lit does 
 not vest in the Soltan. Nor can he sell lands that 
 escheat to the Crown by proprietors absconding-, 
 unless no one can be found to cultivate them on behalf 
 of the proprietor ; nor remit the revenue justly due, 
 unless in favour of certain exempted persons, or 
 unless he compensates the Bait ol-Mal, i. e. the 
 public treasury, either from the amount received 
 from the land, or from his privy purse, by a sum 
 equal to the khiraj or revenue accruing 1 thereon. 
 Private individuals cannot sell lands at all, other- 
 wise than chargeable with the revenue due to the 
 State. In practice, it is true, Sovereigns have 
 availed themselves largely, and often wholly regard- 
 less of the laws by which the Bait ol-Mal is con- 
 stituted, of their supreme power to bestow lands, 
 free of revenue, as rewards to faithful servants. 
 Much again of the land so bestowed on individuals 
 has been bequeathed to the Church, and to be devoted 
 to the c service of God ;' and out of this illeg*al exercise 
 of a despotic power, has arisen, a beacon as it were 
 
. 127 
 
 to warn posterity off this fatal rock, the gradual 
 and increasing- poverty and weakness of Mohamma- 
 dan dynasties when not strengthened by fresh con- 
 quests. The comparatively small revenues of the 
 Ottoman Empire, indeed of most existing- Oriental 
 States, is mainly due to this cause, and the Inaam 
 Commissions in India, furnish convincing- evidence 
 of the mischief arid injustice that Governments mayj( 
 [ inflict on posterity, by a thoughtless alienation of 
 the revenues of the State. 
 
 In the East generally, and in India particularly, 
 it has been the rule that the crown has been fought 
 for, and usurpers, it is known, have but very small 
 respect for the responsibilities undertaken by their 
 predecessors. When Kings wanted money, as in 
 former times in Europe, they seized, imprisoned, and 
 tortured rich subjects until their wants were sup- 
 plied ; or later, if under the surveillance or protec- 
 tion of the British, they borrowed, on the security of 
 their jewels or other valuable property, from some 
 wealthy banker. The idea of a State loan, as under- 
 7 stood in Europe, in India is wholly unknown. 
 Jageers conferred by Sovereigns on their nobles and 
 servants, as a rule, have been held on the condition 
 of maintaining troops, &c. or were the reward of 
 personal services, and were conferred, and received, 
 with a full understanding that the security for their 
 permanence was the life of the donor, the pleasure 
 of his successor, or the power of the possessor to 
 hold them against all comers. Possession, it is 
 
128 
 
 true, is nine points of the law in most parts of the 
 world. Here, to the strong, it has always been 
 something more. Such a title, therefore, might be 
 good as regards possession ; but that it could create 
 an absolute property in the soil that it could 
 confer immunity from revenue for all time to come, 
 is an idea that could not, under such circumstances, 
 enter into the day dreams of a single individual liv- 
 ing under such a form of Government j and, conse- 
 quently, it never did. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE RIGHTS OF THE STATE, OR THE COM- 
 MUNITY IN THE SOIL, AND THEIR SALE OR 
 COMMUTATION. 
 
 ENGLISHMEN brought up born, I may say, 
 with the idea that land, like all other things, ought 
 to be private property, and blinded by that charac- 
 teristic prejudice which ever prevents them from 
 seeing good in the institutions, of any country but 
 their own, have endeavoured, by experimental mea- 
 sures, to introduce the practice here.* But these 
 measures have proved wholly abortive; and it is 
 fortunate, for the subject has never yet been con- 
 sidered carefully, practically, and on its true merits, 
 by persons thoroughly competent to deal well and 
 wisely with it. It would certainly be a dangerous, 
 if not a rash policy, to introduce measures involving 
 changes in principles that may affect vitally the 
 stability of the State Revenue, before those principles 
 have been discussed and examined in relation thereto; 
 from every point of view. Nor do I allude, now, 
 to the great measure proposed for adoption by Lord 
 
 * Eor some years the land revenue has been redeemable in 
 the collectorate of Calcutta, Chittagong, and other places, at 
 fifteen and ten years' purchase, and generally estates could be 
 freed from risk of sale, by deposit of Government securities ; 
 but of neither of these offers has any advantage been taken. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 Canning 1 ; but rather to other measures, involving" 
 similar principles, adopted, apparently, with little 
 thought or consideration, on the suggestion of local 
 authorities. The measure of that great and good 
 Viceroy, whose name will never be mentioned by 
 any who had the happiness to serve under. his Go- 
 vernment but with admiration and respect, was one 
 of a different sort. If there was one statesman in 
 India, distinguished among those of his countrymen 
 who have held the high office of Governor-General, 
 for the cautious, calm, and attentive deliberation 
 with which he considered all questions affecting im- 
 portant interests of the people and the country over 
 which he was set to rule, that statesman was Earl 
 Canning*. There can be but little doubt, then, that 
 had that lamented nobleman been spared to India 
 and his country, posterity would not have wanted 
 an explanation of his policy, worthy of his con- 
 templative mind. It was, however, not so ordered, 
 and while his Lordship's policy in regard to the 
 redemption of the land revenue has been unspar- 
 ingly commented on, we are left in ignorance of 
 the motives which actuated him in recommending a 
 measure pregnant with consequences of such enor- 
 mous import to the well-being of the country. 
 
 For my own part, on many grounds, and espe- 
 cially looking to the present circumstances of India, 
 I venture to lean to the opinion of the economists of 
 Mr. John Stuart Mill's school, and think it fortunate 
 for India that she is able to obtain so large a portion 
 
131 
 
 of her permanent revenue from the land. The 
 more modern English idea on the subject, however, 
 would seem to be, that the natural tendency of 
 societies is to reduce all things to a state of private 
 property, and, that the measure of the social condi- 
 tion or state of civilization of peoples, is the mean 
 between these two extremes the community, and the 
 individual state of property. This theory has not 
 yet been put forth as a law. I am perhaps the first 
 that has so stated it. But the arguments advanced 
 by most writers of the day who advocate the 
 redemption of the land revenue, seem, for the most 
 part, to be based on some such conclusion. I would 
 not wish either to defend or to dispute the position. 
 On the contrary, admitting* it to be true, as it will 
 not be denied that the advance of all societies in civi- 
 lization is by steps, progressive and slow, it will 
 follow that many years, many centuries, I might 
 say, must elapse before a society in a primitive or 
 archaic state can reach that highest point in the 
 scale, at which, for the perfection of the theory, all 
 things should be the property of individuals. Now 
 it is an indisputable fact, that throughout India, 
 community of property is not only the rule ; but it 
 is that one institution so deeply rooted in the minds 
 of the people, so ingrained in their nature it would 
 ;il most seem, which neither force of laws nor force 
 of arms have been able to destroy. ic Dynasty after 
 dynasty/' to use the words of Lord Metcalfe, 
 
 " tumbles down ; revolution succeeds to revolution ; 
 
 Ko 
 & 
 
132 
 
 Hindoo, Patlmn, Moghul, Mahratta, Sikh, English, 
 are all masters in turn } but the village community 
 remains the same -" and though there are many 
 Provinces of India, in which individual property in 
 the soil is held under the Crown, the increase of 
 families always tends to maintain the ancient and 
 normal state of societies, constituting communities 
 within communities, as contemplated in their ancient 
 Laws. 
 
 It will be objected, I fear, that I lay much too 
 great stress on ancient laws, many of which are 
 contradictory, and most of which under British rule 
 are held to be obsolete. But, if many are contra- 
 dictory, it is because they were framed for societies 
 in different stages of progress, for which we have 
 not the key. At the same time, a careful study of 
 the customs and habits of the people of those parts 
 of India in which I have lived, has satisfied me that 
 viewed by the light of more modern native writers, 
 these ancient laws afford still a more accurate pic- 
 ture of the existing state of native society in the 
 interior, than any yet sketched by European pen or 
 pencil. And, if this be true, and I do not think it 
 will be disputed by those who are competent to form 
 any sound opinion on the subject, we could not have 
 a stronger proof of the very slow degrees by which 
 the progressive development of societies, when left 
 to themselves, is worked out. Even in Calcutta, the 
 metropolis of British India, where Newton and 
 Bacon, Shakespeare and Milton, have been as fa- 
 
133 
 
 * 
 
 miliar as * household words/ for upwards of a quarter 
 of a century, whole families consisting 1 of grand- 
 fathers, grandmothers, fathers, mothers, brothers, 
 sisters, brothers' wives, daughters, uncles, aunts, &c., 
 share the paternal estate, under one roof, living* in 
 the constant turmoil, toil and trouble, of female 
 broils and disputes, and native gentlemen, brought 
 up in English schools and colleges, are unable to 
 shake themselves free of this community of interests 
 and property inherited with their birthright, be- 
 cause it is the custom of their country. 
 
 If then, the theory that individuality of property 
 is the condition of society in its highest or most arti- 
 ficial state, admitting- progressive development, it 
 will be self-evident that to attempt to introduce or 
 to carry out the principle in India now, would be 
 absurd ; and if the application of this idea, seems 
 absurd from this, the abstract principle or lowest 
 point of view, how much more so will it appear, 
 when viewed practically ? It is not my intention to 
 go over here, all the arguments for and against the 
 alienation of the revenue of State derived from land, 
 by its commutation for an immediate payment. 
 These will be found far more ably discussed in books 
 on political economy, and in the state papers, already 
 before the public, on the subject.* There are one 
 or two points, however, which, as I have already 
 
 * Vide particularly the very able minute of Mr, Ross D. 
 Mangles, of the Indian Council, and the opinion of Sir John 
 Lawrence. Parliamentary Papers, 2 1st July, 1862. 
 
134 
 
 travelled far beyond the limits proposed in this 
 review, I may as well notice ; for, as I confess that 
 I am unable to see any necessity for the measure, 
 or that any advantage could be gained by its intro- 
 duction into India, I am bound, in a measure, to 
 show cause for entertaining this view. 
 
 Now, much is almost daily written about the 
 principles of taxation. But, independent of that 
 one grand fundamental principle, that all, in consi- 
 deration of the protection they receive, should con- 
 tribute to the necessities of the State in proportion 
 to their means, a principle, as based on common 
 sense, the soundness of which all people will be in- 
 clined to admit, the rest is little else than applica- 
 tion. And, as this, most especially in countries 
 governed by alien dynasties, must be carried out in 
 accordance with the wishes of the governed, rather 
 than the governing body ; what remains for the 
 latter, is to exercise such wisdom, judgment, and 
 ingenuity, as will direct them to collect the amount 
 required, not in accordance with any ideal principles, 
 but in such a manner as being most acceptable to 
 the latter, will cause the burden to press least 
 heavily on those who have to bear it. In England, 
 my Lord Languish and Mr. Tom Smith whitewash 
 their servants' heads, and pay annually a certain 
 snm of money to the State on this account. Both 
 do this most willingly, the former, because the cus- 
 tom has long been in use among people of his caste; 
 and the latter, because he wishes to be thought a 
 
135 
 
 member of the fashionable world. All persons of 
 respectable position put a device on their silver 
 spoons, a cat, a bird, a dog*, a monkey, &c., or on 
 the panels of their carriages, and readily pay for 
 the privilege. Nay persons called Kings, are main- 
 tained by the Sovereign expressly to invent these 
 devices, &c., for the gratification of their subjects. 
 Viewed from a philosophical point, these taxes, and 
 all such as are directed against pride or vanity, and 
 not against wealth or luxury, are supremely ridicu- 
 lous ; but as long* as the people are happy in bearing 
 them, no harm is done. To apply similar taxes, 
 however, to a people living in an entirely different 
 state of societ}^ with different ideas, and diametri- 
 cally opposite views on the subject of taxation to a 
 people, in short, who will not willingly bear them, 
 would not only be unwise, but tyrannical. In India 
 the land revenue is not a tax, and never has been a 
 tax in the sense in which that term is understood in 
 Europe. Nor yet is it rent. Fusing the elements 
 of the different systems we have to deal with in 
 India, without violating the fundamental principles 
 of any, the question may be fairly thus simply 
 resolved. " The earth, the source of all wealth, is 
 the Lord's. It's produce is his creatures. Kings 
 are God's Vicegerents on earth. As such, they 
 have certain duties and responsibilities to perform 
 towards the rest of creation. In consideration 
 thereof, they are legally entitled to a portion of the 
 produce of the soil a tenth, a sixth, a fourth, as 
 
136 
 
 the laws of the land, or the necessities of circum- 
 stances, may determine/' 1 * 
 
 Virtually then, whatever may be the law what- 
 ever the popular belief, there is no perfect property 
 in the soil, either of the king-, or of the cultivator, 
 the right of both to their fair and equitable share of 
 the produce being equally strong, legal, and valid. 
 Or if it be desired to define the position more clearly, 
 it can only resolve itself into this, that the property 
 vests in the Community, the King is the agent, and 
 the Cultivator, the tenant or labourer, as the case 
 may be, which simply brings us back to the point 
 from which we started, that community of property 
 is the rule in societies living in a primitive state of 
 civilization. To speak of heavy burthens on the 
 land in India is clearly an error. As long, there- 
 fore, as present ideas on the subject remain undis- 
 turbed, the land revenue in India, can never be 
 
 * MANU says : " A Military King, who takes even a fourth 
 part of the crops of his realm, at a time of urgent necessity, 
 as of war or invasion, and protects his people to the utmost of 
 his power, commits no sin." 
 
 On which the Commentator observes : " From the circum- 
 stances of the times, if confidence cannot be placed in the 
 subject, the value of a sixth part, or other proportion of the 
 crop, any how ascertained, may be taken, whether the actual 
 produce be more or less than was estimated : this method is 
 authorised by settled usage, and is indicated by the text" 
 
 On this law is based the revenue levied, in our own times, 
 by the Marhattas, so well known under the title of Choat, i.e. 
 the fourth, thus establishing satisfactorily, that, up to the 
 latest date, the principle observed in India, has been diametri- 
 cally the opposite of that adopted in England, the shares in the 
 produce of the soil of the King and the Cultivator in the one 
 case, fluctuating with the seasons, and according to circum- 
 stances, and in the other, being fixed and immutable. 
 
137 
 
 considered a tax; and if retained at an equitable 
 rate, being 1 simply the rendering- unto Caesar of the 
 thing's that are Caesar's, will always be willingly 
 paid. Dissatisfaction can only be the result of 
 oppression another term for bad g-overnment. 
 Dissatisfaction, moreover, never has arisen on this 
 score. Complaints, loud and bitter, may have been 
 raised ag-ainst many of the evils of the English 
 system of Government, the interference with reli- 
 gion, caste-prejudices, established rights, social 
 customs, dress, food ; and above all ag-ainst the evils 
 of systems of police, civil and criminal courts of 
 justice, and the imposition of direct and novel taxes ; (j 
 but even in 1857, when the storm of rebellion was 
 at its height, when the discontent, pent up for years, 
 was set free to vent its force in one terrible outburst 
 of rag-e, no murmur, no sign, indicated the slightest 
 impatience on the part of the people on the score of 
 the land revenue. Instead then, of there being- any 
 necessity for drying- up, for ever, this fertile, simple, 
 and ever-increasing- source of revenue, by exhausting- 
 its waters at a drain, I cannot but think, that any 
 action likely to disturb existing- ideas on the subject, 
 or tending- to the substitution of a taxation peculiarly 
 abhorrent to the people of India, for payments most 
 willingly made, would not only be erroneous in 
 principle, but fiscally mischievous, if not politically 
 dangerous in its sesults. 
 
 As to the advantages which it is said would be 
 g-ained by the redemption of the land revenue, they 
 
138 
 
 are, I believe, of a two-fold nature political and 
 material. In regard to the first it is believed that 
 in selling 1 the land, the British Government would 
 purchase the loyalty of its subjects, and consequent 
 immunity from sedition, rebellion, and disaffection. 
 But the loyalty of a whole people cannot be pur- 
 chased with gold, nor yet I fear with land its price. 
 The experience of history from the earliest ages 
 down to our own times teaches us this. The holders 
 of maafee, or rent-free tenures, are in the position of 
 persons who have redeemed the land revenue. They 
 were not one whit more loyal than the others in 
 1857. The people of Bengal now, are not more 
 loyal than the people of the North West, but 
 on the contrary, if they had the power, would cer- 
 tainly be the very first to drive us out of the country. 
 It has been the invariable custom moreover, in the 
 many struggles for dominion which have deluged 
 India with blood, for the various Rajas and great 
 Jagcerdars or land-holders, to make terms with that 
 one of the contending parties which appeared to be 
 the strongest ; and it would be unreasonable to 
 suppose that any intelligent foreign power who 
 might dispute the sovereignty of this realm with us, 
 instead of endeavouring to strengthen its arms, by 
 holding out promises of still greater advantages than 
 those which the people enjoy under British rule, if 
 so unjust, would be so intensely stupid as to inaugu- 
 rate its advance, by confiscating the people's rights 
 in the soil. On the other hand, it must be remem- 
 
139 
 
 bered; that, though all Englishmen may be fully 
 satisfied, that if the British Government in India is 
 to be overturned^ it must be overturned by a Euro- 
 pean; and not by a Native power, a generation, at 
 leastj must pass away; before any confidence in the 
 stability of our rule will be established in the minds 
 of the natives. This fact, of itself, is quite sufficient 
 to indicate the measure of the success likely to attend 
 any present attempt at a redemption of the land 
 revenue; and; at the same time to show; what it 
 appears strange it should be necessary to reiterate 
 so soon after 1857 that though our Government 
 must; of necessity, be sustained in peace and order 
 by the good will of the people, it is maintained only, 
 as all Governments similarly circumstanced can be 
 maintained by the strong arm of power. Looking 
 to the character of the people, and estimating the 
 future by our knowledge of the past; I am of opinion 
 that things will go hard indeed with the English in 
 India; when the land revenue, if equitably assessed; 
 be it free, perpetually; decennially, or annually 
 settled; will have the weight of a grain of sand, in 
 turning the scale of their fortunes. Indeed there is 
 little need to argue this point. It is fully established. 
 The natives have been invited in parts of India to 
 purchase the fee simple of their holdings; but they 
 will not speculate on the security of British rule in 
 India; on any terms that are likely to be offered by Her 
 Majesty's or any other English Government, and 
 this sets the question; in its political bearing, at rest. 
 
HO 
 
 With regard to the advantages in material pro- 
 gress likely to result from the redemption of the 
 land revenue, their value to the State in a financial 
 point of view, is real, only, in so far as they repre- 
 sent ability to bear increased taxation. For instance, 
 if a Government owed 100,000, and were to sell 
 land producing' a revenue equal to the interest it 
 had annually to pay, for that sum, with a promise 
 that no tax should be substituted for this revenue, 
 it would be simply the extinction of an annuity by 
 the payment of its value, the gain to either party 
 being nil. Now taxation in any shape, it will be 
 admitted, is, or is considered to be, a burthen ; but, 
 if taxation be equal, or equitable in its incidence, 
 and if the transaction be a bargain, in which both, 
 or all parties, understanding clearly the advantages 
 and responsibilities likely to accrue to them there- 
 from, willingly acquiesce, many of the objections 
 often raised thereto are avoided. In England, these 
 matters are settled by the people themselves through 
 their deputies in parliament assembled, and as these 
 deputies represent all classes and all interests, the 
 decision is usually both just and equitable, and agree- 
 able to the people. In a country circumstanced like 
 India, however, there are two parties to a trans- 
 action of this kind the Community and the Land- 
 holders ; and the part the King has to perform, is 
 clearly to mediate between these two interests. Now 
 it has been before shown that the land revenue in 
 India is simply the return of that portion of the 
 
141 
 
 produce of the soil to the King, as the trustee for 
 the Community^ which is his rightful property, and 
 not a tax ; and it is essential to the right under- 
 standing of this question that this point be kept 
 prominently in view. For, if it be set aside, and 
 the question be argued as if the land was the pro- 
 perty of individuals, or in other words, from an 
 English point of view, the error of the premises 
 will inevitably appear in the conclusion, and vitiate 
 the result. To make any such attempt, moreover, 
 would be at once to overturn the main principle on 
 which the fiscal system of India has from time im- 
 memorial been based and to cut from under the 
 Government of India, as it were, the solid ground 
 on which it has always justified its right to derive 
 so large a portion of its revenue from the land. 
 Strong- in the sense that it was dealing with the 
 property of the State, and not taxing the property 
 of individuals the Government of India, as the 
 necessities of the Community in regard to protection 
 and good Government increased, has always had the 
 power, within fair limits, to increase, concurrently, 
 its demand on the produce of the soil ; and if, in a 
 country where it is of paramount importance that 
 the Government should be based on the support of a 
 contented people, the destruction of this ancient 
 principle, and the substitution for it of a grinding 
 system of taxation, can be considered an advantage, \ 
 it is certainly an advantage, the results of which 
 will not be unaccompanied with some evil. 
 
142 
 
 It is in -reality, then, rights in property with 
 which we have to deal, and not the distribution of 
 taxation, which has not, or, from an equity point of 
 view, ought not to have anything* whatever to do 
 with the question. 
 
 Now, admitting* the King's power to dispose of 
 the rig-lits of the Community in the soil, it is evident 
 that before they are sold or commuted, some means 
 must be ascertained for properly estimating* their 
 value. But, as these rights are in the produce, and 
 the produce, especially in India, is not a fixed quan- 
 tity, but very fluctuating, and as its money value 
 varies considerably, and as population and the 
 metallic currency increases, and the means of inter- 
 communication improve, will vary very much more,* 
 this cannot now be done with anything approaching* 
 that accuracy which it is absolutely necessary for 
 an administrator or trustee to observe, when dealing 
 with the property of others. It is only then when 
 the resources of a country have been developed to 
 the fullest, and when population has reached that 
 point where emigration should step in to relieve the 
 strain, that such a balance can be struck as will 
 enable the King to ascertain, with certainty, the 
 true value of the property he would dispose of. But 
 the advantages to be derived from the sale of the 
 land are this very development of the resources of 
 
 * In parts of Assam the money value of rice within the last 
 four years, which were not seasons of scarcity, but seasons of 
 plenty, has increased three hundred per cent ! but no increase 
 has been made in the rent or land revenue. 
 
143 
 
 the country that increase of population which in- 
 variably follows an increase of wealth in short the 
 material progress of the country and it is to insure 
 the speedy accomplishment of this end, that it is 
 proposed, not to compound for the estimated increase 
 in the value of the property to be disposed of, but to 
 sell it at the present rates, bestowing- the future 
 surplus on the purchasers, in consideration of the 
 improvements it is assumed they will make on their 
 own estates. It is conceded that great prospective 
 gain must accrue to one of the parties concerned 
 the Land-holders. It is conceded, also, that equal 
 prospective loss must result to the other the re- 
 maining*, or the poorer portion, of the Community. 
 And it might be inquired, by what principle of con- 
 stitutional Government the King could justify or 
 sanction an arrangement which involved a sacrifice 
 of the property of one class of the subjects of the 
 State that class the interest of which in this 
 instance it should be his special province to guard 
 in favour of another ? But there is little need to 
 pursue the inquiry in this direction. If the loss to 
 the Community of a considerable portion of their 
 legal share of the produce of the soil were all they 
 had to complain of in such an arrangement, the case 
 of the advocates for the present redemption of the 
 land revenue of India would not be irretrievable. 
 Compensation, in other ways, might be made. 
 When, however, it appears that instead of the 
 poorer portion of the Community being compensated 
 
144 
 
 for the loss resulting- from the bestowal of their pro- 
 perty, by their own Guardian, on their more wealthy 
 and powerful fellow-subjects, that Guardian makes 
 a free gift of it, with the avowed intention of com- 
 pelling- these unfortunate people to make g-ood the 
 deficiency of their own estate, the case assumes a 
 very different aspect. It is no longer a, question of 
 policy. It is one rather for the opinion of the Law 
 Officers of the Crown. 
 
 Scrupulous respect for rig-hts of the people in the 
 soil, it has been said, and, most firmly do I believe, 
 most conscientiously said, is one of the most solemn 
 duties of a Government, and the sentiment has been 
 cordially concurred in by Her Majest} r 's Govern- 
 ment, and as heartily echoed, I am certain, by every 
 honourable Anglo-Indian. Indeed, there can be no 
 doubt whatever, that however opinions may differ, 
 all persons officially concerned in this measure could 
 have been actuated . by but one sentiment in their 
 treatment of this momentous question, an anxious 
 desire to benefit the country and the people God's 
 providence has entrusted to our care. I doubt, 
 therefore, if many, and especially those broug-ht up 
 in a country where the land has long been the pro- 
 perty of individuals, have fully apprehended this 
 view of the question a view, which, in my humble 
 opinion, is not only fully applicable to the circum- 
 stances of India, but in strict accord with the ideas 
 of the people. ^The people of India, from times 
 anterior to History, have been led to consider the 
 
145 
 
 I Earth the source of all wealth, and the main and \ 
 legitimate source also from which the revenues of 
 
 / Tihe State should be derived :* their Sovereigns, 
 whether Hindoo, Mosalman, Marhatta, or English, 
 have ever recognized the correctness of this prin- 
 ciple ; and whether it be wise or unwise, sound in 
 principle or the reverse, that the land of a country 
 should be the property of individuals, surely it is too 
 much to expect that in the short space of a decade 
 for it is hardly more since the Indian Govern- 
 ment has attempted the introduction of European 
 principles of Government, and considerably less 
 since any efficient effort at the spread of education 
 has been made an ancient people forgetting those 
 ideas which governed the actions of their rulers for 
 centuries perhaps for thousands of years, should 
 patiently submit their neck to a yoke, necessitated 
 by the deliberate alienation of their own property, 
 by their Sovereign whose bounden duty it is to pro- 
 tect it. 
 
 India is undoubtedly a rich country ; her resources 
 indeed seem almost inexhaustible ; and, assuming 
 peace and good Government, that she will be yet 
 both wealthy and prosperous, there is little room to 
 doubt. But, if there is little room to doubt this, 
 there is still less room to doubt that she will not 
 assume that position among* the nations of the 
 world to which her national capabilities give her 
 
 * The Earth in Hindoo Shaster is called Kamdenu the Cow 
 that grants every wish. 
 
14G 
 
 every right to aspire, one hour before those condi- 
 tions under which other nations have emerged from 
 darkness are found : or, in other words, before her 
 people are EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED, and FREE. 
 Any number of novel experiments, will certainly 
 not hasten by one moment the approach of the 
 wished-for time } but, on the contrary, if calculated 
 to irritate the people, will be far more likely to 
 postpone it, and possibly to create such a feeling of 
 suspicion, distrust, and hostility to the ruling power, 
 as to render it a matter of extreme difficulty to ini- 
 tiate any reforms at all. 
 
 But were it otherwise were it probable that the 
 anticipated advantages would follow the redemption 
 of the land revenue, as it is certain that they will 
 not, there is one insuperable obstacle to the measure, 
 at present, which cannot be got over. Had this 
 been foreseen, it would have prevented this extremely 
 awkward question from ever having been raised, and 
 Her Majesty's Government would thus have been 
 saved the embarrassment they must have felt, when 
 committed to a line of policy official documents on 
 the subject would seem to indicate they partially 
 adopted with the utmost reluctance. To this 
 obstacle I have before alluded. It is simply this. 
 The Government can only sell the lands at a 
 certain price, and that price the landholders will 
 not pay. 
 
 Many, arguing on the attachment of the natives 
 to ancestral rights in the soil, their desire to free 
 
147 
 
 it from all risk of sale, and the facilities a fee-simple 
 tenure affords for raising* money, have expressed the 
 opinion that the natives would largely avail them- 
 selves of the privilege of redeeming- the land revenue 
 on their estates, at twenty or twenty-five years' 
 purchase. A few, more cautious again, have ex- 
 pressed doubts as to whether much success would 
 attend the measure while the rate of interest for 
 money in India remains as high as it is at present ; 
 and this is correct. Yet the exact position does not 
 appear to have been clearly apprehended by any. 
 Some say, c We will calculate the rate of interest at 
 5 per cent., and sell at twenty years' purchase/ 
 Others say, ' No ! rates will fall. You must, therefore, 
 calculate the rate of interest at 4 per cent. We can- 
 not then afford to sell under twenty-five years' 
 purchase.' Now it is quite true that, when land is 
 in the hands of a Government, and population exces- 
 sive, that Government may demand for it any rent 
 or price it thinks fit ; and the utmost discrimination 
 and judgment are necessary in such cases, lest, by 
 the imposition of a rack-rent, tenants be prevented 
 from improving their holdings, and, as often occurs, 
 the land of the whole country be worn out and 
 ruined, or, by renting it on too easy terms, the in- 
 terests of the Community be sacrificed to those of a 
 particular class. In Ireland it was, perhaps I may 
 say is, not uncommon for tenants to bid up rents to 
 any height, in the firm intention of paying only so 
 much as they are able, and no more. lln^short,a 
 
 L 2 
 
/ 
 
 monopoly of land is the most absolute of all mono- 
 polies, for, the desire to possess being 1 acted upon by 
 the necessity of procuring- the means of existence, 
 the price is forced up to the very highest possible 
 point, and people are left no alternative but to pay 
 it or starve. In such cases, the seller certainly fixes 
 the price ; and to this state of thing's only, is the 
 reasoning- above given applicable. 
 
 The question then is, is the present one of these 
 cases ? Are these conditions now found in India ? 
 Certainly not. Contrary to received opinion, land, 
 not population, is here in excess. The revenue, 
 moreover, is fixed in perpetuity, and, as a matter of 
 course, its value is simply a question of calculation ; 
 or it is settled periodically, usually on the metayer 
 principle of leaving 1 half the surplus profits in the 
 hands of the landholder. In all cases the people 
 are left in possession, and latterly, where the lands 
 of provinces have been re-settled, rates have been 
 reduced. Admitting' constitutional Government 
 then, what the Government can afford to take for 
 the land is altogether beside the question. Its 
 demand, except under a threat of enhancing- present 
 rates, could not influence prices one iota. What is 
 required to be known, is simply, what the land, or 
 rather the Community's share of its produce, is worth . 
 what it will fetch in the market. That is its price 
 and the Government, if it desires to sell, must take 
 that, or nothing- at all, 
 
 Such being- the condition of thing's, it may not 
 
149 
 
 be uninstructive to enquire what is the market value 
 of land in India generally. I say generally, be- 
 cause it is obvious that all conclusions regarding a 
 country of such immense extent of area, must be 
 accepted with considerable margin. It has been 
 already shown that in India, the conditions of a 
 strict monopoly are not found. Its value, in ex- 
 change, therefore, will be reg'ulated similarly with 
 that of other things, i.e. land will be cheap if it is 
 plentiful and money is scarce, and dear if it is scarce 
 and money is plentiful. Now it is a fact, that in 
 India there are many thousand square miles of rich 7 
 and highly productive land lying waste and uncul- / 
 tivated. Land then is plentiful. Again, a principal / 
 reason why so much land is waste, is that there is 
 not Capital in the country to bring it under cultiva- 
 tion. Money then is scarce. In India, therefore, 
 land ought to be cheap and money dear. And so 
 it is. But how cheap ? How dear ? This I shall 
 endeavour to show. 
 
 a A lender of money/' says MANU, " may take in 
 addition to his Capital the interest allowed by 
 VASISTHA, an eightieth part of a hundred by the 
 month," that is to say, one and a quarter per cent, 
 per mensem, or fifteen per cent, per annum. 
 
 VYASA, again, is more explicit. He says, "monthly 
 interest is declared to be an eightieth part of the 
 principal, if a pledge be given ; an eighth part is 
 

 150 
 
 added, if there be only a surety ;* and if there be 
 neither pledge nor surety, two in the hundred may 
 be taken ;" that is to say, one and three-fifths per 
 cent, per mensem, or nineteen and one-fifth per cent, 
 per annum with a surety ; and twenty -four per cent, 
 per annum without one. 
 
 It will naturally be objected that the ancient 
 laws of ancient lawgivers have little to do with a 
 practical question in the middle of the nineteenth 
 century. True. I refer to ancient law, however, to 
 show what little progress India has made since the 
 days of Manu what little change the revolution of 
 so many centuries has made in the value of money 
 in this country. The rates of interest for money \&0 
 India, it must be admitted, are extremely arbitrary, \ 
 varying- from 6 to 75 per cent. ; but the following 
 will, I think, give, as nearly as is necessary, the 
 prevailing* rates all over the country. Bankers 
 / / lend money to bankers, at 6 per cent, per annum. 
 Bankers lend money in large sums, to other approved 
 parties, or on good security, mortgage of landed 
 property, &c., at 12 per cent. The normal rate of 
 Bankers' interest of the country, for small sums, 
 is 24 per cent. An enormous business, however, 
 in very small sums, is done by Buneeas, small 
 Traders, Headmen, &c., at 2 an ana with a surety 
 
 * Commentators are not happy in their explanation of this 
 passage. They make * the eighth part added ' to be a sixteentfi ; 
 but are only able to do so, by assuming a clerical error which 
 as it occurs in many MSS. seems hardly admissible. 
 
151 
 
 or pledge, or at one ana or one-sixteenth in the 
 rupee, per mensem, without either, or at the rate of 
 37 2 and 75 per cent, per annum. Accounts, by 
 European Bankers, are invariably made up half 
 yearly, and by natives, generally, yearly. 
 
 Money transactions between Bankers are carried 
 on at the comparatively low rate of 6 per cent, in 
 consequence of the unexceptionable nature of the 
 security. The Banking- system of India is peculiar, 
 and, looking- to the present state of society, perhaps 
 the most peculiar feature in it, is the integrity with 
 which it is conducted. The credit of the Barings 
 and Rothschilds in the Western world, is not better 
 than that of some of our Indian Bankers over the 
 whole extent of a peninsula as large as half Europe. 
 Their Bills are as good in the native markets as the 
 notes of the Bank of England are in Great Britain, 
 and for a long time to come, I am afraid, will be pre- 
 ferred, among a very large class of the mercantile com- 
 munity, to the Government notes. When, however? 
 we come to pass beyond the limits of the Bankers 
 guild, the complexion of circumstances is altered. 
 Money is scarce, the prevailing order of things in 
 India up to the most recent date, has been uncertainty, 
 the great body of the aristocracy, large landed pro- 
 prietors, &c., fond of pomp and show, are extrava- 
 gant j and these circumstances combined, has had 
 the effect of keeping the rates of interest for money 
 very high, so high, that as abovemei^oned,12 
 per cent, on the security of good landed property,, 
 
 ^^ J ^^^~~ -^* ^ " * '" " ^'^n '^ ^^*k -^~^*-^^f^^^ 
 
152 
 
 is a fair and moderate rate of interest, in the territo- 
 ries under British rule. In native States indeed 
 the difficulty of obtaining 1 money is so great, that 
 landed proprietors, sometimes make over their estates 
 with their rents, as security, to money-lenders, until 
 the debt with interest is paid in full, the money- 
 lender receiving* the full return of the estate in addi- 
 tion, for the time he may hold it,* We cannot 
 then fix, very accurately, the rates of interest for 
 money prevailing- in native society. Yet we must 
 clearly understand, that this is the proper test, and 
 not be led into the error committed by Engiish 
 politicians, in making- the Government securities 
 the standard of value ; for thoug-h they may affect 
 the question from the seller's stand-point, they have 
 really nothing- to do with it from the buyer's point of 
 view. If^ however, we are satisfied that money can- 
 not be obtained on the security of g-ood landed pro- 
 perty under 12 per cent. ; or the converse, if capital- 
 ists can obtain 12 per cent, with the security of g-ood 
 landed property and it will be admitted, I am sure, 
 that in this I do not overstate the case, we have 
 a sufficiently accurate and true standard by which 
 
 * This practice would seem to be contrary to Hindu Law. 
 MANU says, ' If he take a pledge to be used for his profit, he 
 must have no other interest on the loan.' But there are so 
 many and apparently conflicting opinions regarding pledges " to 
 be used," and pledges " to be held in custody," that it is not so 
 easy to determine the Law. In Lukhnow, and other Moham- 
 madan States, to evade the law against receiving interest for 
 money, to make over estates, with usufruct, was common. 
 
153 
 
 to find the present value of land in India in relation 
 to money. 
 
 Land in India is worth, in these circumstances, 
 just eight years and four months' purchase ; and if 
 we allow an increase of about two years, in consid- 
 eration of the greater security of property, attach- 
 ment to ancient rights in the soil, &c., and looking* 
 at the question as one concerning- so vast an area, 
 we cannot do more, it will give ten years' purchase, 
 as the exact value of landed property in India. 
 And that this is correct, moreover, there can be no 
 doubt. The share of the State has been offered for 
 sale by Government, at fifteen years' purchase in the 
 Collectorate of Calcutta, the place of all others where 
 land might be supposed to have the highest value, 
 and at ten years' purchase in Chittagong. In both 
 cases it has been declined. 
 
 Now, the British Government can borrow money 
 in India at 5 per cent, per annum, and in England, 
 on the security of the Crown, at 4 or even 3 per 
 cent, per annum. With reason, then, Her Majesty's 
 Government say, ( rve cannot afford to sell the share 
 of the Community under, at least, twenty-five years' 
 purchase.' But, with equal reason, the people of 
 India say, 4 we cannot afford to buy, above, at most, 
 ten years' purchase.' And the most embarrassing 
 feature in the case is that both are right. How, 
 then, can an agreement be come to how are the 
 terms of a bargain, in which the standard of exchange 
 has a separate value on either side, to be equalized ? 
 
154 
 
 It cannot be done ; and thus ends the great question 
 of the redemption of the land revenue of India, for 
 the year 1861. 
 
 It is quite excusable, I admit, English politicians 
 having taken, as in England, the Government 
 securities as an index of the value of money. I 
 have been myself eighteen years in India, and my 
 avocations and predilections have kept me in 
 constant intercourse with the natives of the country : 
 yet, I am daily learning some new phase of native 
 character, some, to me, novel features in their 
 various systems of Economy, social, religious, and 
 political. There is unfortunately a wide gulf 
 between the Hindoo and the Englishman, which 
 nothing but time and education will suffice to 
 bridge. It is perfectly intelligible, then, that 
 Europeans in India should not have minute and 
 accurate information on all points relating to the 
 social philosophy of the people, and but an imperfect 
 acquaintance with the principles on which they 
 transact their business ; but it is inconceivable to 
 me how any one who has resided in the interior of 
 the country, even for a short time, and who has had 
 opportunities of obtaining the smallest insight into 
 the existing state of the country, could have sup- 
 posed, for an instant, that a people so proverbially 
 alive to their own interests so quick, in general, in 
 making a bargain, should all at once become so 
 intensely stupid, as to be willing to pay nearly three 
 times its actual value for anything, much less for a 
 
155 
 
 thing* of which they are in actual possession, and 
 already enjoying- the fruits. 
 
 Since the accession of our beloved Queen to the 
 Sovereignty of this great Empire, a great change 
 has taken place in the future prospects of India. 
 Thousands of miles of electric wires now traverse 
 the length and breadth of the country, bringing- the 
 most distant points of this vast peninsula, points 
 which but a few short years back were a three 
 weeks' interval apart, into momentary communica- 
 tion. Already lines of rails are in progress, that 
 will soon connect all the great centres of political 
 and mercantile importance. A Jirman has g*one 
 forth, authorising- the holding- of landed property 
 by Europeans in India. They are thronging 1 into 
 the country. Banking- establishments, joint stock 
 companies for the manufacture of Indigo, Cotton, 
 Tea, Coffee, Beer, Salt, &c. for the mining- of 
 Coals and Iron, Companies for sea and river steam 
 communication Tramway and other Companies are 
 springing 1 up in all directions. A tide of the 
 precious metals, undoubtedly, is setting- in with snch 
 a full flood, that people may well wonder whether 
 India can, at once, absorb the silver stream that is 
 rolling- in ; land is being reclaimed ; trade is being- 
 extended ] wages are rising- ; India, in short, imbued 
 with fresh life and vigour, is rapidly growing-. And 
 will the development of these beginnings not affect 
 a change in the relative values of land and capital ? 
 Will it not enhance the money value of the com- 
 
150 
 
 munity's share of the produce of the soil ? Most 
 certainly it will. 
 
 Under the circumstances then, if far distant, it 
 cannot be said that the time will not come when the 
 land of India may be worth, not twenty-five years' 
 purchase at present rates ; but twenty-five years' 
 purchase at infinitely higher rates than any that 
 have ever yet prevailed in India. And setting 1 
 aside legal considerations regarding the right of a 
 non-representative Government to dispose of the 
 property of the Community in the Soil, and viewing 
 the question as one simply of policy, nothing more 
 should be wanting to prove, that the present is the 
 least opportune time that could possibly have been 
 chosen, for attempting the introduction of a measure 
 of such fundamental importance in the philosophy 
 of government, as the transfer of the property of the 
 Community, or the Crown, in the soil, to individuals. 
 The outline of things above sketched certainly indi- 
 cates that there is great room for profitable specula- 
 tion in land ; but for such, capital is required, and 
 notwithstanding Middlemen, which a few short 
 j r ears ago were considered the curse of Ireland, are 
 thought by some to be required in India, I doubt 
 very much whether the transfer of estates from 
 ancient and noble families to native money-lenders 
 and English Capitalists, is a policy that would tend 
 to ensure those political advantages considered of so 
 much importance. The present sale laws for arrears 
 of revenue, though possibly not more stringent than 
 
157 
 
 is necessary, have undoubtedly not made the people 
 more attached to the Government of their Bulers. 
 Indeed it is an admitted fact, that if the arm of the 
 law were restrained to-morrow, every such new 
 proprietor would be ousted by the people, and the 
 property restored to its hereditary possessor. 
 
 That the immense wastes of India should be 
 brought under cultivation is, certainly, most desira- 
 ble, and the advantages to the country resulting 
 from such a measure, all will fully admit. But I 
 have fairly demonstrated that to effect this object, 
 the sale of the land is not necessary, and that a 
 question involving- such great interests to the millions 
 of Her Majesty's Indian subjects, as the redemption 
 of the land revenue, should have grown out of it, 
 and should have come up for consideration and deci- 
 sion on the application of a few British squatters, 
 whose sole object is to make money and leave the 
 country as fast as they can, I look on as a serious 
 misfortune. From the sale of wastes much g'ood, 
 and no present harm can possibly result. There is 
 reason to believe, however, that provinces like Assam 
 and Cachar, the soil of which is not exceeded in fer- 
 tility by that of any soil in the world, will, ere long*, 
 be quite as populous and far more prosperous than 
 any part of India. It will naturally be argued by 
 native Zemindars then, that if the sale of the lands 
 on very easy terms is thoug-ht g-ood for Europeans, 
 it must be thought equally good for us, and Govern- 
 ment could hardly refuse to grant it, if demanded. 
 
158 
 
 Had the question regarding the redemption of the 
 land revenue or the sale of the rights of the Com- 
 munity generally, after full and fair discussion, been 
 decided in the affirmative, there could be no objection 
 to the sale of wastes ; but until such has been done, 
 it is not expedient to introduce an idea into India 
 which possibly may cause dissatisfaction with fiscal 
 arrangements which till now have been considered 
 sound in principle, and have been for centuries ap- 
 proved and acquiesced in, not only by the people of 
 India, but by the people of all Asiatic countries. 
 
 A Governor-General of India, brought up in an 
 English school of politics, can have no knowledge 
 whatever, from personal intercourse with the natives 
 and practical experience of the country, of many 
 circumstances necessary to the complete understand- 
 ing* of an Indian question. Of necessity, therefore, 
 on those points requiring this special knowledge he 
 must be guided by the opinions of his advisers. The 
 late Earl Canning, in sanctioning the redemption of 
 the land revenue of India, was apparently fully 
 sensible of the momentous nature of the question with 
 which he was dealing. He foresaw the important 
 bearing* such a measure, if carried into effect, must 
 have on the finances of the State, on the prosperity 
 of the country, and the welfare and happiness of the 
 people. Above all he foresaw that such a measure, 
 if once passed, was irrevocable. His information 
 was defective ; he knew it, and his cautious wisdom 
 suggested that in legislating* on so important a 
 
159 
 
 pointa point on which opinions so widely differed, 
 experience, the truest of all tests in matters involv- 
 ing- doubts and difficulties, would be his best and 
 safest guide. He determined, therefore, before com- 
 mitting- the Government to a measure involving- 
 such serious consequences, to fortify his judg-ment 
 by experiment. 
 
 "As to the redemption of the Land Revenue/' 
 said his Lordship, " great caution is necessary in 
 dealing- with what has always formed so larg-e a part 
 of the revenues of the Government of India. The 
 Governor-General in Council proposes, therefore, in 
 the first instance, to limit the permission of redemp- 
 tion in any one district to such a number of estates 
 as shall, in their ag-greg'ate assessment, not exceed 
 10 per cent, of the total land tax of the collectorate, 
 or corresponding- fiscal division of the country. 
 
 " This restriction will enable Government to ascer- 
 tain in each province, without undue risk to its 
 permanent fiscal resources, the practical effect of 
 permitting- the redemption, both in completely 
 populated and well cultivated districts, and in those 
 where there is much uncultivated land and a thin 
 population. It will afford an opportunity of here- 
 after reconsidering- the effects of the measure with 
 the lig-ht of ample experience, while the limit which 
 it prescribes is larg-e enoug'h to allow of a consider- 
 able number of those who may be able and desirous 
 of redeeming the Land Revenue of their estates, to 
 do so partially or wholly. 7 ' 
 
160 
 
 But Her Majesty's Ministers again over-ruled the 
 Viceroy's orders, limiting* the power to redeem the 
 land revenue to lands required for dwelling- houses, 
 factories, gardens, plantations, &c., and substituting 
 for the tentative and experimental measure of Earl 
 Canning, the larger and more extended measure of 
 a permanent settlement throughout India, in all 
 districts and parts of districts where the assessment 
 was ascertained to be equitable and no considerable 
 increase could be expected. 
 
 To renew the discussion of questions which have 
 been already considered and decided by the advisers 
 of the Crown, is in India open to objection. I find 
 some little difficulty, therefore, in treating this 
 portion of the subject, especially as great differences 
 of opinion have arisen between the highest authori- 
 ties in arriving at present conclusions, and, if the 
 question be narrowed to an election between redemp- 
 tion as an experiment, and permanency of settle- 
 ment as a rule, I am decidedly of opinion, that of 
 two evils, our late deeply lamented and respected 
 Viceroy chose the least. Great questions, however, 
 of this nature are of no mere local interest. They 
 involve principles which are of universal application, 
 principles which have been discussed by economists 
 in all ages, which will be so discussed probably 
 to the end of time, and which concern not Her 
 Majesty's Ministers nor the Indian Government 
 alone, but the Governments of all existing Empires, 
 and the thinking portion of the whole civilized 
 
161 
 
 World. The land tenure is perhaps of all questions 
 concerning- a county that which is most intimately 
 bound up with its material progress, and the welfare, 
 prosperity, and happiness of its people ; and every 
 chang-e in connection with it, ought, therefore, to be 
 introduced with the utmost caution, and only after 
 the fullest and most careful consideration. It is not 
 my business, as I before said, to review the proceed- 
 ing's of either Her Majesty's or the Indian Govern- 
 ment. At the same time, it would answer no useful 
 purpose to ignore opinions that have been com- 
 mented on by every public Newspaper in England 
 and India. Her Majesty's Government have been 
 freely accused of not only destroying- the prestig-e of 
 the Government of India, but of attempting- by the 
 illegitimate exercise of an autocratic or despotic 
 power, to bring- it into contempt with our Indian 
 subjects. Now I venture to differ from the con- 
 clusions arrived at by both those hig-h g-overning- 
 authorities, and can consequently be accused of no 
 partizanship, yet I have no hesitation in saying* 
 that a perusal of such correspondence as has been 
 made public on the subject, leads me to a conclusion 
 the very opposite of this. No Government could 
 possibly have been placed in a position of greater 
 difficulty than was the Government of Her Britan- 
 nic Majesty in dealing- with this very important 
 question. Their greatest difficulty, moreover, lay in 
 reconciling- their honest convictions of what was 
 best for the welfare of our Indian subjects and the 
 
 M 
 
16-2 
 
 Country, and their anxious desire to maintain su- 
 preme the authority of Her Majesty's Representa- 
 tive in India ; and that their embarrassment on this 
 point was extreme, every line of the public despatch 
 on the subject bears conclusive evidence. So ap- 
 parent is this, that, as it is perused, the impression 
 becomes almost irresistible, that solely out of defer- 
 ence to the principle which Her Majesty's Ministers 
 are accused of violating-, a decision has been come to 
 at variance with their better convictions. Indeed 
 on no other supposition is it easy to reconcile some 
 of the conclusions arrived at with the arguments 
 on which they are based. In such circumstances, 
 where the object of all is the same the welfare 
 of India the better plan is to direct our attention 
 to principles, in which all have a common interest, 
 leaving differences regarding- procedure to be settled 
 by those whom they alone concern. I shall step 
 aside for one moment, however, to notice an idea 
 which seems to have been adopted as the watchword 
 of a party, viz., that c India should be governed in 
 India/ India, undoubtedly, should be governed in 
 India, because from the moment a contrary principle 
 is recog'nized, there is danger of the fulfilment of a 
 prediction once uttered by a very wise man that 
 ' India will be lost in the House .of Commons/ 
 But, if there are sound reasons why India should 
 be governed in India, there are quite as sound 
 reasons, both political and constitutional, why the 
 proceedings of the Indian Government should be 
 
163 
 
 subject to the watchful control of the Sovereign. 
 The intricate foreign relations of the Indian Gov- 
 ernment, and the proud character of the races 
 with which it has to deal, are sufficient to indi- 
 cate the necessity, from a political point of view, 
 of not sinking- the identity of the Sovereign in that 
 of her Viceroy ; while the constitution of the Indian 
 Government, and the very great difficulty of some 
 of the great questions of internal policy liable to 
 arise, is an equally strong argument against per- 
 mitting them to be decided, unless first carefully 
 examined and considered by some of the wise men 
 of England, as well as the wise men of the East. 
 
 Without any disparagement of the Indian ser- 
 vices, which have contained among their ranks some 
 of the most able statesmen of modern times, it must 
 be obvious that the training they receive, is not 
 calculated to fit them for dealing, finally, with ques- 
 tions of imperial policy, requiring special knowledge. 
 Able politicians and administrators, both Military 
 and Civil, may be as plentiful in India as blackberries 
 are in England ; but if we look amongst the ranks 
 of Her Majesty's Indian services for an Economist, 
 a Financier, a Jurist, an Educationist, we look in 
 vain. Much may be done to repair this deficiency, 
 as has been satisfactorily demonstrated in Finance, 
 by importations from Eng'land ; and as the Govern- 
 ment of India gains fresh strength, the reins of 
 control may be gradually relaxed, possibly with 
 much benefit to the country ; but that they should 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 ever be permitted to slip altogether from the hands 
 of the Sovereign, is an idea that could not, with 
 safety to the best interest of the Country, be enter- 
 tained. The real remedy for this difficulty, however, 
 is not the leavening of the Indian services from 
 England; but the converse the employment or 
 apprenticeship of some members of the Indian ser- 
 vices in England. But, strange to say, against this 
 plan, simple and inexpensive as it would be, the 
 Home authorities have ever set their faces. Yet we 
 have living instances of the success of the plan. 
 
 But to return to my subject. In regard to a 
 permanent settlement of the land revenue of India, 
 it is obvious that, in principle, it is precisely the 
 same as redemption, the only difference being, that 
 in the one case the income is distributed over an 
 indefinite term of years, and in the other it is capital- 
 ized. In both cases the income is fixed for ever. 
 For instance, if A buys a house worth 1,000, and 
 B buys a house of the same value ; but the house 
 that A buys, bears a ground rent of 5 a year, and 
 the land on which the house that B buys is held in 
 fee simple, A will only pay for his house 1,000, 
 while B will have to pay 1,100 ; or 100 more than 
 A, supposing the normal rate of interest for money 
 in the country in which the house may be situated 
 to be 5 per cent, or 125 if it be 4 percent., 166 
 and some odd shillings if it be 3 per cent., and so on. 
 This is clear and simple, and it will follow, that, 
 from this point of view, the only point to be consid- 
 
165 
 
 ered is the alteration in the value of money in the 
 country concerned, which, as I have already shown, 
 in regard to India, is a question of much import- 
 ance. Some people talk much of the depreciation 
 in the value of the precious metals, but this is a very 
 long- process, and seems to have been introduced 
 into the argument, rather as a remnant of the old 
 confusion of ideas regarding- prices and values, than 
 from any practical bearing it has on the question 
 under discussion. Long before the quantity of the 
 precious metals in circulation in the world, could 
 influence the result of this measure, if it ever could 
 influence it at all, the gain or loss 'to the State, 
 would have been absorbed in its powerful effects for 
 good or evil on the Country. 
 
 Now I have before stated my objections to the 
 principle of redemption, as applied to India in its 
 present circumstances, and as the principle, or at 
 least the effect of a permanent settlement of the 
 land revenue from a financial point of view, is pre- 
 cisely the same, it is superfluous to say that the 
 same objections which apply to the one, apply to the 
 other, though possibly with greater force ; and this 
 would seem to be admitted.* The measure of Lord 
 Canning was preferable, I think, to a permanent 
 settlement throughout India, because it was designed 
 
 * Whatever advantages or disadvantages are anticipated from 
 a direct permanent settlement will be equally caused by the in- 
 direct mode of attaining the same object by the redemption of 
 the land assessment. Despatch Secy, of State, 1862. 
 
166 
 
 to be partial^ tentative, and purely experimental. 
 At present it would certainly have been wholly nu- 
 gatory, and ere mischief was done, experience, and 
 the expression of public opinion, would have placed 
 the Indian Government in a position to come to a 
 satisfactory conclusion on all points of dispute and 
 doubt. 
 
 As matters now stand, Her Majesty's Government 
 are prepared to sanction the settlement in perpetuity 
 of revised assessments throughout India ; but it is 
 provided that each case should be recommended by 
 the Viceroy, or that the recommendation of the 
 local Government should have his support. The 
 Government of India have still the power, of stay- 
 ing 1 proceeding's, and it is therefore not too late to 
 express a hope that time may be given for the mea- 
 sures of good government and the development of 
 the resources of the country in progress, to work 
 themselves out, before any action whatever be taken 
 in the matter. 
 
 Without entering on the consideration, in detail, 
 of the advantages expected to result from a per- 
 manent settlement of the land revenue, it is sufficient 
 to say that they embrace mainly what is called ad- 
 vancement in material progress, the creation of 
 wealth ; or, viewed financially, ability on the part of 
 the people to bear increased taxation, 
 
 Now if the advantages anticipated would neces- 
 sarily follow this measure, there would clearly be 
 ground for the sacrifice that, from one point of view, 
 
167 
 
 it must inevitably entail. The advocates of the 
 measure entertain no doubt whatever, that they 
 would follow, and not only follow, but follow very 
 much on the principle than an effect does a cause. 
 On the contrary, without in any way disputing 1 that 
 the relation of the two may be precisely as stated, 
 I am of opinion that there is a certain condition of 
 circumstances, which is indispensable to the truth of 
 the proposition, that unless that condition is found, 
 results will not equal expectations, that that con- 
 dition is not now found in India, or in any part of 
 it^ and that it will not be found for many years to 
 come, if ever. I venture to think, therefore, that 
 while the sacrifice would be certain, the realization 
 of the compensating 1 advantages is, if not chimerical, 
 extremely doubtful ; or, at all hazards, far too remote 
 to warrant any action involving 1 much future risk. 
 
 Seventy years ago Lord Cornwallis proposed, by 
 the introduction of a permanent settlement into one 
 Province, to accomplish precisely the same ends as 
 are now desired to be brought about over the whole 
 Country. In ratifying 1 this measure, the Governor- 
 General declared himself to be fully confident " that 
 the proprietors of land, sensible of the benefits con- 
 ferred upon them by the public assessment being fixed 
 for ever, would exert themselves in the cultivation of 
 their land, under the certainty that they would enjoy 
 exclusively the fruits of their own good management 
 and industry, and that no demand would ever be made 
 upon them for an augmentation of the assessment in 
 consequence of the improvement of their estates/' 
 
168 
 
 words which,* without book, might easily be quoted 
 as an extract from a despatch of 1 86'2. (i To conduct 
 themselves/' the Ordinance continues, " with good 
 faith and moderation towards their dependent talook- 
 dars and ryots, are duties at all times indispensably 
 required from the proprietors of land, and a strict 
 observance of these duties is now more than ever in- 
 cumbent upon them, in return for the benefits which 
 they will themselves derive from the orders now issued. 
 The Governor- General in Council therefore expects, 
 that the proprietors of land will not only act in 
 this manner themselves towards their dependent 
 talookdars and ryots, but also enjoin the strictest 
 adherence to the same principles, in the persons whom 
 they may appoint to collect the rents from them." 
 
 His Excellency, no doubt, thought to make 
 English landlords of the Zemindars of Bengal ; but. 
 it is patent to the World, that he succeeded only in 
 making* Irish ones. It is asserted, however, that 
 the interests of the cultivators were sacrificed to 
 those of the landlords, &c., and that other errors 
 were committed in the manner of carrying- out 
 this measure that fully account for its failure. 
 With the light of present experience such errors, 
 it is stated, would not be permitted to take place, and 
 it is confidently believed that by their avoidance in 
 future all objections to a similar attempt being now 
 made would be removed. It is further advanced, 
 that notwithstanding the notoriously depressed con- 
 dition of the cultivators, a creation of wealth has 
 * Vide Begulation, I. 1793, Section VII. 
 
169 
 
 taken place in Bengal, that, contrasting* it with 
 other parts of India, is truly remarkable. I fully 
 admit the increase of wealth ; but to what, I would 
 ask, is it due ? It is due, not to the activity, energy, 
 and enterprise of an intelligent landed proprietary 
 but to the extraordinary fertility of the Gangetic 
 Delta, it s greater freedom from famines, and to those 
 gains arising from an increase in the area of culti- 
 vation, to which the landlords of Bengal had no 
 right or title, and which, however upright the inten- 
 tions of the framers of the law of 1793, can be 
 viewed in no other light than the illegitimate and 
 unjust alienation of the property of the whole com- 
 munity for the benefit of a favoured class. In the 
 year 1793, 30,000,000 acres of land were under 
 cultivation in Bengal, and in the year following, 
 the land revenue was 3,235,259. In the year 
 ending the 30th of April 1857, or ten days before 
 the outbreak of the rebellion, 70,000,000 acres were 
 under cultivation in Bengal, and the land revenue 
 was 3,295,378. Had the excess of 40,000,000 of 
 cultivated acres been assessed at the nominal rate 
 of one rupee an acre, it would have yielded, with 
 little expense, with less trouble, and with no dissatis- 
 faction to the people, a clear revenue of 4,000,000 
 per annum. Seventy years have elapsed since the 
 year 1793, and taking but one half of this period, 
 the accumulation of the illegitimate annual gains of 
 the landholders of Bengal, if hoarded, would repre- 
 sent 140,000,000 sterling, a sum far in excess of the 
 
170 
 
 entire present debt of India, the interest of which 
 the whole Community have now to pay. This is 
 certainly a very startling- fact, and though it need 
 not follow, and it is not proposed, that permanent 
 settlement should he made with the proprietors of 
 estates including* any large area of uncultivated land, 
 taken in connection with the admittedly depressed 
 condition of the cultivators, and the deplorable state 
 of the public works, and the internal commerce of 
 the Province, it is sufficient to upset any direct 
 conclusions, drawn from g-eneral premises, regarding- 
 the effects of Lord Cornwallis' settlement, in its 
 relation to the wealth of the Country. True, it may 
 be said that the free gift of large tracts of waste 
 land, has accelerated their cultivation ; but the re- 
 clamation of wastes, is not a portion of this side 
 of the question. It has no concern whatever 
 with it. 
 
 It is undoubtedly to this cause mainly, if not 
 entirely, that the accumulation of wealth spoken of 
 has taken place in Bengal, and that this wealth has 
 centered in a favoured class, which forms but a very 
 limited portion of the Community, will not be dis- 
 puted. Were it otherwise, the measure would never 
 have been open to those objections, which, in my 
 humble judgment, are fatal to the successful adop- 
 tion of a similar policy in the present circumstances 
 of India. Were, for instance, the land tenure 
 throughout India raiyit-wari, as in Madras and 
 
171 
 
 t 
 
 Bombay,* and the great bulk of the revenue payers 
 industrious peasant-proprietors, like those of Nor- 
 way, Switzerland, Belgium, and many parts of 
 France and Germany, the gain being to the actual 
 cultivators, a large portion of the increase would 
 find its way back to the soil, and, the injustice to 
 the community being confined within the narrowest 
 possible limits, the evil would, in great measure* 
 be counterbalanced by a corresponding amount of 
 good, in the increased prosperity and happiness of 
 the great mass of the people. But Englishmen, 
 proverbially disinclined to see good in any systems 
 other than their own, do not believe in peasant-pro- 
 prietary tenures, because they no longer exist in 
 England ; because they are Constitutional j and be- 
 cause they cannot understand them.f 
 
 Or, were the transactions presented in the form of 
 an agreement or bargain, that is to say, were 
 Government to 'say to the landholders, " We will 
 fix your land assessments for ever, giving you not 
 only all the surplus profits and fruits of your own 
 industry and outlay of capital, but such security of 
 
 * The assessment in Madras until lately sadly required re- 
 vision, or rather equalizing. Judging from the condition of 
 the people, as described' by Mr. Bourdillon, the assessment 
 must certainly, as a rule, have been too high. Operations 
 however, are in progress which will put the land assessment of 
 Madras on, apparently, a very sound and equitable basis. 
 
 f Those who would wish to know something on the subject 
 of peasant-proprietors, may consult, with advantage, the Con- 
 tinental Travels and other works of Arthur Young, those of 
 the elder Laing, of the thorough Englishman Howitt, the 
 Educationist Kay, the French Economist Sismondi, the Eng- 
 lish Economist Mill, &c. 
 
172 
 
 title, such property in the soil, as by enabling 1 you 
 to raise money, will place you in a position so to 
 improve JOUY land, that in a few years to come, 
 instead of returning- you as at present 10 per cent, 
 on your outlay or purchase money, it will yield 
 you 30 or 40 per cent., provided that when that day 
 comes, instead of giving- us, as now, 5 per cent., or 
 half your profits, you will give us 10 per cent, or 
 one-third or one-fourth of your profits, in whatever 
 form may be most convenient or most agreeable to 
 yourselves." Were the Government to say this, the 
 arrang-ement would be a very desirable one for all 
 parties. But such was not the shape of the measure 
 of 1793, and, consequently, the most serious com- 
 plications have arisen complications so intricate 
 that no one can understand them, and to which I 
 shall presently allude ; and, notwithstanding- the 
 full flood of lig'ht, seventy years' experience has 
 shed on the subject, such is not the shape of the 
 measure of 1862. 
 
 We have shown, then, that the accumulation of 
 wealth arising- from the increased area broug-ht under 
 cultivation in Beng-al since the year 1793, has 
 centered in the Zemindars, or landholders, who, it 
 may be as well to reiterate, were originally mere 
 collectors of revenue, and were never proprietors of 
 the soil; and it remains to be inquired what have 
 they done with it ? It is admitted that they have 
 increased their own wealth, and added to the value 
 of their personal estates by the reclamation of 
 
173 
 
 --. , 
 
 wastes, and I should be extremely sorry to deprive 
 them of any credit which is their just due on this 
 score. But have they aided in improving the means 
 of land or river inter-communication; have they 
 made roads, built bridges or canals ; have they estab- 
 lished hospitals for the sick, alms-houses for the poor, 
 caravansaries for the weary and exhausted; have 
 they assisted in the maintenance of an efficient 
 police; have they built colleges or schools, or 
 attempted to improve the existing wretched village 
 patshallas of the country, or expended any portion 
 whatever of their accumulated savings in elevating 
 morally or intellectually, their less fortunate fellow 
 countrymen ; have they given long leases to their 
 tenants on such terms as have enabled them to im- 
 prove their holdings and attain a small degree of 
 prosperity ; have they built houses for them, drained 
 or bunded their lands, or in any way cared for their 
 comfort or welfare ; finally, have they shown a par- 
 ticle of that enterprise, energy, and activity of cha- 
 racter, which in other countries tend to divert the 
 surplus wealth of one section of the people into 
 channels from whence all derive advantage, and to 
 which England owes her fine roads, her many rail- 
 ways, her mighty steam companies, her mining, 
 iron-working*, and other companies ? They have 
 done none of these things. 
 
 How then has this vast accumulation of wealth 
 been expended, and into what channels has it per- 
 meated ? Has it found its way back to the soil, to 
 
< 
 
 fulfil the ordinance of the Creator, to increase many 
 fold the earth's produce to reproduce fresh wealth, 
 which all might enjoy, and of which the King 1 , 
 as trustee for the Community or the State, might 
 receive his just share ? It has not. The bulk of 
 this wealth has been squandered in natches, poojas, 
 or festivities in honour of n^thological Gods and 
 Goddesses, marriage and other ceremonies, feeding 
 Brahmins, &c. ; some has been hoarded ; much has 
 been put into gold and silver ornaments, jewels, 
 brocades, shawls ; and considerable sums have been 
 expended in barbaric splendour.* Nay more, the 
 celebration of these wasteful festivals and ceremonies 
 is often the source of grinding oppression on the part 
 of many Zemindars, who invariably make them the 
 occasion of imposing abwabs, or taxes, on their 
 tenants, a practice which, though it has been dis- 
 allowed by law, is universal. 
 
 No contrast could be more striking than that 
 which meets the eye of the traveller from the North 
 West, as he approaches Calcutta the Metropolis of 
 British India ! Bridges broken down, roads in 
 some places washed away, and in others disgracefully 
 out of repair, are everywhere to be seen. A few 
 years back, I counted, for miles along what is called 
 the grand trunk road, heaps of metal which had been 
 deposited for four or five successive seasons, and 
 never laid down. Nor could there be any mistake. 
 
 * The Kajah of Pachete has about 100 elephants, the keep 
 ) \ of which cannot cost him less than ^3000 per annum. 
 
175 
 
 The growth of the vegetation which in Bengal 
 springs up after a rainy season even out of burnt 
 bricks, readily told the tale. Indeed it may truly 
 be said, that in the interior of Bengal, there are no 
 roads at all. Dacca, the once flourishing Capital of 
 Eastern Bengal under Mohammadan rule, is still 
 unconnected with the Metropolis. A trip to Darjee- 
 ling, the Hill Sanatorium of Bengal, and the only 
 rising European colony of the Province, is literally 
 a perilous undertaking. The hill portion of the road 
 the last official report on the subject tells us will not 
 be practicable for carts, before the end of 1864. In X, 
 the North Western Provinces of India, where Go- 
 vernment is the landlord , though very much remains 
 to be done, we have the finest roads perhaps in the 
 whole world ; sarais stud the great lines of inter- 
 communication at convenient intervals, noble canals 
 for irrigation hundreds of miles in length, intersect 
 two great divisions of the country, and others are 
 being built in the Punjab. In truth, it is common 
 to hear persons arriving in Calcutta from the upper 
 Provinces exclaim that Bengal is a century behind 
 the North West in material progress^ and the asser- 
 tion is undoubtedly not without some foundation. 
 I am well aware of the great difference in climate 
 between Bengal and the North West, and the gTeater 
 engineering difficulties, and the absence of kankar or 
 road stuff in many parts of the former. I have re- 
 sided nine years in each division of the Bengal 
 Presidency, but making all due allowances for these 
 
176 
 
 differences, and at the same time taking- into account 
 that frightful famines have periodically decimated 
 the population of the one, throwing half the country 
 out of cultivation, and that the other, besides being 
 naturally far more fertile, has been comparatively free 
 from these visitations, I am unable to alter the con- 
 clusion at which I have arrived, that if the perpetual 
 settlement in Bengal has enriched the Zemindars, 
 it has kept the people in a sadly impoverished and 
 depressed condition, and immensely retarded the 
 material progress of the country. It may be said 
 that to build bridges and to make roads is the busi- 
 ness of Government ; but it is folly to argue as 
 if Government were some benign individual, that, 
 disinterestedly distributes its favours from a sense 
 of philanthropy wholly regardless of return. No 
 landlord lays out Capital on his estate without 
 entertaining reasonable expectations of a return, 
 unless it be for the purpose of beautifying it or im- 
 proving its salubrity. Were he to do so the World 
 would assuredly write him down an Ass ! And as 
 the position of Government in this sense, differs in 
 no respect from that of a good and wise landlord, 
 why should the Government of India have laid out 
 millions of money in public works that could not 
 have tended to increase its income by one shilling 
 per annum ? There is no sound practical reason for 
 the adoption of such a course. It has consequently 
 systematically refused to do so, and if any one en- 
 tertains doubts on the subject, let him consult the 
 
177 
 
 minutes of Sir John Peter Grant the late Lieut.- 
 Governor of Bengal, who for the last six years has 
 strenuously endeavoured to obtain from the Govern- 
 ment of India the ways and means of improving 
 Bengal, in this respect, in vain. 
 
 The Government of India, in making a perpetual 
 settlement with the Zemindars of Bengal, doubtless 
 considered that they had made over, with the surplus 
 profits accruing by the increase in cultivation and 
 the value of the produce, the duties and responsibili- 
 ties which it still retained in its own hands in the 
 North West, and it confidently expected that the 
 Zemindars would willingly accept the high respon- 
 sibility which attaches to ownership in the soil. 
 How the two Landlords have discharged their trust, 
 what I have stated above will sufficiently show. 
 But it is not all. The Zemindars have not only not 
 discharged those duties and responsibilities in respect 
 of public works, which in other countries landlords 
 most cheerfully accept; but shielding themselves 
 behind the letter of the enactment which perpetuated 
 the decennial settlement, they have refused all further 
 aid to Government in lieu of any extraordinary pro- 
 tection they may be afforded in times of extreme 
 peril, or for any public purpose whatever. When, 
 in consequence of the inefficient state of the Police, 
 especially of the Village- Watch, thefts, gang-rob- 
 beries, and dacoities had increased to an alarming 
 extent in parts of Bengal, and Government sought 
 
 N 
 

 178 
 
 all the assistance it could obtain, in righting the 
 evil, it was alleged by the Zemindars " that Govern- 
 ment were bound to defray the entire expenses of the 
 Police establishment, and had not even the right to 
 insist on the appointment of the village watchmen, 
 if the Communities considered their interests did not 
 require it."* It would be monstrous to suppose 
 that the Bengalis, a race wholly devoid of physical 
 courage, who have ever been at the mercy of the 
 first stalwart race of Northern men who chose to 
 invade them, should be protected both in life and 
 property at an enormous cost to Government ; that 
 the State should be saddled with a debt of a hundred 
 millions sterling on this score ; and they contribute 
 nothing towards its liquidation. It is wholly incon- 
 ceivable, out of India, that persons situated as are 
 the Zemindars of Bengal, persons who, as before 
 shown, within little more than a quarter of a century, 
 have been permitted to accumulate a hundred and 
 fifty millions sterling over and above their legitimate 
 gains, should be unwilling to aid a Government 
 
 * Statement of objects and reasons of a bill to amend the 
 law relating to Police chowkedars introduced by Mr. Moffat 
 Mills into the Legislative Council of India, 16th September, 
 1854, Mr. Mills continued, "The Course of Legislation on 
 this subject which is described below, does not in my opinion 
 bear out this assertion," and lower down in his statement he 
 adds, -"the consequence of these defects in the Law is, that 
 the village-watch, the basis of our Police system, is utterly in- 
 efficient, the Chowkedars are inadequately and uncertainly paid, 
 and * being kept in a permanent state of starvation,' they keep 
 themselves comfortably, by leaguing with thieves and robbers." 
 In the original the extract given in the text> is in the present 
 tense. 
 
179 
 
 which had successfully strained every nerve to save S 
 them and their property from destruction. Yet in 
 1859, when an income tax was proposed, the Zemin- 
 dars of Bengal, not only declared themselves such, 
 but claiming* immunity under the very Act that 
 effected, it may be said, the creation of their wealth, 
 they most stoutly resisted its incidence, loading 1 the 
 Government with accusations of injustice and bad 
 faith, in lieu of those outpourings of gratitude and 
 substantial donations which might have been looked 
 for. Behind such facts as these, the confident ex- 
 pectations of Lord Cornwallis vanish into the thinnest 
 of thin air ; and with them before us, I would ven- 
 ture to ask, what solid ground have we on which to 
 rest the shadow of a hope, that the future of the 
 present will bear better fruit ? 
 
 I would add, however, that, though in clearly stat- 
 ing the case as between Government and its subjects, 
 the peculiarity of the situation compels me to lay 
 bare facts in all their nakedness, I do not desire to 
 be understood as blaming the Zemindars of Bengal 
 in the degree the unmeasured terms here used would 
 seem to imply. In viewing the case I have looked 
 at it from an English stand-point, for the special 
 benefit of Englishmen unacquainted with the cir- 
 cumstances of India and its people. It falls to my 
 lot officially to translate into the native languages 
 for publication, the returns of the public works 
 annually executed by private individuals in Bengal, 
 
 and I am fully aware that, in their own small way, 
 
 N 2 
 
 
180 
 
 the Zemindars have always done something* towards 
 building 1 wells, tanks, school -houses, making 1 village 
 roads, &c. The Bengali Zemindar has acted in 
 accordance with the dictates of his uneducated mind 
 and his narrowed intellect, and possibly in a manner 
 not very dissimilar to that in which other people, 
 similarly situated and in a similar stage of social, 
 moral, and intellectual progress, would act. Before 
 the powerful influence of self-interest was allowed to 
 form so fundamental a portion of our European 
 systems of Economy, the contrast between the 
 English and the Bengali landlord was possibly 
 not so great as it now is ; and if we excuse the 
 Government on the ground of its being* precluded 
 from deriving any profit from the outlay of its 
 capital, we must assuredly make some allowance for 
 the Zemindar, who, though deeply interested, is at 
 least two centuries behind the Englishman in educa- 
 tion and social progress. My intention, then ; is not 
 to bespatter the Bengali with dirt ; but simply to 
 point out to those who know less of the people of 
 India than those on the spot, that before plunging 
 irrevocably into, a policy which, if mistaken,' will 
 inevitably prove disastrous, some more certain data 
 than i anxious wishes ' and ' confident expectations,' 
 are necessary, if it be desired that its results should 
 be different to those which have attended other 
 measures introduced with similar intentions. 
 
 It is distinctly stated that the object aimed at by 
 a perpetual settlement in India, is to improve the 
 
181 
 
 condition of the people, so as to enable them to bear 
 direct taxation. Now the people of all countries 
 living- under anything- approaching- a constitutional 
 Government, have undoubtedly a right to pronounce 
 an opinion on such a question. It has been repeat- 
 edly declared ex-cathedra, that the principle of 
 British Rule in India is not a Military Despotism ; 
 but on the contrary, that it is Her Majesty's wish 
 that the British Government in India shall be based 
 on the contentment and g-ood will of the people. 
 In European Countries, it is not a very easy matter to 
 ascertain the wishes of the people. Of this we daily 
 have convincing 1 proof. In India, moreover, in 
 consequence of the variety of races and religions, 
 to say nothing* of the caste prejudices we have to 
 deal with, it would be almost impossible to find the 
 people of accord on very many questions of state 
 policy of great importance. In such cases the Go- 
 vernment must be left to its own honest convictions 
 to act as to its wisdom and judgment seemeth best 
 for the great mass of the people, and the past fur- 
 nishes us with a good guarantee, that where in- 
 formation is not defective, and honesty and integrity 
 of purpose are apparent, the people of India, ever 
 accustomed to despotism, and, alas, too often, to 
 despotism tyrannically exercised, will accommodate 
 themselves to the wishes of their Rulers, with a 
 readiness and a good will unknown in any part of 
 Europe. But if there is one point in the policy of 
 the British Government on which the people of 
 
182 
 
 India are in accord that point is direct taxation. 
 Ag'ainst this the voice of the nation unmistakeably 
 declared itself, and looking* to the anomalous posi- 
 tion of the British Government in India, and its ex- 
 pressed determination to govern with, and not against 
 the will of the people, there seems to be some contra- 
 diction of principles involved in this measure and the 
 declared objects and reasons for its introduction, that 
 it would be well to consider, before it is too late. I 
 trust my remarks will not be misconstrued into an 
 arrogant attempt to dogmatize on points of principle 
 and policy, which are disputed by persons and 
 authorities of infinitely greater wisdom and expe- 
 rience in the philosophy of Government. The ques- 
 tion under review involves interests of far too great 
 magnitude for the admission into its discussion, by 
 any conscientious person, of feelings other than those 
 which spring from an anxious desire for the good of 
 this great Empire. Whatever then my views are ; they 
 are the honest results of my experience of the people 
 amongst whom I have lived for the better part of 
 a quarter of a century, and the only object I have 
 in stating them, is to endeavour to throw such light 
 on this very difficult question, as any opportunities 
 of observation I may have had, enable me. It would 
 be well, I say, to consider this point now, because 
 the time when the tax-gatherer should knock at the 
 peoples' doors, will not be the most convenient for 
 the purpose, nor yet the most favourable for expla- 
 nations. I have already shown how the Zemindars 
 
183 
 
 of Bengal refused all voluntary aid to the Govern- 
 ment for the amelioration of the police administra- 
 tion, and denied its legal right to tax them on that 
 account ; and it is worthy of remark that they were 
 supported in their views by the opinion of the highest 
 legal authority in the land, the present Chief Justice 
 of Bengal. Sir Barnes Peacock held, that " the 
 same principle which prevents an augmentation of 
 the assessment, equally precludes the taxation of the 
 owners in respect of the rent or produce of their 
 estates," as a such taxation must necessarily prevent 
 them from enjoying exclusively the fruits of their 
 own good management and industry." Yet a 
 similar principle is now enunciated, and it is dwelt 
 on with force, that the benefit of all improvements is 
 to go into the pockets of the landlords, and that the 
 State is to be precluded from ever obtaining any 
 future augmentations of income from this source (the 
 land). 
 
 How the Zemindars of Bengal responded to the 
 call of Government in the day of its trouble, and 
 how, on the ground of their assessments being fixed, 
 they objected to a tax on their incomes, are matters 
 of too recent date, and are too well known, to need 
 notice here. 
 
 It is true that it is now declared to be the inten- 
 tion of Government to look to taxation as the source 
 from whence all future increase of revenue must come; 
 and as regards the intention of the law on this point, 
 no future doubt could possibly arise. But it must 
 
184 
 
 be borne in mind that the people of India are very 
 ignorant. The masses cannot read and write. They 
 are clearly, in these matters, in a state of infancy. 
 Of this great question which so deeply concerns 
 every man in the country which has agitated 
 Anglo-Indian, and a larg-e section of English society 
 for the past year, and been discussed in almost every 
 English Journal and Review in both Countries, not 
 one in twenty thousand of our Indian subjects has 
 even so much as heard.* Should the Zemindars, 
 then, when the time comes for Government to legis- 
 late for the deficiency of revenue, disclaim all know- 
 led g'e of the intention of the previous law, it appears 
 to me that it would be awkward. But should the 
 Community, by that time more enlightened and in- 
 dependent, take higher ground, and admit an ac- 
 quaintance with the intention, but demand a distri- 
 bution of taxation in such a manner as to effect the 
 
 * It is a curious fact, that the raiyitwari Settlement of 
 Madras is a perpetual settlement, and when first made was 
 declared to be so, a declaration which has since been repeatedly 
 re-asserted by the highest authority. The Madras Board of 
 Revenue in 1857, in pointing out the erroneous impression 
 that prevailed, regarding the Bombay settlement of 30 years, 
 giving a greater permanency of tenure than the Eyotwari settle- 
 ment of Madras, observed : " This is altogether an error, for 
 the Madras Ryot is able to retain his land in perpetuity with- 
 out any increase of assessment, as long as he continues to fulfil 
 his engagements." And the Madras Government in the same 
 year stated : " The proprietary right of a Ryot is perfect, and 
 as long as he pays t\\e fixed assessment on his land, he can he 
 ousted by no one." The new assessments now being made, 
 are subject to revision after 50 years, a modification of which 
 the people, I should thiuk, have no knowledge whatever. 
 
185 
 
 restitution of their property, on the ground that they 
 were not consenting- parties to the transaction, I 
 cannot foresee what answer could satisfactorily be 
 given to them. For, should the Government be 
 weak, the people would certainly resist ; and, should 
 it be strong-, and carrying- things with a high hand 
 refuse to listen to the remonstrances of its subjects, 
 they would inevitably inveigh against the injustice 
 and bad faith of their English rulers, as of late has 
 not been uncommon. In any case, there is some 
 reason to doubt the realization of those political ad- 
 vantages regarding which all seem now so certain. 
 
 Nor do I raise objections merely for the sake of 
 argument, nor yet for the purpose of making diffi- 
 culties where none actually exist. I simply state, 
 knowing as I do, the detestation of the people of 
 India of direct taxation, what has taken place, and 
 what I firmly believe would take place again. The 
 people of India, at present are wholly unacquainted 
 with European systems of taxation. They cannot 
 understand them \ and though they will submit to 
 any tax that is not oppressive or inquisitorial with- 
 out any apparent exhibition of dissatisfaction, every 
 fresh imposition is carefully registered in their ac- 
 count with their rulers, and helps to swell the mea- 
 sure of their disaffection, when any violent revulsion 
 of feeling calls for its exhibition. 
 
 In the North West, we have a thirty, and in Ma- 
 / dras, &Jifty years settlement. The landholders and 
 L peasant-proprietors, having a perfect right of occu- 
 
186 
 
 pancy, sell and mortgage their land without let 
 or hindrance. Can anything- further, as regards 
 security of title, be required ? Does any English 
 landlord give such good leases to his tenants ? I 
 think not. Assuredly then, security of title is not 
 what is required to give the people of India such an 
 interest in the soil, as will induce them to expend 
 capital upon it. They have it to the full already ; 
 and if proof of the fact be wanting, I refer to the 
 rent-free tenures. Rent-free estates are scattered 
 throughout the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies. 
 One sixth of the whole of the land in the Madras 
 Presidency is held free of rent. Compare the condi- 
 tion of the cultivators of both, and what is the result ? 
 The bulk of the testimony of the Government 
 officials on the subject is, that the condition of the 
 people paying revenue to Government is letter than 
 that of those paying none, the reason assigned being, 
 that the demand of Government acts as a beneficial 
 stimulus on their dormant energies. 
 
 We must seek, therefore, for some other causes 
 for the depressed condition of the cultivators and 
 peasant-proprietors of India, than the absence of a 
 perfect property in the soil. Nor is it difficult to 
 find them. They are, high assessments, rack rents, 
 short leases, oppression of landlords, excess of land 
 over population, famines, defective means of com- 
 munication, peculiar characteristics of the people, 
 &c. It is to these evils and not to the tenure of 
 the land, that attention should be directed ; and 
 
187 
 
 it seems to me that far more may be done to remedy 
 them, if Government remains the Landlord, than if 
 the sole property in the soil be made over to indi- 
 viduals. And there is yet one more cause a cause 
 more potent than any yet assigned, in its influence 
 on the condition of the cultivators, and its bearing 
 on this highly important question. I allude to the 
 low degree of the intellectual development of the 
 people. I am fully alive to the magic of property 
 in the soil. I heartily concur in the opinion, that 
 if you give a man secure possession of a bleak rock, 
 he will turn it into a garden ; and if you give him a 
 five years' lease of a garden, he will convert it into a 
 desert. But, I conceive that by a man, is here 
 meant, a thinking intelligent being, one who not 
 only knows his own interest, but knows how to work 
 it out ; and, if Adam Smith's authority is of any 
 weight, this could not have been predicated of an 
 English man a century ago, and it certainly cannot 
 be predicated of any race or section of the people of 
 India at the present day. 
 
 English settlers and speculators, as pioneers, and 
 by the introduction of capital, will do much for the 
 material progress of the country. But it must 
 never be lost sight of, that Englishmen in India, are 
 but a means to an end, and that though in the attain- 
 ment of this end, the interests of both races may be 
 well served, as long as the existence of the one race 
 is exotic, the interests of both must in no small de- 
 gree be antagonistic. Englishmen in India, from this 
 
188 
 
 point of view, are useful only in so far as they sup- 
 plement the deficiencies of the natives, for, birds of 
 passage as they are, if they bring one rupee INTO 
 the country, it is only that they may take two, or 
 more probably, four, OUT of it. India is certainly the 
 ONE rupee richer ; but still the TWO or FOUR poorer 
 than if the developers were true sons of the soil.* 
 
 It is Education then, to which England must 
 look as the true means of effecting such a regenera- 
 tion in the people of India, as will make them a 
 willing instrument in the hands of an enlightened 
 and upright Government to work out their own pros- 
 perity ; and it is by the force of example, that lever 
 which Arnold held to be of first importance in the 
 philosophy of education, that the English developer, 
 will prove so able and so valuable a help to the Go- 
 vernment of India. Under the circumstances, it 
 cannot but be a source of deep and sincere regret to 
 those who wish India well, to see a department, of 
 all those of a Government the most powerful in its 
 influence for good, or for evil a department on the 
 efficient and judicious administration of which must 
 ultimately depend the solution of the most difficult 
 problems on which her Majesty's Government are 
 now employed, so sadly neglected. Without a head, 
 without the basis of any fixed principles, this De- 
 partment is altogether unrepresented in the Supreme 
 
 * This is why I look on Mr. Schiller's scheme for reclaiming 
 the Sunderbuus with auch favour, the natives being its chief 
 supporters. 
 
189 
 
 Government, and thus that bark which carries the 
 best fortunes of the people, is left to drift whither 
 the currents of the varying- and crude opinions of 
 half a dozen Directors of Public Instruction may 
 carry it. Yet, I have no hesitation in saying*, that 
 the greatest, indeed the only great obstacle to the in- 
 troduction of the policy her Majesty's Government 
 are so anxious to induct, is the ignorance of the 
 people. In their present state of intellectual de- 
 velopment, it is utterly impossible that the people 
 can understand their own interests, and assuming 
 their interests to be the object of Government, it 
 requires no logic to establish, that until they do 
 know it, the action of the Government and its sub- 
 jects will be opposed to one another. I have no 
 hesitation in stating- that had the people of India 
 not been ig-norant and superstitious, the rebellion of 
 1857 would have been an impossibility. 
 
 It will be arg-ued that the process sug-g-ested is 
 long, and there is no doubt of it. But if there is 
 no doubt of it, there is, unfortunately, no help for 
 it; and, consequently, there is the greater reason 
 why no time should be lost in straining- every nerve 
 in completing-, consolidating-, and perfecting the 
 measures at present in operation. Nor will it fol- 
 low that, in the meantime, any measures of good 
 Government suitable to the progressive development 
 of society, should be delayed one moment beyond 
 that time when the condition of the people renders 
 them desirable. No inventions of modern times 
 
190 
 
 have exercised such magical influence on the pro- 
 gress of nations as Electricity and Steam. Tele- 
 graph wires now connect the most distant points of 
 the Empire. Railroads are in rapid progress along 
 all the great lines of communication and traffic. 
 Their effects will assuredly not be wanting in accele- 
 rating the accomplishment of that final task, to the 
 completion of which the energies of all are directed. 
 Combine these forces, let all work in harmony, and 
 there can be little doubt that everything that could 
 be desired mil follow so rapidly, as to astonish even 
 the most sanguine progressionist of the day. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF THE POPULATION OF INDIA AND THE ERRONEOUS 
 OPINIONS WHICH PREVAIL REGARDING IT. 
 
 I HAVE said some pages back, that it is popu- 
 larly believed, that there are millions of people in 
 India starving 1 for want of employment. Now this 
 is a most erroneous idea. Yet, it cannot be confined 
 to the outside public, for it seems hardly credible 
 that Her Majesty's Ministers, if fully aware of the 
 existing- state of India in relation to this question, 
 would be concluding 1 treaties with foreign powers, 
 to deprive her of her greatest want her most 
 precious wealth. The existence of the popular be- 
 lief on the subject can be very readily understood. 
 It is maintained by talkers on Indian subjects, 
 persons who seem to consider it their mission to 
 address themselves to the redress of Indian grie- 
 vances. These gentlemen are generally well inten- 
 tioned, and often do much good. But as they will 
 not always take the trouble to make themselves 
 acquainted with the subjects they take up, and, more 
 frequently, have not the best opportunities of obtain- 
 ing accurate information, they sometimes do a great 
 deal of mischief. When I first came to India, now 
 about eighteen years ago, it was customary to set 
 
192 
 
 down the population of British India at 130,000,000. 
 I have been extremely amused in observing- how 
 this number has gradually been swelled up, first to 
 150,000,000, then to 180,000,000, and lastly to 
 200,000,000, at which, for the present I believe, it 
 stands. True, Her Majesty's possessions in India 
 have increased considerably within the last eigh- 
 teen years. But in what ratio? The Punjab 
 added, say 10,000,000; Nag-poor 5,000,000; Oude 
 5,000,000,; Pegu 1,000,000 to the population of 
 British India, making a total of 21,000,000 souls : 
 or, allowing for the lapse of minor States and 
 Principalities, say in round numbers 25,000,000. 
 The latest returns to Parliament give the population 
 of British India as 135,369,598. Yet in every 
 speech in the House of Commons, in every news- 
 paper article, in every review on the subject, Her 
 Majesty's 200,000,000 of Indian subjects are regu- 
 larly paraded before the public, with the same con- 
 fidence as if they had been actually registered, mus- 
 tered, and returned. Were the public, at the same 
 time, favoured with even an approximate estimate 
 of the area of this great peninsula were it always 
 added, for instance, that, Russia excluded, India is 
 larger than half Europe, there would not be so much 
 harm in the multiplication of these hundreds of 
 millions of people. But, generally, no allusion 
 whatever is made to this simple fact. The public, 
 consequently, never very discriminating in statistical 
 matters, and having no standard of comparison pre- 
 
193 
 
 sented to their minds other than that of their own 
 little island, at once run away with the idea, that 
 India has a teeming- population, with which it is 
 sadly oppressed and over-burthened. That the con- 
 trary is the case that India is extremely under- 
 populated, and that the crying- want of the country 
 is a population in some degree proportionate to its 
 immense area, the vast tracts, the thousands of 
 square miles of rich, highly productive, and cultur- 
 able land, which are now lying 1 waste, for the simple 
 reason that there are no people to till them are a 
 sufficient proof. 
 
 But to pursue the enquiry a little further, let us ex- 
 amine the question in greater detail. The number 
 of souls per square mile in Belgium is 413, in 
 Holland 271, in Great Britain 237, in France 
 177, in Prussia 159, in Austria 144. We are very 
 badly off in India for statistics of any kind. A 
 very great portion of the Country has never been 
 surveyed. Without any great fear, however, of 
 being over the mark, we may estimate the area of 
 British India, at not less than 1,000,000 square 
 miles, and taking the population at 135,000,000 it 
 will give only 135 souls per square mile.* Now 
 the produce of the soil of any country, only reaches 
 its maximum, when the pressure of population forces 
 cultivation up to the highest possible point ; and as 
 it is an axiom that each increase in productive 
 
 * The total area of India, including native states, the parlia- 
 mentary return gives as 1,476,316 square miles. 
 
 
 
194 
 
 power, is gained at a higher proportional increase 
 of labour and outlay, the tendency of population 
 is to increase beyond the power of the soil to 
 support it, or in other words, the ratio of the 
 increase is always in favour of consumption and 
 against production. The maximum attained, should 
 population still increase, in a self-supporting- Coun- 
 try, one of two courses only remains population 
 must be checked, or emigration must carry off the 
 surplus. It is impossible to compare a country 
 of such vast extent as India, as a whole, with 
 any Country of Europe, except perhaps Russia. 
 What, then, the comparative capabilities of the soil 
 of India for supporting population may be I cannot 
 say. But taking into consideration that in almost 
 all parts of the Country, two, and in several as many 
 as three or four crops are obtained in a year, its 
 power if not greater, ought not to be less than the 
 European average. And if these data be approxi- 
 mately correct and the figures here given certainly 
 leave a very large margin for error it will appear 
 that, taking the whole superficial area, India is very 
 much under-populated.* 
 
 * The area of British India, as computed up to date by the 
 Surveyor General, is 856,746 square miles, which would give a 
 population of 156 souls per square mile ; but even this number, 
 though less than that of the most populous European coun- 
 tries, is, I think, an over-estimate. The returns of population 
 based on the censuses taken in the N.W. Provinces in 1826 
 and 1848, are manifestly fallacious. The first gave an average 
 in six or seven districts, of 484 souls per square mile, the second 
 an average of 322. But all censuses in India have been little 
 better than guess work. The truest test, for general purposes, 
 is the price of grain, and in most parts of India, making all 
 
,~ 
 
 196 
 
 It is quite true that population in India is very 
 unequally distributed ; so much so, that while enor- 
 mous tracts of country are waste and wholly without 
 inhabitants, population in others, is, as it were, lumped. 
 The characteristics of the people, their love of father- 
 land and place of birth, caste restrictions and preju- 
 dices, famines, inundations, poverty, ravages of dis- 
 ease, and of wars all these have combined to assist 
 in maintaining- in the midst of large provinces un- 
 surpassed in fertility of soil and natural capabilities 
 by any country in the world, a stag-nation unknown 
 in Europe. Thus, in the province of Assam, the 
 soil of which will literally produce any crop in luxu- 
 riant abundance, population is not only so sparse 
 that six millions of acres are waste ; but in populated 
 districts the people are so indolent and lazy, that the 
 productive powers of the soil are, comparatively 
 speaking, allowed to lie almost wholly dormant. 
 
 Assam was once apparently a flourishing- and well 
 populated Province. The developer now, as he 
 wields his axe, frequently comes upon ruins of con- 
 siderable extent buried in the jungle of dense forests. 
 The remains of noble building's too, which are to be 
 found scattered here and there, attest that the people 
 
 due allowances for the clearness of money, except in times of 
 dearth, it is comparatively cheap. Cultivation throughout 
 India is low, and large tracts of land are waste. We require 
 no other data to satisfy us that population is not in excess of 
 the productive powers of the soil. In China, where population 
 is really excessive, we find cultivation at the highest point, and 
 emigration very active. The laws of nature are always a very 
 safe guide. 
 
 o 2 
 
190 
 
 had attained a no small degree of civilization. But 
 the province had been subject to frequent inroads 
 from hostile neighbours and savage tribes, who 
 ravaged' the country, massacring thousands of the 
 inhabitants and carrying off their cattle. Imme- 
 diately preceding* the occupation of the country by 
 the British, it had been overrun by a Burmese army, 
 which it is said carried off 30,000 captives into 
 slavery. The whole province, therefore, though of 
 great natural fertility, through the annihilation of 
 its population and the plunder of their property, was 
 reduced to a state of gTeat prostration. The condi- 
 tion of things when the English first took posses- 
 sion of Assam, is thus described by Colonel Jenkins, 
 the late Governor-General's agent on the North- 
 Eastern Frontier : " When therefore we assumed 
 the charge of the country, nothing could possibly 
 be more unpromising than the state of the country. 
 The small remnant of the people had been so ha- 
 rassed and oppressed by the long civil and internal 
 wars that had followed the accession of Raja 
 Gourinath Sing in 1780 down to 1826, that they 
 had almost given up cultivation, and lived on jungle 
 roots and plants, and famine and pestilence carried 
 off thousands that had escaped the sword and cap- 
 tivity. All men of rank, the heads of the Great 
 Ahom and priestly families, had retired to one dis- 
 trict, Gowalparra, having, with little exception, lost 
 the whole of their property. With the nobility and 
 gentry retired a vast body of the lower classes ; the 
 
197 
 
 former mostly returned to Assam after our occupation, 
 but large numbers of the latter never returned, and 
 their descendants form still a large part of the popu- 
 lation of Habraghat and Kootaghat." But British 
 troops drove out the Burmese, the British Govern- 
 ment restored peace and security of property, and 
 in accordance with the laws of nature, increase of 
 population and wealth should have rapidly followed. 
 Unfortunately, however, among the characteristics 
 of the people, laziness and indolence are most 
 prominent. They determinedly refuse to do more 
 work than will just suffice to maintain them in the 
 comfort of a rude existence. More unfortunately 
 still, they are addicted to the use of a drug* which 
 heightens those characteristics by its baneful influ- 
 ence on their physical powers Opium ! This drug* 
 is consumed, in quantities, by 70 per cent, of the 
 people. They give it even to their children, and 
 the results on the whole population are very 
 evident/ 7 
 
 " The habit," reported Dr. J. Long in 1853, "acts 
 very injuriously on the people : it renders them 
 listless and apathetic ; weakens their digestive 
 system, and produces congestion of the brain and 
 other organs, particularly of the liver and kidneys. 
 It has before been noticed the liability to severe 
 congestive inflammation of the lungs, to which 
 opium-eaters are liable after slight labour. 
 
 " So long* as the opium-eater is able to procure 
 good and nourishing diet, suited to his system, and 
 
198 
 
 to provide himself with proper clothing 1 and com- 
 fortable lodging, the evil effects of the drug- are not 
 so speedily seen as in the case of his poorer brother, 
 who, to obtain the means of indulging- the vicious 
 habit, is obliged to stint himself in wholesome food 
 and to go badly provided as to lodging and clothes ; 
 but even in the more comfortable class, the evil day 
 is only put off. At length, under the use of opium, 
 the s} 7 stem gives way ; the bowels become torpid ; 
 the liver and kidneys congested ; the circulation of 
 the blood sluggish, and the brain unfitted for the 
 healthy performance of its functions; torpor of mind 
 and body becomes established and goes on increasing-, 
 till dropsy or some other disease comes to close the 
 
 scene." 
 
 " The offspring- of such a race is a degenerate one, 
 weak and sickly." 
 
 " It is manifest/' wrote Sir John Peter Grant 
 late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal regarding this 
 rich Province, on the 20th January 1860, "that 
 the great want is a sufficiency of labour for the 
 proper cultivation of land already obtained for, and 
 in part planted with Tea, and for the proper gather- 
 ing and manufacture of the leaves. This is work in 
 which the men, women and grown children of a 
 whole family can be employed ; and it is therefore 
 most favourable for the importation of labour at a 
 moderate charge, and the fixing of a new labouring 
 population in the neighbourhood of the Tea planta- 
 tions. It is also found that the profit of Tea cultiva- 
 
199 
 
 tion is such as richly to repay an adequate expenditure 
 in increasing- it. This state of things indicates the 
 propriety of high wages ; and the generally scanty 
 population of Assam, its remote position, and its 
 difficulty of access for poor people from the populous 
 parts of India, indicate the expediency of having 
 resort to a systematic course of proceeding in the 
 importation of labour from other parts of India. 
 But it is not for Government but for those immedi- 
 ately interested in the Tea plantations of Assam, to 
 apply themselves to this as to other requirements of 
 their position. If they do so, they may be sure 
 that whatever Government can legitimately do to 
 facilitate their endeavours, will be readily done." 
 
 Following out the abstract principle argument, 
 and again ignoring the practical fact that the normal 
 rates of wages in many countries is three or four 
 times greater than in India, the planters were in- 
 formed that the Sugar planters of Mauritius found 
 it to their advantage to pay 1 a month to Indian 
 labourers, and were told that if they would establish 
 an organized system of immigration and pay equal 
 or less wages, the coolies would doubtless elect for 
 Tea in preference to Sugar. 
 
 Time out of mind did the Tea planters, to the best 
 of their ability, give general ideas of their wants, 
 and while imploring assistance, at the same time 
 express their perfect willingness to pay any rates 
 short of such exorbitant rates as would bouleverse 
 the labour market of the whole province, provided 
 
200 
 
 Government would simply establish an immigration 
 agency, and afford reasonable protection to their 
 interests. 
 
 The results of this inaction on the part of the 
 Government of Bengal, were very lamentable. 
 Situated in a country in which it is notorious that 
 no important operation, if new, can be undertaken 
 with the remotest chance of success, without Go- 
 vernment supervision and support, the planters, thus 
 abandoned, were driven back on their own resources ; 
 and, reduced to the utmost straits to save their 
 property from ruin, they adopted such means of 
 aiding' themselves, as were within their reach. Plan- 
 tations were rapidly progressing. The labour of 
 the province was wholly inadequate to the increased 
 demand. Powerful companies, and those planters 
 who had capital sufficient, endeavoured to establish 
 independent agencies for immigration. But the 
 rules rendering all grants liable to confiscation by 
 the Government for thirty years, prohibited the 
 possibility of obtaining any advance of money on 
 the security of the cultivation, and the bulk of the 
 planters being men of small means and unequal to 
 operations on a large scale, they were compelled to 
 witness the plants, in which they had invested their 
 little all, choked with rank jungle, or their precious 
 leaves harden and spoil on the bushes before their 
 eyes. The cultivation, thus, was seriously checked ; 
 and a struggle arose for the labour that was avail- 
 able, The course pointed out by the Lieutenant- 
 
201 
 
 Governor was partially adopted. Inducements, 
 higher wages, were offered by those planters who 
 were reduced to the greatest straits. The temptation 
 had its effect. Coolies under engagements for a term 
 of years, broke their contracts and deserted in bodies. 
 The planter who to-day hugged himself in the belief 
 that the next day he should pluck a full crop of leaves, 
 awoke on the morrow to find half his Coolies gone. 
 Ill-feeling- naturally arose. Every planter looked 
 upon his neighbour with suspicion and distrust. 
 True, the planter could prosecute each Coolie for 
 breach of contract and imprison him for fifteen days ; 
 but what could he gain? an infinity of trouble, and 
 the loss of his time and more money. 
 
 At this juncture, the Government of Bengal turned 
 its attention to the advancement of Public Works. 
 Here was a chance for the Province. Paternal by 
 tradition, and wise in the wants of the Province 
 by experience, the Government would surely import 
 labour in large quantities for the prosecution of the 
 roads, bridges, and other works it proposed to take 
 in hand. It would, possibly, now adopt a sug- 
 gestion which so often came up from Assam, viz. to 
 employ Jail labour on useful Public Works. Vain 
 hope ! Labour was not imported ; and to employ 
 convicts, it was objected, would make Assam a 
 penal province. The Public Works Department 
 backed by the whole power of the Government, and 
 with its unlimited capital, entered the labour market 
 of the province already strained to the utmost limit. 
 
202 
 
 Planters remonstrated. Their remonstrances were 
 considered unreasonable. They had long 1 asked for 
 roads and bridg-es. Funds were now available for 
 the purpose. The works must be carried on. 
 Double treble Jixed rates of wages were offered 
 and accepted. The planters in despair, urg-ed that 
 of their wants, labour was the most pressing-, and 
 prayed for the discontinuance of the Works. 
 
 Such was the situation in Assam and Cachar in 
 1861 and 1862. It was certainly not satisfactory. 
 But a far more painful feature of the case remains to 
 be noticed. It will be recollected that the planters 
 had expressed their perfect willing-ness to pay the 
 expenses of a proper immigration ag-ency ; but stated 
 their inability to set on foot the necessary machinery 
 of an org-anized system. And to any person ac- 
 quainted with the circumstances of the cultivation ; 
 the attempts of the more powerful Tea Companies 
 to maintain a monopoly ; the rival interests and 
 extreme jealousy of all eng-ag-ed in tea operations ; 
 and the consequent impossibility of securing- any 
 thing- like co-operation, that such was in reality 
 the case, must have been obvious. But sound prin- 
 ciples as understood in Beng-al, must be allowed 
 room for unrestricted freedom, it being- apparently 
 entirely overlooked, that the action of the Govern- 
 ment was required more for the protection of the 
 coolie, than the assistance of the planter. In other 
 words nothing was done and behold the result. 
 Coolies were contracted for by private parties, as 
 
203 
 
 so many sheep or bullocks, the Contractors receiving- 
 a certain sum for those who arrived in the district, 
 and for those who died en route, but none for deser- 
 ters. To those who have been in India, and know 
 what an Indian Contractor is, an explanation of 
 his modus operandi is unnecessary. They know 
 that, as a rule, he is unscrupulous, and that as long- 
 as he puts money in his purse, whether it be human 
 being-s or the beasts of the field he has to deal with, 
 the amount of dishonesty or cruelty he perpetrates, 
 will not sit heavy on his conscience. Nor was it 
 otherwise in this instance. False representation, 
 corruption, oppression of every and the worst de- 
 scription, were used to swell the number of the Con- 
 tractors' recruits. The old and decrepid, the young- 
 and tender, the halt, the maimed, and the blind, 
 nay even the infected, the diseased, and the dying, 
 were pressed into the service of these most degraded 
 of crimps. There was no Government Ag-ent, no 
 Medical Examiner. On arriving" at the depots, 
 these unfortunate creatures were located in places, 
 the pestilential vapours of which, generated by the 
 ordure and filth with which they were filled, were 
 deadly to human life. Many, in these cess-pools, 
 -contracted the g'erms of distemper and disease, and 
 in this state were placed in gangs on board boats to 
 be sent to their final destination.* Here, crowded 
 
 * It is but just to add, thafc these condemnatory remarks 
 apply only to native contractors, the official report speaking in 
 the highest terms of commendation of Mr. Banneritz's Agency. 
 
204 
 
 and huddled together, and compelled to live in a 
 state of uncleanness revolting- to human nature, as 
 might be expected, Cholera and other malignant 
 diseases broke out with fearful effect. In some 
 instances ten per cent, of these wretched victims 
 were carried off in as many days. In others the 
 mortality reached to forty or Jifty per cent., in a 
 three weeks' voyage. With some truth may it be 
 said that the horrors of the slave trade pale before 
 the horrors of the coolie trade of Assam and Cachar 
 in the years 1861-62. Yet is the worst not yet 
 told. The dead feel no pains ; let us follow the 
 living. Arrived at their destination, many urged 
 that they were unequal to field labour, that they had 
 been engaged as artizans, menial servants, nay even 
 as priests of temples, at treble the rate of wages they 
 were offered. But the planters had contracted for 
 coolies, had paid for them, as such they had 
 signed contracts to serve as such for three or five 
 years they were able bodied, they must work. 
 But what of the weak, the halt, the maimed, and 
 the blind ? Kejected by the planters as useless, they 
 were turned adrift, to find their way, penniless, hun- 
 dreds of miles to their village homes, or, more 
 probably, to starve and to die ! The imagination of 
 the English reader will recoil with horror from such 
 a picture as this possibly reject it as purely imagi- 
 nary or untrue, yet nothing has been stated that 
 official documents have not recorded, and in India 
 it is a rule that in such cases, the worst is never 
 
205 
 
 told. For the greater satisfaction of the credulous, 
 however, I add the following 1 extract from the An- 
 nual Report on the Administration of the Bengal 
 Presidency for the years 1861-62. 
 
 EMTGBATION OF COOLIES TO ASSAM AND CACHAB. 
 
 " The system under which the Tea plantations of 
 Assam and Cachar are supplied with labourers from 
 Bengal has attracted the serious attention of Gov- 
 ernment during the year. It was reported that in 
 almost every shipment of labourers from Calcutta, a 
 fearful amount of mortality occurred from Cholera 
 and other diseases during the journey. In one case 
 the mortality was said to have reached even to 50 
 per cent. From enquiries which were made, 
 there seemed to be too much reason to believe that 
 this fearful mortality was attributable chiefly to 
 great want of foresight and care in the despatch of 
 labourers, especially in the River Steamers. A 
 Committee of gentlemen of much experience in the 
 working of the Emigration Department was accord- 
 ingly appointed to report upon the arrangements in 
 force for importing labour into Assam. The opinion 
 at which they arrived, after careful enquiry, was, 
 that Coolies were shipped in large batches without 
 any arrangement to secure order and cleanliness ; 
 that uncooked food was issued without cooks to pre- 
 pare it, that the Medical charge of the Coolies in 
 many cases was left to ignorant Chuppr assies, who 
 were entrusted with small supplies of Medicine with 
 the uses of which they were of course as ignorant 
 
206 
 
 as the men to whom they administered it : in other 
 cases unqualified Medical Officers were sent in 
 charge j labourers were embarked in some instances 
 almost in a dying state ; over-crowded Flats were 
 lashed to Steamers day and night, 'and the Coolies 
 on board were thus deprived of their only chance of 
 free ventilation. The Committee found that there 
 was no uniformity of system in the despatch and 
 recruitment of Coolies; labourers, in most cases, 
 were provided by Native Contractors at so much per 
 head ; practically the supply of labourers was, they 
 found, an ordinary commercial transaction between a 
 Native Contractor and the Planter, f all parties 
 considering their duty and responsibility discharged 
 when the living are landed, and the cost of the dead 
 adjusted' There appeared to be no specific engage- 
 ment on starting between employer and labourer, 
 a state of things which opens a road to an immense 
 amount of false statement and exaggeration on the 
 part of the Native Eecruiters. They found an en- 
 tire absence of any efficient Medical inspection of 
 Coolies before shipment, and even when the men 
 were inspected by the Planter's Agents, feeble and 
 sickly persons were, it was believed, substituted for 
 the healthy men accepted and passed, persons at the 
 point of death having been known to be sent on board. 
 There was no inspection of the boats employed. The 
 depot of a Native Contractor is thus described by 
 the Committee. ' We found little trace of any 
 habitation, but a square of ground was pointed out 
 
207 
 
 to us, in the neighbourhood of Fenwick's Bazaar, as 
 Thakoor Lalla's depot ; and a hut, a few feet square, 
 only now in course of completion, was said to be the 
 sole accommodation. This square resembled rather 
 the half-dried bed of a small tank, greatly defiled by 
 the surrounding people, than anything else that we 
 can compare it with. A spot more repulsive to 
 sight and smell we could not imagine ; and having 
 assured ourselves beyond all doubt that the Con- 
 tractor's labourers did really congregate here, we felt 
 no surprise at the stories which we heard of the 
 numbers that yearly fall victims to disease in his 
 hands. We found no person in this place who would 
 acknowledge any connection with Thakoor Lalla, 
 nor any sort of preparation for the reception of hu- 
 man beings, except the hut above mentioned ; and 
 we were forced to conclude that the proprietor, hav- 
 ing heard of our intended visit, had removed all that 
 belonged to his depot from fear of more damaging 
 disclosures/ The supply of women is stated to be 
 out of all proportion to the supply of men, the rate 
 being only 5 to 15 per cent. The smallness of this 
 proportion is considered by the Planters to be the 
 principal cause of the very numerous desertions 
 which take place during the river passage and after 
 arrival." 
 
 " Ignorance, neglect, and misconduct worse than 
 either, on the part of those intrusted with the care 
 of immigrating bands of coolies/' again says the 
 Committee report, " have been brought to light in the 
 
208 
 
 course of our enquiry, and of these, the legitimate 
 results are disease and death." 
 
 But it is unnecessary to quote further from official 
 documents. The above extracts, though they tell 
 but half the sad tale, contain sufficient to show that 
 something- was very rotten in the state of Bengal ; 
 and it will naturally be asked who was to blame ? 
 Not the Contractors, surely, for if men could be 
 allowed the free and uncontrolled exercise of their 
 will, there would be no need of Laws. Even Manu 
 quaintly, but truly, tells us that " if a King- were 
 not to punish the guilty, the stronger mould roast the 
 weaker , likefah on a spit." Nor yet the planters, 
 for having 1 to pay for the dead as well as the living 
 freight, besides the unfortunate coolies, they were the 
 greatest and only sufferers. Ag-ain, it has been 
 shown that they not only warned the Government of 
 their utter inability to make efficient arrangements : 
 but declared their perfect willing-ness to pay all 
 expenses. I have no desire to fix blame on any 
 individual ; but I do desire to point out what very 
 serious mischief what extreme cruelty may possibly 
 result from the barren discussion of ' sound principles/ 
 when the urg-ent necessities of a crisis require that 
 men should be up and doing, not what a profound 
 knowledge of principles indicates to be the e correct 
 thing* j but what c common sense ? dictates that the 
 immediate exig-encies of the case requires, and 
 consequently what absolute necessity exists, for the 
 Supreme Authority in India, exercising- such vigilant 
 
209 
 
 control as will prevent the best interests of mighty 
 provinces being ruined and the people from being- 
 cruelly oppressed. Centralization may certainly be 
 an unmitigated evil; but centralization, if it insures 
 g'ood or better Government, can only be an unmixed 
 good. 
 
 If we examine this case carefully, it is not diffi- 
 cult to see that the evils commented on, originated 
 in a complete misunderstanding of the situation ; 
 and the application of a policy not only unsuited to 
 the country, but wholly inapplicable to the circum- 
 stances of the case. And if proof be wanting that 
 such is the truth, clearer could not well be obtained 
 than from the fact that after two years of inaction, 
 the report of the Committee appointed to investigate 
 the matter, did nothing more than expose to the full 
 glare of light the frightful nature and extent of the 
 sores that had been allowed to fester under the very 
 nose of the Government,* and reiterate and confirm 
 the statement of the planters, made three years 
 before, that any system of immigration " to be suc- 
 cessful would require to be conducted under the 
 auspices of Government/' 
 
 The question was treated by the Government of 
 Bengal, from the outset, as one of labour and capital, \ ^ 
 instead of one of Colonization, into which the rela- 
 tion of these elements, from the Government point of 
 
 *' The depot of Thakoor Lalla, alluded to in the administration 
 Report of Bengal, is situated within a few hundred yards of the 
 Council Chamber. 
 
210 
 
 view, did not enter at all. It is the more singular 
 that this error should have been committed ; because 
 it would seem that the Government of Bengal was 
 fully alive to the circumstances of the province in 
 January 1860 ; and in the extract from the published 
 correspondence given above, the position is so very 
 clearly described as similar to that in which even 
 antiquated economists admit that the magnitude of 
 the interests to the nation are so great, and the con- 
 sequences resulting to society and posterity from the 
 errors, misconduct, or incapacity of individuals, may 
 be so serious, that interference is necessary, that it 
 is difficult to reconcile the opinion, that " it is not for 
 Government but for those interested in the tea plan- 
 tations of Assam, to apply themselves to this, as to 
 other requirements of their position," not merely 
 with the pledged faith of Her Majesty's Government 
 to encourage and assist those who relieve it of the 
 duty of developing the resources of the Country, but 
 with an acquaintance with the true functions of Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 There are many parts of the world in which large 
 and rich countries are without inhabitants many 
 in which, though populated, there is no form of Go- 
 vernment. The now tolerably well understood law 
 of population, and the less defined though equally 
 recognized principle of progressive development, ever 
 impelling man in a forward direction, are gradually 
 evolving order from confusion, and as steadily ful- 
 filling the divine ordinance : " Be fruitful and mul- 
 
211 
 
 tipty replenish the Earth and subdue it." Here 
 are fields in which consumers may also become pro- 
 ducers j but is this course followed ? On the con- 
 trary, we find the secret of colonization to lie in an 
 essentially opposite principle, and that unless shoots 
 from the parent stock take root and flourish in the 
 new soil, in their turn contributing as consumers 
 and producers for the mother country, the object of 
 the Divine law is not fulfilled the wealth of the 
 world is not proportionately increased. It has been 
 the knowledge of this simple principle, that has 
 made England's colonies her glory ; and placed her 
 at the head of the commercial nations of the world. 
 It has been the ignorance of this simple principle, 
 that, with population congested in many places, 
 has left whole provinces in India howling wilder- 
 nesses which might be smiling gardens, and thus 
 assisted in maintaining a stagnation antagonistic 
 to all progress. " The fixing of a new labouring 
 population " in those remote and isolated provinces 
 of India, which, though rich and productive, have 
 by the visitation of God or the inroads of savage 
 man, been wholly, or in part, denuded of inhabi- 
 tants, is not the duty of growers of tea, or coffee, or 
 cotton, or indigo, or other things which England 
 may demand, or any other individuals who come 
 with their capital and energy into the country to 
 aid the Government in developing its resources. 
 The question of colonization involves perhaps the 
 highest and best interests of civilization, and is pre- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 eminently the business of Government :Jirst, be- 
 cause to be carried out on a scale commensurate 
 with even moderate success, except in peculiar cir- 
 cumstances, it can be undertaken only by a body as 
 powerful and wealthy as a Government ; secondly, 
 because to insure those beneficial results to the na- 
 tion and posterity which should flow from the remo- 
 val of population from the over-populous regions of 
 the world to wastes, it must be conducted under 
 such rules and regulations as wise and experienced 
 statesmen alone are competent to frame, and a Go- 
 vernment is able to enforce ; thirdly, because it is 
 Government alone that possesses the power to bestow 
 that for which people in number migrate land ; 
 fourthly, because the benefit derived from such a 
 measure by the Country and the Community or 
 State, is infinitely greater than that derived by in- 
 dividuals ; fifthly, because colonization, when under- 
 taken under proper rules and regulations by a Go- 
 vernment, can not only be made self- supporting-, but 
 eminently remunerative, whereas if undertaken by 
 individuals, it must entail ruinous loss ; sixthly, be- 
 cause independent of all financial considerations, it 
 is the sacred duty of a Government to aid in the 
 distribution of the population which it has pleased 
 God to commit to its care, in such a manner as will 
 best conduce to the prosperity, the welfare, and the 
 happiness of all. 
 
 It is a specious argument to advance, that those 
 who are engaged in a cultivation, the return to the 
 
213 
 
 cost of production of which is very large, are the 
 proper people, and can well afford, to provide for all 
 the necessities of their position. But the class of 
 people who emigrate from any country, except as 
 before mentioned under the pressure of peculiar cir- 
 cumstances are the poor. In the outset at least, 
 all their expenses must he defrayed, and howsoever 
 lucrative the business, trade, or cultivation for which 
 their labour may be required, should these expenses 
 or advances be defrayed by producers or capitalists 
 they must be given some security that they will re- 
 cover their advances, or at least that they shall be 
 the people who will reap the benefit of their outlay. 
 Hence the necessity for a Contract law. But here 
 ag-ain we are met by a greater difficulty, for how- 
 ever string-ent may be the laws framed, no really 
 good security can ever be given to capitalists, living 
 in a free country, that after having" paid all the ex- 
 penses of importing- labour, their labourers will con- 
 tinue to work for them. And this is obvious, be- 
 cause the wages of labour, like the prices of all thing's, 
 are regulated not by contracts, but by the circum- 
 stances of markets. The plan of contracts for labour 
 in like cases, has been tried over and over ag-ain, and 
 in every instance and latest in the province of As- 
 sam it has been found, as above shown, to be 
 wholly inoperative, for this very simple reason, 
 that the trouble, the delay and expense, of enforcing 1 
 labour contracts, has always far exceeded the g*ain to 
 be anticipated from a successful civil suit. From 
 
214 
 
 the moment a Contract system, such as that con- 
 templated by the bill lately introduced by the Indian 
 Legislature, but which the Secretary of State vetoed, 
 is made law, the free labourer is reduced to a state of 
 bondage ; and such complications are certain to arise 
 where legislators address themselves to surface sores, 
 instead of to the deep-seated disease of which they 
 are but the offspring-. 
 
 The most approved plan that which has been 
 attended with so much success in Australia and 
 New Zealand, is that called the Wakefield system, 
 in which the sale proceeds of unoccupied land are 
 formed into a fund to defray partially, or in full, the 
 expenses of emigration. But this excellent system, 
 by which it seems possible to create a sympathy, as 
 it were, between the surplus of one country and the 
 deficiency of another, and thus maintain a conti- 
 nuous and ever increasing stream of the overflow of 
 population to those places where there is a super- 
 abundance of land ready to absorb it, would seem to 
 have been unknown, or altogether set aside in Ben- 
 gal. It is singularly to be regretted that this very 
 serious question, involving as it does considerations 
 of the highest national importance, was not, from 
 the commencement, treated philosophically : and 
 taking into account the great increase to our know- 
 ledge of the true principles of colonization within 
 the last quarter of a century, it seems almost incom- 
 prehensible, that, with such very willing helps as 
 the tea planters of Assam and Cachar, no attempt 
 
215 
 
 whatever should have been made to take advantage 
 of the opportunity to put them into practice. 
 
 But it would answer no useful purpose to pursue 
 inquiries after the day for them has gone by. The 
 Planters have suffered ; the coolies have died ; a 
 dynasty has passed away ; another has succeeded. 
 
 There is yet, however, a phase of this case, which 
 viewed from an Imperial point, is perhaps of greater 
 importance than that yet noticed. I have already 
 explained the condition of India to be that of a 
 mighty peninsula, larger than England, France 
 Spain, and Germany put together, having a mode- 
 rate population, but so unequally distributed as to 
 be congested in some places, while others are waste 
 and unoccupied. The Indian question which has 
 occupied the greatest attention in England for the 
 last few years, has been the reclamation of these 
 wastes, and the Indian Government and Her 
 Majesty's Ministers have declared themselves to be 
 so deeply interested in the result, as to be prepared 
 to make great sacrifices to accomplish it. Now for 
 the attainment of this much desired end, two things 
 are vitally necessary. Population and Capital ; but 
 primarily population. In these two then consists 
 the real wealth of India ; and of the two population 
 is the most valuable, for without labour, in this mat- 
 ter, Capital is as it were locked up and useless. 
 Now it was known that Capital in India is scarce. 
 Government, therefore, has used its best endeavours 
 to induce Englishmen to bring this desideratum into 
 
216 
 
 the country, and in the Tea Districts of Lower 
 Bengal, its exertions have been attended with con- 
 siderable success. Regarding population there has 
 been much misconception in England. But it has 
 been shown that, in proportion to the area, it is very 
 much below the average of populous European 
 countries. Capital then being* secured, the point it 
 appears to me, to which the most serious attention 
 should have been directed, was the leading of the 
 overflow of those districts in which population is 
 excessive, into those for the reclamation of which 
 their labour was required. But this point does not 
 seem to have been considered. Advertisements for 
 years have filled the official Gazettes informing the 
 public that Government was prepared to give away 
 land for nothing, or next to nothing; and some 
 astonishment, I believe, has been felt that no one 
 has come forward to take it. As well, in my humble 
 opinion, might a proclamation be issued informing 
 hungry Highlanders that breeches were to be had in 
 the Sandwich Islands for sixpence a pair, and that 
 all who chose to go there might buy them and wear 
 them. It is notorious that the peasant-proprietors 
 of Hindostan proper are groaning under an iniqui- 
 tous system of advances, because they have not the 
 means of cultivating the little holdings around their 
 \ own homesteads, and to expect those who are poorer 
 still to find means to migrate, and then funds for 
 a year's support to enable them to settle, does not 
 appear much wiser. But it is argued that no such 
 
217 
 
 expectation is entertained that it is the business of 
 capitalists and speculators to provide means for 
 these wants, as well as for all others of their posi- 
 tion. Now, if out of deference to the argument, we 
 admit the correctness of this view, and consider the 
 question as one simply of labour and capital, it can- 
 not be denied that the admitted object of Govern- 
 ment being to reclaim these wastes, it is a part of 
 its business to co-operate, at least, in transporting 
 labour to where capital, on its invitation, has been 
 accumulated for the purpose, but which, for the 
 want of it, is unemployed. Again, since it has 
 been shown that the labour of the whole of India, 
 as compared with its area, is short of the average of 
 European countries, that it would be politic to 
 endeavour to prevent the labour that is wanting in 
 India, being diverted to other countries, will I think 
 be conceded. In this view, then, were the Indian 
 Legislature to pass an Act prohibiting foreign emi- 
 gration, it would only be following a course that 
 would doubtless be adopted by most European 
 Governments under similar circumstances. But 
 such is not necessary here. Since the passing of 
 the Act of 1839, "the general law has recognized 
 it as a penal offence to contract with any native of 
 India for labour in a colony beyond Seas, or to aid 
 any native of India in emigrating for employment 
 as a labourer/ 7 And since the expenditure sanc- 
 tioned for Public Works this year reaches the enor- 
 mous sum of 12,000,000, and the Secretary of 
 
218 
 
 State has admitted that the whole of this amount 
 cannot be laid out, because labour is not forth- 
 coming- for the purpose, the present would not seem 
 to be the most favourable time for initiating a change 
 of this policy. Those, therefore, who have the 
 interest of India at heart, cannot but observe with 
 deep concern the recurrence of treaties with foreign 
 powers entered into by Her Majesty's Government, 
 to deprive India of that which she cannot spare of 
 that the want of which, it is now admitted, retards 
 her own progress. The philanthropic policy of the 
 British Government in regard to the Slave Trade, 
 in the steady pursuance of which England still 
 spends millions of money^ must be the admiration of 
 the World, for all ages to come. But it is question- 
 able how far it will be considered admissible, 
 or how far it is the intention of Her Majesty's 
 Ministers to sacrifice the best interests of India to 
 a question of British policy, after it has been 
 acknowledged that the labouring population is below 
 the wants of the Country itself. 
 
 It is argued by some persons in this Country, 
 that any interference with these treaties would be 
 objectionable as opposed to the full freedom which 
 ought to be given to every man living* under 
 British Rule, to carry his labour to the best market. 
 But this idea seems to have originated rather in 
 a misconception of the true principle involved, and 
 a fear of being wrecked among the rocks and shal- 
 lows of protection, than from any desire to support 
 
219 
 
 a policy that must prove detrimental to the interests 
 of the Country. As long-, however, as protection is 
 the recognised policy of Government in its Home 
 Department, and these treaties require special Acts 
 to over ride the Law of the Land, such arguments 
 in relation to treaties with foreign powers, must 
 appear a little whimsical. To concede to the natives 
 of India, the freedom of carrying their labour to 
 any market they please in one thing, and to con- 
 cede to foreign powers the right to send agents into 
 your territories to entice away the labour which 
 your own country requires for reclaiming culturable 
 waste land, making railways, building barracks, and 
 other public works, is quite another. The one is a 
 right the natives enjoy, or ought to enjoy, in virtue 
 of their own subjection to British rule. The other 
 is a right I have yet to learn that any nation on the 
 face of the globe has thought proper to concede to 
 foreigners. The one right involves a principle which 
 is an important element of the British Constitution. 
 The other a principle which, if carried to the extreme 
 limit, would place all poor countries at the mercy of 
 the richpossibly depopulate many. 
 
 I have repeatedly in the course of this review had 
 occasion to dwell on the fact that the natives of India 
 are in a state of infancy, and consequently in need 
 of protection, not in the sense in which that term 
 is opposed to free trade ; but in the sense in which 
 the Law applies it to persons under age. In the 
 present condition of things, however strict emigra- 
 
220 
 
 tion Rules and Regulations may be framed, it is 
 wholly impossible for Government to provide against 
 poor people being enticed from their homes under 
 delusions, the falsity of which cannot be made appa- 
 rent until the victims are beyond seas, and the reach 
 of help. I have no hesitation in saying that many 
 if not all the evils above commented on in regard to 
 Coolie immigration to Assam, exist, though possibly 
 in a milder form, in the present system of emigration 
 to British and foreign colonies. The Government 
 of India has no information of the emigrants, after 
 they leave the shores of India, neither en route to 
 their destination, nor when they reach it ; and there 
 is too much reason to believe that, in some instances, 
 the mortality on the voyage is excessive, and that 
 the climate, and the work the Coolies are put to, 
 causes a very large proportion to be c expended/* 
 In these circumstances, I have very grave doubts 
 how far, from a moral point of view, the British 
 Government is justified in permitting its subjects to 
 be removed from under the aegis of its protection, 
 until such times as they are of full age, without some 
 better guarantees than at present seem to exist, that 
 in doing* so it is not violating the very principle it 
 has sacrificed so much to uphold. The Government 
 
 * The climate of the French Colony of He-union is considered 
 fatal to Africans, and Dr. Mouat, an advocate for emigration 
 both to He-union and Mauritius, thinks, that if the mortuary 
 returns are correct, the climate is not much more adapted for 
 Asiatics than for Africans. He states the number necessary 
 to supply the full wants of the Island at 50,000. 
 
221 
 
 of India in this matter is helpless. The Government 
 of Great Britain concludes a treaty, and forthwith 
 the Governor- General is ordered to pass an Act to 
 carry out its provisions. Such an Act has lately 
 been passed by the Legislative Council of the Go- 
 vernor-General, to legalize the emigration of native 
 labour to the Danish Colony of St. Croix ; and it is 
 to be hoped that the very interesting debate on that 
 measure, will attract such attention in England, as 
 will at once cause an end to be put to the conclusion 
 of treaties with foreign powers to deprive India of 
 her most precious wealth. 
 
 I conceive India to be under the deepest obliga- 
 tions to my esteemed friend the Hon'ble. Mr. Ellis, 
 the Member of Council for Madras, for the able, 
 lucid, and fearless manner in which he laid this 
 matter in all its bearings before the Legislative 
 Council ; " In reality/ 7 said Mr. Ellis, "the future 
 progress of India, speaking not of particular portions 
 of the country, but, of the Empire generally, ran a 
 serious risk of being interrupted and delayed, by the 
 want of a sufficient population. This deficiency of 
 labour was likely to retard an object in which His 
 Lordship's predecessor in the Government of this 
 country, and the English public generally, had 
 shown so great an interest, the reclaiming of the 
 vast tracts of jungle and waste land, and the appli- 
 cation of the soil of English capital under the super- 
 intendence . of English settlers. When he reflected 
 upon the vast extent of Railways still remaining 
 
222 
 
 incomplete ; the tramways, feeders, and roads re- 
 quired to bring- the great lines of Railway into 
 profitable operation ; and the vast works of irrigation 
 which were being 1 undertaken with the object of 
 fertilizing' and enriching 1 the country; when they 
 knew that all these great enterprises were not looming 
 in the distance, but were already in progress, he (Mr. 
 Ellis) confessed that he thought they should view 
 any increase in the number of emigrants, and any 
 measures which, like the present Bill, have a tendency 
 to encourage emigration, as matters of regret, and 
 as a serious evil." 
 
 It is extremely refreshing to find a tone so healthy 
 pervading the debates of a Council the members of 
 which at one time it was thought were doomed to 
 be dummies. From such constitutional proceedings 
 as this debate records, evincing as they do respect 
 for the wishes of the Supreme Authority, with an 
 honourable and conscientious resolve faithfully to 
 discharge the sacred trust with which members are 
 invested, the public can augur nothing but the 
 strengthening of the power of the Executive, and the 
 welfare of the country. It will remain for Her 
 Majesty's Government to decide the points which 
 seem to be disputed in India viz., whether the 
 direction of future legislation in regard to the popu- 
 lation of India, is to be for the benefit of India 
 herself, or for the benefit of British and foreign 
 Colonies and whether the existing anomaly shall 
 continue, of the Indian labourer being* prohibited by 
 
223 
 
 law from the freedom of carrying* his labour where 
 he pleases, and foreign agents being* permitted to 
 come and lure him to a distant land byond Seas, 
 when he might obtain all that he requires in his own 
 country, within reasonable distance of his home, and 
 under the protective laws of his own Government. 
 If still anxious to reclaim the great wastes of India, 
 it will be for both Governments, in concert, to con- 
 sider what arrangements, if any, can be made that 
 will facilitate the removal of a labouring population 
 from over-crowded districts to those where European 
 Capitalists are ready to employ it. And when we 
 reflect that it has been satisfactorily established, 
 that some of those districts which are now unpopu- 
 lated, are admirably adapted for the growth of the 
 best descriptions of cotton, the want of which has 
 reduced so many huudred thousands, if not millions 
 of our own countrymen, to a state bordering on 
 starvation, the question is one that ought to have 
 special interest for the people of England. 
 
 The physical obstacles in the way of establish- 
 ing a communication between the North Eastern 
 Frontier of India, and the territories of the King 
 of Burmah, are doubtless very great ; but if the 
 Burmese could march an army into the province, 
 devastate it, and drive before them into Burmah 
 30,000 captives, with their cattle and household 
 goods, to the British Government these obstacles can- 
 not be insurmountable. Now, moreover, since by 
 the late commercial treaty, political difficulties are 
 
224 
 
 in some degree removed, the hostility of the Sing-- 
 phoos and other Hill tribes, can hardly be considered a 
 valid ground for objecting- to attempt this hig-hly 
 important measure. Our Burmese territories almost 
 border the most populous country in the whole 
 World ; a country in which notwithstanding an 
 unequal struggle has long 1 been maintained between 
 the laws of Man, and the laws of Nature, to restrain 
 the over-flow of population from streaming- out of 
 it the people are daily seeking- new outlets for 
 their energy and industry. In Peg-u, we have 
 28,000 square miles of uncultivated land, a great 
 portion of which has been pronounced to be equal 
 to any cotton land in India ; and these circumstances 
 to my mind, indicate that there are Acts left for the 
 Legislature of India to pass, that would tend more 
 to the advancement of the interests of both Eng-land 
 and this Country, than Acts to leg-alize the abstrac- 
 tion of India's labouring* population. Nor in hold- 
 ing- this opinion am I altog-ether sing-ular. Within 
 the last few months a proposition has come up from 
 the Chief Commissioner of British Burmah to sanc- 
 tion an expenditure of some 10,000, or 12,000 
 for the purpose of inaugurating- a system of immi- 
 gration from China. But it has not, I am sorry to say, 
 met with the approval of the Supreme Government. 
 It must be borne in mind, however, that the great 
 question of the development of India's wealth, has 
 not hitherto been fairly looked at from all points. 
 The actual relationship between the great elements 
 
226 
 
 of prosperity Land, Labour, and Capital has not 
 been accurately apprehended. Regarding- land there 
 could be no mistake. Vast tracts were there. 
 Capital, people were not quite so certain about. It 
 might be there but if so, it was locked up hoarded. 
 In the matter of population, however, there were no 
 doubts whatever. Every body firmly believed it to 
 be excessive. But it appears that on the attempt 
 being made to reclaim one, out of the many provinces 
 of this great peninsula in which large tracts are 
 waste, the failure was not in that element regarding 
 which people had fears Capital; but in that in 
 which people least expected it Population. This 
 now is known and admitted ; and it may be hoped that 
 with the light of this new knowledge, the question 
 will be differently viewed, and that if invitations be 
 still held out to English capitalists to bring or send 
 their money into India, some endeavour will be made 
 to aid. them in obtaining the means of making* use of 
 it. If not, capitalists will decline the offers made, 
 and the solution of the problem must be left to time 
 and circumstances.* 
 
 That it is the duty of a Government, with popula- 
 tion excessive in some parts, and large tracts of rich 
 land unpopulated in others, to take some measures 
 to encourage the transfer of the surplus population 
 
 * This result has unhappily now been brought about. The 
 Capitalists who had come into the Province to reclaim it, are 
 rapidly abandoning it, and the land they had reclaimed is 
 relapsing into jungle. January, 1867. 
 
226 
 
 to the surplus land, no reasonable being 1 will deny. 
 In older and richer countries, in which the people 
 are more active, intelligent, and enterprising than 
 the people of India, in short in self-governing- 
 countries, a Government has little more to do than 
 to advertise land, the poor people very soon find 
 their way to it. Here it is different. Advertise- 
 ments are so much waste paper. The people who 
 are wanting, cannot read or understand them. If 
 they could, they would not believe them. Or if they 
 did, they have not the means to avail themselves of 
 the advantages they hold out. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF THE ENORMOUS WEALTH OF INDIA, AND THE 
 ABSENCE OF CAPITAL AVAILABLE FOR WORKS 
 OF PUBLIC OR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. 
 
 IN treating- of the rates of interest for money pre- 
 vailing 1 in India, I have said sufficient to show that 
 the popular notion of the riches of the East is very 
 erroneous. When any commodity is to be obtained 
 in abundance, it is always cheap. Thus, though 
 we can conceive situations in which air and water, 
 would be worth more than gold and precious stones, 
 ordinarily they have no value in exchange. If, 
 therefore, money in India, as has been shown, is 
 dear, it is a sure indication that it is scarce. Much 
 may be indeed is hoarded; but taking- into con- 
 sideration the extent, and the natural and pro- 
 ductive richness of the country, the amount of the 
 precious metals withdrawn from circulation is not 
 such as to vitiate any g-eneral conclusions, drawn 
 from circumstances as we find them existing- around 
 us. 
 
 We have no means of making- even an approxi- 
 mate estimate of the Capital of the whole country, 
 nor yet of ascertaining-, with any approach to accur- 
 acy, the condition of any section of the upper classes 
 of the people. We must, therefore, rest content with 
 generalities, which however, will fully suffice for the 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 purpose. From the days of the Phoenicians, the 
 wealth of India has been proverbial. Nor can there 
 be any doubt that India is an extremely rich coun- 
 try. From time immemorial, streams of gold, bro- 
 cades, precious stones, muslins, spices, fibres, dyes, 
 &c., &c., have been flowing- from India to Europe, 
 which have enriched the merchants of Venice, Genoa, 
 England, and those of other countries through whose 
 hands they passed. There could be no mistake about 
 these thing's. People saw them. Persons again who 
 came to India, beheld mighty Kings and Princes, 
 clothed in rich garments glittering with precious 
 stones, living in all the pomp and splendour of 
 Oriental state. All this indicated immense riches. 
 Yet the people were very poor. They had no Capi- 
 tal. The country was in short, at once, the richest, 
 and the people the poorest on the face of the Earth. 
 How shall we explain the paradox how reconcile 
 the existence of immense wealth, with the absence of 
 any Capital ? Nothing is easier. All Capital is the 
 result of saving. In India, one class excepted, 
 from the highest to the lowest, no one saves. All 
 spend often more than they can call their own. 
 The King* who bestows largesses with an open hand 
 and dies in debt, is lauded in prose and verse as a 
 noble and generous monarch. The King who de- 
 parts this life leaving a full Treasury, is satirized as 
 a mean spirited miser. And the voice of the Nation 
 oncurs in the verdicts of these poets laureate. The 
 oneclass alluded to are the Mahajan and Bunneea, 
 
229 
 
 or banker and grain dealer class, whose business it is 
 to supply the wants of others to live and grow fat 
 on the necessities of the remainder of the community. 
 For the rest in India, every one spends what he pro- 
 duces, or what is produced for him ; and as such a 
 state of thing-s is inconsistent with the existence of 
 Capital, that there is much wealth, but no Capital, 
 in India, is not at all surprising-. 
 
 But in the midst of so much wealth how is it 
 that the great body of the people are so miserably 
 poor ? This would seem to be more difficult of ex- 
 planation, but it is not so. In India the system on 
 which society is regulated is peculiar. There is a 
 despotism, an Oriental despotism about it, which 
 percolates through all ranks of society from the 
 highest downward, which is not readily understood 
 in Europe. King's prey upon the whole community, 
 the Governors of provinces prey upon the people of 
 the provinces over which they rule ; the great land- 
 holders prey upon the landlords ; and the landlords 
 prey upon the r}^ots. King's having- a larg-e number 
 of persons to prey upon, are rich ; and in their per^ 
 sons is represented the greatest portion of the sur- 
 plus wealth of the Nation. Governors, petty Rajahs, 
 Nawabs, great landlords, &c., for the same reason 
 are rich and well to do. But the unfortunate ryots, 
 preyed upon by every one, have no one on whom in 
 turn to prey, and are therefore very poor, so poor 
 that they are left nothing 1 beyond the bare means of 
 subsistence, nothing' even to pay the cost of culti- 
 
230 
 
 rating* their little farms. Hence the necessity for 
 the system of advances, against the iniquity of which 
 so much is said and written, by people who under- 
 stand very little about it. Nor do I allude solely to 
 English writers; but to many in India, whose know- 
 ledge while only surface deep, is often taken in Eng- 
 land for very much more than it is worth. The 
 system of advances, so much railed at in England 
 and India, is simply a necessity arising 1 out of the 
 extreme poverty of the people, and its only cure 
 lies in such a settlement of the land tenure, as en- 
 suring to the actual cultivators of the soil, a larger 
 share of the profits resulting* from their own indus- 
 try, will enable them, after providing" themselves 
 with the necessaries of life, to call their crops, at 
 least, their own. The sale of land in fee-simple to 
 ignorant and unenlightened landlords will not effect 
 this. Nor yet the redemption of the land revenue. 
 A perpetual settlement will be equally impotent to 
 accomplish the end. It has not accomplished it in 
 Bengal. On the contrary, the ryots are admitted 
 to be in an extremely depressed condition. Before 
 much benefit can result from any improvement in 
 the land tenure of the country, landlords must be 
 better educated, and cultivators more intelligent 
 than at present. The former must learn that the 
 ryots, as the source of their wealth, must be solicit- 
 ously cared for, and that some better and more pro- 
 fitable use may be made of their accumulated sav- 
 ings, than squandering them in personal luxuries, 
 
231 
 
 marriage ceremonies, and barbarous festivals. The 
 ryot too must understand, and be placed in a position 
 to prove, that his thews and sinews, are not merely 
 a means of maintaining 1 his existence ; but the means 
 of enabling- him to live in a certain degree of com- 
 fort, and to bring- up his children to industrious and 
 useful callings. Until this happy state of things is 
 brought about, India will be dependent, in a great 
 measure, for her advancement on English capital, 
 for at present, with all her riches with all her 
 productive wealth, India is so poor, that the whole 
 of her accumulated savings, as compared with her 
 population and immense extent of area, is but a 
 drop, as it were, in the Ocean of the Capital of the 
 World. 
 
 Formerly Governments in India were not allowed 
 to invest their savings in land ; but Lord Canning 
 and Sir Bartle Frere obtained a concession in favour 
 of civil officers beyond the limits of their own Presi- 
 dency; in favour of military men all over India. 
 Had the Government of India been unable to procure 
 a modification of the Secretary of State's first deci- 
 sion, the finer field for Tea, Chinchona, Silk, Hop 
 cultivation, Iron works, &c. &c., opened up in the 
 Himaylayan ranges, must have remained unoccupied 
 for many years ; for, it having been determined that 
 Government will not work these undertakings on its 
 own account to a profitable result, the information 
 required by English capitalists before they will in- 
 vest their money in speculations in the remote East, 
 
232 
 
 could not have been obtained. Natives, except the 
 class before alluded to, do not save ; and besides the 
 saving-s of the Government civil and military Ser- 
 vices, there is no Capital in the North Western 
 Provinces of India, available for investment in un- 
 dertaking's for the development of the resources of 
 the country. Lord Canning", when he advocated the 
 cause of the independence of the Services, in regard 
 to the employment of their private means, was pos- 
 sibly aware of this fact ; but in the official documents 
 I have seen on the subject, this point is not dwelt on. 
 When we consider, however, the peculiarity of our 
 position in India, it comes to be a matter of con- 
 siderable importance to take advantage of every 
 possible means to compensate for the drain on the 
 Capital of the country that it necessitates. The 
 Home charges now amount to no less a sum than 
 nine millions sterling", hard Eupees, which are 
 withdrawn from India, to be expended in England. 
 Last year, it is true, that this amount, or nearly so, 
 being' required for Railway expenditure, it was 
 simply transferred on paper j yet had it not been 
 required, an equal amount of Railway Capital must 
 have been sent into India. But taking- the annual 
 Home charges for salaries, pensions, payment of 
 troops, &c., at four millions sterling-, it is clear that 
 during' the current century, an amount of capital, 
 not less than 248,000,000, has been collected from 
 / the ryots of India, and spent in England. We have 
 to add, moreover, to this very large sum, the amount 
 
233 
 
 represented by the accumulated savings of all the 
 civil ; military, and other servants of Government, 
 the wealthy merchants, tradesmen, planters, barris- 
 ters and Englishmen of all grades, who come to 
 India to make money, not to spend in the country, 
 but to take out of it. The influx of capital thus ac- 
 quired and saved in India, has already had an ap- 
 preciable effect throughout Scotland. Tyburnia, or 
 the Asia Minor of London, shows outward and 
 visible signs of having benefited by India's capital. 
 The Cape of Good Hope, on the other hand, has se- 
 verely felt the withdrawal of the annual increase to 
 its wealth, by the alterations in the furlough regula- 
 tions, which, depriving the Indian services of the 
 privileges in regard to pay and service they enjoyed 
 when on leave in the Eastern Seas, induces them to 
 spend their leaves in Europe. We have no means 
 of obtaining even an approximate idea of the amount 
 annually withdrawn from India and spent in Great 
 Britain and other places by our migrating European 
 population. But, taking all things into considera- 
 tion, if we set down the whole amount. inclu-\ 
 ding the Home charges, for the present century at 
 300,000,000, we shall probably not very much 
 ( over estimate it. It may be argued that if English- 
 men had not come to India, much of this capital 
 never would have been created, and the trade returns 
 satisfactorily prove the truth of the argument. But 
 the question is not whether capital has, or has not 
 been created by the English in India ; but whether 
 
234 
 
 the wealth -of the nation has been proportionately 
 increased, whether the capital that has been cre- 
 ated, has gone to enrich the country and if it be 
 admitted that some of it has, it cannot be denied 
 that much of it has not. When therefore, it is ap- 
 parent that the circumstances of our position neces- 
 sitate so large a portion of what may legitimately be 
 called the capital of India, being spent in other 
 countries, it obviously becomes a question of some 
 moment, not only to encourage the introduction of 
 foreign capital into India ; but to take every legiti- 
 mate precaution to prevent native capital, that might 
 be retained in the country, from being taken out 
 of it. 
 
 I have mentioned above, that it is of the essence of 
 colonisation that emigrants take root in the new soil. 
 Now there are serious and insurmountable obstacles 
 against colonising India; yet something may be 
 done, and the first and most essential step in that 
 direction, is the granting permission to the European 
 employes of Government to acquire landed or real 
 property. The persons to whom we would most na- 
 urally look to settle in India, and from whose set- 
 tlement, India would undoubtedly derive the greatest 
 benefit, are those who, by long residence have ac- 
 quired a knowledge of the country, and an acquaint- 
 ance with the religions, laws, habits, and languages 
 of the people gentlemen of high standing, integrity, 
 and principle, who would treat the people well, and 
 to whom the people were accustomed to look up. 
 
235 
 
 Such certainly are the military and civil servants of 
 Government ; and these servants, and this country, 
 are under the greatest obligations to our late deeply 
 lamented Viceroy, for the consistency and zeal with 
 which he advocated the policy of allowing- the former 
 to acquire property in the soil. In regard to Military 
 Officers there seemed neither reason nor justice in 
 maintaining 1 a restriction of the kind, for after the 
 transfer of India to the Crown, Military Officers 
 serving 1 in India, should naturally preserve the pri- 
 vileges as British subjects they enjoy elsewhere. In 
 regard to Civil Officers too, there seemed some slight 
 inconsistency in the prohibition. All over the world, 
 it is especially land-holders, as those most deeply 
 interested in the maintenance of order, that Govern- 
 ments endeavour to enlist in the magistracy and 
 other similar departments of the Service of the State. 
 Lord Canning- had long- been of opinion that it was 
 a serious defect in our Indian system, that it did not 
 admit of such Zemindars as the Raja of Burdwan, 
 and other less wealthy land- holders, in some way 
 taking- part in the Government of the Country ; and 
 as a beginning* he invested certain talooqah-dars in 
 Oude and the Punjab, with magisterial powers. In 
 the spirit of this policy, also, the Secretary of State 
 added native Members, large landed proprietors, to 
 the Council of the Governor-General. It was dis- 
 tinctly ordered, again, that the restrictions regarding 
 the holding of property in the soil, were not to be 
 made applicable to the native and uncovenanted; but 
 
236 
 
 only to the European and covenanted civil servants of 
 Government. Lately, moreover, especially in Bengal, 
 a considerable number of Indigo planters and other 
 European developers have been made honorary Ma- 
 gistrates, for the districts in which their properties 
 are situated. It would seem, then, as if Government 
 was endeavouring- on the one hand, to make landed 
 proprietors Magistrates, and on the other, to pre- 
 vent Magistrates from becoming landed proprietors. 
 The object of such a policy is not very intelligible. 
 True, it is advanced that in a country where litiga- 
 tion between ryots and landlords, is so rife, as in 
 India, it would not be safe to permit Magistrates 
 and Collectors to acquire property that might in- 
 volve the necessity of their trying suits, in which 
 they themselves would be interested parties. But 
 surely it would be a libel on the high and honourable 
 Civil Service of India, to declare its Members less 
 trustworthy than their uncovenanted fellow servants j 
 and from this point of view, no other conclusion can 
 follow. The fact, however, is, that there is an 
 objection to Civil Servants holding land in the dis- 
 tricts in which they may be employed ; but it is not 
 this, and has no reference whatever to their integrity, 
 which, as a rule, is undoubted. The objection lies 
 in the moral condition of the people, and is equally 
 applicable, if not more so, to Natives, and uncove- 
 nanted officers as to European and covenanted 
 servants. However high the character of the Col- 
 lector, Magistrate, Deputy-Magistrate, or Assistant, 
 
237 
 
 native or European, may be, no native suitor will 
 dream of bringing- any suit into Court, in which the 
 presiding- authority is supposed to have the slightest 
 personal interest. No amount of argument no 
 number of examples, will convince a native, that a 
 judg-e, under any circumstances, could decide a case 
 contrary to his bias, much less his personal interest. 
 This certainly is a serious perhaps a fatal objection 
 to Civil Servants holding- property which is liable to 
 be the subject of dispute in courts over which they 
 preside ; but it is plain that it applies equally to 
 covenanted and uncovenanted, European and Native 
 Servants. Its cure lies, like that of many others to 
 which India is heir, in education, especially female 
 education ; and until education has done its work, 
 existing- restrictions can hardly be removed. The 
 objection, it is true, applies only to^the district in 
 which a civil Officer is employed ; but, as the service 
 is at present constituted, it never would do to hamper 
 the Government, as to the employment of its civil 
 Servants in whatever part of a presidency their 
 services may be most required. 
 
 At the same time, looking- at the question from 
 the Capital, and many other points of view, it seems 
 to me, that it is extremely desirable to encourag-e 
 by all legitimate means, the acquirement of property 
 in the soil, by both military and civil Servants in 
 India ; and to attain the desired end, that property 
 must be acquired while they are in the service of 
 Government, not when they have left it. Men 
 
238 
 
 while so situated may invest their saving's in agri- 
 cultural and other speculations, and when they have 
 made sufficient progress to be enabled to see their 
 ivay, they may retire from the service of Government, 
 with the view of settling- on their estates and manag- 
 ing them. But, should they be prohibited from in- 
 vesting their savings in this manner, they will not 
 retire until they have secured such a competency as 
 will enable them to bid good-bye to India, and live 
 in their native land. This has been the rule hitherto ; 
 and the result has been England's gain, but India's 
 loss. Under any circumstances, the number that 
 would elect for India, would probably not be ex- 
 cessive ; but it is but justice to India to give the 
 country a fair chance. 
 
 It ought not to be forgotten, moreover, in the 
 scramble for Indian loaves and fishes which seems 
 to be commencing, that the holders of property, and 
 especially of property in the soil of any country, 
 have certain responsibilities to discharge in regard 
 to that country, which it is the duty of Government 
 to control ; and that one of the first of these is resi- 
 dence. A man may have landed property in half a 
 dozen countries. He can reside, at the same time, 
 however, only in one. Residence, therefore, can, 
 with difficulty, be made a compulsory condition to 
 the acquirement of landed property. Non-residence, 
 nevertheless, may be accompanied by certain restric- 
 tions that will place the resident on somewhat better 
 terms than the non-resident ; and this would seem 
 
239 
 
 to be only fair. A very great outcry was raised 
 against what was called the double income Tax on 
 Indian Government security. Yet nothing, in my 
 judgment, could be more equitable; for, if an 
 Absentee tax is good for Ireland, I cannot see why 
 some such provision should not be good for India 
 also. Very larg*e fortunes are being made by persons / 
 engaged in tea cultivation in India ; and I should 
 be very glad to make one of these fortunes myself. 
 Now if I make this fortune, and spend it in India, 
 I benefit India I help to enrich her, Jirst by my 
 outlay, and second by the expenditure of my profits. 
 But if it is]my pleasure to enrich some other country 
 with the fortune which 1 derive from India, I do 
 not see why I, or why any other man similarly 
 situated, should not be made to pay something for the 
 luxury of living abroad. 
 
 With the exception of an inappreciable quantity, 
 the entire of the teas grown in India, are shipped 
 for the London market ; and as the duty on every 
 Ib. of tea sold there is Is 5d, the gain to the revenues 
 of England next year, from Indian teas, will exceed 
 200,000. But tea in India, as mentioned, is yet 
 in its infancy. A very few thousands, only, out of 
 the millions of acres that will grow tea, are. now 
 under plant. The cultivation will certainly extend 
 rapidly. Every year will add enormously to the 
 quantity of seed available for new plantations, and 
 the application of machinery to many of the opera- 
 tions of manufacture, will aid in supplementing the 
 
240 
 
 efforts we may expect to see Government making to 
 increase the supply of labour. Without being- over- 
 sanguine we may anticipate that within the next 
 twenty years, the quantity of tea exported from 
 India for the London market, will not fall short of 
 30,000,000 Ibs., which, if the duty be reduced to one 
 shilling-, as it must be, will still represent of the 
 revenues of England no less a sum than 1,500,000.* 
 The profits on this quantity of tea will be 1,500,000; 
 and the working- expenses will not fall short of 
 750,000. Two-thirds of the profits, or 1,000,000. 
 will probably go to increase the capital of Eng-land ; 
 and one third, with the whole of the working- expenses, 
 or 1,250,000, that of India, thus, in this respect, 
 making 1 a tolerably fair division of benefits. Every 
 acre of ground put under tea in India, now adds 
 25 to the revenues of England. Nor need the 
 objection be raised that the quantity of tea shipped 
 from China, will be reduced by the quantity shipped 
 from India. It is an established fact in economy, 
 that Supply influences Demand, and the capacity of 
 the World to consume Tea, appears to be so enormous, 
 and to be increasing- so rapidly, that there seems 
 little doubt, that by a slight reduction in duty, it 
 may be multiplied almost ad libitum. By the re- 
 duction of the prohibitive duties prior to 1784, the 
 
 * In England the duty has been reduced from Is 5d to CJ; 
 ~) but in India nothing has been done to ameliorate the condition 
 of the labour market, so the picture here drawn looks very like 
 a Chateau en Espagne. January, 1867. 
 
241 
 
 quantity of tea consumed in Great Britain, was 
 trebled in two years. In 1783 the quantity of tea 
 sold at the East India Company's sales, amounted 
 to 5,157,883 Ibs. In 1785, it reached 17,307,433 
 Ibs. The quantity of tea imported into Great 
 Britain, in 1833, was 39,057,832 Ibs., and in 1858, 
 it was 75,432,578 Ibs.* I have not got the Trade 
 Returns of last year, but from the circulars of Messrs. 
 W. J. & H. Thompson for the months of the first 
 half of the year, we have data to assume, that the 
 quantity of tea imported into Great Britain in 1862, 
 was very little short of 100,000,000 Ibs. ! ! | 
 
 To say nothing-' of the possibility of an interrup- 
 tion of the trade with China, these results show how 
 deeply concerned both India and England are, or 
 ought to be, in the subject of this Review ; and it is 
 to be hoped that the Governments of both Nations 
 will see the necessity of acting- in concert for the 
 advancement of a cultivation which may confer such 
 solid benefits on both countries. Let them carefully 
 examine existing* rules regarding- waste lands, immi- 
 gration regulations, &c., and deliberately consider 
 how they may be best modified so as to give those 
 desirous of investing their money in tea, if no favour, 
 at least afairjield. If I may be the exponent of 
 their views, I would venture to say that they want 
 no more. 
 
 * The quantity of tea re-exported was, in 1833 254,4601bs., 
 and in 1858 7,249,2761bs. 
 
 t America before the present disunion, consumed about 
 35,000,000 Ibs. of tea. 
 
 K 
 
242 
 
 Nor must it be supposed by Englishmen anxious 
 to seek their fortunes in foreign lands, that the tea 
 districts of India, if more profitable, are less attrac- 
 tive than many other parts of the world to which 
 emigrants are daily flocking*. Assam, it is true, 
 was once thought to be so wild and unhealthy a 
 province, that when troops were sent there the 
 European officers were permitted to draw extra 
 allowances. But those days have passed. Much of 
 the jungle with which, for want of population, it 
 was covered, is cleared away, and the province is 
 now found to be not only very much cooler, but very 
 much healthier than many parts of India. The 
 noblest river in- India, the Bramahputra, flows 
 through the Valley, which is enclosed, on two sides, 
 with hills, and on these hills, ere long, will be estab- 
 lished pleasant Sanataria. The Scenery of some 
 parts of this fine province moreover is picturesque 
 and beautiful, while the soil is unsurpassed in fer- 
 tility by the soil of any country in the world. For 
 the profitable cultivation of tea, no district in India 
 can be placed before Assam. 
 
 But should a cold climate be preferred, there are 
 many from which to select : Darjeeling, overlooked 
 by the towering* and snow-capped peaks of Mount 
 Everest and Chinchinjunga, the loftiest mountains 
 in the world ; the charming, salubrious, and fertile 
 valleys of Kamaon ; or the pleasant and milder 
 Doon of Deyrah. More westerly still, are Simla and 
 Hazarah ; but far before all the tea districts of India 
 
243 
 
 in the grandeur of its scenery and the picturesque 
 loveliness of its situation, is the valley of Kangra. 
 Many consider this valley more beautiful even than 
 Cashmere, and I cannot better conclude this hurried 
 and imperfect Review, than by the following- extracts 
 from the official report of Mr. G. Carnac Barnes, 
 B.C.S., on the settlement of this part of the coun- 
 try, in which he has sketched, at once so graphically 
 mid so faithfully, the noble features of this ' Happy 
 Valley/ that I make no apology for the space I allot 
 to his interesting- remarks. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " The District of Kot Kangra, with nominal 
 exceptions, comprises all the Hill Territory belong- 
 ing- to the British Government, situated between the 
 Rivers Ravee and Sutlej. It extends from Shah- 
 pore, near the Ravee on the West, in Lat. 32 30', 
 Long. 75 45', to the borders of Chinese Tartary in 
 Lat. 32, Long. 78 10'. The Northern extremity 
 touches upon Ladakh, and the Southern limits of 
 the district rest upon the plains of the Baree and 
 Julundhur Doabs." 
 
 ENTIRE DISTRICT. 
 
 " The area contained within these general confines 
 can only be conjectured, since a great portion has 
 not been, and may never be, surveyed. The entire 
 space may be roughly estimated at 8,000 square 
 miles. Three of the Punjab Rivers, the Bens, the 
 
 K 2 
 
244 
 
 Bavee, and the Chenab, take their rise within this 
 tract. Various races of men belonging- to distinct 
 types of the human family, and speaking- different 
 languages, are distributed over its surface. Here 
 are Hills just raised above the level of the plain, 
 and mountain crests higher than any peak of the 
 Andes. Every zone of climate and variety of vege- 
 tation is here to be met with, from the scorching 
 heat and exuberant growth of the tropics, to barren 
 heights destitute of verdure, and capped with per- 
 petual snow. 7 ' 
 
 PARALLEL RANGES. 
 
 " KangTa consists of a series of parallel ranges, 
 divided by longitudinal Valleys, the general direc- 
 tion of which, from North-west to South-east, have 
 determined the shape of the District. These ridges 
 and valleys increase gradually in elevation as they 
 recede from the plains, and approach the snowy 
 barrier which forms the Northern Boundary. The 
 characteristic features of Hill and Valley are best 
 defined where nearest the plains. Thus, the border 
 chain, which separates the level tracts of the Doab 
 from the Hills, run in an uniform course from Hajee- 
 pore on the Beas, to Boopur on the Banks of the 
 Sutlej. The Valley which it incloses, known as the 
 " Juswun Doon," preserves the same regular sim- 
 plicity, and stretches in one unbroken parallel to the 
 same extremes. But the further we penetrate into 
 the interior of this mountain system, the less these 
 
245 
 
 distinctive lineaments are maintained. Hills dissolve 
 into gentle slopes, and platforms of table land and 
 valleys become convulsed and upheaved, so as no 
 longer to be distinguished from the ridges which 
 environ them." 
 
 THE CHUMBA OR SNOWY RAXGE. 
 
 " The colossal range of mountains which bounds 
 Kangra to the North, deserves more than this pass- 
 ing description. Although the direction of this 
 range is in general conformity to that of the lower 
 hills, yet the altitude is so vastly superior, and the 
 structure so distinct, as to require a separate notice. 
 In other parts of the Himalaya, the effect of the 
 snowy mountains is softened, if not injured, by in- 
 termediate ranges, and the mind is gradually pre- 
 pared by a rising succession of hills, for the stu- 
 pendous heights which terminate the scene. But in 
 Kangra there is nothing to intercept the view. The 
 lower hills appear, by comparison, like ripples on 
 the surface of the sea, and the eye rests, uninter- 
 rupted, on a chain of mountains which attain an 
 absolute elevation of 13,000 feet above the valleys 
 spread out at their base." 
 
 " I know no spot in the Himalaya, which for 
 beauty or grandeur, can compete with the Kangra 
 valley, and these over-shadowing hills. No scenery, 
 in my opinion, presents such sublime and delightful 
 contrasts. Below lies the plain, a picture of rural 
 loveliness and repose. The surface is covered with 
 
246 
 
 the richest cultivation, irrigated by streams which 
 descend from perennial snows, and interspersed 
 with homesteads buried in the midst of groves and 
 fruit trees. Turning from this scene of peaceful 
 beauty, the stern and majestic hills confront us. 
 Their sides are furrowed with precipitous water- 
 courses. Forests of Oak clothe their flanks, and 
 higher up give place to gloomy and funereal pines. 
 Above all, are wastes of snow or pyramidal 
 masses of granite too perpendicular for the snow to 
 rest on." 
 
 GENERAL APPEARANCE. 
 
 " These Valleys by no means present a general 
 evenness of surface. Their contour is pleasantly 
 broken by transverse ridges and numerous streams 
 which descend from the mountains above. A 
 hundred canals, filled with clear water, intersect the 
 area in all directions, and convey the blessings of irrig- 
 ation to every field. Trees and plants of 'opposite 
 zones are here intermingled, and Alpine vegetation 
 contends for pre-eminence with the growth of the 
 tropics. The Bamboo, the peepul and the mangoe, 
 attain a luxuriance not excelled in Bengal, while 
 firs and dwarf oaks, the cherry, the barberry, and 
 the dog-rose, flourish in their immediate vicinity. 
 Among cereal productions, rice and maize alternate 
 with wheat, linseed, and barley : and three -fifths of 
 the soil yield double crops in the course of the year. 
 The dwellings of the people are seldom grouped 
 together, but lie sprinkled in isolated spots over the 
 
247 
 
 whole Valley. Every house is encircled by a hedge 
 of bamboos, fruit trees, and other timber useful for 
 domestic wants. Sometimes a cluster of five or six 
 houses occurs, and here a grain-dealer's shop and 
 extensive groves denote the head-quarters of the 
 town-ship. These scattered homesteads, the pictures 
 of sylvan elegance and comfort, relieve the mono- 
 tonous expanse of cultivation, and lend an additional 
 charm to the landscape." 
 
 CONCLUDING DESCRIPTION. 
 
 " There are mountainous masses still undescribed, 
 which it is difficult to bring- under either of the 
 broad distinctions of ridge or Valley. If they fall 
 under either definition they should properly be 
 classed as valleys, although in shape and aspect 
 they more resemble hills. Besides being- contained 
 within the parallel chains, and on the area that 
 would be occupied by the valley, they belong 1 to a 
 later formation. Instead of the secondary sand- 
 stone we have a clay soil, and rounded pebbles mixed 
 with conglomerate rocks. Such for instance are 
 the low alluvial eminences which "constitute the 
 Talooquas of Burgiraon, Teera, Muhul Loree, and 
 that portion of Bajgeeree south of the river Beas. 
 An English traveller, Mr. Vigne, passing* through 
 the hills of Muhul Moree, compared them, not 
 inaptly, to an agitated Sea suddenly arrested and 
 fixed into stone. The crests are like angry waves 
 succeeding one another in tumultuous array, and 
 assuming* the most fantastic forms. Viewed from a 
 
248 
 
 distance when the tops alone are visible, these hills 
 have a bleak and barren aspect. Their sides are 
 often bare and precipitous, and it is a peculiarity of 
 the tract that it is entirely destitute of forest trees. 
 Not a hut is to be seen, not a single field to relieve 
 and gladden the eye. Approach nearer, and how 
 sudden and agreeable the surprise ! Between the 
 dreary hills, are romantic glades and hollows, 
 resonant with the busy hum of men and the lowing* 
 of cattle. Cottag-es nestle under the hill side, and 
 the corn waves luxuriantly, protected from the winds 
 that desolate the heights above/' 
 
 " Such are the prominent features of this interest- 
 ing 1 region. I am conscious of many and serious 
 defects of description, but so general a sketch must 
 needs be imperfect : and to do fully justice to the 
 endless variety of scene would require a far abler 
 and more imaginative pen than mine." 
 
249 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extract of a letter to a gentleman in Calcutta interested in 
 Foreign and Colonial Emigration. 
 
 " I HAVE read, with much attention, the papers on 
 Colonial emigration you placed in my hands, and though 
 they have helped to perfect my knowledge on many points, 
 and show that much care is taken to insure the comfort 
 and wellbeing of the emigrants, they have not induced me 
 to alter the opinions I previously entertained, regarding 
 this deeply interesting and highly important subject. I 
 would not in any way be understood to advocate the im- 
 position of any restrictions on the freedom of labour. His 
 labour is all the poor man has to bring to market, and any 
 interference with his free and unrestricted liberty to carry 
 that, to where he can dispose of it to the best advantage, 
 while the wealthy merchant may take his goods, without 
 let or hindrance, to any market in the world, would not 
 only be economically a retrograde and false step, at vari- 
 ance with those sound principles which have regulated the 
 policy of the British Government now for many years, but 
 extremely despotic, if not oppressive. At the same time, 
 it must be borne in mind, that the labour of every country 
 is its most precious wealth, and I conceive, that while re- 
 cognizing to the full that right of unrestricted freedom in 
 regard to emigration which its subjects, by virtue of its 
 constitution, enjoy, it would be more consistent with the 
 policy of the British Government, to leave the labourer to 
 his own free choice, than to take legislative action with 
 the avowed object of facilitating the entrance of foreigners 
 into this country to entice him out of it, and thus deprive 
 India of that wealth which she most requires. 
 
250 
 
 f< The question as regards India, it appears to me, is one, 
 not of price, as many suppose, but one purely of progress ; 
 and the anomaly, is not that while we are crying out for 
 labour in front, we are permitting it to stream out of the 
 country in rear ; but that while the law of the land restricts 
 the liberty of the subject in regard to emigration even to 
 British and Indian Colonies (Vide the Act of 1839,) we 
 are daily forging new Acts to legalize the transport of 
 labour to countries over the laws of which we have no 
 control, and in which we cannot consequently guarantee 
 our Indian subjects proper protection ; and that while 
 Colonial and foreign Governments give their developers 
 every possible assistance in obtaining this labour, for three 
 whole years, the late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal 
 systematically refused to afford the same aid to Englishmen 
 engaged in developing the resources of the province he was 
 paid for administering, and maintained that Government 
 had no concern whatever in the matter. 
 
 " It is unnecessary that I should allude to the results of 
 this, to me, seemingly mistaken policy. You are well 
 aware that they have been an amount of oppression, cruelty, 
 disease and death it is painful to call to mind. 
 
 " It would be ridiculous to argue that the system of 
 Government now maintaining in England, would have been 
 suitable for the people of England two centuries back, and 
 I need not endeavour to demonstrate, that those who would 
 attempt to apply it, in its full integrity, to India in its 
 present stage of development, could hardly expect the 
 happiest results. I know that this is not allowed generally 
 in England, and I am aware that it is only partially ad- 
 mitted in India. Still I conceive that it is only because 
 it is believed that the people of India are not yet sufficiently 
 intelligent and enlightened, to know and understand what 
 is best for their own interests, and with a view to protect 
 them from being crimped and kidnapped for the benefit of 
 others, that the law of 1839 prohibiting emigration, is still 
 
251 
 
 retained in the Statute Book. Such, at least, is the con- 
 clusion I draw from the tenor of the late debate in the 
 Council of the Governor-General, in which the principle 
 of freedom in labour as in other things, was fully recog- 
 nized. 
 
 " Now I contend that whatever may be the stringency 
 of the laws framed by the Indian Government on the 
 subject of emigration, they will be insufficient to prevent 
 the coolie from being lured away, I do not say, against his 
 will, but with a very misty and imperfect idea of what is 
 before him. It must not be forgotten that he does not 
 leave the Indian shores a free man. He leaves it under 
 the bondage of a five years' contract, which, however un- 
 suitable he may find the work he ig put to, he is compelled 
 to complete, and a further service of five years, before he 
 can claim a passage back to his native land. Under such 
 a system, view it as you please, emigration must partake 
 in some degree, remote let it be, of the nature of the slave 
 trade. As long as the coolies go to a British colony the 
 Indian Government has the satisfaction of knowing, that 
 living under the protection of English laws, their slavery 
 will be of the very mildest form ; but in the case of foreign 
 colonies it has no such guarantee. 
 
 " From the moment the Government of India considers 
 its Indian subjects to be in a condition to exercise their 
 free wilHn matters of this kind, the bearings of the case 
 are completely altered. The native of India then, will be 
 as free as the native of Britain. But until that time has 
 come, apart altogether from considerations regarding the 
 wants of this country, I certainly would not advocate the 
 multiplication of treaties, at least with foreign powers, to 
 facilitate the emigration of Indian coolies. The Honourable 
 Mr. Eden says that return coolies bring back large sums of 
 money sometimes as much as Es. 5,000 ; and Dr. Mitchell 
 of Trinidad, in his letter to Mr. Chamevorzow, states' that 
 since the year 1850, 1705 male adults, with their families, 
 
have returned to India from Trinidad, who transmitted 
 earnings through the Colonial treasury amounting to 
 34,855.' Both statements no doubt are quite true. 
 But, without at all denying that those coolies who do 
 return to India, come back in better circumstances than 
 they went, the amount stated by Dr. Mitchell only shows 
 an average of 20 per family saved in nine years of exile, 
 and such instances as that cited by Mr. Eden, are cer- 
 tainly isolated, and furnish no argument whatever against 
 the principle I uphold, or prove that the same persons 
 would not have made quite as much money in their own 
 country. The late Moti Lai Seal commenced life in Cal- 
 cutta by selling empty bottles, and died worth a quarter of 
 a million sterling. A door-keeper I dismissed a short 
 time ago, had lent Us. 500 of his savings to the other ser- 
 vants. I offered a return labourer from Assam last week, 
 3 a month wages, to take service on a tea plantation in 
 the Hills, and he refused it. I have no doubt whatever, 
 that on plantations in Assam where a fair system of task 
 work is in force, the labourers could save more than half 
 their earnings. But be that as it may, a question so large 
 and so important in its bearing on the interests of civiliza- 
 tion, cannot be narrowed to one simply of the profit of a 
 few individuals. It extends far beyond it. 
 
 " I freely confess that I am not an advocate for the 
 encouragement of emigration in the present circumstances 
 of India ; but if it be sound in principle if it be neces- 
 sary, desirable, expedient, or politic, that, with infinitely 
 more work in India than the labouring population can do, 
 and higher rates of wages than ever before prevailed, the 
 Government of India should be compelled out of its own 
 scarcity, to supply the wants of foreigners, by all means 
 let it be : provided that the Government of India, at the 
 same time, adopts the course followed by other Govern- 
 ments, and helps its own Country. Let it not look on 
 passively at the property of its own subjects Englishmen, 
 
253 
 
 who, at its urgent solicitation, put their capital into the 
 soil perishing, while the labour that could save it, and 
 which they are quite willing to pay for, is streaming out 
 of the country, without stretching out a finger to help 
 them. 
 
 " The Planters asked the Government of Bengal, to do 
 nothing for the provinces of Assam and Cachar, that the 
 Governments of France, Denmark, and those of Her 
 Majesty's Colonies who import coolies, do not consider it 
 their bounden duty to do for the Colonies for which they 
 require labour. They asked the Government of Bengal 
 to establish an immigration agency, with the necessary 
 machinery of a Protectorate, Medical Examiner, &c., all 
 the expenses of which they expressed their perfect willing- 
 ness to pay. Their request was refused; and by this 
 refusal, I think the interests, not only of the planters, but 
 the interests of the Government, the Country, and the 
 People, were sacrificed. The planters, therefore, in my 
 humble judgment at least, have a just ground for complaint. 
 Had what they required been conceded at the outset, the 
 country would have been spared the calamities the Immi- 
 gration Committee's report disclosed, and none of the 
 complications which have since retarded the progress of 
 the tea districts, and taken up so much of the valuable 
 time of the Supreme Government would have arisen. 
 
 " I have visited the emigration agency for Mauritius 
 with its efficient superintendent Dr. Payne, and I can bear 
 testimony to the excellency of the arrangements for the 
 comfort, cleanliness, and health of the coolies; the duties 
 of the Protectorate, too, are most conscientiously and well 
 performed ; and when a little supervision, care, and atten- 
 tion on the part of Government can ensure such 
 results, I cannot understand why we should hear of such 
 depots as that of Thakoor Lalla, in Bengal. Were the 
 several Local Governments of India now, to take more 
 kindly to the plan adopted by foreign and colonial Govern- 
 
254 
 
 ments, and aid railway authorities, developers, and others, 
 in the transport of labour, I doubt very much if we should 
 hear anything more of a scarcity of labour in any part 
 of India; for it cannot be denied, that if the population 
 of the whole country is, proportionately with its area, 
 below the average of populous European countries, it is 
 still very dense in some parts. The greatest quantity of 
 labour is required for Railway operations, and in the 
 completion of these works, the Government of India, and 
 every tax- payer in the country, are directly and deeply 
 interested. Within the last ten years some fifty millions 
 sterling have been imported into India for the prosecu- 
 tion of Railway works, and as the largest portion of 
 Railway expenditure is in labour, this amount no doubt 
 required a very considerable quantity of labour to absorb 
 it. But in regard to the cultivation of Wastes, the case 
 is quite different. The whole amount of capital expended 
 in the same period, in the Tea districts of Lower Bengal, 
 for this purpose, does not aggregate even half a million 
 sterling ; and, assuming the semblance of a Government, 
 that any complications on the score of labour should have 
 arisen in absorbing this fraction, seems almost ludicrous. 
 Complications, however, and very serious complications, 
 have arisen. These are now patent to Government as well 
 as to the public, and such being the case, the very serious 
 question that grows out of them is, with what countenance 
 can Her Majesty's Secretary of State go before the 
 British public, and invite Capitalists to invest their money 
 in land which he knows they cannot get labour to cul- 
 tivate ? Has the Government of India no concern with 
 this, I would plainly ask ? 
 
 " With a little pains and trouble on the part of Govern- 
 ment, I believe that labour can be found for all the present; 
 wants of India, and for the Colonies besides ; but if the eco- 
 nomical idea put forth by Sir John Peter Grant, viz., that it 
 is no part of the business of Government to trouble itself 
 
255 
 
 about theso things, be acted upon if the Local Govern- 
 ments of India be allowed to do just as they please, and 
 to decline to take that small amount of trouble which is 
 necessary, and which Colonial and other Governments 
 deem it their duty, and find it their interest to take, then 
 Indian developers will continue to make an outcry 
 against foreigners, taking away that which they want, 
 and, in my humble judgment, they have reason and right 
 on their side." 
 
 W. N. L. 
 
 The following letter reached me too late to make any 
 use of its contents. Indeed my review had been sent to 
 England about a month or six weeks before I received it. 
 As the Rev. J. Long, however, is more intimately ac- 
 quainted with the condition of the peasantry of Bengal, 
 than perhaps any European in it ; as he has ever shown a 
 deep and sincere interest in their welfare ; and as he has 
 before now suffered imprisonment in their cause, I append 
 his remarks in extenso. The Rev. Gentleman has lately 
 made a tour in Russia, where he had an opportunity of 
 acquainting himself with the results of the emancipation of 
 the serfs ; and his opinions, though many may differ 
 from them as widely as they will from my own, as those of 
 an honest, an earnest, and sincere Christian Missionary, 
 who has spent the better part of a long life in good works 
 amongst the poor of Bengal, are worthy of every respect. 
 
 To Major Lees, LL.D. 
 
 My dear Major Lees, As I hear that you are sending 
 for republication in England, an extract from your valu- 
 able work, relating chiefly to the important question of 
 
256 
 
 "The Indian Ryot/' I take the liberty of offering some 
 remarks on what is at the present time a deeply interesting 
 subject. 
 
 The time is favourable for considering the state of the 
 agricultural classes of India, it is the era of conciliation, 
 planter arid coolie, Zemindar and ryot, are feeling that 
 they must work in harmony, that it is the case of the belly 
 and members. Whether w e look to the defence of India 
 against foreign or internal war, to the development of its 
 resources, or the moral and intellectual improvement of 
 the country all must mainly depend on one arrangement, 
 a people contented because their rights in the soil are 
 secured even by the ancient law of India the ownership 
 of the soil was vested in the cultivator. 
 
 In Europe also a new era is dawning on the agricultural 
 and working classes, the " boors" are waking from the 
 degradation of ages to feel that they have rights as men, 
 and corresponding emotions of sympathy are being excited 
 among the higher classes. " Earls examine ragged schools, 
 aldermen form associations of shoe blacks, and titled ladies 
 may be seen trudging down narrow lanes with tracts and 
 doctor's stuff for the dirty inmates/' Unless our Indian 
 Empire is to be based on bayonets, we must " condescend 
 to men of low estate." 
 
 Even Russia, which is so far behind England in almost 
 everything, in the case of securing the rights of the 
 peasantry sets a bright example to India. The heroic con- 
 duct of the Czar, who, in spite of the determined opposition 
 of the nobility, emancipated 23,000,000 of serfs, who 
 enjoy peasant proprietorship, village municipal institutions 
 and representative provincial assemblies, thus laying broad 
 and deep the foundations of the true greatness and pros- 
 perity of Russia. The Czar risked his throne to secure 
 the rights of the peasantry, and he rested the whole super- 
 structure of the Empire on the ten pillars the land is the 
 peasant's own and self-government is administered by 
 
267 
 
 peasant magistrates elected from among their own class. 
 I have been in Courts where the Russian peasant sat along 
 with the noble in the administration of justice. Arising 
 from this is the tendency to decentralised administration. 
 Open courts, trial by jury, a greater freedom of the 
 press, and a desire for education are among the fruits that 
 are springing up. Soldiering is not as popular as it was 
 in Russia. 
 
 Ample illustrations of the benefit of peasant proprietor- 
 ships might be drawn from Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, 
 and France. But one of the most striking instances is 
 the case of Prussia. After the expulsion of Napoleon's 
 troops, it was felt there was no security for-the national 
 independence so long as the peasant had not his rights ; 
 accordingly, under the firm hand of Baron Stein, that 
 system of peasant rights was secured, which has led to so 
 many social and moral blessings in Prussia, and which was 
 a main cause of enabling Prussia to take the position of 
 leader of Germany. 
 
 AVith this awakening up of millions in Russia and 
 America to a consciousness of their dignity as men, how 
 long is the Bengal ryot to remain a helot, a semi-serf, a 
 mere machine, a blot on the fair fame of England. In 
 1793 he was handed over bound hand and foot to the 
 tender mercies of land jobbers. Even now the ryot re- 
 ceives no education from the State ; 97 per cent cannot 
 read intelligently, his ignorance renders him the victim of 
 superstition, the prey of the usurer, and the petty lawyer. 
 The late famine has filled up the cup of his misery, one 
 million and a half at least have fallen victims to famine and 
 its consequences. Were the authorities found napping ? 
 
 I am no advocate for a dead level : I believe a landed as 
 well as an intellectual aristocracy is necessary for India, to 
 give cohesion to the mass, to serve as a link between the 
 foreign rulers and the million, and I am glad to mention 
 that there are Zemindars in Bengal who try to improve the 
 
258 
 
 people under them, and have often lamented the apathy of 
 the majority of their fellow Zemindars, in improving the 
 condition of the ryot, and of the country. As enlightened 
 men they feel that the rights and the education of the pea- 
 santry should not be left to an oligarchy. This would not 
 be safe even in Christian England, then how much less so 
 in India, the land of caste, where, for ages, the ryot has 
 been regarded as the orange to be squeezed, and then flung 
 away. 
 
 Now is the time to urge these points, as the Bombay 
 Gazette admirably remarks, '' The great dumb multitude, 
 who have no art or part in the Government of India, save 
 meekly to contribute twenty millions of land revenue to 
 its exchequer, without daring to ask Government to spend 
 a single rupee in the improvement of the land, or dream- 
 ing of enquiring in what manner it appropriates the enor- 
 mous tax it levies on them, has hitherto been dumb and 
 uncomplaining, through mere excess of ignorance ; and 
 the martyrdom of one-fourth of the population of the 
 province seems to have been required to convince Govern- 
 ment that it has duties to discharge towards the ryots 
 of India, quite as important as those of an English squire, 
 or an Irish landlord." Surely if the tenant right is about 
 to be established in Ireland, England will not hold back 
 a similar measure for the ryots of Bengal, when she was 
 the instrument by the Act of 1?93 of reducing them to 
 their present condition, when she farmed them out, body 
 and soul, to men who were originally collectors, but whom 
 by a strange act, she constituted proprietors of the soil. 
 
 What is the remedy for this condition of the Bengal ryot? , 
 I feel it will not be found in India ; of late years feudal 
 notions regarding land have been in favour with the higher 
 class of Government officials, European non-officials, and 
 Native gentry. The reform, therefore, must come from 
 England, where the interests of the working classes have 
 been, of late years, regarded ; and a Reform Bill is sure to 
 
259 
 
 pass Parliament, which will give greater power to the 
 friends of the working man and of peasant proprietorship; 
 it will react on this country, and secure better friends to 
 the peasant than exist at present, when the Governors of 
 all the local Presidencies are feudalists in their notions of 
 land. Sir J. Lawrence is one of the few friends to peasant 
 proprietorship in India. 
 
 A reformed Parliament might give the leverage for Re- 
 form in Bengal in the following points; irrigation and 
 canal works, rural savings' banks, etc., are what all are 
 agreed on. The following subjects are deserving considera- 
 tion : 
 
 1. Peasant Proprietorship or a Poor Law. This may 
 seem to interfere with vested rights on some points, but I 
 believe Landholders, on due consideration, may come to 
 the conclusion that it is better to sacrifice a few of their 
 own rights, in order to preserve the remainder. It is too late 
 to imagine that in the 19th century, the welfare of the masses 
 shall be subordinated to the selfishness of an oligarchy. 
 The greatest good of the greatest number is the cardinal 
 principle. The ryot of Bengal lives from hand to mouth, 
 he has no provision for a rainy day this can be met either 
 by making him a peasant proprietor, or if not, by a tax on 
 land, securing him a legal resource against starvation. The 
 laws, both of heaven and earth, are opposed to the idea that 
 the destitute shall be dependent on a precarious and fitful 
 alms-giving the land must secure him against destitution ; 
 it is so in England and Ireland, and it makes it the land- 
 owner's interest that the peasant should be well off. 
 
 , 2. Compulsory Vernacular Education. The expense de- 
 frayed by local rates. The ryot now, through his ignorance, 
 is victimised by the usurer in the Courts, and in all cases 
 where documentary evidence is resorted to. He puts his 
 mark to legal deeds, the contents of which he is unable to 
 read; his land is measured for him, but he has no means of 
 
260 
 
 checking the measurement. His educated countrymen 
 have done little to remedy this state of things. 
 
 3. The appointment of a Minister of Agriculture and 
 Commerce. There are plenty of well paid Government 
 agents for collecting the revenue, but there is not one 
 whose special function would be to attend to the vital ques- 
 tion of Agricultural Statistics, the state and prospect of 
 the crops, model farms, and agricultural education, all of 
 which tend to increase the revenue. The Association of Ze- 
 mindars, called the British India Association, has petitioned 
 Government to appoint a Minister of Agriculture. The 
 famine showed the need of such an official; what was 
 everybody's business was no- one's ; one man in that office 
 might have saved Bengal from much of the evil conse- 
 quences of the famine. 
 
 4. Officials should see more of the people and peasantry . 
 The tendency at present is to load officials with red tape, 
 leave them up in office, where all information regarding 
 the masses reaches them through cooked-up reports, or 
 from the ignorant surmisings of native clerks, who have 
 no means of knowing the actual state of the district; 
 book-learned they may be, but little acquainted with the 
 people ; this is a crying evil, it was one of the causes of 
 the mutiny. 
 
 I throw out the above hints, the discussion of them can 
 do no harm ; if they be found impracticable, the ventila- 
 tion of the question may suggest other modes of action. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 JAMES LONG. 
 
 ^X 
 
 Calcutta, March 8th, 1867. 
 
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