In the medical schools, Hindoo, Mussulman, and Anglo Indian youths are taught Anatomy, Surgery, Practice of Physic, &c., and when properly qualified, they receive appointments as Native Doctors in different regiments, and at the principal stations.

XI. The prosperity of a nation is materially dependent on a just system of finance, the leading principles of which are, that every individual shall contribute to the maintenance of a Government in proportion to the property he possesses, in order to protect him from domestic tyranny or foreign aggression, and that every individual contributing his quota shall have a voice in regulating its disbursement. As the comparative advantages of direct and indirect taxation are now deservedly engrossing a large share of public attention, and the financial system of Great Britain and of our possessions in India is materially different, it will be necessary to enter into some detail, in order that the Indian mode of finance may be more thoroughly understood and appreciated.

In India the ancient system of direct taxation has not been changed. The land in India has been from time immemorial the grand fund of supply to the Government, as will be seen by the proportions of the Indian revenue derived from different sources in 1831-2, the latest year in which the returns have been laid before Parliament complete :

Direct Taxation. - Land revenue, 10,750,2187.; house tax, 40,000.; tax on professions, 116,830.; tolls on ferries, 96,2424.; territories on Nerbudda, 239,3471.; Burmese cessions, 87,2661.; Mysore, Travancore, and Cochin, 342,7767.; Nagpore subsidiary, 77,7431.; Bhurtpore, 24,8811.; Nizam's and Rajpoot Tribute, 78,9381.; Cutch subsidiary, 13,3327.; miscellaneous, 17,9967. Total, 11,885,5691.

Indirect Taxation.—Salt sale & licenses, 2,314,9821.; customs (sea & land), 1,380,0997.; opium, 1,442,570.; post office, 103,5017.; tobacco, 63,0481.; mint receipts, 60,518.; stamps, 328,300l.; judicial fees and fines, 70,4697.; Sayer and Abkaree, 764,759.; marine and pilotage, 45,974.; excise (in Calcutta), 19,1061. Total, 6,593,3261.

revenue settlement in India is the right of a Government to a certain share of the gross produce of every inch of cultivated land; the share may be alienated entirely or partially, or it may be diminished by grants from Government: it may be commuted for a money payment under engagements more or less extended for a series of years, or even for perpetuity; but the groundworks of the land revenue in India is the right of Government to a share of the gross produce of all cultivation (1832, C. P. 29). Land is assessed with reference to the payments of former years, and to the actual state of the cultivation, and of the season. If the cultivation have been increased, the revenue is increased; if land have been thrown up, it is dimi. nished; if it be a bad season, allowances are made for it (1830, L. 2,285); and in case of complaint of over-assessment, it is rectified (1830, L. 1,565), as it is well understood that nothing contributes so essentially to secure the public tranquillity as a low assessment (1831, C. 5,250).

The peculiarity of India in deriving a large proportion of its revenue from the land, is in fact a very great advantage; nine-tenths probably of the revenue of the Government is derived from the rent of land never appropriated to individuals, and always considered to have been the property of Government. This is one of the most fortunate circumstances that can occur in any country; because, in consequence of this, the wants of the state are supplied really and truly without taxation: the wants of Government are supplied without any drain, either upon the produce of the man's labour, or the produce of any man's capital (1831, C. 3,134). But the great difficulty in raising a revenue from the land in India is the difficulty of ascertaining correctly the value of land; approximation is all that can be obtained (1831, C. 3,162). The general proportion taken is extremely uncertain (1830, L. 2,537); because no portion of the gross produce of the land can ever be taken as the standard for assessment, for various proportions of the gross produce go as rent, according to all the various qualities of the soil, some lands yielding no rent, others a fourth, others a third, and other portions of the soil of a still more valuable quality, yielding half or more than half of the gross produce as rent (1831, C. 3,886); that is, a surplus of the produce of the soil, after a full remuneration to the cultivator for his labour and stock (C. 3,884). The instruction for many years sent from home, and impressed upon the Governments of India is, that in no case can more be taken than the rent of the land, without both injustice and permanent injury to the

Land Revenue of India. - The land-tax of British India is entitled to priority of consideration, no less on account of its financial importance as to amount, than of its influence over the rights and interests of the native inhabitants of the country, and over the general prosperity of the empire. There are three different modes of assessing land in India; and as each has its advocates, and are essentially different in operation, the fairest plan which the Author can adopt in laying a detail of them before the public, will be to give a very brief abstract of the evidence on the sub-country-not only injury to the individual cultivators, ject as laid before Parliament, during the recent dis cussion on the renewal of the E. 1. Company's charter. Thus no favour to any system will be shewn, and the public will be better enabled to form a comparative judgment on their respective merits. The source whence each paragraph is derived verbatim is also given. I have only added copulative conjunctions or articles for the purpose of dovetailing," as it were, the sentiments scattered through a vast mass of evidence. C. P. is Commons' Paper; Lords' is signified by L.; the figure refers to the number of the paper or question.

Principles of the Land Tax.-Three different modes of assessing the land tax prevail in British India; 1st, a perpetual settlement with the proprietors of land; 2nd, a temporary settlement with the heads of villages or townships; and 3rd, a definite settlement with each individual occupant or cultivator of the soil (1832, C. P. 2), but the acknowledged basis of every land

but injury to the Government itself; and in all doubtful cases, the instruction has been to take special care to err on the side of lenity rather than on the side of severity; to take less than the rent rather than more (C. 3,162).

The consent of Government is not required for the cultivation of any new land; Government are happy that people should come and take up their abode; they make no enquiry, if there be no objection made by the neighbouring villagers; that is to say, that they do not occupy the land that others are in the possession of; the right of possession remaining, unless disturbed by other claimants, which rarely or never occurs (1830, L. 542 and 543).

The Zemindary or perpetual Settlement of Lord Cornwallis. One of the most material points for consideration in respect to the land-tax, is the different modes of levying the assessment now in force (1832, C. R. P. 2). To begin with the Zemindary Settle

ment, the most obvious feature of advantage in which | Orissa (Cuttack alone excepted), with a population is the facility of collection, as it is a much more simple exclusive of the Benares province of 35,518,645, asthing to obtain the revenue of a large district from a sessed in 1829-30, at a permanent Jumma or revenue certain moderate number of Zemindars or contri- of 32,470,858 sicca rupees. Under the Madras Prebutors, than it is to perform the collection in detail sidency, the Zemindary settlement includes nearly by the officers of Government themselves, and another the whole of the five northern Circars, lying immeadvantage undoubtedly is, the greater degree of cer- diately adjacent to the Bengal frontier; rather more tainty in the result (1831, C. 3,339). The main dif- than one-third of the Salem, and about one-third of ference in the mode of collecting the land revenue in the Chingleput districts included under the head of different parts of British India, consisting chiefly in Madura; and a small portion of the southern divithe different degrees of summariness, or detail adopted sion of Arcot, consisting of some of the E. I. Comin the collection of the revenue, from the great mass pany's ancient lands near Cuddalore; these countries of cultivators who hold land generally in small por- include a territory of 49,607 square miles, with a tions, and who have a right to the perpetual hereditary population of 3,941,021, assessed in 1829-30, at occupancy of the soil, so long as they continue to 8,511,009 sicca rupees. The permanent, or Zeminpay the revenue demanded by Government. dary Settlement has never extended to any portion of the provinces under the Bombay Presidency, which contain 59,438 square miles, with a population estimated at 6,251,546; and 5,500 square miles in the northern Concan, of which the population is unknown; far the greater part of the Madras territories, to the extent of 92,316 square miles, with a population of 9,567,514. has also been exempted from it; as has also been the case in the province of Cuttack, under the Bengal Government, containing 9,040 square miles, and a population of 1,984,620; neither has the Permanent Settlement been extended to the Upper or Western Provinces under the Supreme Government, embracing 66,510 square miles, and a population of 32,206,806; nor to the districts ceded on the Nerbudda, and by the Rajah of Berar in 1826, containing 85,700 square miles, of which the population is unknown; thus of the British territorial possessions on the continent of Asia, including an area of 512,878 square miles, the Permanent or Zemindary Settlement extends over but 199,389 square miles (1832, R. C. P. 21). We may now proceed to the consideration of the VILLAGE SYSTEM.

When the E. I. Company came into possession of the revenues of the Dewanny of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, they found the land revenue collected in the most summary method by the intervention of officers under the Mahommedan Government, who had charge of districts sometimes of more, sometimes of less extent, with various titles, such as Zemindars and Talookdars, and who paid the revenue into the treasury in one sum, for which they were rewarded by the Government, generally with a per centage on their collections; in fact, Zemindars were found managing considerable districts whose obligations consisted in paying a certain annual amount to the Government. Many of them held their districts or estates under this condition hereditarily. (1831, C. 3,114, 3,115, 3,215).

Village Land Revenue System.-The landed property in Upper India may be said to belong to the community of a village, each village having head men, leaders, or principals, called Mocuddims, or Potails, who either by descent, or sometimes by their personal influence, obtain a superiority in the village, and the management of its affairs; they are selected by the villagers, and removable at their pleasure.

On the East India Company becoming possessed of the Bengal territory, great abuses were found to prevail, and to be practised by the different sorts of people employed in the collection of the revenue. The detail of the business was so great, that it frightened Lord Cornwallis and the Government of the day, and they conceived that no better method for the protection of the Ryots or small cultivators, could be invented, than to create a species of landlords, from whom they expected much benefit to arise; the ground upon which they principally went was this, that those Zemindars, having a permanent interest in the land assigned to them, would have an interest in the prosperity of the Ryots, in the same manner as a landlord in England feels an interest in the prosperity of his tenants. This was expected to produce two good effects, to create a landed aristocracy in the country, and above all to afford protection to the Ryots or small cultivators, from the kind of paternal feeling that was expected to pervade the Zemindars (1831, C. 3,136). With a view to the protection of the whole mass of the agricultural population, and with the best of motives, the Zemindars in 1793, whether cultivators or officers in actual charge of districts, hereditarily or by special appointment, were created landholders of the country by which a property in the soil was vested in them, in nearly as full a sense as it is to the holder of a fee-simple in Eng-republics, having nearly everything that they want land; the sum which a Zemindar had been in the habit of paying was ascertained by the observation of a few prior years, the assessment or tax was fixed for ever, and an engagement was made that this amount of land revenue should never be raised on him; such is the nature of the settlement known by the name of the ZEMINDARY or PERMANENT SETTLEMENT' (1831, C. 3,115, 3,116, 3,136, 3,215; 1832, R. C. P. 21). The countries settled on the permanent Zemindary tenure include under the Bengal Presidency, an extent of 149,782 square miles, embracing the whole of Bengal, Bahar, Benares, and

The lands are let out to men sometimes in the same village, sometimes in the neighbouring village, while certain portions, and certain rights are possessed by the different craftsmen or artizans of the village, such as the schoolmaster, the washerman, the barber, the carpenter, the blacksmith, the watchman, the village accountant, &c. who have each a right to a certain share in the produce of the soil, of which there is also a certain portion set aside for certain recognised expenses of the village, and for defraying its hospitality towards strangers (1830, L. 398, 399, 405, 406, 529). These village communities are little

within themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down; revolution succeeds to revolution; Hindoo, Patan, Megul, Mahratta, Seik, English, are all masters in turn, but the village communities remain the same. In times of trouble they arm and fortify themselves; an hostile army passes through the country; the village communities collect their cattle within their walls, and let the enemy pass unprovoked. If plunder and devastation be directed again themselves, and the force employed be irresistible, they flee to friendly villages at a distance, but when the storm

of the Ryotwar system is to protect the rights of all ryots or cultivators, as they now exist in every village, from infringement; and to prevent all encroachment upon those rights (1831, C. 5156); thus, in the Ryotwar system, the details of the interest of the respective Ryots are known completely, and not at all in the Zemindary system; and the former effectually does what the latter professes to do, but never has done, and never can do, that is, fix an assessment upon all the lands in the country. Under the Ryotwar system, the assessment goes from detail to the aggregate; it respects property of every class, that of the largest landholder, and that of the smallest ; it measures and assesses every portion of an estate, and thus facilitates the transfer of landed property, as the first question when taken into the market iswhat is the amount of public demand upon the land? (1831, C. 4565, 4567, 4568) The Ryotwar system deals with the proprietor; if the Rajah be the complete proprietor, he is the person with whom the Government deals; it does not profess to interfere between him and his tenants, but in order to ascer

has passed over, they return and resume their occupations. If a country remain for a series of years the scene of continued pillage and massacre, so that the village cannot be inhabited, the scattered villagers Levertheless return whenever the power of peaceable possession revives: a generation may pass away, but the succeeding generation will return: the sons will take the place of their fathers, the same site for the village, the same position for the houses, the same lands will be occupied by the descendants of those who were driven out when the village was depopulated, and it is not a trifling matter that will drive them out, for they will often maintain their post through times of disturbance and convulsion, and acquire strength sufficient to resist pillage and oppression with success. This union of the village commurities each one forming a separate little state in itself, has contributed more than any other cause to the preservation of the people of India, through all the revolutions and changes which they have suffered, and is in a high degree conducive to their happiness, and to the enjoyment of a great proportion of freedom and independence. (1832, Commons' Rev. Com-tain what the Rajah is to pay, his lands are first mittee, p. 29.)

assessed in detail, and then in the aggregate (1831, C. 4570). The Ryotwar settlement is applicable, it is said, in every state of things; where there are proprietors it may be entered into with proprietors; where there are no proprietors it may be concluded with farmers or cultivators; it may be equally made for the largest or for the smallest quantity of land; for millions of acres, or for only a few. The owner of a single field may make his terms directly with the Government, and turn to his cultivation, knowing that he cannot be called on to pay more than a certain sum. The proprietor of the largest district may do the same: for, although the cess under this system varies according to the value of land, difference of soil, population, situation, and other localities; and although inferior land, paying the lower cess, becomes liable when sufficiently improved to pay the higher cess; there is, nevertheless, a maximum for the best land, beyond which all produce is for the benefit of the landholder: and there are remissions in cases of urgent distress (1832, C. R. P. No. 29.)

It is difficult to state the proportion of the produce of the village paid to Government; the authorities know little of the precise property of any of the proprietors, it is not the interest or the wish of the village that the Government should scrutinize and know their possessions, therefore, if any one of the brotherhood fails to pay his proportion, that is a matter for the village at large to settle, they will often come forward to pay it for him, but those are all private arrangements kept to themselves; and the Mocuddim has no power from the Government to enforce the assessment, what each man in the village has to pay is an internal arrangement, which it is desirable for the Government not to interfere in, the villagers settling among themselves what each has to pay, the total assessment being calculated after en quiry into the state of prosperity in the village; what it has hitherto paid; what it is capable of paying; the state of the village lands, and what assessments they ought to bear with reference to the produce; and if the villagers are dissatisfied with their Mocuddim, or head man, they turn him out (1830, L. 401, 402, 404, 528, 583, 584.) Surveys of considerable expense have been made by Government; a minute account taken of the state of the land in each village, the fields examined in the presence of a surveying officer, with all the assistance he can procure, not only from his own servants, but from the village communities, the people themselves interested, and also the ryots and people of the neighbouring villages, who are invited to attend. The exact limits of the village are put down, and even the detail of land within the village, the productions, houses, fruit bearing trees, and so on: the assessment is grounded upon these particulars (1831, C. 3,492). The Upper or Western Provinces of Bengal, the greater part of the Bombay territories, the ceded territories on the Nerbudda and the Province of Tanjore are all assessed by villages. (1831, C. 3119, 3123, 3129, 3130.) The RYOTWAR SYSTEM.-The peculiar principle of the third sort of assessment, termed Ryotwar, is to fix a maximum of assessment upon all the lands of the country in perpetuity; (1831, C. 4565) the money Tent of each individual cultivator for the fields in his occupation is defined with as much permanency as possible, the aggregate of such rents making the total assessment, which varies each year with the increase or decrease of cultivation. Another main principle 14,26,177.

Another advantage which the Ryotwar system possesses over the Zemindary, is in the creation of a great body of independent proprietors, instead of a few who are proprietors only in name; and there is an advantage to the revenue, inasmuch as all the fruits of industry accumulate for the great mass of the people, but in the case of the Zemindary they accumulate for the benefit of the few, while the Ryotwar system tends also in a considerable degree to the accumulation of capital (1831, C.4577, 4578,4579).

The following statement shews the amount of land revenue in the N. W. provinces, where the permanent or zemindary settlement does not exist.

Revenue Western Districts. First Division: (Jumma of 1243.) Seharunpore, Rs. 9,25,994; Mozuffernugur, 6,11,404; Meerut, 16,12,942; Boolundshuhur, 8,76,522; Allyghur, 17,04,590.

Second Division: Agra, 16,65,692; Muttra, 16,05,644; Furruckabad, 17,64,394; Mynporee, 18,34,714.

Third Division: Bareilly, 14,07,346; Shajehanpore, 11,15,700; Pelibheet, 4,89,707; Mooradabad, S. D., 9,79,168; Mooradabad, N. D., 14,79,056; Suheswan, 10,14,048; Kumaoon, 2,16,780.

Fourth Division, Allahabad, 20,22,615; Futtehpore, 13,34,425 ; Cawnpore, 26,83,358; Belah, 6,80,001; Bandah, 18,58,428; Humeerpore,

Fifth Division: Benares, 10,76,256; Mirzapore, Permanently 6,67,943; Jounpore, 11,52,106; Ghazeepore, settled, Mdrs.Rs. 85,11,009.. 49607.. 3,941,021 12,43,088; Goruckpore, 11,11,551; Azimgurh, Periodically 12,82,907.

Delhi Division: Five Districts, 37,15,812.

Saugor and Nerbudda Territories: Three Divisions, 22,28,181.

It will be seen from this statement, that the revenues of the Western Provinces exceed a little those of Bengal and Behar; that they are several lakhs above the revenues of Madras; and more than double the whole revenue of Bombay; as the following figures will show:

Jumma of Square Popula-
1829-30. Miles. tion.

settled,...... .2,27,27,005.. 92316.. 9,567,5 14

Madras...... . 3,12,38,014.. 141923.. 13,508,535 Periodically setted

Bombay,...... 1,48,19,288.. 64938.. 6,251,546

Total,.... 11,61,47,708..517893..69,470,152 Sumachar Durpun, Dec. 9, 1837.

Asiatic Journal, May 1838. A Parliamentary document gives the amount of the land tax per head in Bengal, in 1827, at 22 pence yearly; in Madras 52 pence, and in Bombay 60 pence; and per square mile, Bengal 23 pence, Madras 17 settled,.. Sa. Rs.3,24,70,853.. 149782..35,518,645 pence, and Bombay 19 pence; the population per Periodically square mile in each Presidency being, for Bengal, settled,.. .3,76,19,553..161250..34,191,426 244; Madras, 77; and Bombay, 76; in Bengal land is valued at 67 years' purchase. Mr. Holt Mackensie

Permanently

Bengal...... 7,00,90,406..311032..69,710,071 gave into Parliament the following Statement showing the Aggregate Government demand on various Estates within the undermentioned Districts of Bengal, farmed by the Court of Wards, on account of Minor and other disqualified Zemindars, the Rent paid by the Farmer, and the Profit accruing to the Ward.

By Lord Cornwallis' permanent settlement in Lower | south of India, where the Ryotwar system is in force; Bengal much good was effected, accompanied, how- its advantages would be, that a stimulus would be ever, with no small portion of evil; the fixing for given to cultivation and improvement without the ever the assessment of the land was admirable in Government, like the tithe owner in England, stepping principle and highly beneficial to the proprietors, but forth to reap the reward of skill and industry; the the Government lost the advantage of increased assessment being at a corn rent, the Government would prosperity in the country in consequence of the tax not have a revenue fluctuating according to the rise or being fixed at a money instead of a corn rent: had the fall in the prices of gold or silver, and the rights of latter been adopted, the tenant could not complain, individual cultivators as under the Madras Pesidency and the resources of the state would not have suf--or of village communities, as under the Bombay fered: the next evil arose from considering the Ze- territories would be preserved; while the necessity for mindars as landed proprietors instead of what they annual scrutiny, and continual vexatious interference generally were, mere collectors or farmers of the of the Government with the farmers would be haprevenue; the interests and rights of the Ryots or pily annulled. It is asserted that those periodical cultivating tenants of the soil were thus entirely lost famines which desolate our provinces, occur only in sight of, and no measure has since been devised which those districts where there is no permanent land setwould restore them without the allegation being raised tlement. It would be well if the Hindoos were enaof our infringing the solemn compact of the perma-bled to purchase the lands and hold them in fee-simnent or Zemindary settlement.

A permanent land settlement might under proper surveys be made with each village, as well as with a zemindar; this plan might also be extended to the

ple, or to redeem the Government tax on the soil by a fixed sum of money, to be paid either at once or by instalments spread over a limited number of years.