that we should rest content with the revenue policy of the Local Government of the North-West Provinces, calmly regard these transfers of land as unevitable, and deem that we satisfy the demands of justice by securing certain privileges in the shape of fixed favorable rents for the dispossessed landholder, whose loss of property, is admittedly attributable in a great measure to our unsuitable system of Government.* If it is true, as Mr. Bayley said in the Legislative Council, that "the sympathy which was shown to them (the ex-proprietors), not only during the mutiny, but at all times, by the general community, was in a great measure attributable to the feeling that they had been ruined, not by their own fault, but in a large degree by causes over which they had no control, and which was set down with some justice to the errors and failures of the British Government;" and if these errors and failures still continue to darken the success of our administration, then the rulers of this country should strain every nerve to wipe away this cause of reproach.

One word more. It must not be supposed that the new landowners are capitalists with the means, the knowledge, and the will to increase the productiveness of land, and to introduce improvement in agriculture; capitalists many of them indeed are, but that is all; their arrival does not mean the displacement of ruined and absentee Irish landlords by men of agricultural skill and enterprise; the

* Sir George Edmonstone recorded as follows on this point-"It cannot be denied that during the disturbance of 1857-58 the auctionpurchasers of landed estates in these provinces were generally ejected from the possession of their acquired rights by the former proprietors, and from this the discontent and disloyalty of the latter may be inferentially ascribed to the direct and constant action of Government institutions in depriving them of their ancient possessions," though he considered that the possible exclusion of the interloping purchasers could not have been attributable to the operation of this cause only. (Quoted by Mr. Crosthwaite in his article above mentioned.),

new owner rarely, if ever, visits his estate; his life is that of the indolent city money-lender; he has no thought of his newly acquired lands, but how he may screw a larger rental out of the tillers of the soil. On this point there is no difference of opinion among those best qualified to judge. Mr. Crosthwaite remarks:-"I have seen a good many districts of the North-West Provinces, and it has been my fate to plod laboriously over hundreds of estates. I cannot call to mind a single instance in which one of these capitalist landlords did anything to improve his estate or better his tenantry. I think what has been my experience is the experience of the whole settlement staff." He quotes also Mr. Justice Melvill's words that "the great object of the money-lender is to get the land into his own hands; and when he has succeeded, he is the worst possible landlord, spending nothing on the improvement of his estate, and rack-renting the unfortunate ryot, whose proprietary right has passed from him, but who is willing to slave for the usurer, rather than to abandon the field of his fathers. Any measure which tends to the general transfer of rights in land from the cultivating to the money-lending classes should, in my opinion, be viewed with the greatest jealousy."†

It will be well therefore now to examine in some detail the causes which are contributing to the ruin of the old landed proprietors; many of them may, no doubt, be considered as a “tale thrice told," but it will be advantageous to group them together before passing on to consider what remedies can be devised to check the spread of these evils.

* I only know one, an intelligent Lucknow lawyer, who has bought some fifteen villages, and is doing his best to improve them by the construction of wells, &c., while he treats bis tenants with consideration.

† Page 209, Mr. Justice Melvill, High Court, Bombay. This was apparently part of a judgment delivered in the High Court.

CHAPTER II.

OUR MODE OF ASSESSMENT OF THE LAND REVENUE.

"A trembling contribution! why, we take

From every tree lop, bark, and part o' the timber;
And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd,
The crow will drink the sap."

MR. CROSTHWAITE, in his able and interesting essay,* entitled "A Land Policy for Northern India," remarks-that, "if the pressure of our revenue system drives the landowners. into debt, it must be from one of two causes; either the assessment is immoderately high, or our system of collection must be bad. There is no third cause that can exist." And in regard to the assessment, he goes on to note that in his opinion it can hardly be maintained that the assessments have been high during the last twenty years in the North-Western Provinces.†

* Calcutta Review, number cxii.

† In the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, the Central Provinces, and the Punjab, the land-tax is fixed for thirty years only; while in Lower Bengal there is, as is well known, the permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis; at the end of every thirty years the land-tax of the above-mentioned provinces is therefore revised and re-assessed.

At the time of settlement, the settlement officer, who is merely one of the covenanted civilians, military or uncovenanted officers belonging to the commission, has first to determine the Government revenue for the next thirty years; and, secondly, to prepare a complete record of all existing rights in the land.

In Oudh, as all titles in land were in a state of great chaos at annexation, the settlement officers and their assistants sat as civil courts of justice for the purpose of determining by formal suits the right of all claimants to every plot of land within the province.

In many cases, also, the Collector carried out this work in addition to his own current duties. Oudh officers have been and are still the hardest worked officials in all India.

On the other hand, there are many who think, in opposition to this view, that the severity of our assessments is one of the main causes of the embarrassments of the landowners of Northern India. There will be very little difficulty in showing that this view is to a great extent correct, and that a crushing land taxation in recent settlements has in many districts only too effectually lent its aid to the other causes which are now operating to complete the ruin of the hereditary land-proprietors.

The alleged severity of our assessment may either mean that the exaction of a payment of half the rental of an estate is in itself too heavy a demand, or that the Local Governments and their assessors fail to act up to the directions of superior authority, and either in ignorance, or from a deliberate choice, fix a demand, which is in fact considerably above half the actual rent-roll of the assessed property.

It has never yet been shown that a fair estimate of half assets is in itself too severe a demand. If we restricted our revenue demand to 50 per cent. of the actual rental, the tax would be fair enough; but we add to it the cesses and the cash wages of the village accountant and the village police; the 50 per cent. therefore represents only a part of the annual sum levied from the owners of land. Obviously, too much depends on the construction placed upon the word "assets" by the settlement officers and their superiors; if by "assets" it is signified that the assessment will be based on a fair computation of the annual sums which the landowners can, on the average, collect, there seems no reason to suppose that proprietors, whose estates are of the ordinary type, could not without much difficulty yearly pay in half their collections to the State.

In certain cases, where, for instance, the proprietary body has largely increased since last settlement, the payment of such a large proportion of the assets must press them with some severity: similarly, on estates where a great part of the land is held in sub-settlement by various classes of under-proprietors, who intercept a large share of the

profits, both the landowner and his sub-holder, no doubt, find it difficult to exist on the small margin left for their respective support. Again, where it is found that, owing to the lightness of the expiring settlement, the enhancement will inevitably be very large, the new tax, even if a fair computation of half the rental, will seriously embarrass the tax-payer; but these special cases will be considered separately; at present an attempt will be made to show that in a great many districts the assessment has been fixed at a rate which is far above the actual half of the rent-roll.

66

It cannot now be denied that, owing to the financial crisis* of unhappy memory, to the outcries of a part of * Mr. A. Colvin's memo., p. 129:- Finally the financial panic occurred. Originating in the belief that money now abounded in these provinces, that the provinces particularly needed further expenditure for their own protection, and that the general wants of the State exceeded its income, these grew and rapidly strengthened a conviction that the present assessments of the North-Western Provinces were inadequate, and that the State was not receiving its proper share of the public revenue. The views of 1861 fell into discredit, and great pressure was put upon public officers to show cause why their calculations should not lead to the assumption of a larger rental."

In Oudh we read that "in Kheri much of the trouble is to be ascribed to the fact that here, as in parts of Gondah and Fyzabad, operations were pushed on with more haste than were perhaps advisable, in order to secure the Government an enhanced revenue as soon as possible." (P. 26, Oudh Revenue Report, 1873.)

Again on page 18 it is noted in regard to Fyzabad, that "it was found that in 1869 a circular was issued directing that, if the revised jama was declared on or after the 15th January in any given year, it was not to be demanded till the kharif of the following year; that is to say, a jama declared on the 15th January 1869 was not to be enforced until November 1870. It was also found that, on the occurrence of the financial panic in 1869, the Chief Commissioner, loyally doing his utmost to assist the Government of India, directed this rule to be disregarded in the parganas which were assessed at that time, and that its principle had generally not been followed throughout the district; and the revised jama was collected from the kharif immediately following the date of its declaration, so that the year of grace prescribed by the circular above referred to, and the policy of which will not perhaps be questioned, was denied to the agriculturists." (Ibid, page 19.)