Bareli District. This district had been heavily overassessed before, and portions of it had suffered severely from the famine of 1837. Many of the starving inhabitants had formed gangs for plunder, and many cultivators had left their homes. The assessment made at the present Settlement was moderate.

Budaon District.-The district was in a state of great distress at the time of the Settlement. The Settlement took place "when the disposition to over-assess was far from being allayed," and had therefore to be repeatedly revised. Full relief was not yet given. "No slight benefit will have been gained if Government and its servants are convinced, as I trust they now are, of the actual loss of money which is certain to follow over-assessment, and resolve to maintain those principles of moderation which have now been brought into actual practical operation for the first time."

Shajehanpur District. The district had escaped the misery of over-assessment in past Settlements; was lightly assessed at the present Settlement, and was in a flourishing state.

Pilibeet District.-Half the district had been much over-assessed previously, but now obtained ample relief. The other half had been settled with Raja Gurnam Singh. The climate of the district was very unhealthy.

The average price of wheat was 57 lbs. for 28.

ALLAHABAD DIVISION.

Cawnpur District.-Had been a good deal over-assessed before, but now obtained relief. Most parts of the district were however fully cultivated and assessed, and except by reason of canal irrigation, "the demand on Cawnpur should be considered as not liable to increase, and fixed in perpetuity."

Futtehpur District.—These remarks applied to Futtehpur District. "With exception to the increase to he

gained by the introduction of canal irrigation, this district must be considered settled in perpetuity."

Allahabad District. Had escaped the calamity of overassessment in the past. With the exception of the increase due for canal irrigation, "this, settlement should also be considered fixed in perpetuity."

The average price of wheat was 54 lbs. for 2s.

BENARES DIVISION.

Azimgarh District.-A fertile, well-irrigated, and wellcultivated district. Some portions were fully assessed and should not be considered liable to future enhancement. The remaining portions "may fairly yield an enhancement proportioned to the increase of cultivation at the close of the present term. The rates ought not to

be enhanced."

The average price of wheat was 59 lbs. for 2s.

Goruckpur District.-A fertile and favourably circumstanced district and expected to yield an increase in the Government demand in the future, both from increased cultivation and from increased rate of assessment.

The average price of wheat was 62 lbs. for 2s.

The nett results of Bird's Settlement are shown in the following figures compiled from tables appended to his report. Ten rupees are taken as equivalent to a pound sterling.

When the work, thus nearly completed by Merttins Bird after nine years' labour, came before the LieutenantGovernor of the Province, that distinguished officer wrote a thoughtful minute, dated April 15, 1842. He recognised that the Settlement had been performed with consideration and judgment, and that increase of revenues had not been the object aimed at. He approved of the introduction of four instalments in the year for the payment of revenue. And he also approved of the demarcation of boundaries and the corrections of accounts. But he doubted if the appointment of a paid watchman in every village would be welcome to villagers, and he coramented

in severe terms on the harsh measure which had been adopted, by over-zealous subordinate officers, to resume rent-free tenures.

"The Settlement Officer swept up without inquiring every patch of unregistered rent-free. land, even those under ten Bighas [three acres] exempted by a subsequent order, which did not come out before five-sixths of the tenures had been resumed. In one district, that of Farakkabad, the obligations of a treaty and the direct orders of Government were but lightly dealt with; and in all, a total disregard was evinced for the acts even of such men as Warren Hastings and Lord Lake." 1

Still more emphatic was the Lieutenant-Governor's condemnation of the manner in which the rights of hereditary landlords had been interfered with. The following is one of the instances cited.

"The Raja of Mynpuri, whose predecessor had received the highest acknowledgments from the British Government for his unshaken loyalty, when the district was overrun by Holkar's army in the year 1804, was, without a reference to Government, under the construction put on the right of a Talukdar, deprived entirely, he and his successors in perpetuity, of all power of interference in 116 of the 158 villages included in his Taluka, which had descended to him in regular succession before the introduction of the British rule." 2

The Lieutenant-Governor also regarded with disfavour a constant interference in the affairs of each village. "To keep up a record of the circumstances of every field there must be a constant interference of the Executive in the affairs in every village, or, it may be said, of every villager, which would be irksome to any people, and will, I suspect, prove intolerable to the Natives of India." And generally the operations appeared to the LieutenantGovernor to be "of a decidedly levelling character, and calculated so to flatten the whole surface of society as *1 Paragraph 16. 2 Paragraph 18.

eventually to leave little of distinguishable eminence between the ruling power and the cultivators of the soil. It is a fearful experiment, that of trying to govern without the aid of any intermediate agency of indigenous growth; yet it is, what it appears to me, that our measures, now in progress, have a direct tendency to bring about." 1

These remarks are of value for all time. The Settlement effected by Bird has been praised, and deservedly praised, for the great benefit it conferred on the agricultural population of Northern India. It moderated the assessment which had been excessive and oppressive during the first thirty years of British rule. And it gave the people some rest from continuous harassment by giving them a long term of settlement. At the same time it should be remembered that Bird's declared intention to make the assessment perpetual, where the lands were fully cultivated and assessed, has been disregarded by later administrators; and his desire to eventually follow the same practice in other districts, as they came more fully under cultivation, has not been fulfilled. On the contrary, the levelling character of the measures, deplored by T. C. Robertson in 1842, are more noticeable after the lapse of sixty years. The village Patwari, paid by the Government, is the master of the situation in North India to-day; and to him is entrusted the power which should legitimately belong to the representatives of the people-the Village Landlord or the Village Community. "To flatten the whole surface of society as eventually to leave little of distinguishable eminence between the ruling power and the cultivators of the soil," is not a policy of wisdom in India.

The generous. and kind-hearted James Thomason succeeded Robertson as Lieutenant-Governor in Northern India in 1843, and ruled that province for ten years. Under him were trained up a number of able administrators, like John Lawrence and Robert Montgomery and 1 Paragraphs 26, 29, 30.