professional surveys cannot be substituted for the Native surveys without giving up all the details in respect to fields which it was the main object of the latter to obtain; unless, indeed, this detail can be got in the way suggested in the 25th paragraph of His Lordship's Minute. If khusrehs showing the extent, appropriation, and rent of the cultivated land exhibited in the area-surveys of the European officers, can be obtained from the village putwarees, the Native surveys may, of course, be dispensed with.

6. The mode of adjusting revenue payments referred to in these paragraphs will be applicable only to the case of putteedaree estates, and as a vast majority of the mehals to be re-settled are not of that character, the proposed rule will have only a very limited operation. Assessments regulated in this way, instead of being founded on detailed jummabundees, will render it impossible for the revenue officers to make a sale of a putteedaree estate which shall convey to a purchaser a known and distinct interest in it. When survey rates were assumed for the adjustment of the Government jumma, it might be provided that the transfer should be made on the condition that the hereditary cultivators were not to be disturbed in the possession of their fields so long as they paid the survey

rates.

7. It is observed by His Lordship in the last of these two paragraphs, that "the maps furnished by the musahut establishments are constructed on so unscientific a principle as to be almost useless." Those maps were never designed to serve the purpose of maps constructed on scientific principles, and are of course utterly useless without the survey registers to which the numbers entered in them refer; but the two papers, the nuqsha and the khusreh, have been drawn in some districts so as to constitute together, for most practical purposes, a more useful record even than the maps of the surveyors; for the former will be more readily intelligible to the canoongoes, putwarees, and ameens, who may be employed to report on the localities of spots in respect to which disputes exist, than the latter.

8. Till it be determined in what manner surveys of estates shall be executed in future, it will be useless to offer any suggestions in respect to the forms according to which revenue details

shall be hereafter arranged by the district authorities for record in their own offices; but for enabling the controlling authorities to appreciate the fairness of proposed assessments in individual cases, or generally, I think the two forms of statement which accompany this note might be substituted for the statements heretofore in

use.

9. It does not strike me that any new legislative rules are necessary at present for enabling revenue officers to accomplish all the objects noticed in this paragraph of His Lordship's Minute. It is intended, I believe, that all rights in the actual enjoyment of individuals connected with the rent of land, or the land itself, shall be recorded, and nothing more than this is required by Regulation VII. of 1822; and though it is provided in this Regulation that officers revising settlements shall be competent to try and determine all claims to property in either land or rent, still power is reserved by Government to restrict, by an order in Council, the exercise of this authority in any manner that may be judged expedient. I imagine that an order of the Government will suffice for limiting the cognizance of the revenue officers to cases in which the cause of action may have originated within the period of one year.

10. In respect to instructions for enabling revenue officers to effect the revision of settlements, and to conduct proceedings according to the views announced in the Governor-General's Minute, it appears to me that the readiest way of making what is desired by His Lordship intelligible to the revenue officers generally will be causing a few putteedaree and zemindaree estates in the vicinity of Allahabad to be surveyed in the way now proposed; the details in regard to character, appropriation, and rent of the cultivated land, to be acquired through the tehseeldars and canoongoes, Persian proceedings to be written; and the English statements and reports for the commissioner's office to be prepared; and, when these are all complete in the shape that may be considered satisfactory; by having copies of them circulated for general information, with such comments as may be necessary to make them clearly intelligible. In detailed arrangements of this sort, I have always found a complete case to refer to a far more useful guide than the most carefully-drawn instructions.

11. The proposed employment of Native deputy collectors appears to be a most desirable arrangement, for, independently of the superior manner in which a well-qualified Native officer, under the general superintendence of a collector, may be expected to execute the work, a great benefit will result from keeping the same individuals constantly employed, and thus obviating the impediments to the progress of the revised settlements which the changes amongst the European officers will be ever occasioning. It was intended, in the arrangement suggested for Goruckpore, that the Native superintendent should endeavour to adjust, by punchayet or otherwise, all disputes that might be found to exist in regard to property or boundaries; and where such adjustment could not be effected without an order of the European functionary, that the superintendent should present the particulars of the matter in dispute in writing in a shape that would facilitate the decision of this authority on it. It will, I think, be a great improvement on this system to assign to a well-paid and efficient Native officer the duty of deciding on his own responsibility, in all cases of dispute, so far as the European revenue officers are now competent to decide.

12. It is of great importance, not only with reference to new settlements, but to the security of the revenue under existing engagements, that it should be immediately declared what interest in malgoozaree estates shall be held responsible in future for the Government revenue. Till the enactment of Regulation XI. of 1822, or indeed for some time afterwards, there was not a revenue officer, I believe, from one end of the provinces to the other, who did not believe that the whole, rent of estates which was in excess of the Government jumma was responsible by sale for any arrear of revenue that might accrue, without the least reference to the individual interest that might exist in such rent.

13. Questions on this subject, as applicable to the case of putteedaree and zemindaree estates, were submitted by the Board to the Government in a way that I thought would have enabled the Hon'ble the Vice-President in Council to intimate a distinct declaration on the points referred; but the orders received in reply having reference rather to doubtful suppositions than the specific facts stated by the Board, were such as could not be practically applied. If it

be intended that only a limited portion of the rent of estates that is in excess of the Government jumma shall be liable to sale for arrears of revenue, it will be necessary that this portion shall be distinctly specified; and if the value of the confined interest indicated be such as will not constitute adequate security for the revenue, it will in that case, I imagine, be as necessary to demand security from proprietary engagers as from farmers.

14. If the entire rent interest in estates had been held responsible in the three or four last years for the revenue of estates in Bundelkhund, as it always had been before, I conceive that the loss of revenue which has been suffered in that province would not have been half so extensive as it has been.

No. X.

CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING A SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE HELD

AT ALLAHABAD ON 21ST, 22ND, 23RD JANUARY, 1833: AND CONCLUSION OF DISCUSSION BY THE PASSING OF REGULATION IX. OF 1833.

1. From the SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL, Revenue Department, to the REVENUE BOARD, dated 29th December, 1832.

GENTLEMEN, The period fixed for the revenue meeting at Allahabad being now near, the Governor-General desires me to request that you will instruct your Officiating Secretary to prepare an abstract of the points to be discussed, and that you will forward them for His Lordship's consideration at your earliest convenience.

2. The questions requiring to be determined may be gathered from the correspondence which has within the last two years passed between your Board and the Governor-General, and your Board and the Hon'ble the Vice-President in Council. Those questions might be arranged numerically with reference to their importance, something after the manner following:

1st,-What description of survey is best calculated for the purpose of settlement?

2nd, Are the interests of Government and the agricultural community likely to be secured by a mere professional survey, and accompanied by the minute particulars recorded by the Native surveyors?

3rd,-Would it be advantageous to unite both surveys, and how? 4th,-Are there any particular districts in which the one description of survey would be more applicable than the other?

5th,-Could not the professional survey be brought to combine all the benefits of a musahut establishment with the accuracy of an European survey?