the whole colony was claimed by the crown, and granted in portions of 

 from 9 to 36 square leagues, called seignories, i.e. manors, to certain 

 nobles or leading men, who were bound to grant (or " concede," as it 

 was called,) certain portions to actual cultivators, and received from 

 them certain fixed rents of small amount, services, and other dues. 

 The lands comprised in the seignorial districts amount to 9,000,000 

 acres. 



Enough has been said to show how old and general is the principle 

 which invests the state with the property of the soil. Let us now 

 inquire what are the different modes in which this right is practically 

 used. The nations of Asia, ancient and modem, as already mentioned, 

 lodged the right of the state in a single individual, the sovereign, to be 

 exercised by him in the name of the state. This has led throughout 

 Asia to the system of ryot tenancy. The ryot is the hereditary occu- 

 pier and cultivator of the soil, subject to pay to his landlord, i. e. to the 

 sovereign, a fixed proportion of the produce as rent or taxes ; his tenure 

 has been more or less secure, according to the caprice of his rulers or 

 the political circumstances of the country. New conquerors would 

 naturally assert their right as owners of the soil, by a new division of 

 it, so far as their interest demanded, and by a new arrangement of the 

 conditions of tenure; but in peaceful times, and under mild rulers, 

 (not a very common case, unfortunately, in the history of Asia,) the 

 ryot would have a prescriptive right of possession so long as he per- 

 formed the obligations imposed upon him. It is well known, that the 

 British Government in Bengal has divested itself of the character of 

 landlord, and has conferred the property in the soil upon the Zemindars, 

 who, up to that time, had been merely agents of the government — a sort 

 of hereditary tax-gatherers. The government receives now no rent, but 

 a real tax, a land tax from the newly created landlords. 



The conditon of the ryot in India, Persia, and the other Asiatic 

 countries, has been at all times most deplorable. Exposed to the 

 rapacity of the agents of a tyrannical government, they have never 

 been able to rise above the mere necessaries of bare existence; and 

 though reduced to live upon what would barely support life, they have 

 yet been depressed still lower by the necessity of bon'owing seed-corn, 

 food, or stock, from the Zemindars. 



Different has been the lot of the tillers of the land in the north-east 

 of Europe. In Russia, Poland, and Hungary, the serf takes the place 

 of the ryot. When the conquered lands were portioned out and granted 

 to the nobility in those countries, the ancient cultivators of the soil 

 were given away with the land. Their services to the state were made 

 to consist in labour on such portions of land as were farmed by the 



