, Present State of Husbandry in Bengal. , 1 1 



batidry on the humble mienlightened peasant. It cou!d 

 not, without example, generally engage a u'eallhier and 

 better informed class. Positive institutions would be of a_s 

 little avail. The legislator cannot direct the judgment of 

 his subjects ; his business is only to be caieful lest his re- 

 gulations * disturb them in the pursuit of their true in- 

 terests. 



In Bengal, where the revenue of the state has had the 

 form of land-rent, the management of finances has a more 

 immediate influence on agriculture than any other part of 

 the administration. The system which has been adopted, 

 of withdrawing from direct interference with the occupants, 

 and leaving them to tenant from landlords, will contribute, 

 more than any of the rcrnediary f regulations wliich have 

 been promulgated, to abuses and evils which had rendered 

 the situation of the cultivator precarious. But not yet hav- 

 ing produced its eflect, it requires us to review the system 

 of finances, under which abuses had grown, and placed the 

 occupant in a precarious situation, as dljcouraging to agri- 

 culture as any circumstance yet noticed ; for without an 

 ascertained inferest for a sufficient period, no person could 

 have an inducement to venture a capital in husbandry. 



''^- A stTone instance of svch iil-adviscd institutions occurs in a loca! 

 regulation, v. liich prohibited farms exceeding fifty bcgj'.lis 



■\ Re^u'ations on this and other subjects have copied too closely the 

 notions and forms of Europoan na ions. Though they have been framed 

 by persons well informed of the customs and prejudices of the natives, a 

 predilection for the maxims of European societies lias introduced rules, 

 which, if not incGnipatililc with the disposition of the Indian, have at 

 least been pressed with too eager haste, not allowing time to the natives 

 to accommodate tlicmselves to new forms and to innovating maxims. 

 The provisions of new laws, not easily apprehended by the natives, are 

 to them the more obscure, being framed in a forcij^n hnguagc, fiom 

 u'hi-ch transiarionfi cannot assimilate to the idiom of their own tongue. 

 Hence the liest intentions have not yet proii i^ed i^ood eli'ects. The 

 ptopic have received no material relief, no consuierable hjntfit; the only 

 consetjiiencc is, that tlicir undctiifl. dings arc coDfounJcd, and their tninjs 



\\. Analxjtkid 



