GRANT OF LOANS AND ADVANCES TO AGRICULTURISTS. 43 



yielded to the State might be expected to form, he might really say, 

 an insignificant burden on theTagricultural resources of the country. 

 The present measure would be a step in this direction, and he thought, 

 a not unimportant step. He believed" that if it were worked intelli- 

 gently it might produce really great results, and he thought that this 

 measure would also be valuable at the present time as a fresh recog- 

 nition of the fact that the Government of India was not only a 

 Government, but the receiver, as the representative of the public, of 

 that portion of the rent of the land which had belonged from time 

 immemorial to the State, and that, in its capacity of chief land-lord 

 of the country, duties devolved on the Government for the improve- 

 ment of the land, and for the advancement generally of agriculture, 

 beyond the ordinary duties of a Government, and similar in kind to 

 those duties which a good land-lord had everywhere to perform. 



