RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 133 



claims he might have to meet, would, by introducing the element 

 of uncertainty into the relations between the Government and the 

 ryot, produce a greater evil than that which it was designed to 

 counteract. 



Some reference had been made by the Commissioners to the system 

 of revenue administration obtaining in Madras, where similar 

 ryotwari settlements prevailed ; but it was shown in the minute 

 recorded by a member of the Bombay Council which accompanied the 

 letter of the Local Government above mentioned, that in point of 

 fact the grant of remissions in seasons in which, through drought 

 or other untoward circumstances, there was an extensive failure of 

 crops, to which the report of the Commission had made allusion, was 

 as much the practice in the revenue administration of the Deccan 

 districts as in that of the Madras Presidency. 



As regards the effect of the present law and system of ad- 

 ministration of justice in bringing about or contributing to the state 

 of things brought to light through the investigation of the Com- 

 mission, the Local Government were clearly of opinion that the 

 change in the Law of Limitation introduced in 1859, which so 

 materially shortened the period within which suits upon breach of 

 contract would lie, and the procedure of the Civil Courts under 

 which so many decrees were given on an entirely ex parte view of 

 the money-lender's claims, were the causes of much of the ryot's 

 embarrassments. They accordingly expressed their concurrence in 

 those protective measures advocated in the report of the Commission, 

 which embraced, (1) the establishment of public notaries for the 







preparation and registration of instruments to be executed by the 

 ryots in favour of the money-lenders, by way of security for the 

 repayment of loans ; (2) the enforcement of the grant of receipts 

 for money paid, statements of account, and pass-books by the so^vfa^r, 

 on the requisition of the ryot ; and (3) an improved mode of trial 

 of suits upon money claims by the Civil Courts ; and they pressed 

 upon the Government of India the expediency of reverting to the old 

 Law of Limitation in force previous to 1859 in respect of suits upon 

 contracts. 



The Local Government further, in connection with the recom- 

 mendations of the Commission regarding -an improved method of 

 adjudication of claims for the recovery of debts in the Deccan 

 districts, indirectly invited a declaration from the Government of 



