



142 RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



Only one of the three premises mentioned above remains 

 that the land is such that capital in large single sums can alone 

 effect its improvement. That is exactly what it is not. There are 

 indeed certain localities, limited in number, where irrigation projects 

 may alter the character of the produce and counteract seasons of 

 drought. But these are far too extensive for individual enterprise. 

 They must be undertaken by joint stock companies or Government, 

 and the latter has them in hand. But the great proportion of the 

 cultivated area is such, that the most it is capable of, can be made out of 

 it either by mere careful tillage and economy of stable manure, or by 

 petty improvements, such as, for instance, digging a well, banking up 

 a stream or watershed at certain seasons, making a supply-channel 

 from a neighbouring canal or river, or altering the level or inclination 

 of a field by action, in short, of exactly the kind which the peasant- 

 proprietor, standing on his own land, fully realizing its capabilities, 

 and feeling pride and pleasure as well as utility in developing them 

 to meet the growing needs of himself and his children, is at once the 

 most competent and the most likely to apply. That he has so improved 

 his estate since it came into his hands when he could, despite all the 

 adverse circumstances by which he has been met, is proved by the 

 increase in wells and the reclamation of unassessed waste within hold- 

 ings during the last thirty years. Whether he shall pursue these 

 inclinations freely, or continue, as at present, thwarted and check- 

 mated at every turn, it now mainly rests with us to decide. 



To the question, therefore, whether there is, after all, much 

 harm in the present state of things, we must, perforce, answer that 

 the harm is of the greatest. To a peasantry such as I have described, 

 expropriation means discouragement, despair and exasperation. To the 

 money-lending class, it means the acquisition of what they are unfitted 

 to use and do not particularly desire to have, of what yields 

 them at best a precarious profit, not exceeding that which reasonable 

 rates of interest, combined with easy recovery, would produce, but 

 wrung forth with trouble, anxiety, expense, popular execration, and 

 even personal danger. To society, it means the discouragement of 

 labour in extracting wealth from the soil, the application of capital 

 in disadvantageous and comparatively unproductive channels, and the 

 fomentation of disorder and outrage. As reported to the Bombay Govern- 

 ment in 1858 by MR. J. D. INVERARITY, the Revenue Commissioner 



' the question is one of vital importance both to Government and the people. 

 Even the passive society of the East cannot bear so great a burden without making 



