RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 147 



imposed nor contemplated in many of the localities where they occurred. 

 Still less can the general indebtedness of the ryot be ascribed to the 

 weight of the assessment, whether an re vised or revised, since the 

 proportion of the net produce taken is low in itself ; very low for 

 a landlord to take ; far lower than that prevailing in 'alienated' 

 British villages and adjacent foreign States. I am here, of course, 

 speaking broadly, irrespective of individual instances oi over-assess- 

 ment, which in so vast an undertaking may not improbably have 

 occurred. But it seems likely that indebtedness arising mainly from 

 other causes, normal or special, may have been aggravated by our 

 rigid system. If any considerable increase at a revision were gradu- 

 ally worked up to in the course of two to five years, the ryot would 

 have time to readjust his expenses to his means instead of being taken 

 by surprise, and perhaps driven to the money-lender. Again, if the 

 recovery of instalments were more coincident with the time when the 

 ryot realizes on his produce, instead of falling sometimes too early 

 and sometimes too late, and so the land-revenue were more in practice 

 (what it is in law) a first charge on the latter, much temporary borrow- 

 ing, fraud in crediting produce, and eventual Government process for 

 recovery, might be avoided. Some debt, too, may be caused by the 

 fear of eviction a mode of recovering the revenue for which a 

 substitute is much needed. Moreover, though the system of taking 

 revenue in kind, besides involving the injustice of assessment on the 

 gross produce instead of the net, is so open to fraud, when adopted 

 on a large scale, as to be impracticable, its object might be attained, 

 in localities subject to drought, by such suspension of the revenue 

 demand as to spread over three or four years, according to the seasons, 

 the aggregate amount to be recovered in that period. Finally, in 

 times of famine, suspension of demand might be systematically 

 granted, as of late it has been by SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, and even total 

 remission, which is not inconsistent with the Bombay settlements. 

 And, above all, whatever relief is deemed reasonable should be granted 

 in time. 



The arming of tJie i/uni^y-fcinl^r is a general term which I shall 

 apply to the process of increasing in numberless "\\ays the legal power 

 of creditor over debtor, which has been synonymous with the elabora- 

 tion of our Indian law procedure. In otir early judicial dealings with 

 our newly-acquired possessions in the Bombay Presidency, we combined 

 as far as possible the Native model in form with European common 



