RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OF LANDS. 229 



destroyed; and the progress of the province will be retarded for at 

 least fifty years. Every age and every epoch has had its Cassandra; 

 and I do not complain of my Hon'ble friend for donning the familiar 

 garb. I venture, however, to think that if his superlatives had been 

 fewer, his invective would have been more convincing, and that liis 

 vaticinations will be found to have been a good deal exaggerated. If 

 this be so, I am confident that no one will be better pleased than 

 the Hon'ble Member himself. I will not rush to the opposite ex- 

 treme. I have no intention of claiming that universal peace, or 

 prosperity, or affluence will settle down upon the land in consequence 

 of this Bill. Far from it. There are many questions as to the future 

 to which I should hesitate to give a confident reply. Will this 

 measure really secure to the agricultural tribes of the province the 

 full possession of their ancestral lands ? Will it restrain them from 

 reckless borrowing? Will it save them from the mesh of the usurer? 

 Or, while protecting them from usurers of other castes, will it hand 

 over the feebler and less thrifty units in the class to the richer and 

 more powerful members of the tribe? Or, again, will it effectually 

 divorce the money-bags of the province from the one form of invest- 

 ment which has always been dear to successful speculation? It 

 would require a keener insight than mine to answer such questions 

 with any certainty. It may be permissible, however, to anticipate 

 that while all of these consequences will to some extent ensue, no 

 one will follow to the exclusion of the others. The moneyed classes, 

 the nouveaux riches, will still have their opportunity of obtaining land, 

 but not on such easy terms as in the past. The agricultural tribes- 

 men will not all in a moment be converted to frugal or provident 

 habits ; but the opportunities and the temptations of borrowing will, 

 it is hoped, be less. The weakling and the spendthrift will still go 

 under, and his possessions will pass to his stronger brethren. But 

 the transfer will be more frequently to men of his own tribe or tribal 

 group, and less frequently to outsiders who are not connected either 

 with the traditions or with the traditional occupation of the province. 

 The transition will not be abrupt or sensational. It will be enough 

 if, though gradual, it is sure. I shall myself watch the venture 

 with the warmest sympathy and interest, not merely because I havo 

 been head of the Government of India at the time when this J>ill 

 h*s passed into law, nor because I know it to have been framed with 

 the most conscientious regard for the public interest, but because it 



