APPENDIX T. 5 



Still at the best the creditor would have a strong and tight grasp on 

 the standing crop. I do not mention the garnered crop, because the 

 creditor would never let it roach the stage of storage without his 

 interposition. He would attack it while it was standing on the ground. 

 He would compel the ryot to hypothecate it for the debt. He would 

 leave to the ryot such subsistence as he (the creditor) deemed fit. The 

 standing crop, being the only food supply of the ryot, is so essential a 

 part of his little possessions that he must pay extreme deference to the 

 creditor who is virtually master of that crop. Then comes the critical 

 difficulty. The creditor presents to the ryot an old bond, which must 

 be paid off immediately, or else renewed on exorbitant terms. At 

 present these bonds, as already stated, are often flagrantly unjust. 

 This injustice will, we hope, be mitigated by legislation, restricting 

 usurious interest even then there will remain but too much scope for 

 injustice in these bonds. Restrictions on usurious interest may be 

 useful. Still they cannot prevent alterations in the amount of the 

 principal as already shown. Thus the ryot must ' stand and deliver 1 

 to the bond, under penalty of having his crop attached and his food 

 supply interfered with. The temptation to renew on some exorbitant 

 terms will be generally irresistible. The creditors are notoriously 

 ingenious in framing terms which, though exorbitant, will yet fail to 

 show on the face of them usurious interest or anything else that may 

 be illegal, and will yet evade the just intentions of the law. Then 

 simultaneously with renewal of the arrangement the old bond will be 

 cancelled. The renewed bond will be executed, and will be the one 

 formal valid bond, as between the parties, to be presented in court. 

 And the ryot will from time to time be obliged to pay upon that, or 

 else will have his crop attached, and his food supply suddenly stopped. 

 If unfortunately that bond be unjust, as it but too often will be, then 

 the ryot will be, to a considerable extent, the victim of injustice. He 

 will not be indeed so helplessly a victim as he has been heretofore, as 

 he will avoid paying a demonstrably usurious interest ; he will be able 

 to save himself from imprisonment and his land from sale. But for 

 fear of his crop and his food supply he will still be, to some consi- 

 deraMe extent, a victim. 



24. From this oppression he may be saved altogether, and his 



liability may be limited to its proper proportions, by our proj>osal 



(a) obliging the courts to go behind the bonds. Thai, at all rvrnls, 



is the most effectual provision that can !><> devised. And if \\vll and 



60 



