71 



retention of such a clause in the Revenue Statute 

 Book, would reflect discredit if not disgrace on the 

 Government of any civilized nation. 



The intentions of the framers of this rule were 

 doubtless the very best and purest. They desired 

 not to sacrifice the interests of the country to those 

 of individuals, and they could not devise any other 

 means of accomplishing- it. I am not aware, more- 

 over, of this clause having occasioned much incon- 

 venience though the rage for tea-planting being of 

 very recent date, the time for putting them in force 

 had not fully arrived and I am certain that in 

 practice no injustice would have been perpetrated. 

 The existence of the rule however, rendering, as it 

 did, the tenure of every acre of a grant precarious 

 for the space of thirty years, or more, was a blot 

 which could not have been allowed to disfigure the 

 revenue code of any province in India, had there 

 been a minister of commerce, well acquainted with 

 the principles on which business transactions are 

 carried on, at the right hand of the Viceroy, for no 

 rule could possibly have been framed better calcu- 

 lated to defeat the very object the British Govern- 

 ment had in view. It would seem, too, as if some 

 such light had already begun to dawn in Bengal. 

 For, in the rules promulgated for Arracan, provision 

 was made for due notice being served on the 

 grantee, requiring him to show cause, why the whole 

 of his land should not be resumed, and directing 

 judicial proceedings, open to appeal in the usual 



