77 



Wynaad had been satisfied. A small voice spoke 

 in the Boon of Dehrah. But for the rest, the great 

 wastes of India were silent, or if their stillness was 

 broken, it was but by the roar of the tiger, which 

 proclaimed them untenanted by man. In Calcutta, 

 however, a cry was raised by the owners or agents 

 of some half dozen tea concerns in Assam and 

 Cachar a cry, not for the removal of the resump- 

 tion and other objectionable clauses of existing rules, 

 not for a new set of rules for the Provinces with 

 which they had any concern ; but for the sale in fee- 

 simple of the whole of the waste and uncultivated 

 lands throughout India at 6s an acre ! Nothing 

 short of this, it was asserted, would meet the wants 

 of capitalists, planters, and settlers. The withhold- 

 ing of this, it was put forth, retarded all European 

 enterprise, for the establishment of cotton planta- 

 tions, tea, and other agricultural enterprises. For 

 this the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal was ad- 

 dressed, for this the Governor-General in Council 

 was petitioned, and for this the strongest pressure 

 of the Press was brought to bear on the Supreme 

 Authority in India. No delay could be tolerated. 

 The necessities of the planters were imminent ; and 

 it was considered harsh and unjust on the part of 

 the Indian Government, to refuse any longer that 

 which the Lieut.-Governor of Bengal had so strongly 

 recommended, that which, it was asserted, had 

 been already conceded by the Secretary of State, 

 when he sanctioned the redemption of the land-tax 



