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India, therefore, may now be put up to auction at 

 an upset price of 5s per acre, and sold in fee-simple 

 to the highest bidder, the purchaser being called on 

 to pay 10 per cent, of the purchase money down, 

 and being permitted to pay the balance by instal- 

 ments within 10 years, subject to an annual charge 

 of 10 per cent, on the portion of the purchase money 

 unpaid, until the whole is liquidated. 

 / The proposal to sell out-right 100,000,000^acres^ 

 more or less, of land, an area far exceeding in ex- 

 tent many principalities of Europe, would, at any 

 time, and in any country, be a question requiring- 

 very serious consideration ; but when such a ques- 

 tion arises in a country the main source of the re- 

 venues of which is the rent derived from land, the 

 necessity for thought and reflection is much inten- 

 sified. Lord Canning, doubtless, conceived that in 

 introducing this measure he was acting in the spirit, 

 and in full accord with the principle, of the despatch 

 of Lord Stanley, which contemplated disposing of 

 these lands in accordance with his recommendation, 

 either ' for terms of years, or in perpetuity ;' and 

 with his ripe experience of India, that he should be 

 unwilling to leave a measure, fraught with interests 

 of such magnitude to the country he had governed 

 for six years so successfully, to be carried out by a 

 new Viceroy is perfectly intelligible. In this sense, 

 it is probable, he acted ; and as he had no defined 

 instructions from Home, it is not surprising that 

 differences of opinion should have arisen on points 



