8G 



ridiculous to argue the necessity part of the sub- 

 ject, after the offer to purchase the fee-simple 

 had been made to the settlers at Madras, and 

 declined ! * 



I think that the agitation for the sale of waste lands 

 in fee-simple was mischievous, because the demand, 

 including* in its scope the whole of the immense wastes 

 of India, and involving' the abandonment by the 

 State of its claim for revenue from these lands for all 

 time to come, required more cautious legislation than 

 would a simple request for the removal of the objec- 

 tionable clauses of existing- rules, and hence it fol- 

 lowed that the rules under which it has been thought 

 advisable or expedient to sanction this measure, 

 though possibly suitable for large capitalists, are 

 very much less favourable to the great majority of 

 Europeans already established in Assam, Cachar, 

 and the Himalayas, and any that under present 

 circumstances are likely to go to these places, than 

 those previously in force. Under former rules, a 

 developer, or his agent, proceeded with his little 

 capital to the spot upon which he wished to settle, 

 and looked out for a bit of land suitable for the crop 

 he wanted to grow. Having found it, he applied 

 for it and the moment the Board of Revenue's 

 sanction was obtained, he was put in possession of 



* The truth of these remarks, written in the latter part of 

 1862, is fully borne out by the ruin that has been brought on 

 countless people in England and India, by the collapse, in 

 great part from the causes here indicated, of tea in 18GG 

 Jan. 1867. 



