120 



rights, as above, on a liberal basis, and will submit 

 the case, through the S udder Board of Revenue, to 

 the Government in view to the payment of full com- 

 pensation." 



All written laws must necessarily have been 

 framed after Societies had advanced some stages 

 be} T ond the most primitive state. It is futile then, 

 to hope, by the examination of codes of laws, to 

 ascertain how property in the soil was first, or is 

 naturally acquired. Nor would it be of any prac- 

 tical use to do so. The first laws of peoples, are 

 valuable, however, as giving" us the nearest possible 

 view of an interesting subject, and the concurrent 

 testimony of the lawgivers of many nations in an 

 early stage of civilization in favour of certain funda- 

 mental principles, especially if consonant with our 

 own sense of right, is useful as an index to guide us 

 when legislating for a people less advanced than 

 ourselves, in preserving to them those privileges, to 

 which they may be justly considered to have a pre- 

 scriptive right. 



Now Hindoo and Mohammadan Law differ in 

 at least one important particular as regards land 

 tenure generally. According to Hindoo Law, 

 though the subject may obtain a subordinate or 

 usufructuary property by cultivation, the royal or 

 superior right of property in the soil, vests in the 

 Sovereign. Nor can he divest himself of it, except 

 by sale or gift. By the Mohammadan Law, on the 

 contrary, should a King* on subduing a country by 



