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probably a young* military officer, but a few years 

 emancipated from regimental duty, are left in un- 

 happy ignorance. No limit defines the extent of 

 land over which a rig-lit of occupancy may exist. 

 No bounds limit the period within which a proprie- 

 tary right can keep land out of cultivation, within 

 which the power of the occupant or proprietor, to 

 debar the State from obtaining* its just dues, is re- 

 strained. Yet, without a knowledge of what con- 

 stitutes a valid rig-lit, how shall a developer select 

 his land how shall a collector satisfactorily decide 

 disputes ? without a revenue, how shall the Govern- 

 ment discharge those functions which, converted by 

 its own act from expedient into obligatory, such 

 developers as do settle, will have a right to compel 

 it to observe ? I cannot clearly see how these diffi- 

 culties can be got over, and therefore, I think, that 

 until these points shall be first decided the attempt 

 to sell these lands is premature. 



For though the testimony of the present circum- 

 stances of India is confirmatory, in a high degTee, 

 of Mr. Maine's opinion, that the notion that occu- 

 pancy confers a title to " res nullius," is not charac- 

 teristic of societies in an early state of civilization ; 

 and the Law is clearly against the existence of any 

 permanent and inalienable rights in land, as long 

 as it is uncultivated and waste, all the difficulties 

 which have hitherto been supposed to surround 

 this subject are not, unfortunately, removed. The 

 area of this peninsula an area so immense as 



