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position to assert its authority over the whole of its 

 Empire, deal with rights, which, though its un- 

 doubted property, it has, from its own weakness or 

 inattention, silently permitted others to possess 

 themselves of? The rights of property in the soil 

 viewed from European and Native stand-points are 

 so different, and foreign conquerors, changes in 

 dynasties and laws, local circumstances, &c., have 

 created so many and so great a confusion of tenant 

 rights throughout the country, that questions liable 

 to arise out of such a situation involve some nicety. 

 They ought not, therefore, to be left to be decided 

 by young collectors, or individuals, buyers or sellers, 

 Native or European. My endeavour has been to 

 disencumber the position of some of the difficulties 

 with which it was supposed to be surrounded. But 

 to frame a rule, or at least to lay down such broad 

 principles as commissioners and collectors can apply 

 to the circumstances of the localities in which they 

 may be placed, without risking 1 , a sacrifice of the 

 interests of the State, the Country, or the People, 

 is clearly the business of the Crown, whose property 

 these rights are, and not the business of either oc- 

 cupiers or intending settlers, and until the Crown 

 has done so, it cannot be said that it is in a position 

 to sell. ' ' Kings/' says the Hindoo Lawgiver before 

 quoted, a were created by GOD to decide the various 

 contests between subjects concerning occupancy and 

 the like, and to maintain just proceedings therefore 

 the king, as lord of his subjects, is called lord of men 



