135 



member of the fashionable world. All persons of 

 respectable position put a device on their silver 

 spoons, a cat, a bird, a dog*, a monkey, &c., or on 

 the panels of their carriages, and readily pay for 

 the privilege. Nay persons called Kings, are main- 

 tained by the Sovereign expressly to invent these 

 devices, &c., for the gratification of their subjects. 

 Viewed from a philosophical point, these taxes, and 

 all such as are directed against pride or vanity, and 

 not against wealth or luxury, are supremely ridicu- 

 lous ; but as long* as the people are happy in bearing 

 them, no harm is done. To apply similar taxes, 

 however, to a people living in an entirely different 

 state of societ}^ with different ideas, and diametri- 

 cally opposite views on the subject of taxation to a 

 people, in short, who will not willingly bear them, 

 would not only be unwise, but tyrannical. In India 

 the land revenue is not a tax, and never has been a 

 tax in the sense in which that term is understood in 

 Europe. Nor yet is it rent. Fusing the elements 

 of the different systems we have to deal with in 

 India, without violating the fundamental principles 

 of any, the question may be fairly thus simply 

 resolved. " The earth, the source of all wealth, is 

 the Lord's. It's produce is his creatures. Kings 

 are God's Vicegerents on earth. As such, they 

 have certain duties and responsibilities to perform 

 towards the rest of creation. In consideration 

 thereof, they are legally entitled to a portion of the 

 produce of the soil a tenth, a sixth, a fourth, as 



