136 



the laws of the land, or the necessities of circum- 

 stances, may determine/' 1 * 



Virtually then, whatever may be the law what- 

 ever the popular belief, there is no perfect property 

 in the soil, either of the king-, or of the cultivator, 

 the right of both to their fair and equitable share of 

 the produce being equally strong, legal, and valid. 

 Or if it be desired to define the position more clearly, 

 it can only resolve itself into this, that the property 

 vests in the Community, the King is the agent, and 

 the Cultivator, the tenant or labourer, as the case 

 may be, which simply brings us back to the point 

 from which we started, that community of property 

 is the rule in societies living in a primitive state of 

 civilization. To speak of heavy burthens on the 

 land in India is clearly an error. As long, there- 

 fore, as present ideas on the subject remain undis- 

 turbed, the land revenue in India, can never be 



* MANU says : " A Military King, who takes even a fourth 

 part of the crops of his realm, at a time of urgent necessity, 

 as of war or invasion, and protects his people to the utmost of 

 his power, commits no sin." 



On which the Commentator observes : " From the circum- 

 stances of the times, if confidence cannot be placed in the 

 subject, the value of a sixth part, or other proportion of the 

 crop, any how ascertained, may be taken, whether the actual 

 produce be more or less than was estimated : this method is 

 authorised by settled usage, and is indicated by the text" 



On this law is based the revenue levied, in our own times, 

 by the Marhattas, so well known under the title of Choat, i.e. 

 the fourth, thus establishing satisfactorily, that, up to the 

 latest date, the principle observed in India, has been diametri- 

 cally the opposite of that adopted in England, the shares in the 

 produce of the soil of the King and the Cultivator in the one 

 case, fluctuating with the seasons, and according to circum- 

 stances, and in the other, being fixed and immutable. 



