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minutes of Sir John Peter Grant the late Lieut.- 

 Governor of Bengal, who for the last six years has 

 strenuously endeavoured to obtain from the Govern- 

 ment of India the ways and means of improving 

 Bengal, in this respect, in vain. 



The Government of India, in making a perpetual 

 settlement with the Zemindars of Bengal, doubtless 

 considered that they had made over, with the surplus 

 profits accruing by the increase in cultivation and 

 the value of the produce, the duties and responsibili- 

 ties which it still retained in its own hands in the 

 North West, and it confidently expected that the 

 Zemindars would willingly accept the high respon- 

 sibility which attaches to ownership in the soil. 

 How the two Landlords have discharged their trust, 

 what I have stated above will sufficiently show. 

 But it is not all. The Zemindars have not only not 

 discharged those duties and responsibilities in respect 

 of public works, which in other countries landlords 

 most cheerfully accept; but shielding themselves 

 behind the letter of the enactment which perpetuated 

 the decennial settlement, they have refused all further 

 aid to Government in lieu of any extraordinary pro- 

 tection they may be afforded in times of extreme 

 peril, or for any public purpose whatever. When, 

 in consequence of the inefficient state of the Police, 

 especially of the Village- Watch, thefts, gang-rob- 

 beries, and dacoities had increased to an alarming 

 extent in parts of Bengal, and Government sought 



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