179 



which had successfully strained every nerve to save S 

 them and their property from destruction. Yet in 

 1859, when an income tax was proposed, the Zemin- 

 dars of Bengal, not only declared themselves such, 

 but claiming* immunity under the very Act that 

 effected, it may be said, the creation of their wealth, 

 they most stoutly resisted its incidence, loading 1 the 

 Government with accusations of injustice and bad 

 faith, in lieu of those outpourings of gratitude and 

 substantial donations which might have been looked 

 for. Behind such facts as these, the confident ex- 

 pectations of Lord Cornwallis vanish into the thinnest 

 of thin air ; and with them before us, I would ven- 

 ture to ask, what solid ground have we on which to 

 rest the shadow of a hope, that the future of the 

 present will bear better fruit ? 



I would add, however, that, though in clearly stat- 

 ing the case as between Government and its subjects, 

 the peculiarity of the situation compels me to lay 

 bare facts in all their nakedness, I do not desire to 

 be understood as blaming the Zemindars of Bengal 

 in the degree the unmeasured terms here used would 

 seem to imply. In viewing the case I have looked 

 at it from an English stand-point, for the special 

 benefit of Englishmen unacquainted with the cir- 

 cumstances of India and its people. It falls to my 

 lot officially to translate into the native languages 

 for publication, the returns of the public works 

 annually executed by private individuals in Bengal, 



and I am fully aware that, in their own small way, 



N 2 





