186 



pancy, sell and mortgage their land without let 

 or hindrance. Can anything- further, as regards 

 security of title, be required ? Does any English 

 landlord give such good leases to his tenants ? I 

 think not. Assuredly then, security of title is not 

 what is required to give the people of India such an 

 interest in the soil, as will induce them to expend 

 capital upon it. They have it to the full already ; 

 and if proof of the fact be wanting, I refer to the 

 rent-free tenures. Rent-free estates are scattered 

 throughout the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies. 

 One sixth of the whole of the land in the Madras 

 Presidency is held free of rent. Compare the condi- 

 tion of the cultivators of both, and what is the result ? 

 The bulk of the testimony of the Government 

 officials on the subject is, that the condition of the 

 people paying revenue to Government is letter than 

 that of those paying none, the reason assigned being, 

 that the demand of Government acts as a beneficial 

 stimulus on their dormant energies. 



We must seek, therefore, for some other causes 

 for the depressed condition of the cultivators and 

 peasant-proprietors of India, than the absence of a 

 perfect property in the soil. Nor is it difficult to 

 find them. They are, high assessments, rack rents, 

 short leases, oppression of landlords, excess of land 

 over population, famines, defective means of com- 

 munication, peculiar characteristics of the people, 

 &c. It is to these evils and not to the tenure of 

 the land, that attention should be directed ; and 



