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pass Parliament, which will give greater power to the 

 friends of the working man and of peasant proprietorship; 

 it will react on this country, and secure better friends to 

 the peasant than exist at present, when the Governors of 

 all the local Presidencies are feudalists in their notions of 

 land. Sir J. Lawrence is one of the few friends to peasant 

 proprietorship in India. 



A reformed Parliament might give the leverage for Re- 

 form in Bengal in the following points; irrigation and 

 canal works, rural savings' banks, etc., are what all are 

 agreed on. The following subjects are deserving considera- 

 tion : 



1. Peasant Proprietorship or a Poor Law. This may 

 seem to interfere with vested rights on some points, but I 

 believe Landholders, on due consideration, may come to 

 the conclusion that it is better to sacrifice a few of their 

 own rights, in order to preserve the remainder. It is too late 

 to imagine that in the 19th century, the welfare of the masses 

 shall be subordinated to the selfishness of an oligarchy. 

 The greatest good of the greatest number is the cardinal 

 principle. The ryot of Bengal lives from hand to mouth, 

 he has no provision for a rainy day this can be met either 

 by making him a peasant proprietor, or if not, by a tax on 

 land, securing him a legal resource against starvation. The 

 laws, both of heaven and earth, are opposed to the idea that 

 the destitute shall be dependent on a precarious and fitful 

 alms-giving the land must secure him against destitution ; 

 it is so in England and Ireland, and it makes it the land- 

 owner's interest that the peasant should be well off. 



, 2. Compulsory Vernacular Education. The expense de- 

 frayed by local rates. The ryot now, through his ignorance, 

 is victimised by the usurer in the Courts, and in all cases 

 where documentary evidence is resorted to. He puts his 

 mark to legal deeds, the contents of which he is unable to 

 read; his land is measured for him, but he has no means of 



