MODERN PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT 37 



the thirty years was a constantly improved revenue 

 administration, and in the mass an enormous ameliora- 

 tion in general progress and prosperity.' 



Considering how deeply imbued Mr, W. H. Smith 

 was with the humane principles which guided the 

 second settlements made under Regulation IX. of 

 1833, and how intimately he was himself conversant 

 with the actual condition of the people, his review 

 of the fiscal history of the first part of the century 

 may be accepted as substantially just. Since his day 

 the rules of assessment have been elaborated in detail, 

 but the general principles have remained unaltered. 



The land revenue in these provinces is now ' 50 per 

 cent, of the actual assets ' of the landlord ; the practice 

 of fixing the revenue at 50 per cent, of what it was 

 anticipated the assets would rise to in the currency of 

 the settlement has been definitely abandoned, and the 

 proportion claimed by Government is one-half of the 

 income actually enjoyed by the landlord at the time of 

 making the settlement. When first Regulation IX. 

 of 1833 was put into force, the assets of the landlord 

 were ascertained by an elaborate system of land 

 valuation : the settlement officer made classifications 

 of the soil, estimates of the average yield per acre, 

 analyzed the diff'erent crops according to the rent paid 

 on their cultivation, and instituted elaborate researches 

 into the prices of agricultural produce. But that 

 method was soon abandoned, because attention was 

 more and more drawn to the rents paid by tenants, 

 and these were accepted as a natural standard of the 

 value of different lands. In fixing the assessment, the 

 business of the settlement officer is, therefore, now 

 circumscribed to the limited, but by no means easy, 

 task of ascertaining what are the rents actually paid 

 in the district. When the total rental assets of a 

 village have been ascertained, there may be some 

 addition to be made on account of manorial profits 

 (as it is often the custom to call them), and possibly to 



