State and mode of agriculture, 



A GRICULTURE in all countries the chief 

 * branch of industry for the million, is in South- 

 Eastern Asia, almost the exclusive occupation of the 

 people, and the great source of revenue to the re- 

 spective governments, who are usually regarded as 

 the proprietors of the soil, and sub-let the lands to 

 tenants or feuers in perpetuity, so long as the 

 holder pays the established ground-rent, or tax, 

 or feu duty. The holder can sell or otherwise 

 dispose of his holding, and cannot be dispossessed, 

 provided his tax be duly paid, so long as the land 

 is cultivated. The craving of all eastern races for 

 their patrimonial inheritance is as intense as when 

 Naboth said to Ahab, I. Kings xxi. 3, "The 

 Lord forbid it me, that I should give the in- 

 heritance of my fathers unto Thee ; " and the 

 Hindus are as strongly attached to their home- 

 steads as ever the Jews were, though the heads 

 of the family may be employed in a distant part 



