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mquiry conducted by the Collector (Sooderbuns 

 Commissioner) or other officer, be finally deter- 

 mined by the Board of Revenue the entire grant 

 shall be resumed, and the grantee shall forfeit all 

 right in the lands, both those which may be yet 

 uncleared, and those which may have been cleared 

 and brought into cultivation." 

 Thus, let us suppose our friend Jones to have taken 

 a grant of 10,000 acres, and at the end of twenty years 

 to have brought one-half, or 5,000 acres, under culti- 

 vation. To clear and plant jungle land in Assam 

 costs about 20 an acre. Five thousand cleared 

 acres, therefore, would be worth in actual expenses, 

 to Jones 100,000. But, 5,000 acres planted with 

 tea plants of from six to eight years growth, would 

 be worth, fit present market rates, 100 an acre, and 

 5,000 acres at that price would be 500,000. Now 

 it may have been right to impose certain conditions 

 regarding clearances to prevent land jobbing, and in 

 swampy and jungle districts on sanatary grounds ; 

 nor do the conditions fixed, seem to have been 

 severe or unreasonable. But, in the absence of frau- 

 dulent practices rendering extraordinary legislation 

 a necessity, it appears to me, that a rule giving 

 power, as this does, to a Board, on the simple ascer- 

 tainment of failure to fufil any one of these condi- 

 tions, and without any enquiry into the cause, to 

 confiscate Jones', or any one else's property, to the 

 value of half a million sterling or more, or less, 



