252 



and therefore, I think, that until these points shall 

 be first decided the attempt to sell these lands, is 

 premature. 



For though the testimony of the present circum- 

 stances of India, is confirmatory, in a high degree, 

 of Mr. Maine's opinion, that the notion, that occu- 

 pancy confers a title to " res nullius," is not charac- 

 teristic of societies in an early state of civilization ; 

 and the Law is clearly against the existance of 

 any permanent and inalienable rights in land, as 

 long as it is uncultivated and waste, all the 

 difficulties which have hitherto been supposed to 

 surround this subject are not, unfortunately, re- 

 moved. The area of this peninsula an area so 

 immense as almost to preclude the possibility of 

 people, accustomed to frame their ideas on the 

 scale of an island comparatively so diminutive as 

 Great Britain, forming any very accurate opinion on 

 the subject has hitherto placed it beyond the power 

 of any of the Sovereign Rulers who have governed 

 it, to bring it under the control of one system of 

 laws. The variety of races, moreover, which inhabit 

 India, differing many degrees in civilization, would 

 render the adoption of any one system, in its 

 integrity, at present inexpedient. Ruling Sovereigns, 

 again, prior to the succession of Her Britannic Ma- 

 jesty have never even fully established their authority 

 within one half ot' the extent of territory over 

 which they nominally have held sway, and though 



