271 



demand on the produce of the soil; and if, in a 

 miitry where it is of paramount importance that 

 the Government should be based on the support 

 of a contented people, the destruction of this ancient 

 principle, and the substitution for it of a grinding 

 system of taxation, can be considered an advantage, 

 it is certainly an advantage, the results of which 

 will not be unaccompanied with some evil. 



It is in reality then rights in property with which 

 we have to deal, and not the distribution of taxa- 

 tion, which has not, or, from an equity point of 

 view, ought not to have, any thing whatever to do 

 with the question. 



Now, admitting the King's power to dispose of 

 the rights of the Community in the soil, it is evident 

 that before they are sold, some means must be ascer- 

 tained for properly estimating their value. But, 

 as these rights are in the produce, and the produce, 

 especially in India, is not a fixed quantity, but very 

 fluctuating, and as its money value varies considera- 

 bly, and as population increases and the means of 

 intercommunication improve, will vary very much 

 more,* this cannot now be done with any thing 

 approaching that accuracy which it is absolutely 

 necessary for an administrator or trustee to observe, 

 when dealing with the property of others. It is 



* In parts of Assam the money value of rice within the last 

 four years has increased three hundred per. cent! See^p.p. 175-6-7, 

 supra. 



