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India. And that this is correct, moreover, there 

 can be no doubt. The share of the State has been 

 offered for sale by Government, at fifteen years' pur- 

 chase in the Collectorate of Calcutta, the place of 

 all others where land might be supposed to be highest 

 in value, and at ten years' purchase in Chitta- 

 gong, -and in both cases declined. 



Now, the British Government can borrow money 

 in India at 5 per cent, per annum, and in Eng- 

 land, on the security of the Crown, at 4 or even 

 3J per cent, per annum. With reason, then, Her 

 Majesty's Government say, ( we cannot afford to 

 sell the share of the Community under, at least, 

 twenty-five years' purchase/ But, with equal reason, 

 the people of India say ' we cannot afford to buy, 

 above, at most, ten years purchase.' And the most 

 embarrassing feature in the case is that both are 

 right. How, then can an agreement be come 

 to how are the terms of a bargain, in which the 

 standard of exchange has a seperate value on either 

 side, to be equalized ? It cannot be done ; and thus 

 ends the great question of the redemption of the 

 land revenue of India, for the year 1861. 



It is quite excusable, I admit, English politicans 

 having taken, as in England, the Government securi- 

 ties as an index of the value of money. I have been, 

 myself eighteen years in India, and my avocations 

 and predilections have kept me in constant inter- 

 course with the natives of the country : yet, I am 



