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sure of Earl Canning, the larger and more extended 

 measure of a perm anent settlement throughout 

 India, in all districts and parts of districts where 

 the assessment was asc ertained to be equitable and 

 no considerable increase could be expected. 



To renew the discussion of questions which have 

 been already considered and decided by the advisers 

 of the Crown, is in India open to objection. I find 

 some little difficulty, therefore, in treating thia 

 portion of the subject, especially as great differences 

 of opinion have arisen between the highest authori- 

 ties in arriving at present conclusions, and, if the 

 question be narrowed to an election between redemp- 

 tion as an experiment, and permanency of settle- 

 ment as a rule, I am decidedly of opinion, that of two 

 evils, our late deeply lamented and respected Viceroy 

 chose the least. Great questions, however, of this 

 nature are of no mere local interest. They involve 

 principles which are of universal application, prin- 

 ciples which have been discussed by economists in 

 all ages, which will be so discussed probably to 

 the end of time, and which concern not Her 

 Majesty's Ministers nor the Indian Government 

 alone, but the Governments of all existing Empires, 

 and the thinking portion of the whole civilized 

 World. The land tenure is perhaps, of nil questions 

 concerning a country, that which is most intimately 

 bound up with its material progress, and the welfare, 

 prosperity, and happiness of its people ; and every 



