295 



money in the country in which the hou8e may be 

 situated to be 5 per cent., or 125 if it be 4 per 

 cent., 167 if it be 3 per cent., and so on. Thia 

 is clear and simple, and it will follow, that, from 

 this point of vie\v, the only point to be considered 

 is the alteration in the value of money in the 

 country concerned, which, as I have already shown, 

 in regard to India, is a question of much import- 

 ance. Some people talk much of the depreciation 

 in the value of the precious metals, but this is a 

 very long process, and seems to have been intro- 

 duced into the argument, rather as a remnant of the 

 old confusion of ideas regarding prices and values, 

 than from any practical bearing it has on the ques- 

 tion under discussion. Long before the quantity 

 of the precious metals in circulation in the world, 

 could influence the result of this measure, if it ever 

 could influence it at all, the gain or loss to the 

 State, would have been absorbed in its powerful 

 affects for good or evil on the Country. 



Now I have before stated my objections to the 

 principle of redemption, as applied to India in its 

 present circumstances, and as the principle, or at 

 least, the effect of a permanent settlement of the 

 land revenue from a financial point of view, is pre- 

 cisely the same, it is superfluous to say that the 

 same objections which apply to the one, apply to the 

 other, though possibly with greater force ; and this 



