301 



wastes, is not a portion of this side of the question, 

 It has no concern whatever with it. 



It is undoubtedly to this cause mainly, if not 

 entirely that the accumulation of wealth spoken 

 of has taken place in Bengal, and that this wealth 

 has centered in a favored class, which forms 

 but a very limited portion of the Community, will not 

 be disputed. Were it otherwise, the measure would 

 never have been open to those objections, which, in 

 my humble judgement, are fatal to the successful 

 adoption of a similar policy in the present cir- 

 cumstances of India. Were, for instance, the land 

 tenure throughout India raiyit-wari as in Madras and 

 Bombay,* and the great bulk of the revenue payers 

 industrious peasant-proprietors, like those of Norway, 

 Switzerland, Belgium, and many parts of France 

 and Germany, the gain being to the actual cul- 

 tivators, a large portion of the increase would 

 find its way back to the soil, and, the injustice to 

 the community being confined within the narrowest 

 possible limits, the evil would, in great measure, 

 be counterbalanced by a corresponding amount of 

 good, in the increased prosperity and happiness 

 of the great mass of the people. But Englishmen, 



* The assessment in Madras until lately sadly required revision, 

 or rather equalizing. Judging from the condition of the people, as 

 described by Mr. Bourdillon, the assessment must certainly, as a rule, 

 have been too high. Operations however, are in progress, which will 

 put the land assessment of Madras on, apparently, a very sound and 

 equitable basis. 



Z 2 



