307 



Is is the business of Government ; but it is folly 

 to argue as if Government were some benign, 

 individual, that disinterestedly distributes its favors 

 from a sense of philanthropy wholly regardless of 

 return. No landlord lays out Capital on his estate 

 without entertaining reasonable expectations of a 

 return, unless it be for the purpose of beautifying 

 it or improving its salubrity. Were he to do so 

 the World would assuredly write him down an 

 Ass ! And as the position of Government in this 

 sense, differs in no respect from that of a good 

 and wise landlord, why should the Government 

 of Bengal have laid out millions of money in public 

 works that could not have tended to increase 

 its income by one shilling per annum ? There is 

 no sound practical reason for the adoption of such 

 a course. It consequently systematically refused 

 to do so, and if any one entertains doubts on 

 the subject, let him consult the minutes of Sir 

 John Peter Grant the late Lieut. Governor of 

 Bengal, who for the last six years has strenuously 

 endeavoured to obtain the ways and means of 

 improving Bengal, in this respect, in vain. 



The Government of India in making a perpetual 

 settlement with the Zemindars of Bengal, doubtless 

 considered that they had made over, with the sur- 

 plus profits accruing by the increase in cultivation 

 and the value of the produce, the duties and res- 

 ponsibilities which it still retained in its own hands 



