334 



before their eyes, with no other means at hand of 

 saving the same" 



Numbers of such suggestions could be culled from 

 official documents on the subject ; but they seem 

 to have had no effect. The correspondence con- 

 cludes with the final resolve of the late Lieuterient 

 Governor in his letter to the Commissioner of 

 Assam No. 2123 of the I7th August 1860, ex- 

 pressed in the following remarkable words. "No- 

 thing can be done by Government, till the scheme 

 for immigration of all (sic in orig) the planters 

 is stated." 



The results of this inaction on the part of the 

 Government of Bengal, were very lamentable. 

 Situated in a country in which it is notorious that no 

 important operation, if new, can be undertaken with 

 the remotest chance of success, without Govern- 

 ment supervision and support, the planters, thus 

 abandoned, were driven back on their own re- 

 sources ; and, reduced to the utmost straits to save 

 their property from ruin, they adopted such 

 means of aiding themselves, as were within their 

 reach. Plantations were rapidly progressing. The 

 labor of the province was wholly inadequate to the 

 increased demand. Powerful companies, and those 

 planters who had capital sufficient, endeavoured 

 to establish independent agencies for immigra- 

 tion. But the rules rendering all grants liable 

 to confiscation by the Government for thirty 



