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fully established in this Presidency in the beginning of the 

 century, the only territorial changes that have since occurred 

 being the annexation of Kurnool Proper in 1838, the transfer 

 of North Canara to the Bombay Presidency in 1862, and the 

 addition of Bhadrdchalam and Eekapalle taluks transferred 

 from the Central Provinces to the Goddvari district in 1874. 

 Previous to the reforms in the Civil Service introduced by 

 Lord Cornwallis, there was little to choose between English 

 administration and that of the Native Princes so far as the 

 agricultural classes were concerned. English -WTriters and fac- 

 tors, who were paid £10 and £20 per annum and were allowed 

 liberty to carry on private trade, found themselves suddenly 

 transformed into governors of provinces and were not slow to 

 make the most of theii' opportunities. Within a short time, 

 however, after Lord Cornwallis' reforms, the administration had 

 wonderfully improved and a succession of great administrators, 

 amonof whom may be mentioned Eeade, Munro, Graham, 

 Hurdis, Wallace, Hodgson, Thackeray, came to the front. Their 

 first measures were directed towards the pacification of the 

 country and the suppression of the power of the poligars, 

 who, with large bands of armed followers, plundered the 

 country, committing the greatest excesses ; there were in the 

 Ceded districts alone 80 poligars, who had under their com- 

 mand 30,000 armed peons. The poligars in the Madura and 

 Tinnevelly districts especially, fought desperately for their 

 independence, but were finally reduced to submission. Next 

 followed settlements of land revenue, in the introduction of 

 which many grievous mistakes were committed. The resources 

 of the country had been brought to the last stage of exhaus- 

 tion by the previous mis-government wars and famines, and, 

 before there was time to ascertain the true revenue capabilities 

 of the several districts, orders were received from Bengal for 

 the immediate carrying out of the permanent settlement of the 

 revenue with zemindars if such were in existence and for creat- 

 ing zemindars where they did not exist. The Governor-General 

 declared that he was determined to dismiss every officer who 

 neglected or delayed to carry out these orders. The districts of 

 Chingleput, Salem and Dindigul were divided into a number of 

 mittahs and sold to the highest bidders. Most of the pur- 

 chasers, after pillaging the ryots, failed in the course of a year 

 or two and the whole settlement collapsed. The system of vil- 

 lage leases was next tried, but with the same result. In the 

 Ceded districts especially, where, in supersession of the ryotwar 

 system introduced by Colonel, afterwards Sir Thomas, Munro. 

 village leases were introduced, the results were disastrous. It 

 was expected that the villagers as a body would agree to the 



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