12 FIXITY OF TENURE 



unquestionably remarkable and largely reassuring. 

 They show good cause for believing that at the pre- 

 sent time the landholders are not, as a body, actively 

 adverse to the accrual of occupancy rights ; that the 

 relations between them and the tenants are usually 

 not unfavourable to the tenancies of a lengthened and 

 permanent character ; and that occupancy right holds 

 its own place on the whole steadily and extensively in 

 the land system of the North-Western Provinces (Pro- 

 vince of Agra). These returns demonstrate beyond 

 question that a very large area, containing probably 

 most of the best land in the province, is held by 

 cultivators whose tenancies have exceeded twelve 

 years in duration, and who possess either an acknow- 

 ledged title permanently to occupy the soil as long as 

 they pay the rent, or a strong claim, prima facie, to do 

 so. They likewise leave no doubt that the exertions 

 made continuously by the administration of the pro- 

 vinces, during the last fifty years, to preserve and 

 uphold this important element in its land system had 

 not been unsuccessful, and they lead to the general 

 conclusion that if the area held under a right of occu- 

 pancy is not greater than it was, it is at least no less.' 

 Economic tendencies take time to make themselves 

 manifest, but their action is not for that reason sus- 

 pended. The conflict of interest between the land- 

 lord and tenant over the accrual of occupancy rights 

 was certain in time to produce antagonism, and a 

 contest between the two classes. The landlord's view 

 of their proprietary rights had been moulded to a con- 

 siderable extent by the law, and that law was, at least 

 partially, inspired by English conceptions of land- 

 ownership, and the landlords can hardly be blamed 

 for acquiescing readily in a view of landed property 

 which was so eminently in harmony with their interests 

 The growth of occupancy rights diminished the value 

 of their property, and as this was increasingly realized 

 the landlords set themselves steadily to oppose their 



