296 BRITISH INDIAN GOVERNMENT. 



sequestration, and the sale of the lands ; while they had no 

 means of drawing funds from the ryots, unless by a method 

 which, as will presently appear, is beyond measure tedious 

 and dilatory. Before they could realize their rents, the 

 farms were seized and sold for the dues to government ; 

 and a most extensive transference of property has been 

 thus occasioned. Nor have the ryots recovered any of 

 their rights by the change. Their poverty precluded any 

 attempt to become the purchasers of the forfeited estates, 

 which fell into the hands of speculators, consisting gener- 

 rally of the opulent inhabitants of the cities. The evil is 

 done, and cannot well be retrieved ; the lands are sold, 

 and no stretch of justice admits of their being resumed. 

 Indeed it seems acknowledged by the greatest opponents of 

 this system that the principle of permanent settlement, 

 whatever mischief its application may in the first instance 

 have produced, by ensuring to the proprietor the fruits of all 

 the improvement he may accomplish, is beginning to pro- 

 duce the most happy effects. Under this encouragement 

 considerable tracts formerly waste have been brought under 

 culture ; bilt Rammohun Roy, in his late evidence before 

 parliament, complains that the ryots, whose poverty ren- 

 ders them little able to make head against a wealthy land- 

 lord, are in as unprotected and impoverished a state as 

 ever. 



In n considerable portion of the Carnatic, an arrange- 

 ment has been more recently attempted on an entirely dif- 

 ferent principle. In effecting this measure the ryots were 

 considered as the real proprietors, and upon them the per- 

 manent settlement was made by Sir Thomas M unro. That 

 liberal governor, however, was induced, by the urgency and 

 necessity of the company, to fix the rent at 45 per cent, of 

 the produce, which was so high as to leave no probability 

 of its being then paid ; but it was hoped that the operation 

 of the system would produce in a short time such an im- 

 provement as to render even this high rate not too burden- 

 some. Meantime accommodations were made from year to 

 year according to circumstances ; but no final possession 

 was to be granted till the payment reached the standard 

 fixed by the company. It was overlooked in this plan 

 that the permanent grant, out of which the improvement 

 was expected to arise, did not exist ; consequently, the 





