LAND-REVENUE. 297 



bmefils naturally flowing from it were looked for in vain. 

 An attempt was then made to form a village-administration, 

 where the potail, or headman, levied the rent from the ryots, 

 and was responsible for its amount ; being empowered in 

 case of any deficiency to lay on an extra assessment. This 

 arrangement was made first for three, then for ten years ; 

 but before the last period expired the system had entirely 

 failed, after great oppression had been suffered on the part 

 of the cultivator. The direct lease was then again resorted 

 to, with a deduction, which indeed Munro had strongly re- 

 commended, of a fourth or a third of the rent originally ex- 

 acted ; but hardly any favourable result has yet been ob- 

 tained, either as to the improvement of the country or the 

 relief of its cultivators. 



On the western coast, the rent was fixed, as in Tippoo's 

 time, at 25 per cent, for Canara, and 30 for Malabar ; but 

 the rigid exaction of this amount is said to have occasioned 

 numerous sales, and a great transference of landed property. 

 The Bombay government has been engaged in an extensive 

 survey of the Mahratta territory ceded by the last treaty, 

 with a view to a settlement, which may exist first for five, 

 then for thirty years, and afterward be rendered perma- 

 nent. A great portion of this territory, however, was from 

 political motives assigned to jaghiredars, who held it in 

 feudal tenure under the English government, to whom they 

 paid only a regulated tribute. 



The lands of Guzerat, which has always been the most 

 flourishing of the provinces, and where the cultivator has 

 been least oppressed, are let on leases of seven years at the 

 same rate as before. 



Wc are indebted to materials collected by Mr. Rickards 

 for the following general view of the financial transactions 

 of the East India Company for the thirty-five years between 

 1793 and 1828, in the course of which they obtained such 

 vast accessions to their territorial sovereignty : — 



