1 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



tranquillise their minds ; and you are to act in regard 

 to them with all possible solicitude. 



" l You will collect the taxes at the time of the most 

 profitable crops that is to say, that every year you 

 Avill call together an assembly during the three months 

 when there is no labour to be done in the fields. At 

 this meeting you will divide the payment of the taxes 

 into monthly sums, so arranged that they will not be 

 burdensome to the inhabitants or leave arrears behind. 

 This assembly is to be composed of from twelve to 

 twenty-four notables of the province, according as you 

 shall deem best for the general good. In your posi- 

 tion as president of this assembly it will be your duty 

 to see as to the division of the taxes, the best means 

 for increasing the general welfare and tranquillity, so 

 as to render the state of the towns and villages very 

 stable. Your decisions are to be communicated to me 

 from time to time 



"' Whatever the Government may require in the 

 way of food, camels, or labour is always to be paid for 

 at the rate of two per cent, over what the inhabitants 

 pay for the same things ; and even if it should happen 

 that the value and the hire of the articles increased, 

 the Government is always to pay the extra two per 

 cent. ; and in order to guard against the sheiks, with 

 the view of showing that they are watching over the 

 interests of the Government, not declaring the truth 

 for the price and hire of labour, you shall not take 

 anything except with the free consent of the owners, 



