TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 189 



the subsidence of otliers put into rackrented tenants-at-will, aud tliou into laboiu'ers. 

 All these stages in the tenure of laud we have in the Indian couulries where the 

 Zemindar system has prevailed. In other parts of India, whore the Government 

 has recognized the rights of and dealt with the llyots direct, wc haA'e the rapid 

 development of small property in land with all the incidents of that form of 

 property witli which in many parts of Europe we are familiar. 



Then we have another process goiug on in all properties, small aud great. 

 At tii'st the holders of the land are content to pay, as they ahvays have paid to 

 native rulers, the hulk of the rent to the State or to the feudal lord, retaining for 

 themselves only certain dues and perquisites. Under our system the State rent 

 is limited ; ' a portion of it is surrendered to the landholders. From time to time, 

 luider the influence of English ideas, that portion left to the holder of the land is 

 increased. In one great province the assessment rendered perpetual in the last 

 century has become so light as to be rather a moderate land-tax than a rent. In 

 other provinces a moderate assessment fixed for a very long period becomes a very 

 light assessment before the end of that period ; as the country progresses and 

 values increase, the share of the landholder becomes larger e^ery day ; he learns 

 to spend that share. When the time for revision of assassmeut comes he resists 

 any very large or sudden increase ; and the Government more and more yields to 

 his demands. Thus gradually property in land in the English sense is established. 

 Tenancy by capitalist farmers under capitalist landlords we have not yet come to 

 in India. 



The subject of small cultivation seems to derive a new interest in a new quarter 

 from what is now taking place in regard to the emancipated Africans in the I nited 

 States of America and elsewhere. I understand that the cultivation which has 

 already made the produce of the American cotton-districts almost or quite equal 

 to that before the war, is for the most the cultivation of small independent negro 

 cultivators, who raise cotton on a system much the same as that under which tho 

 Kyots of India or Metayers of Italy culti^■ate small farms. There seems to be 

 among the dark races of India and Africa a dislike to regular hired labour, aud a 

 preference for independent labour on their own account, v. hich makes them prefer 

 small farming to service, or at all events leads to their doing better work on their 

 own farms. There has been, I think, a disposition to undervalue the agricultural 

 skill of the Indian rj-ot. And if it shoidd prove that in advanced America, under 

 free institutions, the cultivation of an article of great value and high quality is best 

 carried on by small black farmers, we may well believe that in other countries, 

 too, great results may be obtained by the same sj'stem. The settling down to 

 honest labour of the American freedmen is an example full of promise, I hope, for 

 the African race throughout the world. If iu all the countries where the state 

 of black freedmen is still uncertain they can be thus settled, a great end vvill bo 

 achieved. And in Africa itself we may hope tliat in countries now torn by war 

 and slavery a guiding hand may lead the African race to peacefid, prosperous, and 

 happy times. 



I merely instance these as cases in which economic problems may be studied in 

 their several stages in countries other than our own. I cannot attempt to pursue 

 these subjects at present. 



Proceeding to another branch of economical science, I cannot but think that there 

 has been passing before us of late a very great deal to bring home a ^■iew with which 

 I have before on other occasions dealt — that curllj^ expressed in the homely saying 

 of Walter Scott, that " it is saving rather tlnxn getting that is the mother of 

 riches.'' What an extraordinary economic lesson is read to us in the results of the 

 late French war ! True, the French have been politicallj- humbled ; true, they have 

 been obliged to pay a w.ar indemnity of crushing magnitude. But what has fol- 

 lowed ? Misfortune has taught the Freiich a lesson of economy and prudence ; 

 triumph taught the Germans a lesson of pride and extravagance. The French 

 have retrieved their losses ; they are at this moment commercially the most pros- 

 perous people in Em'ope ; they bear without dithcidty or distress a taxation far 

 larger than that of any other country in the world ; while the Germans, who 

 launched out into extravagance on the- strength of the vast sums paid them by tho 

 French, ai-e suffering greatly from exhaustion and commercial collapse ; their trade 



