432 



cither to Mahomedans or Europeans; and to both, it serves as 

 the basis on which their whole system of finance is founded. 



In another part the same intelligent writer says, " it is now 

 known that what the sovereign receives from land varies greatly in 

 different parts of the country; and is regulated by the fertility or 

 barrenness of the soil, the nature of the climate, the abundance or 

 scarcity of water, and many other obvious circumstances. One 

 particular with respect to the administration of revenue in Ben- 

 gal merits notice, as it redounds to the honour of the emperor 

 Akber, the wisdom of whose government I have often had occa- 

 sion to celebrate. A general and regular assessment of revenue 

 in Bengal was formed in his reign; all the lands were then valued, 

 and the rent of each inhabitant and of each village ascertained. 

 A regular o;radation of accounts was established. The rents of 

 the different inhabitants who lived in one neighbourhood being 

 collected together, formed the account of a village; the rents of 

 several villages being next collected into one view, formed the ac- 

 counts of a larger portion of land ; the aggregate of these accounts 

 exhibited the rent of a district; and the sum total of all the 

 districts formed the account of the revenue of the whole pro- 

 vince." 



To the preceding remarks by Dr. Robertson, I had added 

 many of my own observations and answers to my own inquiries, 

 during my residence in Guzerat. They were attended with more 

 difficulty and deception from the zemindars than I was at first aware 

 of, and from not being brought to any satisfactory proof are now 

 suppressed. My sphere was limited, and my sources of informa- 



