265 



revenue of the English districts in Guzerat. They were com- 

 mitted to writing for that purpose, the unexpected cession ot 

 Baroche and all its dependencies to Mhadajee Scindia, and the 

 Mahrattas, frustrated our plan. But as the Baroche purgunna, 

 and other considerable districts in Guzerat, once more happily 

 form a part of the British empire, I shall insert a brief recapitu- 

 lation of the present state of landed property in India, from an 

 excellent work lately published, which states that " the country 

 is divided into large estates; some of them equal in extent to the 

 county of York. All landed property belongs to the govern- 

 ment, which lets the district to a great renter, or zemindar. This 

 tenant divides his estate into shares, which again are let to inferior 

 renters, through several gradations under different names; so that 

 before the land is given to the peasant it goes through several 

 hands: some smalls pots are possessed in perpetuity by persons hold- 

 ing a tenure something analogous to our perpetual fee-farm rents 

 in Europe. Thus we see that in Asia there is no class of men 

 which answers to our landed interest. The zemindars, as they 

 first hold one district and then another, may be rather considered as 

 traders in produce, and usurers to the cultivator, and thus may be 

 more properly deemed a part of the monied interest; of course 

 they have no local attachment, nor any regard for the peasantry. 

 This system may well accord Avith the despotic governments of 

 Asia, but cannot be at all necessary to the support of an European 

 power established in a country whose genius dictates milder in- 

 stitutions. 



" If these immense tracts were divided into smaller estates, 

 forming a gradation down to the peasant, ■who possesses a few 



VOL. III. 2 m 



