534 On the tenures and fiscal relations of [No. 164. 



the share which they are respectively to enjoy of the surplus profits of 

 cultivation. In England there being no general laws for the protec- 

 tion of the tenantry, many landholders have at different times pur- 

 chased peculiar privileges from their landlords, which have descended 

 from father to son, and are in force to this day ; the effective conditions 

 of the judicial institutions rendering any attempt on the part of the 

 landlord to set them aside, useless. The general laws in this country 

 are well calculated to preserve to the cultivators all privileges, which 

 ancient institutions or prescription without any special purchase or 

 individual guarantee have conferred upon them ; but various causes 

 have prevented their taking advantage of the protection of these laws. 

 Now, however the necessity of obedience of the law and executive power 

 is becoming daily more apparent, and exactly in proportion as these 

 assert and maintain their authority well, the peculiar privileges of the 

 cultivator receive protection : hence also careful examination of them 

 with a view of understanding what they are, becomes daily more in- 

 teresting and important ; as the nerick or rate of rent may be considered 

 the index, or as it were test of the value of these privileges, they will 

 come most conveniently under consideration in a review of the various 

 sorts of rates which prevail in this country. 



Nerick moccurreree* A fixed rate of payment secured to the cul- 

 tivator under the guarantee of a written document; it is essential 

 to the validity of tenure at a moccurreree nerick, that the land 

 had been held at fixed rates twelve years previous to the De- 

 cennial Settlement, that the payments should have been uninter- 

 rupted and uniform. Any failure of payment renders the lease 

 void, and proof of increase of payments on former occasions is gene- 

 rally regarded as evidence, that the moccurreree tenure has been 

 broken up. Moccurreree nericks established by zemindars, at any date 

 less than twelve years before the Permanent Settlement, are liable 

 to be broken up on the sale of the estate for arrears of revenue, unless 

 granted for specific purposes, or proved not liable to increased assess- 

 ment on the grounds stated in Sect. 51, Reg. VIII. 1793. 



Leases conveying moccurreree rights need not necessarily specify the 

 rate of rent: they frequently record the total area and total rent, or 



* S udder Dewanny Reports, Vol. I. page 102, " as no mention of a moccurreree 

 tenure occurred in an authentic document." 



