276 THE SURVEY QUESTION IN COCHIN CHINA. 



tion of the plans and the preparation of the maps. 



The survey of France. — The survey of France designed on 

 these lines is a comparatively recent institution. Its history 

 is well known, and in treating of an undertaking which has 

 taken so long, it seems desirable to recall how it has been 

 carried out in the mother country in order to estimate with 

 due reference to experience, what chances it has of success in 

 the Colony. 



I shall not deal here with surveys peculiar to certain pro- 

 vinces, which even before the institution of the taille reelle 

 or even of a regular land-tax were, it is said, undertaken in 

 France. 



I content myself with asking what could possibly have 

 been the value of an allotment survey of a district, such as the 

 Dauphine for instance, effected with the appliances of the 14th 

 century. These so-called surveys, if they were ever made, 

 were in every instance successively abandoned, and in the 

 1 8th century there was no trace of them left. 



In 1763, a general survey of the kingdom was ordered. In 

 the furtherance of the policy of government of that period, it 

 was meant to serve as the basis of the assessment-tax 

 of 20 c. (5 per cent. ?) which had just been established. This 

 revenue survey was carried out only in Paris and its neigh- 

 bourhood. The tax of 20 c. (5 per cent. ?) which in 1788 had 

 already been exchanged for a subscription paid by the pro- 

 vinces, was replaced in 1791 by a land-tax which retained the 

 character of a rateable charge upon holdings which the 

 original assessment had had. % 



In this system of contribution, an exemption from charges 

 by which one proprietor profited was counterbalanced by add- 

 ing to the share which a neighbouring proprietor had to pay. 

 Unfairness of dealing was inevitable in the absence of a land 

 survey, and resulted in immediate protests. 



The Government, hesitating to embark in the labour and 

 expense which a survey would necessarily entail, had recourse, 

 quite in vain, to half-measures — the revision of the registers ; 

 the revenue survey of 1,800 communes, the result of which 

 was to be applied on the principle of analogy to other parts 



