cons, — Rents, Profits and Labor. 130 



from which numbers of the farming proprietor* are 

 jiot even exempt. 



it is to be regretted that they do not find person* 

 willing- to lend at a fair rate of interest, especially as 

 thev can always give the security of the laud. But 

 pressed f *r m *iey, they are glad to take the first that 

 is offered, heedless of having to pay 5 per cent, per 

 m msem interest fjr it, Tue lender either receives 

 l^is capital and interest back in cash or in produce. 



If the borrower were to pay back both at the end 

 of the harvest, he might still go on prosperously. 

 But the lender, if a cunning Hindoo, pr Jawi Pttkan, 

 allows him too often some delay until he brings him 

 completely in his power and then pounces on his 

 -estate. There is an excellent Regulation of Govern, 

 inent that all mortgages shall be registered to give, 

 them validity ; yet strange to say, it is every day evaded 

 by bjth mortgagee and mortgagers, partly from 

 those careless habits of business unfortunately pre- 

 varling our indigenous classes, and partly from a 

 great dislike to attend at the Court of Judicature for 

 the purpose of registry. 



In nine ca>ses perhaps out of ten, there is no deed 

 of mortgage made out; the lender merely taking the 

 grant of the borrower as a sort of nominal pledge, 

 and calculating on the simplicity or ignorance of lhe 

 latter for his not requiring its restoration until he has 

 paid hi* debt. In this way titles are lost t or made 

 away with, and much mischief done. In such 

 transactions, the lender frequently receives one-half 

 •of the produce raised by the farmer, 



But a cultivating proprietor could afford to give 

 at the rate of 60 per cent per annum for capital, for 

 u period of five or six months only, provided the 

 land was good, 



