02 



Noies on Ryotwar, or 



uctually realized in the five years be calculated and compared, and it 

 will be evident, I believe, that the system has been in districts assessed 

 at the full rate of 33 and 45 percent., not so much to consider the 

 amount, for which the ryot may have engaged by his occupancy, as the 

 rent to be collected from him, but, what he could actually afford to pay, 

 Avitli reference to the returns from his land in each year. 



If the permanent money tax should, as in Coimbatore, have been 

 fixed at, not more than 25 per cent . of the gross produce, with this 

 peculiarly low assessment in its favour, the people will bear up under 

 it for a long period, especially, when it has been also accom})anied by 

 remissions, and every species of indulgence to the ryot. So also, 

 if one province, like Cuddapah has a comparatively rich soil, and an 

 extraordinary proportion of rent-free lands, or. like Bellary, has been 

 especially favoured by a general, and permanent deduction of 25 per 

 cent, of the Government dues, whilst other provinces have not received 

 a fraction ; these provinces will of course comparatively flourish. 

 But is it the ryotwar money rents, which produce this result ? Or is 

 it not solely in such districts the light assessment — and that, 

 happily for the people and the permanent interests of Govern- 

 ment, made lighter, by a departure from ryotwar, both in the remissions 

 granted ; and by the substitution for a settlement at the commencement 

 of the year on the land held, and a fixed demand accordingly, a set" 

 tlement towards its close, regulated by the season, and by the actual 

 produce of the year . 



The failure hitherto to do this fully, and the impolitic attempt to 

 collect, as prescribed by theory, the full assessment annually, even in 

 years when the seed has not been returned, combined with the forced 

 cultivation of the soil, have been, I conceive the chief causes of the 

 present depressed condition of the landholders. The demand which 

 has been made upon them for years past in seasons of difficulty, has 

 even, I fear, sapped the sources of future improvement and prosperity, 

 by draining from them, their little capital, and preventing those accumu- 

 lations, whi -h can alone enable the ryot to profit by the peace, and 

 security aflTorded by British rule. It is also to this severe pressure of 

 late npon his resources in periods of difficulty, to which we must look, 

 as the great proximate cause of the present decrease of the land 

 revenue. 



The evil of a fixed annual money rent, when persevered in for years, 

 is not confined to district assessed at the full lyotwar rates, for when it 

 does not, as in provinces lightly assessed, bankrupt the ryot, it manifests 



