1839] 



Permanent Annual Money lients. 



demption of the tax, the lyots would partially escape the evil of the 

 successive revenue experiments v/hich must continue to be made, till 

 the land is in the hands of proprietors, equal in intelligence with their 

 rulers. 



There can be little doubt also, that the measure would give much 

 greater stability to the revenues of the country. For the redemption, 

 in other terms a payment in advance on an equitable adjustment of the 

 Government demand, excludes the possibility of remission; and the 

 possession by the ryot of a portion of his land in all seasons rent-free 

 (the tax being already paid) must give facilities to the punctual 

 realization of the annual revenue. 



It would at the same time, it is probable, be found to operate bene- 

 ficially on native habits. As the prospect of freeing his land for a term 

 from its burdens, would hold out a great inducement to the ryot to 

 expend his accumulated savings on his land and he would inevitably be 

 tempted to turn off a part of his present wasteful expenditure on 

 marriage occasions, &c. into this more profitable channel. 



I am not aware that any evil could result from according this privi- 

 lege to the land-owners, if it were confined, as it should be in the first 

 instance to a term of 15 or 20 years, renewable at the option of the 

 owner, for 10 or 15 more, on the payment of a limited fine or premium. 

 It would then, I think, work well for the 'country without diminishing 

 the Government revenue. It his been adopted on a much more 

 extensive scale than here proposed in Ceylon, and if applicable to the 

 state of society, and the tenures of land there, it can scarcely be found 

 inapplicable to the neighbouring provinces on the contiment, in a great 

 measure similarly circumstanced. 



On the Interference of Government in pet-iods of Fam'meo 



The entire failure periodically of all return from the land, and the im- 

 providence and poverty of the great mass of the ryots, which have been 

 adverted to as incidents in the agriculture, and in the state of society, 

 peculiarly affecting the question of permanent money rents in this 

 country, apply, I conceive, equally to another question, scarcely less 

 important — the duty, and policy of the Government in seasons of severe 

 dearth or famine. 



The doctrine now promulgated on this subject, is professedly based 

 upon the principles of political economy, and drawn from Adam Smith's 



