LUCKNOW. 
175 
is absorbed in the discovery, that he has more real revenue, and can 
add more to his treasure, than he did when he paid the East India 
Company one hundred and twenty lacs of rupees per annum. It is 
said that he actually accumulates from one to two lacs per week, 
and the treasures he received by inheritance cannot be less than two 
crore. If his Highness is satisfied with the arrangement, most cer- 
tainly all the other parties must be so. The British have obtained 
an additional revenue, and a secure payment ; the ryots have ob- 
tained security from the oppressive plunderings of the aumils, and 
the protection of the British laws, instead of being at the mercy of 
every robber. So conscious are they of these advantages, that the land 
which was rated to the Nawaub at a crore and thirty-five lacs, has 
been let at a crore and eighty lacs. An intermediate personage, the 
Zemindar, who, from a tenant, has been promoted by the fanciful 
generosity of the British into a land owner, may indeed be dissatis- 
fied at being deprived of the power of doing harm: he cannot 
now rob the traveller, or oppress the ryot under him ; nay, he is 
obliged to pay his rent, or submit to have his mud fortress levelled 
with the ground. But if these are evils to him, they are blessings 
to the large mass of the population, which, indeed, has ever been 
the consequence of the British Government in India, and I sincerely 
hope will ever continue to be so. 
