222 
On Land Revenue * 
[Jultt 
it is his interest to improve his property, (according to the duration of his lease, 
and the prospect of a future assessment on the improvement.) It may so happen 
that the cultivator will not accept his lands on the terms proposed ; the remedy is 
easy : after hearing his objections it may be raised, or it can be offered to another, 
or it may be cultivated under the system of c,ham. Few cases of this kind occur; 
it often happens that other cisans eagerly accept of the rejected lease, and at other 
times it is farmed jointly by the whole village. Ten years ago it is strange how 
ignorant the Government were of the laws and customs which regulate the inter- 
nal economy of a village ; and to this day various little rights and privileges are 
discovered, as belonging to some class or another the details under which the re- 
gulation acted, therefore, laboured under a disadvantage in not meeting with some 
cases, which naturally will occur in settling such an extensive country. Considering 
the time at which the regulation was promulgated, it must be allowed to possess 
the quality of being founded on an extraordinary and extensive knowledge of the 
matter which it professes to regulate, and which probably no other person in the 
country can even now be said to possess : and although it has not been found to 
trespass on any of the rights and privileges of those interested in the soil, yet it 
has been thought proper to allow some latitude in deviating from certain of the 
minutiae of the plan in some districts; and hence it will be found, that this lati- 
tude has been enci'oached upon, or indulged in, so far, that every collector seems 
to have a different mode of prbceeding on the regulation ; so that one shall effect 
the settlement in an ordinary process and quantity of writing, while another builds 
statement on statement, paper on paper, till it reaches a mannd in weight. 
While we must admit the propriety and justice of recording every man’s claim 
who has a right in the soil, yet the principle on which the amount of revenue is 
adjusted, professing to be a share, according to quality of soil and the products, 
does not seem to be so unobjectionable, as pointing a direct tax on the superior 
products of the country ; this was part and parcel of the system handed down to 
us, and adhering to it seems to be the only objectionable part of the regulation, 
unless Government wish to check the production of these articles, which can 
hardly be the case. 
Land, like every thing else in the market, will always be valuable according to 
the demand for it, and immediately when overtaxed in any particular spot, will 
find its level, by the cultivators repairing to other portions, not obnoxious to this 
high taxation; thus we find the lands of villages deserted, that some years ago 
yielded four or five thousand rupees annually, and the collector glad to get a 
farmer to take it for half that sum. I have now a memorandum of a village before 
me, which the Government took from a jagirddr, valued at five thousand rupees, 
and which about four or five years after was farmed for eighteen hundred rupees ; 
the loss was of course made good by the Government to the jagirddr. To an 
individual a few cases of this kind would so press themselves on his notice, that 
the root of the evil would soon be found out and redressed ; while to an extensive 
Government, lessons of this nature are lost in the consideration, (a false one,) that 
where they lose in one village they gain in another ; but I could instance many 
villages, and even tracts of country, capable of producing tlie finest crops, ruined 
in a similar manner, within the last seven or eight years. Upon a good village 
the revenue officers, as if envious of its prosperity, go on increasing the assessment, 
till at last it passes beyond certain bounds, when the people’s affections for their 
lands and home, being outweighed by the pressing demand, they determine on 
retiring, and the lands are left to be managed by the collector the best way he can. 
They seldom leave the village, but dissensions are sown among them, and they 
can no longer act in concert — probably inconsequence of the respectable men of the 
village being held in durance for arrears. The village is farmed; a restlessness 
on the part of the cultivators probably soon tires out the farmer ; the collector 
takes it into his own hands ; a chaprasi or two are sent to look after its concerns, 
but in almost every case where the a amindars are not the farmers, the Government 
are the losers, and in a few years a sugar mill, or other sign of prosperity, is not to 
be found in the village. 
This taxing of the land according to its productions, can only suit a country al- 
ready completely occupied in the culturable lands ; but as long as one-third of the 
lands are still uncalled for, it appears premature. If a village in the neighbourhood 
of one of our stations was to be assessed, and a gentleman (let us suppose the col- 
lector bimself), who had his pacca house and garden situate on part of the chalsa 
and.-,, for which he was paying one rupee per pacca biga. of rent, came to have 
ns lands measured, and the value estimated under the regulation, what would lie 
say he had it raised to ten rupees per pacca biga ; the value of the house would 
pro ably induce him to remain under the new assessment, with a fair share of 
