96 
On the Irrigation of Land in India. 
rat improvements which must ever follow and not lead the physical*. He would 
hare been able with much facility to demonstrate, that a people who possessed the 
ingenuity and enterprise to procure so notable an improvement of their physical 
condition, would not long stand in need of moral lessons ; that the sagacity which 
■was capable to procure so signal a benefit, would be equal tq restrain the most de- 
plorable acts of improvidence, alluded to in his treatise On Population, tbe converse 
of which would involve the absurdity of supposing the most provident, to be at the 
same time the most improvident, people in existence. 
Of all the countries that may be found to be susceptible of a real amelioration, 
Hindustan presents one of the fairest and fittest subjects for such a contemplation. 
No doubt, the vague statements of such ephemeral authors, as the compilers of 
Gazetteers, are little to be relied on. But, although that account of the prosperity of 
India, some two centuries ago, which assigned a revenue of seventy crocus, may have 
been exaggerated ; it may admit of a reasonable doubt whether India Proper, or the 
Mogul Empire, as it used to be designated, did not yield a much larger revenue 
than it is found to afford in the present dayf. 
It has been said, without reference to official accuracy, that the population of Bri- 
tish India, and its gross revenue are respectively 44 millions of souls, and 22 crores 
of rupees ; or that an average of five rupees is the amount levied upon each native 
subject. 
Hindustan formerly reckoned, in addition to the present territories held under the 
East India Company and the Mahratta states, many provinces in the north west, 
which are under the control of several disconnected sovereigns ; forming an aggre- 
gate of about 1130,000 square miles. On this extent of surface, a population of 100 
to 110 millions was the reputed enumeration; — no great improbability, when it is con- 
sidered, that this population assigns no larger a proportion, than 118 persons to every 
square mile ; a number much under the estimate of European countries, known to 
be in a state of comfort anil prosperity, little, if any thing superior to that of Hindus- 
tan at the period in question. 
This extent of population, compared with a corresponding proportionate revenue 
of the present day, would indicate a gross revenue of fi5 crores instead of 
70, as assumed by some vyriters of the last, century. And, if we are to credit 
the more accurate testimony of official opinion, we should be satisfied, that “ consi- 
government of the country!. ” 
This, by .the way, contains a sort of admission, that the nominal revenue was 
greater under the native administration, but that civil discord occasionally pro- 
duced notable defalcations. 
At any rate, it goes to the corroboration of one of two facts : either, the power of 
' production must have been greater than in the jiresent day ; or the people must have 
been most grievously oppressed. 
Ibe government then being a despotism, was no doubt conducted in tbe spirit of 
all other despotisms; by tyranny, to the nobles and dependants of the court, and 
protection to tbe multitude. A national revolt was impossible, since patriotism 
never felt, could never lie acted upon ; such a crime therefore found no place, in the 
criminal code of Mongolnin dynasty. . 
It is reasonable to suppose ,'tben, that the territories of Hindustan were more pro- 
ductive ; since they could yield as large revenues in former days, as in the present : 
at a period when the precious metals were more scarce, than in the past and current 
centuries. 
To have been more productive, the country must have enlisted the provident care 
of the government on its side. That this was especially called in, on more than one 
occasion, to the aid of the people, we may refer, among other proofs of the paternal 
wisdom of the Great xVIogul, to the history of those monuments of imperial beneficence 
tff 1 the ™ri^S t ^o*erament. nCar!y 5 ° ° f have *e attention 
em*pty «to J maeh° n somewhcre > that a man composes but indifferently with a too 
