266 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
merce, extend only to a few staple articles, and be 
limited in amount to two or three per cent, on the 
value of the product. The view which I take of 
a land-tax is fully explained in the following ex¬ 
tract of my Report to the Indian Government. 
“ In the distribution of new lands, and the or¬ 
ganization of a land-tax, the following are the 
principles which, it appears to me, it will be most 
material to hold in view: viz. to give the occu¬ 
pants a permanent interest in the land—to make 
the tenures simple, and free from technicalities— 
to prevent the monopoly of large tracts of land—- 
to fix, from the first, the principle on which the 
land is to be taxed in perpetuity—to make such 
reservations of forests, lakes, rights of way, and 
navigation, as may be advantageous to the public; 
and, finally, to secure to the Government, from 
the land, an adequate'revenue, which shall increase 
with the advance of industry and population. 
The two first objects here enumerated, a perma¬ 
nent interest in the soil, and the simplification of 
the tenures, will be adequately attained by giving 
to the proprietors long leases similar to those given 
at Singapore. The land becomes, in this manner, 
a chattel interest, and not a real estate ; and is, of 
course, relieved from ‘all the legal inconveniences 
incident to the latter. 
“ Land-jobbing to an injurious extent will be 
prevented by rendering the land subject to a small 
quit-rent from the moment it is given. Every 
