HAVING brought down my subject, in a manner necessarily hurried and imperfect, to the erection of a British empire in the East, I propose, on the present occasion, to lay before you a brief sketch of the system of internal government established, and acted upon, in our Asiatic provinces. Not that I can undertake, in a series of papers like these, to go minutely through the numerous changes to which the measures of our Indian government have, from time to time, been subjected. Of the systems which prevailed from 1765, for example, up to 1793, it is quite needless to take any notice. Whatever may have been their excellences or defects, they have long ceased to operate; all former settlements having been swallowed up, in the famous permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis. To it, therefore, and to it only, shall I draw your attention. The Court of Directors, and the British public at large, having experienced great disappointment in the expectations which they had formed touching the advantages and profits about to accrue from the acquisition of the Dewanny authority over the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; and being still unable to believe that India, instead of an enormously rich country, was, in fact, a poor one, began, about the year 1779 or 1780, not unnaturally to attribute the overthrow of hopes, totally groundless and unfounded in themselves, to the mismanagement of the local authorities. Complaints and murmurs were heard on all sides. The measures pursued at Calcutta were represented as being at once arbitrary towards the natives, and inefficient, as far as the interests ⚫of the Directors were concerned. Each new Governor, it was alleged, had adopted a system of his own, differing in very essential particulars from the system of his predecessors; and hence, whilst the natives were kept in a state of constant anxiety and doubt, the resources of the country continued, year after year, to suffer diminution. The land-owners, it was said, were oppressed; the peasantry were starving; and, above all, the profits of the hold

ers of India stock fell rapidly away. So prodigious an outcry was raised, that the matter at length came before Parliament; and, in the session of 1784, a bill was introduced for the purpose of remedying the evils complained of.

The bill to which I allude produced, as all the world knows, an Act" for the better regulation and management of the East India Company." By the 39th section of that act, the Company were enjoined "to inquire into the alleged grievances of the land-holders, and, if founded in truth, to afford them redress; and to establish permanent rules for the settlement and collection of the revenue, and for the administration of justice, founded on the ancient laws and real usages of the country." Never was any act of Parliament more wisely, or more judiciously, expressed. The country to which it had reference was no newly-discovered wilderness, inhabited by barbarous tribes, among whom any legislative experiment might be tried with impunity; neither was it peopled by a race of men, differing, indeed, in minute respects from ourselves, but still bearing to us, in their national character, a broad and general resemblance. Its inhabitants had lived for ages under regular laws, and fixed magistrates; they enjoyed rights, and maintained usages, to which they were more strongly attached, than perhaps any other race of men are attached to the rights and usages which long habit has endeared to them; whilst between their character-the natural character of the Hindoos and that of Englishmen-not a shadow of similitude can be traced. All the wishes, feelings, motives, and habits of the two people, are unlike. Laws and enactments, which by the latter might be regarded as humane and excellent, would by the former be viewed with abhorrence; and hence the most profound acquaintance with European politics will invariably prove useless, or worse than useless, if it be brought into operation in the East.Before anything could be done for the natives of India, the most minute and patient inquiry into their ancient in

stitutions was requisite ; and had that inquiry, as the terms of the act of Parliament seem to require, been pursued, it cannot be doubted that our Asiatic fellow-subjects would have stood in a far better situation, both moral and political, than that which they occupy at present.

To the desire for inquiry here expressed, the Court of Directors gave every support in the letter of instructions which they addressed to their new Governor-General. After noticing manifold grounds of complaint against former systems, and recommending sundry measures, some of them wise, others the reverse, because ill adapted to the state of Indian society, they observe," that the design of the legislature was to declare general principles of conduct, and not to introduce any novel system, or to destroy those rules and maxims of policy which prevailed in well-regulated periods of the native government." They animadvert upon the mode of raising the revenue heretofore adopted -namely, by hiring out Pergunnahs to strangers and adventurers; and require that a settlement in perpetuity should, if possible, be completed, in order that they might not be exposed, as had hitherto been the case, to the inconveniences necessarily attendant upon fluctuating and uncertain returns. In making choice of the persons with whom to conclude this settlement, they desired the clause of the act of 1784, in favour of the landholders, might be attended to, and that, in the point in question, as well as in every other particular, the humane intention of the legislature towards the native land-holders might be strictly fulfilled. With a view to greater precision in effecting these objects, they recommended that it might, as far as possible, be ascertained what were the rights and privileges of the Zemindars, and other land-holders, under the institutions of the Mogul or the Hindoo government, and the services they were bound to perform.

All this was as it ought to have been; nor were the instructions of the Directors less judicious in other respects. On proposing a plan for the civil administration of justice among the natives, they stated, "That they had been actuated by the necessity of accommodating their views and interests to the subsisting manners and usages

of the people, rather than by any abstract theories drawn from other countries, or applicable to another state of society." They accordingly blamed the policy of former Governors, who had deprived the European collectors of magisterial authority; they strongly urged that such authority should be restored; and they pointed out, that however at variance with European notions it might be, to intrust the individual who was appointed to receive the taxes, with power to form his own settlements, and to decide in any disputes which might arise between his own agents and the people; such had uniformly been the practice of India, and such ought accordingly to be the practice still. Many other wise and just remarks are made in the letter; for an acquaintance with which, I refer you to the 2d Report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in 1810, where the document is printed at length.

Never can it be sufficiently deplored, that a man, so ill calculated for the undertaking as the Marquis Cornwallis, should have been selected to carry these instructions into force. His Lordship truly was, as Mr Davis has said, "a theorist, and he went out to India surrounded by theorists." In his own mind, he had discerned a perfect resemblance between the state of society in Hindoostan, under the Moguls, and that of Europe, during the prevalence of feudalism. He beheld, too, or fancied that he beheld, in the union of the offices of collector and magistrate, a wide door opened to corruption and abuse of every description; in a word, he looked at India and its affairs through a European medium, and therefore saw them in colours which were unnatural. Of the native character, likewise, he had conceived the most unjust opinion; and he accordingly exhibited in all his actions, the most perfect distrust of the integrity of all classes of the people whom he was appointed to govern.

Under these circumstances, it is very little to be wondered at, that his Lordship should have erected a political fabric, fair to look upon, and comely to the eye, but, in reality, the most imperfect and incommodious that ever was constructed.

We are told by the admirers of his Lordship's system, that he did nothing in a hurry. We are assured

that ample time was devoted to inquiry, and that the enactments which followed were the necessary consequence of patient and judicious research. So says Mr Harrington, the compiler of a copious analysis of the Company's regulations; and so said the Messrs Grant, both father and son. But what is the fact? Two years only were employed in investigating the nature of institutions, at all times puzzling and difficult of comprehension to strangers, and now doubly puzzling, from the state of confusion into which they had fallen. The investigations, likewise, were all, or almost all, dedicated to one end, namely, to discover proofs of the justice of a theory already formed, ere they had begun; and I need not tell you, North, that when a man has once made up his mind to the correctness of a favourite opinion on any subject, he is never at a loss to see, in matters the most palpably contradictory of it, only farther evidences of its justice.

Well, then, Lord Cornwallis having devoted two years to that species of inquiry, which tended only to strengthen the prejudices which he had brought with him from England, proceeded to re-model our Indian Empire after the following fashion. Instead of again vesting his collectors with magisterial authority, he separated for ever the financial and judicial departments of the state. The former was carried on by means of a Board of Revenue and Provincial Collectors, the latter by Courts, such as shall hereafter be described. The business of the Provincial Collector was henceforth confined to the gathering in of the revenue. He was assisted by a few Tesheldars, or native collectors, chosen at random, and wretchedly paid, over whom he was not permitted to exert any authority. He could not so much as dismiss or suspend them, however clearly convicted of crimes or misdemeanours, but was under the necessity of complaining to the Board of Revenue, by whom they might be prosecuted. The European Collector, indeed, became a mere tax-gatherer, of no utility whatever in the general administration of the provinces. Of him, therefore, I need say no more.

With respect to the natives, his Lordship, fully impressed with the evils arising from a feudal system, and anxious to place all classes of the

people in a condition analogous to that of British-born subjects, revolutionized society more completely than the society of India was ever revolutionized before, from the days of Mahmood, down to his own time. The question which had formerly been agitated, touching the nature of landed tenures, he set at rest for ever, by declaring the Zemindars to be possessed of a full and perfect proprietary right in the soil. The practices of holding periodical surveys of the crops, and of estimating the amount of revenue due to Government, according to the state of cultivation, he abolished. An average was taken of the revenue paid during a certain number of years past, and that average was pronounced to be a fair and equitable tax upon each Pergunnah. At it, therefore, the amount of the revenue was determinately fixed; nor was any addition to be exacted, nor any diminution allowed, whatever might be the state of the country, from that time forth and for ever. This may be regarded as a broad outline of that perpetual settlement, of the good policy and great humanity of which we hear so much. And now, for an equally general description of other enactments.

As the Zemindars, by the tenor of the new regulations, were put in possession of the whole of their Pergunnahs; of the waste, as well as of the cultivated lands; of the public demesnes, and of almost all the estates formerly devoted to the support of village schools and pagodas; it may, by persons unacquainted with the real circumstances of the case, be imagined, that whatever ground of complaint other members of the community might have had, they at least were prodigious gainers by the change. Such an opinion will not, however, be long entertained, when I inform you, that the estimated rental of each Pergunnah being divided into eleven shares, ten of these were claimed by Government, as jumma, or land-tax, and the remaining one left to the nominal proprietor. Nor was this the only grievance to which the new proprietor was made subject. Under the native government, his share of the revenue, or rental, of the Pergunnah, was not perhaps much greater than that allowed him by Lord Cornwallis. It amounted, generally speaking, to one tenth, and only to one

tenth, of the whole. But under the native system, it was not liable, on any account, to dismemberment, or to diminution. If the Zemindar fell into arrear, or came otherwise under the displeasure of his sovereign, his person was subject to arrest, to torture, and even to death; whilst his private fields, supposing him to possess any private fields, and other private property, might be confiscated. But the nanca, or per-centage, on the public revenue, devolved entire to his successor, who was, unless some very extraordinary hinderance arose, invariably his son, or nearest heir-male. By this means, whatever his own individual sufferings might be, the family of a Zemindar ran no risk of utter ruin, but retained its rank in society, undiminished by the misfortunes or crimes of its representative. Under the new regulations, a complete change in these respects took place. The letter of instructions which had been given to Lord Cornwallis by the Court of Directors, having thrown out a hint, that "the hereditary tenure of the possessor would be the best, and, in general, the only necessary security" against defalcations, his Lordship first of all grossly misinterpreted that hint, and then proceeded to act upon it after the following fashion.

The stipulated revenue was ordered to be furnished by each Zemindar to the collector, in monthly payments of sicca rupees, that being the established coin of the provinces. No delay in making good these payments was on any account to be permitted; indeed, so strict was Government in gathering in its dues, that if all arrears outstanding upon one month were not cleared off by an early day in the month following, the estate of the defaulter was liable to attachment. In a state of attachment it would continue, the proprietor being burthened all the while with the maintenance of the attaching officer, till at the close of a fixed period the whole, or such portion of the Pergunnah as might be deemed sufficient to cover the balance due, was subject to be sold by public auction. Such were the conditions on which the Zemindars obtained a proprietary right in the soil. From these they were informed, that neither a failure of crops, nor any other occurrence, would induce the Government to deviate in the slightest particular;

and hence they must be ready with their money whenever the day of payment returned, let them procure it as they might.

It is needless to point out, that by this enactment the rights of the Ryots, those ancient land-owners of India, were effectually set aside. The whole of that class of men became, from henceforth, mere tenants, or daily labourers, to the Zemindar. An estate which had come down to a Meerassee, through countless generations, was converted into a hired farm, his continuance in which depended upon the nature of the pottah, or lease, granted to him by his new landlord; whilst the Oopree, instead of cultivating the demesne of the government, cultivated the lands of the Zemindar. All opportunity was, moreover, taken away of providing, as the Moguls had been in the habit of providing, for old soldiers and faithful servants, by grants of waste. In the waste, the public had no longer any interest; whilst the amount of revenue being fixed for ever, an increase of cultivation, though it might better the circumstances of the new aristocracy, would add nothing to the resources of government, or the profits of the Directors.

The Ryots, however, were not the only class of persons who suffered by this change. The Conangoes were stripped of all authority, consequence, and independence; the Potails, Coolcurnies, and other village functionaries, were deposed; the Paiks, or Peons, which were wont to assist the Zemindar in the maintenance of the peace, were disbanded; and the Zemindar himself was positively prohibited from at all interfering in any respect with the management of the police, the administration of justice, or the superintendance of any part of the public business. To supply the place of these various functionaries, the following very inadequate arrangements were made:

The whole of the territories immediately subject to the Presidency of Fort William (for I must confine my sketch to one Presidency, otherwise the subject would become too complicated,) were divided first into four, they are now divided into six districts or provinces, and about forty Zillahs. At Calcutta is established a Supreme Court of Judicature; at the chief city in each division, a Provincial