other proprietary right, save what the possessor could secretly conceal, or openly defend by the edge of his sword-a system which called into activity the meanest and basest passions for defence against oppression and wrong-a system in which violence and extortion on the one hand, begat slavish submission and hate on the other. Every new expedient became the parent of fresh evasion; till fraud, collusion, secret alienations, disguise, dissimulation, intrigue, bribery, trickeries and treacheries of all sorts, grew up into characteristic habits among the people; every man distrusting his neighbour; looking only to self-preservation, and careless about political changes—a state, in short, in which power had so completely debased the minds of its victims, that the wonder is, not that many virtues should have fled the earth, in this iron age of oppression and misery; but that any should have lingered behind, to relieve the dark shades of human infirmity.

SECTION III.

State of Bengal after transfer of the Dewanny to the Company in 1765. Description thereof by Governor Verelst in 1769. Continued to a late period under the British Government, and proved by facts quoted from Official Records.

AFTER the transfer of the Dewanny lands in Bengal in 1765 to the Company, and in every province since acquired by the British Government by cession, or conquest, the state of society has uniformly exhibited the same examples of moral degradation. Various proofs are given in the preceding volume. The best histories of India,* the Fifth Report with its voluminous appendix, and numerous printed official documents, abound with others; all confirming the important fact that the revenue system now in force, coupled with the exactions of the revenue servants, had every where sealed the poverty of the inhabitants; and that in addition to poverty, the same ignorance, the same fears, suspicions, and vices that are the common features of every other Asiatic state, were universally manifest.

In an able document, entitled "Instructions to Supravisors in 1769," by Mr. Verelst, or four years subsequent to the acquisition of the

* Vide Orme, Mill, Wilks.

Dewanny, it is clearly enough attested that the Revenue System, by multiplying superfluous agents and inferior collectors, had been, as it ever will be, a source of extortion not to be controuled. We read, in this and other documents, of fraudulent alienations of land by the revenue servants on various pleas; some for their own use, and some on pretence of charitable or religious donations; of abuses in the bestowal and sale of Talooks, some to reward the creatures of government, others obtained by unwarrantable means, and held with extraordinary immunities; of the similar appropriation of Jaghires, and waste lands, and embezzling the produce of Khomar lands,* of " grievances equal to the former in the variety of demands which the collector, from the Aumil and Zemindar to the lowest Pyke, imposes without any colour of license from government, some of which have been so long exacted and paid, that Ryots begin to

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imagine the oppression is sanctified by go"vernment, and is not the mere fraud of the "collectors;" of illegal fees and duties col

Khomar Lands, the Ryots of which do not pay a money rent, but divide the produce at certain rates of shares with the Zemindar; contradistinguished from Ryotty lands, in which the government duties are paid in money.

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lected at Gauts, and public markets, by police officers appointed to protect the inhabitants, but more frequently the instruments of their oppression; of provincial and village accounts" merely adapted to the private in"terests of the Zemindars, filled with repre"sentations designedly disguised, to square with their offers, and accounts with govern"ment, loosely, unfaithfully, and partially formed in every instance." Of Zemindars in particular it is added that, under the name of Nankar* allowance, they misapplied lands: one spot to yield rice, another pasture; particular tanks to afford fish and water; and in like manner distinct spots for every distinct article of consumption; thus "laying hands "on the revenue of government, and on the property of the Ryots, where he (the Ze

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mindar) had no foundation of right nor co"lour of pretence;" that they exacted from the inhabitants Nuzzeranas, or presents in provision and money, whenever they, or their attendants, moved through the district; that they levied fines at will; raised large sums from duties collected in the public markets;

*Nankar An assignment of lands or of the government dues equal to 5 per cent. of the net revenue, for the support of Zemindars and other public servants.

assumed authority over the Ryots to require their labour gratuitously; that they claimed illegal perquisites under the denomination of Batta, or discount on Rupees, at an arbitrary valuation, besides usurious interest, and fraudulent valuations arbitrarily imposed on products received from Ryots in return for Tuckary advances. Governor Verelst's account indeed, in 1769, of the conduct of Zemindars is one which subsequent investigations have fully confirmed. He adds "the "truth cannot be doubted that the poor and "industrious tenant is taxed by the Zemin"dar or collector for every extravagance that avarice, and ambition, pride, vanity, or "intemperance may lead him into, over and "above what is generally deemed the established rent of his lands. If he is to be

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married, a child born, honors conferred, “ luxury indulged; Nuzzeranas (presents) or fines, exacted, even for his own miscon

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duct; all must be paid by the Ryot; and what heightens the distressful scene, the "more opulent, who can better obtain redress for imposition, escape, while the weaker are obliged to submit."

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Tuckary

Money advanced on loan to Ryots to enable

them to cultivate their lands.