Numerous official documents might be quoted, or referred to, to prove that the same, or nearly the same state of society has continued to exist in all the countries which have passed under the Company's dominion. It could not, indeed, be expected that the character, and habits, of a people would immediately change with a change of masters. Poor, ignorant, and oppressed, an Indian drags on the load of life in the same chains under each successive ruler; and the system which mainly contributed to seal his degradation, being perpetuated in its principal features by the British government to the present hour, how can we expect the native population to be different now from what we then found them? It is not pretended to assert that, under the British government in India, the inhabitants have been wantonly hunted down like wild beasts; or that rich Shroffs have been imprisoned, tortured, and fleeced at the will of a viceroy; or that decisions have been openly sold to the highest bidder in our Courts of Justice; that many vexatious duties have not been abolished, and commerce more generally encouraged; or that persons and property are not more respected, and secure, under our, than under either a Mussulman, or a Hindoo administration; as far, at least, as the authority, and the laws,

of our government, can be effectually put in force. All this, and more, would be readily conceded in favour of the Company's government in India; but when the character of a people has been formed, and fixed, by many centuries of dire oppression, the removal of evils of limited influence, or partial occurrence, will do little or nothing to call forth confidence or hope-to cheer the mind with the prospect of improvement,—if the more important evils of universal and unceasing operation are continued. The advocates of the existing system must, therefore, admit that our government is arbitrary in theory, and in practice; that in the most important of all its arrangements, the revenue, it has followed, and perpetuated, the Mussulman system; and though the execution of this system has often been entrusted to some of the ablest and most humane of men, yet to mitigate its severity, in any great degree, has been beyond their power. The expences of government required all the revenue that could be collected for its support. To realize a land revenue of this amount, large establishments of native officers were also indispensable; and with a handful of European collectors, and judges, thinly scattered among 80 or 100 millions of people, it is too

much to expect that any controul they could exercise would be effectual either to improve or to restrain settled habits, which had for ages struck their debasing roots into all the ordinary occurrences of Indian life.

It has been sometimes alleged that much of the corrupt dealing and embezzlements of former times, by native officers in power, has been progressively checked by the extreme vigilance, and inviolable integrity, of many of their European superiors. That this has been the case in some instances may be conceded; but it must on the other hand be admitted, that, to the same extent as illegal private exactions have been repressed, the public revenue has been proportionally encreased. That perpetual aspiration after more, which the system itself has a strong tendency to inspire, is abundantly manifested in the conduct of our collectors, and in the immense additions every where made, from year to year, to the Jumma of newly acquired provinces, over and above the declared official amount at the period of their acquisition.* On this head authentic records attest that not only have illegal imposts and exactions been incorporated with the land rent, but that the assessment has been sometimes raised so high as to absorb also the trifling rents reVide Vol. I. p. 401.

66

maining to landholders, "no intermediate person being acknowledged between the "state and the actual cultivator;" that the demand of revenue was thus greater in the aggregate than could be realized; and that attempting (as in Ryotwary settlements) to fix "a moderate equal assessment on each field, we imposed a most unequal and 'heavy over-assessment on the country." In this way the sum total of demand on the unhappy Ryot remains unabated; his condition, it is much to be feared, is in no respect amended; and we may thus rationally account for that immutable pauperism and ignorance which the interior of India uniformly displays.

It would be an easy matter to fill a volume with proofs, from existing official records, of the lamentable state and condition of Indian Ryots, as arising out of the oppressiveness of our financial system. In addition to what has been said on this subject in Chapter I., I shall here add a few examples of cases which occurred long after the country had become subject to the British government, that the reader may see what the effect has been, after our own administration had been in full force, for a series of years.

* Madras Rev. Board, 5th Jan. 1818. Vol. i. of Rev. Sel. p. 940 and 948.

In 1809, abuses had reached so great a height, that the Bengal government were anxious to adopt effectual measures to protect the Ryots against undue exactions by Zemindars, and others; and with this view called on the different judges and magistrates to report on the state of their respective circles; and to suggest the mode by which, in their opinion, this object might be best effected. In a report by the judge of circuit of Moorshedabad, dated 1st August, 1810, it is stated; "The Zemindar,

his farmers, and Amlah (officers of govern"ment collectively) of all denominations, "abuse the powers with which they are vested "to exact from the Ryot to the utmost extent "of his ability. He is thus often deprived of "the means of complaint; and this system, "carried on from year to year, reduces the

66

Ryot to the extreme of poverty; frequently "the cause of the commission of crimes; not, "it is to be hoped, from any inherent depravity, "but driven thereto by necessity, to obtain a precarious and insecure subsistence."

66

The magistrate of Dinagepore, under date 24th July, 1810, on the same subject, saysThree causes are pretty apparent to ac"count for this poverty. 1st. The general character of the Zemindars. They are "low people; low in their original charac

66