Dewanny; that is, long before any of these action; and are we now to be told that Go-tenures could have been brought into the vernment has given repeated pledges, that open market,” as soon as the frauds came the tenures shall never be touched? to the knowledge of Government, an assur

ance was given, that such officers had no right "After Government has acknowleged, as far to assign the revenues of Government, and as possible, the settled institutions of the that no tenures bearing their signature, would country, its conduct may be fairly tested by be valid. It was not, however, in the reign the rules which guide the paramount State." of these officers alone that these tenures were We cannot discover from this sentence, created. We find that ten years after they whether the Englishman intends to affirm, that bad been dismissed from office, and the public revennes had been placed in the hands of English functionaries, these alienations were described as annually increasing.'

that the question of Resumption, is to be decided according to the institutions of India, or the analogy of English law. If by the former, it may be said with eminent truth, that Government, in resuming fraudulent tenures, is acting in conformity with the instiand the invariable practice of the Mohomedan tutions of the country, and with the maxims administration. One monarch unceremoni

"It is ridiculous to say that Lord Clive and his Council had no notion of the value of land revenue. His Lordship shewed him self a pretty good judge of it, when he secured for his private advantage, the jaygeer of the ously resumed the alienations which his predecessor had sanctioned; and we have 24 Pergunahs." This, however, does noi prove that Lord Clive or bis Council knew the the fact that such alienations as were made the high authority of Mr. James Grant, for value of lands, or the mode of collecting in the first years of our Government, would rents. The jaygeer was given him wihont have been resumed by the Mahomedans, his previous concurrance, as a token of grati- whenever detected. If the rules of the paratude by the Nabob, six years before the Dewanny, or before the English had any idea mount State are to bind the conduct of the of taking the management of the country into rule which bears upon the fraudulent alienaIndian Government, where shall we find any their hands. All the memoirs of that period tion of one-third of the revenues of Eugland? shew, that the principal Members of Go- We have in this country a very material porvernment were absorbed in trade, and igno- tion of the resources of the State, surreptitions. rant of the revenual system of the country.ly alienated while the Government was new And Golam Hossien, the able Mahomedan Historian of that period, a man of illustrious to the country; and the question is, whether descent, who had served, both under the Government is ever to recover its own? Supthis alienation shall be perpetual, or whether Moosulmans and the British, declares, so late as 1782, “The tongue happens to be deprived posing such an extraordinary state of things of its office, between the Hisdoostanies and third of the land, and one-third of the people, to have ever existed in England, that onethe English; most of the Englishmen do not were paying nothing towards the expenses of understand the language of their subjects, the Government, and that the whole burden and none of these last understand a word fell upon the remaining two-thirds of the of English, These new rulers are quite alien people; supposing this inequality of taxation to the country, both in customs and man- to have arisen out of the grossest fraud, which ners, and quite strangers to the methods of had no stronger claim than a prescription of raising tributes, as well as to the maxims of estimating the revenues, or of comprehending the ways of tax gathering,"

fifty, sixty or seventy years, would not the whole country,-the privileged few excepted, -have risen as one man to destroy this impartial distribution of the burden of taxaanomaly, and to insist on an equal and

tion?

"But when the first struggles were over, and the new Government had acquired stability, and bound itself, by repeated pledges, and acknowledged, as far as possible, the settled The Englishman goes far, we think, to coninstitutions of the country, its conduct may cede the whole question, when he says, 66 we fairly be tested by the rules which guide the agree that the supreme power may at any time paramount State." Here we have again the put on a tax but to be just, that tax must be stale plea of pledges, which was brought for-general." We have never asked for any ward to support the burning the widows, thing more. In India the land tax is our the perpetuation of Sungskrit studies, the only tax; and we require to be general and levying of the Pilgrim Tax, and the connec-just; that certain portions of land shall not tion of Government with the shrines of Idola.be exempt from all payment, while others are try. But in the present instance this prin regularly assessed. ciple of pledges has taken a most extraordinry stride. In reference to these rent free tenures, which the Englishman allows to have been originally rotten, the Britsh Government has given no pledge, except that they will not be respected; and this pledge has been repeated no fewer than eight times during the last seventy years, and acted upon as fai as Government possessed the means of

Our contemporary father adds, “in this long period of seventy-three years, how many persons have invested their money in these rent-free tenures, on the implied security which has thus been held out to them ?“ But when Government has so repeatedly declared, that these tenures were unsound and unsafe; that they were all liable to.

For the last two or three weeks, the Friend of India has been commenting upon the general question of resumption, which is now examination in undergoing so minute an the ample sheets of the Hurkaru, that we think it would be injudicious for us, who have but a very small space at our disposal, to enter into this extensive subject. We shall, however, endeavour to make room for

resumption; when it has set up machinery for resumption, at various times, with various success, it is too much to say, that it has given the holders the slightest implied security for these lands. The natives have purchased these doubtful tenures with their eyes open, in the face of all the proclamations which have been issued on the subject; and Government is surely not to be charged with having deluded them into the acquisition of imper-a few remarks on such parts of the Friend feet titles.

of India's article, as may be left unnoticed. Our contemporary, in the first place, states "The greater part of the Lakrajdars," says the question by saying, that in 1777, an the Englishman, are not much more wealthy official examination was made, and the result than the parish poor of England," yet the of it was the discovery of upwards of seven petition is signed by twenty thousand Zemin millions of beegahs of land, which were held dars, a term which in India conveys the idea rent free, and which, added to alienations of a man a little above a pauper. But let supposed to have been made between 177, that pass. It may be said that these Zemin and 1793, when such alienations were finally dars have no interest whatsoever in the rent checked, amount to about nine millions of free lands; but have come forward in the beegahs, which calculated at an average rate true spirit of patriotism, to protect their of 10 annas per beegah, would yield an anancient priesthood from destruction. But it nual revenue to the state of about half a so happens, that Government has limited its million sterling, or fifty thousand rupees. Our enquiries to land exceeding a hundred beegahs; contemporary then goes on to say, that at it leaves untouched all the lands of those least four-fifths of these "tenures", are held Lakrajdars, or rent-free holders, who may be by Hindoos, under pretence of their having considered as in some measure on a level been given for the support of the Hindoo with the parish poor in England. We under religion, which, considering the animosity stand that by this limitation, Government of the Mahomedans to that religion, be conrelinquishes in certain districts, nearly two siders very improbable, and as affording a millions of beegahs of land. Must assuredly prima facie evidence of the falseness of the a Native who has the undisturbed enjoyment pretence. He then enumerates a series of of the Government share and the Zemindar's endeavours made by the Mahomedans, from share of the rent of a hundred beegahs of time to time, to raise the revenue of Bengal, land, -thirty three acres of freehold,-need which facts he considers as confirmatory of not go on the parish. But, unfortunately, his view of the subject. How far these facts such is the evil influence of this iron age, that support our contemporary's view, we shall in numerous instances the Zemindars them.examine hereaafter; but we are anxious that selves have unscrupulously assessed the small our readers should be put in possession of freeholds of the Brahmuns, which Govern- these facts, not only because we think they ment had spared. afford us a very good argument against our contemporary, but also because they form an interesting synopsis of the revenue history of Bengal, previous to the Dewany firmaun, which is important at the present crisis. We therefore quote the following from

our contemporary:~

"We need not for this purpose ascend to the time of Torell Mull, who formed the first rent roll of Bengal, in 1582, six years after the Moguls first obtained possession of the We country, is the time of Emperor Akbar. may equally pass over the revision of that settlement by Shah Soojah, in 1658; and assume as our starting point, the third period of assessment, at the beginning of the last century, during the viceroyalty of Moorshed Kooly Khan, the founder of Moorshedabad. To this the rent-free holders are not likely to offer any objection, as we believe there are few, if any, who claim tenures of a date prior to 1700.

One word more. We did not affirm that Government had a right to assess these lands, because seventy years ago they slipped through the fingers of their simple and ignorant functionaries. The historical facts which we brought forward in our two last articles, were intended simply to refute the assertion so boldly advanced, that the British Government was resuming what the Mahomedans had spared. The Englishman asks, “is it just that Government should, after such a period, allege the fraud and incapacity of its own officers, and its own carelessness, as sufficient grounds to unsettle half the tenures in the country?" We have never heard that Government has ever alleged any such thing. The reply to the petition has not yet been received; and it will be time to cut up its statements when they are known. This is the argument which the Englishman erroneously charges us with employing. But in this and in every other controversy, we act in the same Moorshed Kooly Khan's abilities, both spirit of complete and absolute independence political and financial, are acknowledged to of all persons in authority, as the Hurkaru or have been of the first order. Having deter the Englishman. Our arguments are our mined to re-cast the entire revenual admiown. Let not Government bear the blame of nistration of the country, he institued the their supposed weakness or incongruity.-minutest investigations relative to the capaFriend of India Dec. 13.

city of the soil to yield a bigher revenue than

bis perdecessor bad enjoyed; and when, after Serferaz Khan's reign of a year need not be several years of untemitted labour, his enqui noticed. He was supplanted by the great Aly vies were complete, he augmented the gross Verdy Khan, who held the reigns of Govern assessment of the land, by fourteen laks and ment from 1740 to 1756. Scarcely was he thirty-one thousand rupees a year. Having e-seated on the throne, when the Mahrattes for solved upon an entire change of system, he the first time came down and demanded a dismissed the old jaygeerdars, through whom fourth of the revenues of Bengal. They con the rents had been collected, redivided the tinued for ten years annually to invade the whole country into new zemindary trusts; and province, and to lay waste the whole extent of committed each chuckla and each minor di-country from Balasore to Rajmahal. To keep vision, to men in whom he had confidence, a large and efficient army in the field, in order the great majority of whom were Hindoos. to ward off the scourge of their ravages, Aly The origin of the zemindary families of Verdy was obliged to levy additional taxes on Nuddea, Rajshy, Dinagepore, Jessore and the land lying to the east of the Bhugiruttee; other districts, who, on the decline of the and entirely to drop the transmission of tribute Mahomedan power in the country, became to Delhi. It is not likely that in these necesgreat Rajahs, and acquired large consi sitous times he would have allowed the Zeminderation, dates по farther back than to dars to alienate the public rents, in favour of his appointment. He remitted to Deibi the their priests. When in 1750 he had rid himsurplus revenues of Bengal, amounting to self of these merciless marauders, by ceding about a million sterling a year, with such un- Orissa to them, and agreeing to pay a black erring punctuality, that whoever became Em-mail tribute of twelve lakhs of rupees a year peror, he was sure to remain the Dewan of for Bengal, be sat down to the internal maBengal. He studied the utmost economy in nagement of his Government, and increased the public expenditure. He dismissed three the permanent assessment of the lands, above thousand troops who had been employed by what his predecessor had fixed, by no less a his predecessor, as a body guard, and thus sum than twenty-two lakhs of rupees a year. effected a saving, it is said, of nearly ten laks It must appear to the most cursory observer, of rupees a year. In the collection of the reve-that while Aly Verdy Khan was thus screwing nues, he exercised such severity, as to have aethe last farthing out of the Hindoo Zemindars, quired the character of an odious tyrant. The it is not likely that he would have permitted grossest indignities were offered to the Hindoos them to make away with one-third of the rents whenever a fraction of the revenue was with they were employed to collect. held. Pits filled with ordure were used as prisons for the Zemindars who were back Between 1722, the date of Moorshed Kooly ward in their payments; and these execrable Khan's revised and angmented rent roll, and dungeons, were called, by way of derision, 1755, the last year of Aly Verdy's reign-that Bykoont, the Hindoo Paradise. When the is, during a period of thirty-three years, the Zemindars persisted in withholding the permanent assessment on the Landholders of rents, he compelled them and their families Bengal, was thus increased by the sum of to become Mahomedans. Is it credible that forty one lakhs of rupees a year. This fact while he was exercising this severity on the would fully warrant the conclusion that, durò one hand, that he should, on the other, haveing these years of gradually increasing taxapermitted the alienation of one-third of his tion, it was not probable that the Nahobs revenues to pamper a Hindoo priest ood? We of Moorshedabad would have quietly permitmay, therefore, safely-conclude, that theseted the alienation of an equal sum for the bealienations were unknown, when in 1722, after |nefit of the Hindoo priesthood. having traced out every possible source of revenue, he fixed the assessment of Bengal upon as enlarged a scale as it appeared capable of bearing.

The next assessment, the last ever made by the Mahomedans, was that of Cossim Aly Khan, in the year 1763, just two years before the acquisition of the Dewanny by the English. He proceeded to greater lenghs in the He died in 1725, and was succeeded by his application of the reveneu screw than any son in-law, Soojah-Ood-deen. This man began of his predecessors. The one absorbing ob histeign with an act of mercy. He released all ject of his administration, was to obtain as the Zemindars whom bis predecessor had east large a revenue as possible that he might into prison, for arrears of rent; but, instead emancipate himself from British influence. of making any remissions of revenue, he im He let no stone unturned to discover how proved upon the plan of his father-in-law; the exchequer might be filled. He cared and, considering the country as still too lightly nothing for the means; his eye was steadily assessed, proceeded to increase his demand fixed on the end. He employed his spies in by nineteen lakhs of rapees a year. If there every direction to fish out the latent profiis be no reason for supposing it possible for these of the Zemindars and middle men'; and Alienations to have taken place in the time of appears to have come at length to the deterMoorshed Kooly, still less can it be believed.mination of abolishing the office of Zemindar that there was any opportunity for the creatio altogether, in order that all the profits of the of the rent free tenures in the succeeding land might reach him without dimination. administration, when so large an addition wa | By a most iniquitous act, he at once raised the made to the public assessment. .ent-roll of Bengal seventy-four lakhs of

rupees above that of Aly Verdy Khan. It is needless to say, that this rack-rent was never collected. But our business is only to enquire whether it is possible, that in the midst of these exactions, be should have permitted rent-free tenures, embracing eight millions of acres, to have been created; or that if he had found them in existence, it is likely that they could have eluded bis grasp ?"

The Friend of India then concludes his enumeration of the successive turns which were given to the revenue screw, by stating, that by these means, "in the space of forty-one years, that is from 1722 to 1763, the demand on the landholders of Bengal, was increased to the extent of one crore and sixteen lakhs of rupees a year." The reader must have already perceived by the remarks of our con temporary, interspersed throughout the above quotation, the corollary he would draw from the series of facts mentioned by him, viz., that it is not likely, under such circumstances, the Mahomedans would give much in charity to the Hindoos. He, however, admits the probability of such gifts by Hindoo and Mahomedan officers, on the score of religious feeling; and by doing so he does, in a great measure, answer his own objection; but he cannot think it possible that these gifts could have been carried to such extent as they are stated to be. The number of Hindoos in Bengal, when compared with the number of Musulmans, is far greater; it would, therefore, be nothing strange that a proportionally large in their hands; besides it is improbable, that whilst the Mahommedan Viceroys of Bengal exerted their utmost to enhance the revenues

extent of rent-free tenures should be found

may also bring us to a conclusion different from that to which our contemporary would lead us. Although the number of rent-free tenures held by Hindoos may be greater, it does not thence necessarily follow, that they occupy the greater quantity or extent of rent-free lands. The fact is, our contemporary has taken his information, no doubt, from some returns in which the number of Hindoo rent-free holders was greater than the number of Musulmans, the tenures held by each class, he jumps at and without taking into account the extent of the conclusion, that the Hindoos possess more

rent free lands, than the Musulmans. To make

out even the probability on which alone his argument rests, he must not only shew, that the aggregate quantity of rent-free lands held by Hindoos is greater than the aggregate quantity held by Musulmans; but he must 50 further, and prove, that the aggregate compared with their number in Bengal, a quantity held by the Hindoos, bears, when greater proportion than the aggregate quantity held hy the Musulmans bears to the numerical strength of that class residing in the same territories. For example, if out of 100 inhabitants 90 are Hindoos and but 10 Musulmans, and if 20 of the Hindoos hold but one bigah of rent-free land each, and five of the Musulmans hold eight bigahs each, it is certain that greater favor was shewn to the latter class than to the former, notwithstanding the fact, that there are 20 Hindoo rent free holders to but five that are Musulmans; for here, out of 90 Hindoos only, 20 are favored and that with only 20 bigahs, whilst out of only 10 Musuland that with no less than 40 bigahs. There is mans no less than 5 -a moiety-are favored, another circum tance which ought not to be lost sight of. It is not impossible that since the accession of the British to the Dewanny, and even before, many rent-free tenures have been transferred by sale and other means from the Musulmans to the Hindoos. The latter, every body knows, are better agriculturists than the former, whilst the former are more eratic in their disposition than the latter. The Hindoos have been a fixture in the soil; it is not unlikely, therefore, that the Musul in exchange for money, which better suited mans gave their rent-free lands to the Hindoos their views. This would naturally bring a large portion of the rent-free lands, which until lately were considered the most valuable and desirable kind of property, into the hands of the stationery, the money making, and peaceable Hindoos.

of the malgoozary tenures, they would not leave alone at least those that were sacred to religion, and on that account held rent-free. No ruler, we think, would so far disregard the good opinion of his subjects, as to force from them a high rate of rent, and at the same time insult their religious feelings, especially when we find the highest offices under the Mahomedan Government filled by Hindoos, not only in Bengal, but even at Delhi, the very seat of the Moslem Empire in India. The facts, therefore, which the Friend of India takes as furnishing a probability that many rent-free tenures could not have existed before the Company obtained the Dewanny Firman, in our opinion, furnish a probability of just the contrary nature. It is true, that our contemporary has arrayed a series of facts, on his side; but of what use are they if the corollary deduced from them,amounts after all to a probability the opposite of facts adduced by the Friend of India, and which is, as we have shown, equally prowhich will better support our side of the bable. Surely our justice loving contem- question than he seems to apprehend. He porary does not mean to recommend to Go-has proved, by the said facts, that the succes vernment the resumption of the khiraj of all rent free tenures on the ground of this pro bability? If he does not, he argues to no purpose, and his facts, so far as the question at issue is concerned, go for nothing.

But it is not necessary that we should deal only in probabilities; an examination of facts

We now come to take another view of the

sive Mahommedan Vice Roys of Bengal,

turned the revenue, screw to the utmost degree, and bas stated, that, runder such could have been left any thing unassessed, circumstances, it is impossible that there that could possibly have been assessed or assessed at a lower rate than it could bear. Keeping this conclusion in view, let us sea

nature of GAUNTLET. I have a better reason for my conviction that you are the writer. I find in those letters, that fragments of private notes and conversations, that have passed between us, are quoted, by you to assist your arguments, and in my judgment and recollection, these are not quoted so fully as they ought to have been, if it were fit to cite or allude to them at all. In the opinion of most gentleman, I apprehend, this proceeding will be deemed unbecoming, when it is known, as I affirm, that the relations between us at the time were purely of a private, friendly and confidential

and after stating the fact that he had passed above 400 decrees for resumption of rent-free tenures in one day, I did censure, by implication, (not expressly however,) the preci pitancy of such judgments, but I did no more, My address to the society is in every other respect, free from the smallest trace of perso nal allusion, and, in especial, I do not find therein the least notice, direct or indirect, of Mr. Ross Donnelly Mangles.

what Lord Cornwallis did at the time of his proper name, as the author of some letters permanent settlement. Did he decrease or published in the newspapers, under the sig increase the revenue? He did the latter, by a very large sum. He, therefore, gave a further turn to the screw, which, according to our contemporary's own shewing, had received as many turns as it could possibly bear. The natural and obvious inference from this is, that, at the permanent settlement, Bengal was as highly taxed as it could possibly bear; a conclusion which is borne out by the fact, that, notwithstanding the benefits of a settlement in perpetuity, most of the estates have changed owners since. If this be the case, is it not as clear as noon-day sun, that the province pays as much as it possibly can pay, and that no nature. further revenue can be forced from it, without At a public meeting of the landholders, I injustice. came forward as a member of that society, and Having taken for granted that he has estab-arraigned to the best of my ability, by argu lished all that we have refuted above, the men, the course pursued by Government, toFriend of India goes on, in his next number, towards the holders of rent-free tenures. In the examine" by what means and at what period course of my speech, which I have carefully these rent-free tenures were created," and read over, I find that I cast no imputation informs us, that, on receiving the Dewany on the motives of any individual whatever. Firmans, the British Government, instead of I did name one individual acting in a publooking after the finances of the country, lic capacity, Mr. Deputy Collector Tayler, continued absorbed in commercial pursuits, leaving the management of the Revenues in the bands of certain natives of influence; that it was not until some years after, that the Company's Government took upon itself the actual management of the Revenue; and that it was during this financial interregnum, while the Government officers were fast asleep as to revenue matters, that all the rent-free-tenures were created. But as the Government notified in 1772, that "all grants made before 1765 would be respected, every deed acquired a In the letters which you have thought prodate prior to that year." Here is a sweeping per to publish, under the signature of GAUNTcharge of forgery made against every rent-free- LET, the name of Mr. Dickens is directly menholder; for it is stated that every deed had tioned some three and forty times,and in every its date altered. The most zealous and strict instance for the purpose of disparagement, Resumption officer, would not, dare to make Besides these very copious direct notices, such a bold and wholesale assertion, which there are numerous allusions to me personalsurpasses the wholesale resumption of Mr. y, by mottoes and otherwise, throughout the Taylor himself, whose exploits have lately letters, and every such allusion bears the been brought to the notice of the public. What same character. It may be profitable to you, confidence, we ask, can be placed in the state | Sir, if it profit no one else, to give here a ments of a man, who seems determined to go brief abstract of your manner of writing of an the whole hog, regardless of facts, and nume-open and avowed opponent on a public quesrous deeds, which have been declared by the most zealous Resumption officers, and after the stricts examination, to be genuine, on which lands are now held rent-free. Butthis as well as the other arguments or rather assertions of our Serampore contemporary, have been discussed at length in the daily papers, and continue to undergo a thorough investigation; it is there fore, needless for us to enter into the same subject in these limited columns. We, therefore, leave him for the present to settle the question with the Hurkaru, and its correspon dents, intending hereafter to revert to the subject.-Reformer, December 16.

To Ross DONNELLY MANGLES, ESQ.,

tion; of a man who was your private acquainlance, aud, as he thought, after a previous quarrel and reconciliation, your friend; whose opinion and advice you were at the time often in the habit of seeking, and who had given you personally, in public or in private, no kind of provocation or offence. You have thus written of me:

He resembles Gratiano, and speaks an infinite deal of nothing, &c.

He speaks in his misnamed "Oratio pro Lakherajdars," chiefly of himself, the charter and Mr. Macaulay, and speaks on the subjects, especially the first, with so much grace and energy, that it is greatly to be regretted they

One of the Members of the Sudder Board of Re-did not occupy the whole instead of the better

half, of his speech.

He is the champion of the Landholders, and bound hand and foot to them.