The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-04 00:00:00

JUNE 4, 1853._

lodging-houses in an English town. This is '
simply irrelevant. The truck," - tally," and
• sweating" systems are bad enough, no doubt,
and hard to be remedied, but they are not the
work of Government. which, at the worst, only
stands aloof, refusing to interfere. The suffer-
ings of the ryot, supposing them unexaggerated.
are really influenced by the revenue system.
which has decided how, when, to whom. to
what amount, and under what penalties, his
rent shall be paid. We may add, that no
enactments yet devised have been effectual in
protecting him from his immediate superior,
the zemindar. The best part of the Bengal
revenue laws is their working as regards the
treasury. That presidency not only pays its
own expenses, but nearly makes up the deficit
of the rest. And the admirers of Cornwallis
may point in triumph to Madras, where a
greater administrator than Cornwallis, engaged
on a similar duty, laboured long, only to fail
at last.
With the ryotwar system, as prevalent
throughout Southern India, the name of Sir
Thomas Munro is inseparably connected. No
Indian statesman enjoys a purer, scarcely any*
higher, fame. His biography is read with de-
light by thousands who know and care to know
nothing of the lows which he originated, or the .
province which he governed : for the character
of the man shines through all his actions, and
writings, and words. lie was, in truth. the
ideal of the Anglo-Indian ruler—at man of the
sword as well of the pen, a linguist, a financier,
a philanthropist, not unversed in the crooked
diplomacy of the East, when need of such
knowledge arose—above all, a patriot. Devoid
of vanity, and superior to passion, he laboured
long years without hope of fame, earning
nothing by his services except premature old
age and a perpetuity of exile. Not until the
closing epoch of his life were those services
acknowledged as they deserved, and then
death stepped in to rob him of his well-earned
and splendid prize—the vice-royalty of Asia.
lint it was to him that the inexperienced
;overator-General, Lord Amherst, instinctively
turned. when perplexed by conflicting counsels
respecting the conduct of the first Burmese
war; it was to his judgment that Wellesley
appealed, when on the field of Assaye he sat
down to calculate the results of that complete
but costly victory ; and it was his strong will
and thorough practical knowledge which, in
nuttters of finance. prevailed over the united
opinion of the Madras authorities and the
home Government. By a singular but not
unparalleled destiny, that which he probably
regarded as his chief title to be remembered
is DOW mentioned as his principal error ; but,
SO powerful is the influence of character, the
reputation of the minister has survived the
failure of the measure. The ryotwar system
was, in one word. at grand mistake. It shall
be described in Munvo's own words :
" The plan," he wrote, " which it appears to me would lw
the bestcalculated to secure to the people the fruits of their
industry, and to floventment a permanent revenue, is
eomprised antler the following heads A reAuction
of
tift vet t percent. to he made on the lease set The
c( pantry to be rented immediately of t ioven 1111 l lit by small
farms as at itresent, every one receiving just as much laud
as he demands. a. Settlements to be annual ; that is to
say, every man to be permitted to give up or take whatever
WO he pleases every year. 1. Every man to have a part,
or the whole, of his hinds on lease who wishes it : and, in
order to encourage the application tUr kases, all lands held
titular annual tenures to be taken from the occupants and
given to such other fanners as may demand them in lease,
Or their paying to I ioventment. as purchase-nuoney,
yeat's rent for any particular field, or one half-year's
for the whole fann. h. Villages and districts to be respon-
sible for all individual failures. 11. All lands include() in
the lease should remain ins ariably at the rent then fixed
after the provosts' reduction of fifteen per cent. 7. All
Lords, not included in the lease, should be rented at the
average of the village to which they belong. s. I.tusls in•
eluded in the lease. being given Itp and allowed to lay waste,
for any number of years. should, when again eveupied, pay,
the very first year, the full rent as before. 11. All cast's,
whether natives or aliens, to pay the saute rent for the laud.
10. No additional rent ever to be demanded for improve.
ments—the farmer, who by digging a well, or building
tank, converts dry land into garden or rice fields, to pay no
more than the original rent of the ground. 11. No re.
auction of the established rent ever to be allowed, except
where the cochineal plant, mulberry, ttc., are cultivated."*
It is not easy to explain the full magnitude
of the task which, according to this scheme,

* !Words quoted in 11w Calcutta Perietr. It ih in be re•
gretted that the author of this able ki)tl interesting paper has nut,
in all Inatancee, glees the dates of the original doeumeuta which
he quotee.