Book V.!

1776.

The plan for administering

the natives ex

This was the principle and essence of his plan; and the reasonings by which he supported it, were the common reasonings which prove the benefit of certainty in levying contributions for the use of the state. But Mr. Francis misapplied a common term. By certainty, in matters of taxation, is not meant security for ever against increase of taxation. Taxes may be in the highest degree certain, and yet liable to be increased at the will of the legislature. For certainty, it is enough, that under any existing enactment of the legislature, the sum which every man has to pay should depend upon definite, cognoscible circumstances. The window-tax, for example, is a certain tax; though it may be increased or diminished, not only at the pleasure of the legislature; but by altering the number of his windows at the pleasure of the individual who pays it. By the common reasonings to prove the advantages of certainty in taxes, Mr. Francis, therefore, proved nothing at all against the power of increasing them. The sacred duty of keeping taxation in general within the narrowest possible limits, rests upon equally strong, but very different grounds.

Into the subordinate arrangements of the scheme, it belongs not to the present purpose to enter. It is only necessary to state, that Mr. Francis proposed to protect the ryots from the arbitrary exactions of the Zemindars, by prescribed forms of leases, in India known by the name of pottahs; that he condemned the provincial councils, and recommended local supervisors, to superintend, for a time, the executive as well as judiciary business of the collections; a business, which, by the arrangements made with the Zemindars and the ryots, he trusted, would in a great measure soon perform itself. On opium and salt, of which the monopoly had generally been disposed of by contract, he proposed that government should content itself with a duty; and terminate a large amount of existing oppressions by giving freedom to the trade.*

That the regulations which had been adopted for the administration of justice justice among among the natives were extremely defective, all parties admitted and comThat robbery and other crimes so greatly prevailed, was owing, tremely defec-plained. in the opinion of Mr. Francis, to the reduction of the authority of the ZeminRemedies pro- dars. These officers had formerly exercised a penal control, which Mr. Francis posed by Mr. Francis, maintained was fully judicial; which had reference, as Mr. Hastings affirmed,

tive.

* Report, ut supra, and Appendix, No. 14 and 15: see also a publication entitled Original Minutes of the Governor-General and Council of Fort William; by Philip Francis, Esq. For the meaning of the terms Zemindar and Ryot, see i. 190; and the interest which the Zemindar had in the land, see the considerations adduced on the introduction of the zemindary system during the administration of Lord Cornwallis.

ings.

to nothing but police. As a cure for the existing disorders, Mr. Francis recom- CHAP. III. mended the restoration of their ancient powers to the Zemindars, who, in the 1776. case of robbery and theft, were obliged, under the ancient government, to make compensation to the party wronged; and in the case of murders and riots, were liable to severe mulcts at the hand of government. Mr. Hastings, who judged By Mr. Hastmore wisely what effects zemindary jurisdiction had produced, or was likely to produce, treated this as a remedy which was far from adequate to the disease. In conjunction with Sir Elijah Impey, he formed the draught of a bill for an act of parliament, on the subject of the civil judicature of Bengal. It was communicated to the Council on the 29th of May. In this plan of the Chief Governor and Chief Judge, it was proposed, that in each of the seven divisions into which, including Chittagong, the country had been already distributed, two courts of record should be established; that one should be denominated "The Court of Provincial Council;" that it should in each instance consist of a President and three Councillors, chosen by the Governor-General and Council among the elder servants of the Company; and have summary jurisdiction in all pecuniary suits which regarded the Company, either directly, or through the medium of any person indebted to them or employed in their service: that the other of these courts should be called the Adaulut Dewanny Zillajaut; should consist of one judge, chosen, for his knowledge in the language and constitutions of the country, by the Governor and Council, from among the senior servants of the Company; and should have jurisdiction in cases of trespass or damage, rents, debts, and in general of all pleas real, personal, or mixed, relating to parties different from those included in the jurisdiction of the Courts of Provincial Council. In this draught no provision was made for the criminal branch of judicature among the natives, which had been remitted to the nominal government of the Nabob, and exercised under the superintendence of Mahomed Reza Khan.*

Colonel Monson, which re

stored the

Early in November, 1776, Colonel Monson died; and as there remained in the Death of Council, after that event, only the Governor-General and Mr. Barwell on the one part, with General Clavering and Mr. Francis on the other, the casting powers of govote of the Governor-General turned the balance on his side, and restored to him vernment to Mr. Hastings. the direction of government.

In the consultation of the 1st of November he had entered a minute, in which A plan of inquiry proposed he proposed as a foundation for new-modelling the plan of collection, that an by Mr. Hastinvestigation should be instituted for ascertaining the actual state of the sources ings, for ob

See Francis's Minute, ut supra, and the Draught of Hastings's Bill; Report, ut supra, Appendix, No. 13.

knowledge of the sources of taxation.

1776.

BOOK V. of revenue, particularly of that great and principal source, the lands. As the mode of letting by auction, which had produced inconvenience, was meant to be discontinued, and the mode of letting by valuation to be adopted in its stead, the Governor-General was of opinion, that as accurate a knowledge as possible of the subject of valuation ought first to be obtained. He proposed that this inquiry should be assigned as an exclusive duty to particular agents; that two covenanted servants of the Company should be chosen, with an adequate appointment of native officers; and that their business should be to collect the accounts of the Zemindars, the farmers, and ryots, to obtain such information as the Provincial Councils could impart; to depute, when expedient, native officers into the districts for the purpose of inquiry; and to arrange and digest the accumulated materials. The use of this knowledge would be to assess the lands in proportion to their value, and to protect the ryots, by equitable agreements, or pottahs, imposed upon the Zemindars. The Governor-General finally proposed, for the sake as he said of dispatch, that all orders issued from the office, in execution of such measures as had received the sanction of the Board, should be written in his name; and that the control of the office should be confided to his care.

Objections of
Mr. Francis;

As every proposal made by the Governor-General was an object of attack to the opposite side of the Board, this measure introduced as usual a long train of debate and altercation. Mr. Francis objected, 1. That the inquiry proposed was altogether uselss; as a rate of impost extracting from the lands their utmost value would be cruel to the people, and ruinous to the state; while, under a moderate assessment, disproportion between the rate and the value was worthy of little regard; 2. That if an accurate valuation were useful, it ought to have been obtained through the Committee of Circuit; by whom the lands were let at auction, for the professed purpose of ascertaining their highest value; 3. That the inquiry would be unavailing, because the Zemindars, farmers, and ryots would not give true accounts; 4. That if real accounts were capable of being obtained, they would be so voluminous, intricate, and defective, as to preclude the possibility of drawing from them any accurate conclusion; 5. That a valuation of land, if accurately obtained, is only true for one particular year, not for any future one; and 6. That with regard to the ryots, while the proposed pottahs were ill-calculated to afford them protection, the interest of the Zemindars, if their lands were restored under a moderate and invariable tax, would yield the best security to the husbandman, from whose exertions the value of And of Gen- the land arose. A furious minute was entered by General Clavering, in which

1

eral Clavering.

he arraigned the measure as an attempt to wrest from the Council" the Chap. III. ordering, management, and government of the territorial acquisitions," and as 1776. an illegal usurpation of the powers that were vested exclusively in the Board. This accusation was founded upon the proposal about the letters and the control Value of the objections of the office. And it is remarkable, that knowing the jealousy with which any proposal of a new power to himself would be viewed by the hostile party, and the imputations to which it would give birth, the Governor-General should have embarrassed his scheme with a condition, invidious, and not essential to its execution. That the objections were frivolous or invalid, it is easy to perceive. Though the inequalities of some taxes redress themselves in time, it is a mischievous notion that inequality in the imposing of taxes is not an evil: Every inequality in the case of a new imposition is an act of oppression and injustice: And Hastings showed that in the case of India, where the land-holder paid ninetenths of the produce of the land to government, inequality might produce the most cruel oppression. If the Committee of Circuit had fallen short of procuring an accurate knowledge of the sources of the revenue, that could be no reason why better information should not be obtained. Though it was acknowledged that inquiry would be difficult, and its results defective, it is never to be admitted that, where perfect knowledge cannot be obtained, knowledge, though imperfect, is of no advantage. If it were allowed, as it was not, that the interest of the Zemindars would have been such, upon the plan of Mr. Francis, as Mr. Francis supposed; it is not true that men will be governed by their real interests, where it is certain that they are incapable of understanding those interests; where those interests are distant and speak only to the judgment, while they are opposed by others that operate immediately upon the passions and the senses.. As the Governor-General had not proposed that letters from the office issued in his name should relate to any thing but services which had received the sanction of the Council, he insisted that they no more implied an usurpation of the powers of the Council than the letters written in his own name, in the discharge of his function, by any officer who was vested with a trust. The pernicious purposes to which it was in vague and general terms affirmed that such a power might be converted, it is not easy to discover. And the odium which it was attempted to cast upon the inquiry, by representing it as a preparation for exacting the utmost possible revenue from the lands, and dispossessing the Zemindars, Hastings answered, and sufficiently, by a solemn declaration, that no such intention was conceived.

Book V.

1777.

lished; but

By the ascendancy, now restored to the Governor-General, the office was established. Orders were transmitted to the Provincial Councils; and native The office of officers, called aumeens, were sent to collect accounts, and to obtain information inquiry estab- in the districts. The first incidents which occurred were complaints against the results not those aumeens, for injurious treatment of the inhabitants; and the opposing satisfactory. party were careful to place these accusations in the strongest possible light. From the aumeens, on the other hand, accounts arrived of frequent refusal on the part of the Zemindarry agents, and others, to afford information; or even to show their accounts.

The country over-taxed.

The five years' leases expired in April, 1777; and the month of July of that year had arrived before any plan for the current and future years had yet been determined. By acknowledgement of all parties, the country had been so grievously over-taxed, as to have been altogether unable to carry up its payments to the level of the taxation. According to the statement of the AccountantGeneral, dated the 12th of July, 1777, the remissions upon the five years' leases came to 118 lacs 79,576 rupees; and the balances, of which the greater part were wholly irrecoverable, amounted to 129 lacs 26,910 rupees. In his minute on the office of inquiry, Mr. Barwell expressly declared that "the impoverished state of the country loudly pleaded for a reduction of the revenue, as absolutely requisite for its future welfare."* In the mean time dispatches arrived, by The Directors which it was declared, that the Court of Directors, after considering the plans, reject both plans of tax- both that of the Governor-General for letting the lands on leases for lives, and ation, that of that of Mr. Francis for establishing a fixed, invariable rent, "did, for many Hastings, and

cis; and re

visionally a settlement from year to year.

that of Fran- weighty reasons, think it not then adviseable to adopt either of those modes," commend pro- but directed that the lands should be let for one year on the most advantageous terms; that the way of auction, however, should no more be used; that a preference should always be given to natives resident on the spot; and that no European, or the banyan of any European, should have any share in farming the revenues. On the 15th of July it was determined that the following plan should be adopted for the year; that the lands should be offered to the old Zemindars on the rent-roll or assessment of the last year, or upon a new estimate formed

Plan for the year.

* Mr. Shore (Lord Teignmouth) said in his valuable Minute on the Revenues of Bengal, dated June, 1789, printed in the Appendix, No. 1, to the Fifth Report of the Committee on India Affairs in 1810, that "the settlement of 1772, before the expiration of the leases, existed, he believed, no where, upon its original terms.”