VII. LECTURE 23rd June 1765 the jageer was renewed to Lord Clive for a period of ten years as an unconditional jageer. A jageer of this kind it will be remembered did not pass sovereign powers, but only the right to revenue. After the expiry of the term of ten years the Company was to succeed Lord Clive in perpetuity; so that after that period the jageer and zemindary rights would be combined, and the result would be that the zemindary would be held free of revenue. This grant to Lord Clive with succession to the Company was made by a perwanneh from the Soubahdar of Bengal. Lastly, on the 12th August 1765, the grant was completed by the Emperor's firman, which at the same time confirmed the Company in the zemindary as above-mentioned.2 Acquisition of We have seen that the Company had been allowed to acquire the talook of Calcutta and some neighbouring villages. In 1717 the revenue of the talook was fixed, and the Company confirmed in the talook by a firman from the Emperor Farokshir: and in 1758 the port and city of Calcutta were made lakhiraj, or free of revenue, in the hands of the Company; the remission of revenue being made by an instrument under the dewanny authority, which specified the public grounds on which the revenue was remitted. The Company at the same time were required to compensate and indemnify all other persons interested in the revenue. The Company had thus acquired by the year 1765 all the rights in the revenue of the Twenty-four 'See the sunnud and firman in Aitchison's Treaties, Vol. I (Appendix). ' Harington's Analysis, Vol. I, 5. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 487. * Harington's Analysis, Vol. I, 3. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 488. See the sunnuds in Aitchison's Treaties, Vol. I, 25. Pergunnahs and of Calcutta and its villages; and was in the same relation with the cultivators as the State was when, instead of employing any intermediate agency, it collected its revenue direct, or as it is called khas. Consequently, the acquisition of the dewanny, which took place at the same time, caused no alteration in their position, except the addition of the sovereign powers delegated to the dewan. We find it stated that the principles of the native system were maintained in a greater degree in these districts than anywhere else under English rule:1 and this is accounted for by the easy transition to complete sovereignty which took place. LECTURE VII. Burdwan, Chittagong. I have mentioned the acquisition of the revenues of the Acquisition of chucklahs of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong. I may Midnapore, and as well give briefly the details. In 1760 the English had resolved to displace Meer Jaffier from the position in which they had placed him; and by a treaty of the 27th September of that year, it was agreed between the Company and Meer Mahomed Cossim Khan that the latter should succeed to the Soubahdary of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and that the Company's forces should hold themselves ready to assist the new Soubahdar in all his affairs, and that in return the chucklahs of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong should be assigned to the Company to defray all charges of the Company and its forces, including provisions for the field. Cossim Khan after his elevation carried out this treaty, and by his sunnuds granted the revenues of these districts to the Company; specifying as the condition of the grant that the Company was to maintain troops thereout for the protection of the State. By these sunnuds Fifth Report, Vol. I, 489. LECTURE Accession to the Dewanny. Fiscal machinery. the landholders, tenants, and public officers were as usual required to pay the stated revenues to the Company instead of to the treasury, and to submit to the authority of the Company, which thus held a conditional jageer of these districts. These grants were confirmed on the 10th July 1763 by Meer Jaffier when he in turn was restored,' and his acts were further confirmed by the Emperor in 1765. The above grants to the East India Company were completed on the 12th August 1765 by the grant of the dewanny of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. This was made by Shah Alum, the Emperor of Delhi, as a free gift and altumgha under the red seal; and it amounted to a perpetual grant of the office of dewan, which gave the Company the entire management of the revenues of the districts included in it. The grant was upon condition of paying twenty-six lacs of rupees a year into the royal treasury, and of providing for the expenses of the Nizamut. We have seen that this grant was simultaneous with the firman confirming the Company in the full right to the revenue of the Twenty-four Pergunnahs. The English, having thus acquired the dewanny, continued at first to employ native agency and took no direct part themselves in the collection of the revenue. Mahomed Reza Khan and his two assistants, Dolubram and Juggut Seat, managed all revenue collections up to 1769. But in that year the Company took the first step towards bringing the collections under their own control by appointing supervisors to superintend the native officers in collecting Harington's Analysis, Vol. I, 45. See the treaties and sunnuds in Aitchison's Treaties, Vol. I, 46 to 55. 2 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 2. Harington's Analysis, Vol. I, 5, 6. See the treaty and firmans in Aitchison's Treaties, Vol. I, 56 to 66. the revenue and administering justice. They were appointed by a resolution of the Select Committee at the Presidency passed on the 16th August 1769 in accordance with orders from the Court of Directors in England. The Directors remark that the direct administration of the revenue by the English has when adopted proved beneficial both to the country and to the revenue: that they do not intend to interfere with the rents and profits of the zemindar, much less to add to the rents of the ryots, but to relieve both from oppression; and that they intend to establish committees for the management of the revenue at Moorshedabad and Patna, with Mahomed Reza Khan and Shitab Roy, or two other principal persons, as naibs of the respective provinces. And while they declare that they have "no view to prejudice the rights of the zemindars, who hold certain districts by inheritance," they direct that, when any of these die without heirs, the lands are to be let for a term of years, upon such conditions as may encourage cultivation. The same course is to be followed with regard to waste land. Lastly, the Directors object to the union of the judicial and revenue jurisdiction in the same persons.” LECTURE VII. In the instructions to the supervisors they were directed Instructions to the supervisors. to enquire into the following matters:-They were to enquire into the history of the provinces, not however going back to records of earlier date than the time of Shujaa Khan (1725 to 1739), the successor of Jaffier Khan, "as, at that era of good order and good government, no alterations had taken place in the ancient divisions of the Fifth Report, Vol. I, 3. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 7. Colebrooke's Supplement, 174. 'Auber's India, Vol. I, 275 to 279. LECTURE VII. 238 INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SUPERVISORS. country, and the confusion which is now apparent has been posterior to those times." They were to compile a complete hustabood or rent-roll, to ascertain the ancient boundaries of the land and the quantity held by the zemindars without paying revenue; to enquire into the abuses in the bestowal and sale of talooks, and in grants for charitable purposes; to examine into the titles of the holders of jageers; to ascertain the extent, production, and value of the land held khas or under direct Government superintendence for want of farmers; and to ascertain the same particulars as to comar (or khamar) lands, which are described as lands cultivated by contract; as to ryotty lands, which are tenanted and cultivated by the natives on the spot; and as to waste lands, distinguishing those which have become so from decrease of population from those covered with jungle. The Committee announce that all lands illegally held free of revenue will be resumed: that the nankar or nejaut (neej-jote) will be restricted to its proper amount; and nuzzerana or sedee to a reasonable contribution; that excessive fines and demands are to be cut down, and batta or exchange on the money payment of revenue to be abolished. The supervisors are to scrutinise strictly the titles to talooks, and such as have not been confirmed by the Nawab are to be resumed. The same rule is laid down as to jageers. The Committee consider the talooks to be lightly assessed, and the increase of them which has been allowed to be highly impolitic and injurious; and they complain that the ryots are drawn away to the talooks from other |