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 well. And no less care is required for the zamfndars’ sér, Rie a atentiaiiee: and Brahman’s rent-free land. The for- Mu’éfi lands of Brabmans. mer cannot be treated as cultivators and the Brahmans must be treated with favour, or the settlement may break down, though it should not. I have known a case where the jam4 fell somewhat high, perhaps, but the zamindér let his goods and chattels be attached, and his groves be cut down, but he never touched the lands which his ancestors had given to the Brahmans.

24. I trust that I have done full justice to what I con-

Mr. Maconochie’s method ceive to be the system of assessments,

in fall. that both these officers pursued. I will,

however, state in Mr. Maconochie’s own words the exact

manner in which he meant to work his method in this dis- trict.

25. They will be found in para. 50 of his Annual Report for 1865-66. I will quote at length -— “natural rents not being forthcoming, ‘some standard had to be created, and this could only be “ done in one or two ways—first, by creating a standard from “ data suggested by the experience of onc’s-self and others “on whom reliance could be placed ; or, secondly, by deduc- “ ing rates from average rents, the actual rents pail by the “ average class of all the cultivators found in each village, for “all the various kinds of soil, and again from these determin- “ing average chak and parganah rates.

Ideal rates.

“26. The first mode of forming my rates T rojocted at

Rates from average rents “Once. No ofticer has either the practi- solected. “cal experience, or could devote the “time necessary to study the circumstances of each parganah “reference to actual rents paid by the poople themselves. “ The information of those who have a practical acquaintance “ with the village in a parganah is, no doubt, a valuable aid, “but I have ever found that even the most trustworthy men “ are not to be depended upon entirely * *. “ By comparing one statement with another, much may be “done, but in the parganahs I have hitherto asyessed, L have “not received much assistance. Small, independent zam{n- “ dars will not speak, and I have mot but few influential men “whom I could trust. I have therefore, deduced my ratus
 * sufficient to enable him to form an average rate without

B