Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/316

 Munro . He strongly held the opinion that the territorial possessions of the East India Company must be extended if the company was to continue to exist as a territorial power. After the peace with Tippoo in 1792 Munro was employed for some years under Captain Read in forming and conducting the civil administration of the Baramahal, one of the districts ceded by Tippoo. It was there that he gained his first insight into civil duties, and especially into those connected with the land revenue, and it was there that he formed the opinions in favour of the system of landed tenures which, under the designation of the ryotwár system, has always been identified with his name. His employment in the Baramahal terminated in 1799, when, on the renewal of the war with Tippoo, he rejoined the army, and after the fall of Seringapatam was employed as one of the secretaries to a commission appointed by Lord Wellesley to arrange for the future administration of Mysore, Captain (afterwards Sir John) Malcolm being the other secretary. While serving on this commission Munro was brought into close intercourse with the future Duke of Wellington, then Colonel Wellesley, with whom he contracted a lasting friendship. Munro appears to have been much opposed to the resolution of the governor-general to set up another native dynasty, differing on this point from Colonel Wellesley, who supported his brother's policy, and regarded Munro's views respecting the political expediency of increasing the company's territories as somewhat hazardous. In one of his letters to Munro about this time he wrote: ‘I fancy that you will have the pleasure of seeing some of your grand plans carried into execution’ (Wellington Despatches, i. 254); and in another: ‘This is expensive, but if you are determined to conquer all India at the same moment, you must pay for it’ (Selections from the Minutes and other Official Writings of Sir T. Munro, Introductory Memoir, p. lxix). In the ‘Wellington Despatches’ ii. 338, there is an interesting letter written by General Wellesley to Munro after the battle of Assye, explaining his tactics, and commencing with the remark: ‘As you are a judge of a military operation, and as I am desirous of having your opinion on my side,’ &c. Munro's reply is characteristic, modest, cordial, and friendly, but frank in its criticism, and affording evidence of considerable strategic ability on the part of the writer (ib. p. cxi).

Munro's employment upon the commission at Seringapatam was followed by his appointment to the administrative charge of Canara, a district on the western coast of India, which, like the Baramahal, had been brought under the company's rule in 1792, but which from various causes had given a good deal of trouble. Owing to the unruly character of the inhabitants the duty was an arduous one, but in a very few months Munro, by his firm and wise rule, put down crime and rebellion, and substituted settled government for anarchy and disorder. He was then transferred to a still more important charge, viz., that of the districts south of the Tungabhadra, comprising an area little short of twenty-seven thousand square miles, and including the present districts of Ballári, Cuddapah, and Karnúl, and also the Palnád. This large tract of country had been a scene of excessive misrule for upwards of two centuries. It was full of turbulent petty chiefs, called poligárs, some of whom had to be expelled, while those who remained were forced to disband their armed retainers, and to abstain from unauthorised exactions from the cultivators of the soil. Munro spent seven years in the ceded districts. It was probably the most important period in his long official life. In the Baramahal his position had been a subordinate one. In Canara, where for the first time he was invested with an independent charge, his tenure of office had been too short to admit of his doing more than to suppress disorder, and to lay down principles of administration which his successors could work out. In the ceded districts he remained long enough to guide and direct the development of the system which he introduced, and to habituate the people to the spectacle of a ruler who, with inflexible firmness in securing the just rights of the state and in maintaining law and order, combined a patient and benevolent attention to the well-being of all classes. To this day it is considered by the natives in the ceded districts a sufficient answer to inquiries regarding the reason for any revenue rule that it was laid down by the ‘Colonel Dora,’ the rank which Munro held during the greater part of his service in those districts. It was while holding this charge that Munro thoroughly worked out the ryotwár system of land tenure and land revenue which prevails throughout the greater part of the Madras presidency and also in Bombay. This may be described as a system of peasant proprietors paying a land tax direct to the state, as distinguished from the system of large proprietors, called Zemindars, which obtains in Bengal and in parts of Madras. In introducing the ryotwár system Munro was cordially supported by the governor of Madras, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck [q. v.], but encountered serious opposition from the authorities in Bengal and from