Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/73

 PUBLIC REVENUE. Gl insignificant to injure them, instead of being sub- jected to the scourge of the venal officers of the re- venue. But the greatest advantage which accrues from it is its superseding the employment of a crowd of revenue agents, and that system of chicane- ry and tergiversation which yniist ever accompany such employment. I feel convinced that it is to the absence of this system, in no small degree, that we must ascribe the candour and good faith which has been remarked in the Javanese cultivator, so strik- ingly in contrast with the notorious chicanery and mendacity of the demoralized cultivators of Hin- dustan. Before concluding this branch of the subject of taxes, some observations will be necessary on its in- fluence on agricultural improvement, and upon the circumstances of society more generally. Except the advantages resulting from superior soil ^d cli- mate, and a greater abundance of good land in pro- portion to the number of inhabitants, the agriculture of the Indian islands cannot be deemed to be in a more favourable situation than that of Europe in the middle ages, when the soil was cultivated by wretched bondmen, or tenants at will, whose con- dition was little better. When the sovereign, as he does in Java, exacts, as tax, one-half the produce of the best and greater part of the cultivated lands, and one-third of that of the poorest, it is evident that, in such an exorbitant impost, he demands not