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 CHAPTER IX

The Land Settlement

Throughout Thomason's life and administration, certain principles of civil policy, like guiding stars, were ever kept in sight; these have been alluded to more than once, and must now be more directly noticed.

His first and last thoughts were devoted to the establishment of property in land, and to the recognition of the proprietary rights of the people in their holdings. In his Provinces (as in most other parts of India) the landed interest is overwhelmingly great; indeed the people might be described by a generic term, as those who live by the land. This great interest came under the cognizance of his government to a degree unknown in Western countries. In English-speaking nations we hear of Land Bureaux, Land Commissions, Agricultural Departments, and the like; but all such institutions taken together would not represent the functions of the Land Revenue Department, as it existed under him.

As already seen, he found that the land tax had been fixed for thirty years, in every one of the forty thou-