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154 cousinhood, all the same. And this process was styled the right of Pre-emption.

In connexion with the Village System Thomason greatly improved the status of those Native Officials who held their offices by hereditary tenure. Among these the chief were the Village Accountant and the District Notary. It was the business of the Village Accountant to keep all the books, papers, and accounts of the Village Community, in respect to the Land Revenue. He had copies of the Settlement records including the Record of Rights, already described, for his village, and he registered the changes in possession as they occurred from year to year, the transfers of all sorts, and the succession from father to son. Then he had to send annually copies of his Record of Rights, with the necessary rectifications by reason of death, transfer, mortgage, to the District Notary, who became the custodian of the records for his division or group of villages. Thus Thomason provided for the accurate and complete maintenance of the Registration of landed Tenures, as a permanent and effective institution, so that the benefits of the Settlement, regarding property in land, might be assured to the people.

One particular part of his policy had reference to a class of large landowners known as Tálukdárs. This matter provoked disputation at the time, and the question would arise in this wise. As already seen