Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/156

150 limits of toleration had been attained. A native collector is too discreet to ruin his tenants, but be will proceed to any lengths short of actual destruction. His policy is to leave nothing but a bare subsistence to the cultivator of the soil. But the assessment was generally equal, and the burthen, heavy indeed according to just and liberal principles, was still impartially distributed.'

Diwán Sáwan Mall, governor of Múltán, Leiah, Dera, Gházi Khán, Khángarh, and Jhang, was the best of all the Mahárájá's administrators. Yet this is how Mr. O'Brien, who made the land settlement of Muzaffargarh, one of his districts, writes of him: —

'Diwán Sáwan Mall's government was better than anything that had preceded it. Its sole object was the accumulation of wealth for the Diwán. The execution of public works, the administration of justice and security of life and property were a secondary consideration, and were insisted on only because without them agriculture would not prosper, and the revenue would not be paid. When one examines his numerous cesses and sees how he levied dues to pay the people's alms and perform their religious duties, and then paid the poor and the Bráhmans what he thought a fair amount and pocketed the rest; how he levied a cess in return for keeping his word; and how he encouraged his officials to take bribes and then made them duly credit the amount in the public accounts, one's admiration for the great Diwán is less than it would be if based on written history .'