Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/135

Rh and Pattídárs; or from estates farmed to Amils, or from estates in amání for which no Settlement had been concluded. He was to endeavour to make a regular Settlement of estates of this latter class. His other functions, just as in Bengal Proper, were the payment of pensions, the management of estates under the Court of Wards, the due apportionment of revenue on estates that might be split in two or more parts, the collection of the excise, and the resumption of invalid rent-free tenures. Under the Collector were placed native Tahsíldárs, and minute rules were laid down for the issue by them of processes in case of defaulters, and for the eventual confinement of such persons.

Provisions were also made for the levy of fines, and in extreme cases for the forfeiture of the proprietary right. It is noteworthy that liberty to appeal against the proceedings of the revenue Collector to the Civil Court of the district, to the Provincial Court of Appeal, and to the Sadr, or highest Court, was expressly reserved to defaulting Tálukdárs and Zamíndárs. As in Bengal, so in Benares, the Governor-General in Council always contemplated the protection of all subordinate rights and interests in the land, and it is certain that this intention was carried out at an earlier period than was unfortunately the case in the Lower Provinces.

These rights were guarded in Benares by a distinct and separate law, and an equitable and comprehensive Regulation, known as VII of 1821, of which