Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/145

Rh and other proprietors. A comprehensive report was eventually sent home, and about the year 1802 a Special Commission was appointed to settle permanently the land revenue of those parts of the Madras Presidency for which sufficient materials had been collected.

Within two years the Permanent Settlement was introduced into the Northern Circárs, and by 1806-7 the following districts were settled on the same plan. A Jaghír obtained from the Nawáb of Arcot in 1750 and 1763, which surrounds the Presidency town, and is now Chengalpat; later acquisitions, including the districts of Salem; several tracts termed Pollams held by powerful turbulent chiefs, known as Polygars; Rámnád, Krishnagiri, and some others of less importance, were all included in the same category. But at this very time other views began to prevail. In some places the fixed revenues had been collected with greater facility. But in the Jaghír, which had been converted into a Collectorate. the revenue had not been paid with punctuality. Certain estates had been sold for default, and some others had been thrown back on the hands of Government. Part of the failure was due to a calamitous season, but serious mistakes had been made in estimating the rents of the tenants, or in fixing the assessment of the Zamíndárs, and a formidable rival to the supporters of a Permanent Settlement appeared in the person of Thomas Munro. He showed conclusively that a Settlement made with individual