Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/31

Rh one of his last acts, accomplished by a combined naval and military force. After a few discharges from our batteries the town capitulated. And this was of course followed by the temporary cession of all the other French settlements and factories in India.

It is now a pleasing task, after this brief recapitulation of the political and military events which Cornwallis directed, or in which he took a prominent part, to turn to the measures of internal reform which entitle him to rank as one of those English statesmen who have based our supremacy in India on a solid foundation, and have civilised, disciplined, and improved vast provinces acquired either by conquest or by cession. In reviewing these subjects the first place will be given to the Settlement of the Land Revenue. Under every respectable government, Hindu, Muhammadan, or foreign, the adjustment of the Land Tax has always been one of the primary objects to be attained. The due exaction of the revenue or the Land Tax has been considered the right of every de facto government from time immemorial, whether this power were exercised by a mighty monarch like Asoka or Akbar over splendid provinces, or by some petty Rájá with a hill fort and a few square miles of jungle streaked with cultivation. With the more enlightened rulers, such as Akbar or Sher Sháh, the due assessment of the revenue and the equitable division of the produce between the cultivator or the village community and the superior landlord, has