Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/33

Rh have been since. But even then the collection of the revenue had been for twenty years the first and chief care of the merchants and writers who found themselves called from the desk and the counting-house to preside at the local treasury and to replenish it with contributions from a huge district. After the second administration of Lord Clive we, of course, began regularly to collect the share of the Government, and in some sense to govern the country. At first Englishmen were employed, and they soon felt the need of native collectors and subordinates. Then supervisors were appointed over the collectors. Next came local Councils at Patná, Dacca, and Murshidábád; and at last there was formed a Board of Revenue of which the President of the Council, and ultimately Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General, became a member.

The assessments were made for five years at one period, and for one year at another. The Collectors were paid by salaries and by commission, the former moderate and the latter very large. Abuses prevailed as much in the collection of the revenue due to the Government as in the realisation of the rents due to Zamíndárs. It was the object of Cornwallis almost from the moment of his arrival, to enquire into these abuses, to redress grievances, and to provide for the contentment of the cultivating community, the security of the Zamíndárs, and the interests of the East India Company, by one equitable and consistent code and system. With this object the