Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/43

Rh established or may be hereafter enacted by the British Government, for securing the rights and privileges of Ryots and other under-tenants of whatever denomination, in their respective tenures; and for protecting them against undue exaction or oppression.'

Cornwallis had two very distinct objects in view. He wished to recognise the Zamíndárs as landed proprietors with the prospect of an increased rental from the cultivation of the land, and he desired that the Settlement made with them for ten years should be declared permanent and fixed for ever. Here was one of the points in which he differed from Shore, and a large part of the Minutes and State Papers of the day is taken up with long discussions on this head.

Briefly stated, Shore held that the capacities of the land had not been properly ascertained: that we had no staff of men possessed of sufficient knowledge of the vast and intricate subjects of rents, tenures, and agricultural interests; that great abuses prevailed in the levy by Zamíndárs of extra cesses from the Ryots; that it was desirable to diminish the size of vast Zamíndárís and to increase the number of small proprietors: that these ends could not be attained without time and trouble; and, in short, that before committing ourselves to an irrevocable Settlement in Perpetuity it would be prudent and politic to wait. Lord Cornwallis replied that we had not then, and should not have at the end of ten years, any staff of officials capable of entering into