Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/66

 CHAPTER III

Principles and Results

Some additional remarks on the apparent conflict of landlords' and tenants' rights and duties will be found in the chapter giving a summary of the legislation rendered necessary as a corollary to the Perpetual Settlement. But a few more words may now be said as to the other effects of that measure on the condition of the country, and as to its fulfilment or non-fulfilment of the expectations of its author. The opinions of the press on the policy of the measure are not without their value. The editor of the Calcutta Gazette on the 21st of May, 1789, expressed his satisfaction at the announcement that, in September of that year, the revenue of the Behar province would be fixed in perpetuity. 'We venture to observe,' he said, 'that the main principles admit a positive right of property in the landholders in opposition to a system which has been maintained by some, that the Zamíndárs and Tálukdárs are public officers only, and that the Sovereign is the real proprietor of the lands, which he leases out as landlord instead of levying a tax on them as ruler. The most