Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/78

72 of the Lower Provinces a century ago was not due to the cries of a down-trodden community and to a long discussion by well-informed writers in a free and independent press. It was what seemed to some men at the time the only way out of a series of difficulties. Taken in its purely commercial and financial aspect, it resulted in a considerable abandonment of future revenue. As an administrative measure, it obviously required much more of statutory declaration and vigorous executive management to render it complete. But looking at it solely from the political point of view, it was the means of allaying apprehensions and removing doubts, while it proved a strong incentive to good behaviour, and to something beyond passive loyalty in seditious and troublous times.

Some of the fundamental principles of the system were practical and sound. The change from the mere collecting native agent, with his status that might or might not become hereditary; the recognition, as a matter of right, of Rájás, chieftains, and other superior landlords; the grave and measured language of a Proclamation putting an end to brief and temporary contrivances for the realisation of the dues of the State; the incentives to prudent management afforded by the prospect of additional rental; and the sense of security, the limited ownership, and power of transmission and disposal, were, in theory, excellent.