Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/213

Rh constant quantity, and is the property of the ruler, who utilizes it, or as much of it as he thinks necessary, to maintain the administration of the state. In the former case, Government is the trustee of the people, liable to be called to account and to find its supplies cut off; whereas in the latter, the sovereign is their master or irresponsible protector, liable indeed to be checked by violence, but whose taxes cannot be legally withheld. In the East, the revenue is derived mainly from a contribution levied off the land, the remainder being raised by monopolies, and partially by indirect taxation such as prevails in Europe. The contributions from the land and monopolies may of course vary, but the principle is unchangeable, and in so far the revenue cannot alter.

In the lower Bengal provinces, the land revenue had already been assessed (1793) by a permanent settlement, and here little change took place during the period, 1813-23, now under review. But where no permanent settlement had existed, the Governor-General found that, owing to the absence of proper surveys, great injustice would have been done had it been introduced too hastily. Opposed as he was to the zamíndári system, he found it impossible to contract directly with the numerous cultivators in districts where a teeming population existed, and accordingly engagements were made with the representatives of each village community for the whole of the government's claim. The community itself assessed