"tlement."—" If, indeed, as the Board them"selves, with all other authorities, admit, rents

vary in every village, not merely with the "diversities of soil and crops, but also with "reference to the caste of the cultivator, the "inference to be drawn is that no common rule " can be laid down, or that the failure of past attempts to settle the matter is chiefly to be "attributed to the desire which the public offi"cers have had to render that simple and uniform "which is in its nature various, and to their impatience of the detailed investigation, by "which alone accuracy can be secured."

I know not what evidence there is of a desire, on the part of public officers, to render rents uniform, but there is good ground for their impatience of interminable investigations and unprofitable accuracy. It is Government which desires to render that fixed which is in its nature variable, and to disturb the natural level of private contracts by the interposition of public authority. While Government persevere in this course of minute inspection of, and continual tampering with, landed property, (if such a thing can be said to exist in the non-permanently settled provinces where it is so confusedly divided between the cultivators of various ranks and Government,) and prevent the enterprise and

skill of unlicensed British subjects from being applied to the cultivation of the soil and the manufacture of its rude produce, no lapse of time nor any elaboration of detailed enactments will ever conduce to the improvement of the public revenue, or of the condition and character of the native inhabitants.

155

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

THE same change in the landed tenures which is indispensable to the promotion of agricultural improvement is no less indispensable to the production of that amelioration in the judicial system which is implied in diminished litigation, greater precision in the laws, and a more able administration of them. At present a greater proportion of the public revenue is appropriated to the maintenance of judicial establishments than can be paralleled in any other country; but if, by trenching still further on the funds for the support of other departments, the number of tribunals were doubled, and every judge a Mansfield, the effect on the happiness of the people would be inconsiderable. The sum of ignorance, poverty, and vice, would not be sensibly diminished; the rights of the Ryots, who constitute

the great mass of the population, would remain equally inscrutable; the disputes between borrowers and lenders equally numerous and perplexed. When the Zillah Courts were established, in 1793, Sir Henry Strachey observes that "the judges and registers were soon overloaded with “suits. I will not here dwell upon the claims "without end to land of every description, or "of talookdars to separation. I say nothing of "the suits concerning rent-free land, and the "boundary disputes which no labour can unravel. "I proceed to mention that the nature of the "land tenures in Bengal gives rise to innumerable "suits among the cultivators."

Among the few modifications of the existing system, which it would not be premature to introduce, the increased employment of native commissioners appears the most expedient. Increased emoluments would bring forward a better description of candidates for the office; and, by giving them jurisdiction in suits of unlimited value, the greater part of the expense might be defrayed from the institution fees. If it were found practicable, by such arrangements, to make any reduction in the number of European judicial officers, the savings thence arising might also be applied to the improvement of the salaries of the native judicial and police officers; but it

is probable that the trial of appeals, and the administration of criminal justice, would afford so much occupation to the European judges as not to admit of any reduction in the present strength of the establishment. In this manner an attempt might be made to prevent the accumulation of arrears of suits, and a step taken towards conciliating the natives and lessening the vast interval by which they are now separated from their European rulers.

pany.

This proposition has been supported by some of the most experienced servants of the ComMr. Ernst says, "The only effectual "means of expediting the administration of justice must be derived from the employment "of the natives; and I am of opinion that the "number of Sudder Aumeens and Moonsifs, "and particularly of the former, should be in"creased; that their powers, if necessary, should "be enlarged; and that fixed salaries should be "allotted to them, instead of the wretched and

pernicious remuneration which they at present "receive for their labours from the institution "fee." The substitution of salaries for fees will, undoubtedly, be an improvement, when it can be effected; it is one which has slowly and partially been introduced into public offices and courts of justice in England: but, in the mean