FRASER'S

MAGAZINE.

ment.

It should be clearly understood by the Imperial Legislature that the ryots of India, however submissive to Government, whether foreign or native, in their general conduct, are, on the one subject of their land interests, tenacious to a degree which is scarcely credible; and that the one common cause which would most probably unite the whole population of India against the ruling power, would be an ignorant interference with their rights in the soil, whether defined or obscure, whether real or supposed in usage; whether dormant, as in land out of cultivation; or active, as in land under the plough. To tamper with the land or the landmarks is precisely the most critical danger to which our Government could expose itself. All former governments have recognised and avoided this rock of offence; and there is no part of legislation which should be more carefully considered, or which should be guided upon principles more free from the least taint of selfish or unfair decision.

The true incidents of the property in the public lands in India, which include as a general rule the whole area of the country, have

VOL. LXVII. NO. CCCXCVII.

often been debated with very considerable diversity of opinion by able and experienced statesmen ; and the subject has again and again been laid aside by all practical men, as a doubtful and debateable point which required cautious handling. It has now been forced upon Government by an energetic but not well-informed party, which, in the eager prosecution of its own views, and under the popular pretence of developing the resources of India,' whatever may be the real meaning of the term, has not only pushed the Local Government to the point of immature and dangerous decision, but has contrived to sow the seeds of dissension between the ruling powers in Calcutta and London. The subject is difficult, and may seem to be somewhat dry to the general reader, but it will certainly occupy a considerable share of public attention; and an adventitious interest has been given to the discussion by the late Minister of Finance, who has taken up the question as his badge of party, and has challenged Sir Charles Wood and his Council to mortal combat in the political arena on this argument.

It seems desirable, then, that the English public should be prepared to judge and determine, whether the Governor-General of India, in his Resolution on the sale of waste lands, and the redemption of the land-tax, or Sir Charles Wood, in his reply, stands upon the higher and safer ground; and we propose therefore to consider some of the

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more salient points in dispute, in a manner which we hope may be intelligible to the general reader. We begin at the beginning.

On the 31st December, 1858, and again on the 16th March, 1859, the Home Government of India, then represented by Lord Stanley, called upon the Governor-General in Council to consider and report upon two points, which, in the words of the despatch, had been pressed upon the attention of the Home Minister, 'by persons who, either on behalf of themselves, or of companies which they propose to establish, are desirous of obtaining grants of unoccupied land.' First, the sale of waste lands in perpetuity, discharged from all prospective demand on account of land revenue; second, permission to redeem the existing land revenue by the immediate payment of one sum equal in value to the revenue redeemed,

It is quite clear, from the tenor of these two despatches, that the important subjects thus proposed for consideration were only intended for preliminary inquiry and report, and that no power was given to the local authority to take any independent or final action in measures of such moment. The

last words of the despatch of the 31st December seem to be conclusive on this point:-'But I particularly request, in any suggestions or recommendations which you may submit to me, you will be especially careful not to confine them to such as may be calculated for the exclusive advantage of European settlers, and which cannot be equally participated in by the agricultural community generally;' and in the second despatch there is an equal restriction of power, and a more careful and distinct recognition of the priority of claim in the soil held by the native inhabitants.

Nevertheless, on the 21st December, 1861, a resolution was passed in council by his Excellency the Governor-General, without any further communication with the Home Government, which committed her Majesty's Government, in so far as it could be committed

by an unauthorized act, to a scheme which ultimately would have subverted the whole system of revenue now in force in India, and indeed have abolished nine-tenths of its present resources; and would have affected, and as far as we understand the subject, have seriously compromised, the rights of real property in land over the whole country. Moreover, these radical changes would appear to have been adopted at the suggestion and in the interest of those identical parties, against whose exclusive pretensions the Minister of State had distinctly cautioned the Local Government. Indeed, the main clauses of the Resolution appear to have been embodied without modification from the petitions of these enterprising capitalists.

Now, we waive for the moment the intrinsic merits of the proposed rules. We shall consider presently whether the sale of waste lands in fee simple, and the redemption of land revenue, as measures, were wise or unwise, practicable or impracticable, fair or unfair, legal or illegal all these points are debateable; but it certainly does appear to be a radical mistake at starting, that a deliberative Government, with limited power, but placed in a position of peculiar delicacy and responsibility, should thus have needlessly embarrassed the Imperial Legislature, and wounded its own prestige and authority, by suddenly passing a resolution so comprehensive in its provisions, without awaiting the sanction of the Home Government.

It is argued by those who are eagerly desirous to enter in and take possession of this land of promise, and by their advocate, Mr. Laing, that the interference of the Minister of State and his Council should be strictly confined to the main principles of government, and that all details of administration should be left to the Local Government. We do not dispute the position; but we think a careful review of the Resolution, taken in connexion with the existing state of affairs in India, would satisfy any impartial person that

the Resolution embraced questions of vital principle; and that in disallowing in part or in whole the act of the Local Government, the Minister of State has not infringed upon those limits in the exercise of his authority, which are assigned by the persons who question his right.

Let us consider the matter as it comes before us.

The Resolution in the preamble sets forth that the ablest and most experienced officers concurred in opinion with private settlers, that substantial advantages would follow the adoption of the sale of waste lands, but there was great diversity of opinion as to the extent; and then, with a view to include European speculators and exclude native purchasers, undoubtedly the most beneficial proprietors, it is added that, as regards the sale of waste lands, there can be no question of the substantial benefit which must follow the establishment of settlers who will introduce profitable and judicious cultivation into districts hitherto unreclaimed;' and the Governor-General 'confidently expects that harmony of interests between permanent European settlers and the half-civilized tribes by whom most of these waste districts, or the country adjoining them, are thinly peopled, will conduce to the material and moral improvement of large classes of the Queen's Indian subjects.'

And this is affirmed in spite of our sixty years' experience in the indigo districts, and in the face of the agrarian rising which is spreading like a cancer wherever our tea plantations extend.

We proceed to give in an abridged form the main conditions on which waste land-by which is understood all land that had been five years unoccupied-was to be bestowed in fee simple.

The grant was to convey all rights of forest, pasturage, mines, fisheries, and all other property of Government in the soil; the grantee was relieved from any condition to bring the land under cultivation. Each grant was limited to three thousand acres, but a grantee

might require other grants of equal extent to be reserved for his benefit on certain conditions, and this without limit in number. Prior claims to or on the estate were chiefly to be disposed of by the collector's register. Thirty days' notice was to be given, after which the deed was to be issued, and no claim was subsequently to disturb the title to the estate; but if a prior right was established, the Government undertook to compensate the original landowner, should his claim be proved within one year. The whole of the waste land of India was divided into cleared and uncleared. The cleared land was to be sold at five rupees (ten shillings) per acre, the uncleared at two and a half (five shillings.) Grants held under old rules were to be entitled to the benefit of the new regulation, but at a slightly enhanced price. Lands on which assessment has been fixed, if unoccupied, might be sold for twenty years' purchase of the rate fixed; but villagers to have a preferential right to purchase.

37, the concluding clause, provides'The tenure of all waste lands granted under this Resolution, will be that of an hereditable and transferable property held in perpetuity, free from all claims of the Government or of third persons, prior to or inconsistent with the grant.'

It will probably occur to the reader that large landed estates, in a fully populated country, where land is invariably liable to a certain tax or rent to support the public revenue, were never offered to foreign speculators on easier terms.

The second and still more important rule decreed under this sweeping Resolution was, that the land revenue was to be made redeemable all over India; the price was fixed at 'twenty years' purchase of the existing assessment." This privilege, however, was limited to one-tenth of the whole revenue; that is to say, only one-tenth of the whole revenue could be thus redeemed.

As the sole object and intent of the resolution was professedly di