e North-
Western Provinces were supposed to manage their own affairs, while
those at Madras had them managed by a very mischievous class of
native public officers. He (Mr. Thomason) would have forced his
village republics upon any new country or jungle that came under his
charge, and thereby rendered improvement impossible. I would have
introduced into all such new countries a system of paternal
government in imitation of our Government of India itself, which
would have rendered improvement certain, and the growth of a middle
and higher class no less so. He would have put the whole under our
judicial courts, and thereby have created a middle class of
pettifogging attorneys to swallow up all the surplus produce of the
land. I would have kept the whole of the land in the hands of our
fiscal courts, by making it all leasehold property, and maintaining
the law of primogeniture in all estates of villages. Mr. Thomason, I
am told, systematically set aside all the landed aristocracy of the
country as a set of middlemen, superfluous and mischievous.

The only part of our India in which I have seen a middle and higher
class maintained upon the land is the moderately-settled districts of
the Saugor and Nerbudda territories; and there is no part of India
where our Government and character are so much beloved and respected.
You have sent Mr. Read to that part; and if he be bigoted to Mr.
Thomason's system, he will upset all this, and, in my opinion, lay
the foundation of much evil. We found a system of paternal government
in every village, and maintained and improved it. They were all
little principalities; and by the printed rules of the Sudder Board
of Revenue, which are very good, all the sub-tenants were effectually
secured in their rights.

In making a tour through Oude in the end of 1849 and beginning of
1850 I had a good deal of talk with the people. Many of them had
sojourned in our territories in seasons of disturbance. The general
impression was that they would be glad to see the country taken under
British management, provided we could dispense with our tedious
procedure in civil cases. They all had a very unfavourable impression
of our civil courts, and of the cost and delay of the procedure.
Mills and Harrington, to whom the duty, which was to have devolved on
you, has been confided, may do much good, and I hope will, for there
really is nothing in our system which calls so much for remedy. I am
persuaded that, if i