on the lands of their district every five years when the
settlement was renewed. The more the assessment was increased, the
greater was the praise bestowed upon the collector by the revenue
boards, or the revenue secretary to Government, in the name of the
Governor-General of India.[8] These collectors found an easy mode of
acquiring this reputation--they left the settlements to their native
officers, and shut their ears to all complaints of grievances, till
they had reduced all the landholders of their districts to one common
level of beggary, without stock, character, or credit; and
transferred a great portion of their estates to the native officers
of their own courts through the medium of the auction sales that took
place for the arrears, or pretended arrears, of revenue. A better
feeling has for some years past prevailed, and collectors have sought
their reputation in a real knowledge of their duties, and real good
feeling towards the farmers and cultivators of their districts. For
this better tone of feeling the Western Provinces are, I believe,
chiefly indebted to Mr. R. M. Bird, of the Revenue Board, one of the
most able public officers now in India. A settlement for twenty years
is now in progress that will leave the farmers at least 35 per cent.
upon the gross collections from the immediate cultivators of the
soil; that is, the amount of the revenue demandable by Government
from the estate will be that less than what the farmer will, and
would, under any circumstances, levy from the cultivators in his
detailed settlement.[9]

The farmer lets all the land of his estate out to cultivators, and
takes in money this rate of profit for his expense, trouble, and
risk; or he lets out to the cultivators enough to pay the Government
demand, and tills the rest with his own stock, rent-free. When a
division takes place between his sons, they either divide the estate,
and become each responsible for his particular share, or they divide
the profits, and remain collectively responsible to Government for
the whole, leaving one member of the family registered as the lessee
and responsible head.[10]

In the Ryotwar System of Southern India, Government officers,
removable at the pleasure of the Government collector, are
substituted for these farmers, or more properly proprietors, of
estates; and a System more prejudicial to the best interests of
society could not well be devised by the ingenuity of man.[11] It has
been suppos