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Under the Mogul rule, the country was farmed out to Zemindars, some of whom assumed the title of Rajah: they collected the revenue for the Sovereign, retaining by law ten per cent. on all that was realized: there was no intermediate class, the peasant paying directly to the Zemindar, and he into the royal treasury.
It had its forts, and its white captains, and its black sepoys; it had its civil and criminal tribunals; it was authorised to proclaim martial law; it sent ambassadors to the native governments, and concluded treaties with them; it was Zemindar of several districts, and within those districts, like other Zemindars of the first class, it exercised the powers of a sovereign, even to the infliction of capital punishment on the Hindoos within its jurisdiction.
Mackay, was received by the Viceroy. And on this occasion Mr. W. O. Bell Irving, as representing over 3,300 square miles of land in Lower Bengal, stated that he "was not prepared to contend that in certain respects the ryots and zemindars have not benefited from the depreciation of the rupee."
It is to be added that the numerous addresses to the late Governor-General, which his friends in Bengal obtained from the natives and transmitted to England, made a considerable impression. To these addresses we attach little or no importance. That Hastings was beloved by the people whom he governed is true; but the eulogies of pundits, zemindars, Mahommedan doctors, do not prove it to be true.
The "permanent settlement" in Bengal, effected more than a century and a quarter ago by Lord Cornwallis under a complete misapprehension, as was afterwards realised, of the position of the Bengalee zemindars, determined once and for all the proportion of land revenue which Government was entitled to collect in the province, instead of leaving it, as in other parts of India it is still left, to be varied from time to time after periodical inquiry into the constantly varying yield and value of the land.
All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall have the Lord of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and Zemindars with their suites. A good many of them will have horses entered, and they have some good ones if they could but ride them. The Rajah of Bithoor is a most important personage. He talks English very well, and gives splendid entertainments.
"From your inquiry," Gunga Govind Sing says to the Council, "every circumstance will appear in its true colors. With respect to the alienation of parts of zemindaries, the extent and consequence of the great zemindars depend in a great measure on the favor and countenance of the ruling powers.
The Zemindars squeezed every penny out of the poor farmer which he could be made to yield, until finally the government was compelled to embark upon that perilous sea, land legislation, tenant rights, judicial rents, and all the rest of it. In the Bombay presidency, however, wiser councils have prevailed.
We speak within compass when we say that, without applying any extraordinary pressure, he might easily have obtained from the zemindars of the Company's provinces and from neighboring princes, in the course of thirteen years, more than three millions sterling, and might have outshone the splendor of Carlton House and of the Palais Royal.
But if the Zemindars join them with cannon, we may defend ourselves till the last, but there can be but one end to it." The Doctor nodded. "That is the situation exactly, Bathurst." "I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it openly," Wilson said.
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