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Chapter 25 – Administration of Lord Minto, continued, 1809–1813

Occupation of Macao, 1809

In the year 1809, an expedition upon a small scale was sent to the coast of China. The occupation of Portugal by Napoleon, and the flight of the Prince Regent to Brazil, induced the British Ministry to determine on taking possession of the Portuguese settlements in the east. Goa was occupied by a British detachment, and an armament was sent to Macao, in the vicinity of Canton, on the coast of

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China, which the Portuguese had held for more than two hundred years. The governor had no means of resistance, and the settlement was at once occupied by the expeditionary force. But the imperial viceroy at Canton announced that the unlicensed entry of foreign soldiers into the Chinese territory was a violation of the laws of the empire, and ordered them to be immediately withdrawn. The admiral alleged that Macao had been long since absolutely ceded to the Portuguese by the Chinese Government, and that he had come as their ally, simply to defend the settlement against the French. The viceroy replied that Macao was in every respect an integral portion of the empire, and that it was disrespectful as well as absurd to imagine that the aid of the English was required to defend any portion of the dominions of the celestial dynasty from foreign aggression. Finding that the troops still continued at Macao after his remonstrance, he put a stop to the trade of the Company, and prohibited all supplies of provisions, while he made a reference on the subject to Pekin. Expel the barbarians, was the short and simple reply of the emperor. Chinese troops were accordingly collected, and preparations made for an assault, when the naval and military commanders wisely judged that their instructions would not justify them in violating the orders of the emperor in his own dominions, at the risk of involving their country in a war with the Chinese. The troops were therefore withdrawn, and the Chinese Government exhibited no less moderation after the evacuation than firmness before it, and allowed the trade to be resumed without requiring any indemnity.

Depredations from the Mauritius, 1800–1809

The injury inflicted on British commerce in the eastern seas by privateers fitted out at the French islands has been noticed in a previous chapter. Lord Wellesley, who was checked in his design to conquer them, was obliged to content himself with pressing the great importance of this object on the public authorities in England. But, by an act of unaccountable folly, the Ministry not only neglected to send an expedition against the Mauritius and

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Bourbon, although they considered it important to subjugate every French island in the West Indies, but positively interdicted any attempt on the part of the Indian Government to reduce them, though an adequate force might at any time have been fitted out in India without any expense to the English treasury. The French cruizers and privateers accordingly continued to prey on British trade, and to sweep the sea from Madagascar to Java. The naval squadron on the Indian station, consisting of six ships of the line, sixteen frigates, and six sloops, was unable to protect the national interests, and six vessels from Calcutta, valued at thirty lacs of rupees, had been captured by the French in the course of as many weeks. The losses which the merchants of Calcutta had sustained since the recommencement of the war were moderately estimated at two crores of rupees, a sum far in excess of any expenditure which the reduction of the islands could possibly have entailed. A memorial was at length transmitted by the merchants to the Ministry, complaining of the insecurity of commerce and the supineness of the royal navy. It produced a salutary effect, and the Governor-General and the naval Commander-in-chief received authority to adopt the most decisive measures for the protection of trade. It was determined at first to seek the accomplishment of this object by a blockade of the Mauritius; but it proved utterly inefficient. Six of the Company’s magnificent Indiamen, valued at more than half a crone of rupees, were captured by French frigates, who sailed out of the port with perfect impunity, and returned in triumph with their prizes in the teeth of the blockading squadron.

Naval disasters, 1810

Upon the failure of this plan, the Government resolved, in the first instance, to take possession of the lesser island of Bourbon, and it was captured with little loss in 1810. But this gallant achievement was counterbalanced by a series of naval disasters, which could be attributed only to ignorance and mismanagement. Three French frigates, returning from a successful cruize, found their way, in spite of the blockade, into the Grand port, on the south-eastern side of the

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Mauritius. Four English frigates were sent to cut them out, but the French vessels, reinforced by seamen and sailors from the town, and supported by powerful batteries on shore, baffled every effort. Two of the English frigates, after a gallant but unavailing defence, were set on fire, and the third struck her flag when not a man was left unwounded. A fourth was surrounded by a superior force, and obliged to surrender when all her provisions were exhausted. Soon after, a fifth frigate was captured by the French fleet, which thus maintained the national honour in these seas as nobly as Suffrein had done re of the twenty-eight years before.

Capture of the Mauritius, 1810

Meanwhile, Lord Minto was assembling at the three Presidencies an armament of overwhelming strength for the conquest of the island. The naval expedition consisted of one seventy-four and thirteen frigates, besides sloops and gunboats. The land force contained no fewer than nine European regiments, numbering 6,300 bayonets, and 2,000 seamen and marines, together with four volunteer regiments of sepoys and Madras pioneers: in all, about 11,300 men. To meet this force, the French general could only muster 2,000 Europeans and a body of undisciplined African slaves. The English army disembarked at Grand Baye on the 29th November, and the next day marched towards Port Louis, the capital of the island. The French could expect to offer only a partial resistance to this overwhelming force, and the general, unwilling to sacrifice the lives of brave men in a hopeless contest, surrendered the island on fair and honourable terms.

Expedition to Java, 1811

The subjugation of Holland by Napoleon placed the Dutch settlements in the east under his control, and it was deemed important to the interests of British commerce to occupy them. An expedition was accordingly sent to the spice islands, in 1809, and the chief of the group, Amboyna, rendered memorable in the annals of the Company by the massacre of their agents in 1612, was occupied after a feeble resistance. Banda and Ternate were surrendered soon after, and of the great colonial empire which the Dutch had

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been two centuries in erecting, nothing remained to them but the island of Java. Lord Minto had received the sanction of the Court of Directors to proceed against it, and had summoned to his counsels Mr., afterwards Sir Stamford Raffles, a member of the Government of Penang, who had acquired a knowledge of the languages, the condition and the interests of the various tribes in the Eastern archipelago superior to that of any other European. No time was lost, after the reduction of the Mauritius, in fitting out an expedition for the conquest of the island, and Lord Minto determined to accompany it, though in the capacity of a volunteer. It consisted of ninety sail, on which were embarked about 6,000 European troops, and the same number of sepoys. It was the largest European armament which had ever traversed the eastern seas. Its departure was delayed by various causes, and it did not reach the rendezvous at Malacca before the 1st June, 1811. The monsoon had already set in, and both the usual routes to Java were deemed inexpedient, if not impracticable. Captain Greigh, the commander of a brig, strongly recommended the passage along the south-west coast of Borneo, which he had recently surveyed, in which the fleet would be sheltered from the fury of the monsoon, and assisted by the breezes froth the land. This opinion was strongly supported by Mr. Raffles, and as strenuously opposed by the naval commanders. The question was referred to Lord Minto, who decided on adopting Captain Greigh’s suggestion, instead of yielding to advice which would have obliged him to defer the attempt to the next year, and entailed boundless confusion, and a prodigious expenditure. He led the way in the “Modesto” frigate, commanded by his son; the whole fleet cleared the intricate channels without a single accident, and anchored in the bay of Batavia, on the 4th August.

Strength of the enemy, 1811

Since the occupation of the island by the French, Napoleon had been indefatigable in his efforts to complete its defences. He sent out large reinforcements, and munitions of war, and, above all, an officer in whom he had

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confidence, General Daendels, who levied heavy contributions, and paid little attention to the convenience of the colonists, in his anxiety to construct new and formidable works in the vicinity of the capital. The entire body of troops under his command was reckoned at 17,000, of whom 13,000 were concentrated for the defence of Fort Cornelis, eight miles inland from Batavia. The capital of the island was occupied without resistance, and the military post at Weltevreden, with its stores and ammunition, and three hundred pieces of cannon, was surrendered, after a sharp action, and the English force advanced against Cornelis. For some unexplained cause, General Daendels had been recalled, and his post given to General Jaensens, the officer who had surrendered the Cape of Good Hope to the English squadron four years before. The emperor, at his final audience, reminded him of this disaster, and said “Sir, remember that a French general does not allow himself to be captured a second time.” Jaensens, after assuming the command, made the most strenuous efforts to render the position of Cornelis, which was strong by nature, impregnable by art, well knowing that as soon as the rains set in, the malaria of the Batavian marshes would constrain the English to raise the siege and retire. Cornelis was an entrenched camp between two rivers, one of which was not fordable, and the other was defended by formidable redoubts and batteries. The entire circumference of the camp was five miles, and it was protected by 300 pieces of cannon.

The attack and capture of Cornelis, 1811

The British Commander-in-chief, Sir Samuel Ahmuty, decided at first to assail it by regular approaches, but the attempt was soon found to demand such laborious exertions as the men were unequal to under a tropical sun. It was resolved, therefore, to carry it by a coup de main, and this brought into play the daring spirit of Colonel Gillespie, of Vellore renown, to whom the enterprise was committed. His column marched soon after midnight on the 26th August, and came upon the redoubt as the day began to dawn. His rear division had not come up, but he felt that

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the smallest delay would prove fatal to his plans, and he was confident that the missing troops would be made aware of his position and hasten to join him, by the report of the firing. The redoubt was immediately attacked, and carried at the point of the bayonet. Colonel Gillespie then took possession of the frail bridge, which the enemy had unaccountably left standing, and the demolition of which would have been a serious, if not fatal, impediment, and, with the aid of the rear division, which had by this time joined him, carried a second redoubt. The overwhelming impetuosity of his troops captured all the others in succession, till he found himself in the foreground of the enemy’s reserve, and of a large body of cavalry, posted with powerful artillery in front of the barracks and lesser fort. They were vigorously attacked, chiefly by the 59th, and driven from their position, when the Colonel, placing himself at the head of the dragoons and horse artillery, pursued the fugitives for ten miles, and completed the defeat and disorganisation of the whole French army. Thus was Java won in a single morning, and by the efforts of a single officer. The loss of the French was severe, and 6,000 of their troops, chiefly Europeans, were made prisoners, but the victory cost the British 900 in killed and wounded, of whom 85 were officers. General Jaensens retired to Samarang, with about 8,000 native soldiers, but after several skirmishes with the detachments sent in pursuit of him, he found that no dependence was to be placed on his Javanese and Malay sepoys, and, notwithstanding the warning of his master, was constrained to give himself up a second time, and surrender Java and all its dependencies.

Revolt of Native Chiefs, 1811

Some of the native chiefs of the island manifested a disposition to take advantage of the confusion of the times to throw off the European yoke; and the Sultan of Djojekarta declared war against the English and called upon the Javanese to rise and recover their independence. Colonel Gillespie conducted a force against his capital, which was protected by a high rampart and batteries,

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mounted with a hundred pieces of cannon, and manned by 17,000 troops, independently of an armed population calculated at 100,000. It was carried by storm, and another wreath was added to the laurels of that gallant officer. The Court of Directors had granted their sanction to the expedition with no other object than to extinguish the power of the French, and to obtain security for their own ships and commerce in the eastern seas. Hence, they gave instructions that if it proved successful, the fortifications should be levelled with the ground, the arms and ammunition distributed among the natives, and the island evacuated. It is difficult to conceive that so barbarous a policy, which must inevitably have consigned every European on the island to destruction, could ever have been seriously entertained by an association of civilised men in the nineteenth century. But Lord Minto was not disposed to put weapons into the hands of the natives, and abandon the Dutch colonists, without arms or fortresses, to their vindictive passions – to undo the work of two centuries, and resign that noble island to the reign of barbarism. He determined to retain it, and committed the command of the army to Colonel Gillespie, and the government to Mr. Raffles, under whose wise and liberal administration it continued to flourish for several years.

Supersession of Lord Minto, 1812

Having thus established the power of Britain in the eastern archipelago, and given security to her commerce by expelling the French from every harbour in the east, Lord Minto returned to Calcutta early in 1812, and soon after learned that he had been superseded in the Government. The usual term of office was considered to extend to seven years, and Lord Minto had intimated to the Directors his wish to be relieved from the Government early in 1814. But the Prince Regent was impatient to bestow this lucrative appointment on the favourite of the day, the Earl of Moira, who had recently been employed, though without success, in attempting to form a new ministry. Under the dictation of the Board of Control, the chairman of the Court

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of Directors was reluctantly obliged to move a resolution for the immediate recall of Lord Minto. Circumstances detained Lord Moira in England longer than he expected; he did not reach Calcutta before October, 1813, and Lord Minto, who had been intermediately honoured with a step in the peerage, did not embark till within a few months of the period which he had himself fixed for his departure, but the determination to inflict on him the indignity of removal, in the midst of an administration in which there had been no failure and no cause of dissatisfaction, was dishonourable equally to the Ministry and to their royal master.

The Pindarees – their origin, 1690–1800

On the return of Lord Minto from Java, it became necessary, for the first time, to order troops into the field to repel the Pindarees, who had burst into the province of Bundelkund, and threatened the great commercial mart of Mirzapore. The earliest trace of the Pindarees, as a body of mounted freebooters, is found in the struggles of the Mahrattas with Aurungzebe towards the close of the seventeenth century; but they come more distinctly into notice under the Peshwa, the first Bajee Rao. A large detachment of them accompanied the Mahratta expedition against Ahmed Shah Abdalee, and shared in the disaster of Paniput. After the Peshwa had delegated the charge of maintaining the Mahratta power in Hindostan to his lieutenants, Sindia and Holkar, the Pindarees were ranged under their standards and designated, respectively, the Sindia Shahee and the Holkar Shahee Pindarees; but they were not allowed to pitch their tents within the encampment of the Mahratta princes, nor were their leaders at first permitted to sit in their presence. A body of these freebooters accompanied Tokajee Holkar into Hindostan in 1769, and he bestowed on the leader the zuree putun, or golden flag of distinction, which served to keep his band generally faithful to the house of Holkar. Two other hordes followed the fortunes of Mahdajee and Dowlut Rao Sindia in their expeditions to the Deccan and Hindostan. But the connection of the Pindaree

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leaders with the Mahratta princes was always loose and uncertain, and regulated more by the principle of convenience than of fealty. The princes found it useful to attach to their camp a large body of freebooters, who received no pay, and were content with an unlimited licence to plunder, and were always ready to complete the work of destruction in the districts which the Mahrattas invaded. The Pindaree leaders, on their part, found it advantageous to enjoy a connection, however indirect, with established governments, to whom they might look for protection in case of emergency. But this relationship did not restrain the Pindarees from plundering the districts of their patrons when it suited their interests, nor did it prevent the Mahratta princes from seizing the leaders after any of their successful expeditions, and obliging them to surrender the best part of their plunder.

Pindaree leaders, 1808

Two of the leaders, Heerun and Burrun, in the suite of Sindia, offered their services, soon after the death of Mahdajee, to the raja of Bhopal to plunder the territories of the raja of Nagpore, with whom he was at war. Their offer was prudently declined, on which they proceeded to Nagpore in quest of professional employment, and were readily engaged by the raja to lay waste the lands of Bhopal, which they accomplished so effectively that it was a quarter of a century before the country recovered from the effect of their ravages. On their return to Nagpore, the raja did not scruple to attack their encampment and completely despoil them of the rich booty they had collected in this expedition. Burrun was thrown into confinement, which he did not survive. Heerun took refuge with Sindia, and died soon after, when his two sons, Dost Mohamed and Wassil Mohamed, collected his scattered followers and reorganized the band. The leadership of Burran’s Pindarees devolved on Cheetoo, by birth a Jaut, who was purchased when a child, during a famine, by a Pindaree, and trained up to the profession. His superior abilities and his daring spirit of enterprise gave him the foremost rank in the troop, and recommended him to the notice of

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Dowlut Rao Sindia, who took a large body of his followers with him in the expedition to Hindostan in 1805, which has been already alluded to. He was rewarded with a japer, and the title of nabob, which he engraved on his seal, in the pompous style of an oriental prince. He fixed his head-quarters at Nimar, amidst the rugged hills and wild fastnesses which lie between the Nerbudda and the Vindya range. From this point, his Pindarees were dispatched in every direction on plundering expeditions, from which even the territories of Sindia were not always exempted. His armies were consequently sent in succession to reduce the Pindaree bands, but were as constantly baffled as the Mogul armies had been by the Mahrattas, at the beginning of their career. Sindia, at length deemed it convenient to patch up a peace with Cheetoo, and to cede five districts to him to preserve the rest of his dominions from plunder.

Kureem Khan, 1811

Kureem Khan, another Pindaree leader of note, was a Rohilla, or Patan, who entered the service of Sindia at an early age, and at the battle of Kurdla acquired a rich harvest of plunder in the Nizam’s camp, which enabled him to increase the strength of his predatory band. In the course of time, he obtained an assignment of lands from Sindia, together with a title, and married into the noble family of Bhopal. He was bold, active, and ambitious, and by the gradual encroachments which the distraction of the times enabled him to make on the dominions both of Sindia and Holkar, he had, by 1806, acquired possession of a little principality, yielding sixteen lacs of rupees a-year. He enlisted infantry, cast cannon, formed a body of household troops, and increased his Pindarees to 10,000 and for the first time a Pindaree chief appeared likely to become a territorial prince. But Sindia had no idea of permitting this development, and resolved to crush his rising power. He accordingly proceeded to his capital on the pretence of a friendly visit, and Kureem Khan advanced to meet him with a state little inferior to his own, and presented him with a throne composed of a lac

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and a quarter of rupees. Sindia treated him with the utmost condescension and engaged to grant all his requests. The Pindaree was completely thrown off his guard, and was persuaded to pay his parting visit to Sindia for the confirmation of these promises with a very slender retinue. He was received with distinction, but after the first compliments had passed, Sindia withdrew from the tent, under some excuse, when a body of armed men rushed in and secured Kureem Khan, who was hurried off to Gwalior, where he was detained in confinement for four years. Meanwhile, Sindia’s territories were devastated without mercy by his Pindaree adherents, under the command of his nephew. An offer of six lacs of rupees was at length made for the release of Kureem Khan, which was, after much discussion, accepted, and the freebooter obtained his liberty. But it was not long before Sindia had cause to repent of an act dictated only by avarice. The Pindarees flocked to Kureem Khan’s standard in such numbers that he speedily acquired more extensive territories and power than he had enjoyed before his captivity. Cheetoo was induced to join him with the whole of his force, and an alliance was likewise formed with Ameer Khan, then in the spring-tide of his career. Their united force did not fall short of 60,000 horse, and from the palace to the cottage, everyone in Central India was filled with consternation at this portentous association of men whose only vocation was plunder. Happily, the union was short lived. Cheetoo, who had always cherished the hostility of a rival towards Kureem Khan, was prevailed on to desert him, and Sindia, whose territories he was laying waste with fire and sword, sent one of his ablest generals against him. His camp was assaulted and broken up, and he sought an asylum with Ameer Khan, who made him over to his nephew, Guffoor Khan, and Toolsee bye, at Indore, by whom he was detained three years.

Their system of plunder, 1812

These were the acknowledged leaders of the Pindaree association, to whose encampment the minor chiefs flocked with their adherents when the season

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arrived for their annual forays. The ranks of the Pindarees were constantly replenished by horsemen discharged from the service of regular Governments, or in want of employment and subsistence; by miscreants expelled from the community for their crimes, or men pursued by the importunity of their creditors, or who were weary of a peaceable life and of regular occupation. The Pindaree system thus afforded to every criminal not only a safe asylum, but active employment of the most exciting character, to the utter destruction of all the wholesome restraints of society. The predatory standard was generally raised at the Dussera festival, towards the end of October, when the rains ceased and the rivers became fordable. A leader of experience and acknowledged courage was selected, under whom a body of four or five thousand was ranged for the expedition. They were all mounted, two-fifths of them on good horses, armed with a spear from twelve to eighteen feet in length, and the remainder with a variety of weapons of inferior quality. Each horseman was provided with a few cakes for himself and a bag of grain for his horse, and these supplies were replenished as they proceeded, plundering from village to village. They were not encumbered with tents or baggage, and moved often at a speed of forty or fifty miles a-day, and even of sixty in case of emergency, and were thus enabled to baffle all pursuit. Neither were they fettered by any prejudices of caste, or any compunctions of tenderness, or any scruples of conscience. Their vocation was to plunder, and not to fight, and they fled whenever they encountered any resistance. They were the most dastardly brigands on record, and the history of their career is not relieved by a single humane, or even romantic action. The atrocities they committed on man and woman almost exceed belief. Unable to remain long in any one spot, the greatest despatch was required to complete the plunder of the village, and the most horrible tortures were inflicted to hasten the discovery of property. On their arrival in any locality terror and dismay at once seized upon the helpless inhabitants; villages were to be seen in a blaze, wounded

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and houseless peasants flying in every direction, fortified places shutting their gates, and keeping up a perpetual fire from their walls. Their progress through the country was a stream of desolation, for what they could not carry off they invariably destroyed. Their numbers, moreover, were swelled by the very miseries they inflicted, inasmuch as those who were thus reduced to destitution by their extortion were in too many cases obliged to join their ranks for a mere subsistence.

Attack of British territory, 1812

Their depredations were for several years confined to the neighbourhood of the Nerbudda and the frontiers of the Peshwa, the Nizam and the raja of Nagpore. As these districts became exhausted they were obliged to enlarge the sphere of their expeditions, and, in one instance, swept through four hundred miles of country south of the Nerbudda, to the extremity of the Peshwa’s and Nizam’s territories, and returned laden with booty, which served to attract additional numbers to their body. In 1811, the Dussera was celebrated by an assemblage of 25,000 Pindaree horse, besides some battalions of foot; and a detachment of 5,000 plundered up to the gates of Nagpore, and burnt down one of the suburbs of the city. The next year, a large body under Dost Mohamed penetrated through the native principality of Rewah, and plundered the Company’s district of Mirzapore. They then proceeded towards Gya, within seventy miles of Patna, and having realized an extraordinary amount of spoil in this new and untrodden field, disappeared up the sources of the Soane before a British soldier could overtake them.

Lord Minto’s representations, 1812

This was their first aggression on British territory, and, coupled with the periodical devastation of the countries north and south of the Nerbudda, constrained Lord Minto to bring the subject before the Court of Directors, and entreat them to consider whether it was expedient “to observe a strict neutrality amidst these scenes of disorder and outrage, or to listen to the calls of suffering humanity, and interfere for the protection of the weak and defenceless states who implored our assistance

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against the ravages of the Pindarees and the Patans.” Before he quitted the Government he again addressed the Court, pointing out that the augmented numbers, the improved organization, and the increased boldness of the Pindarees, arising from the success of their inroads, rendered the adoption of an extensive system of measures for their suppression a matter of pressing importance. If Lord Wellesley’s purpose of establishing the paramount influence of the British Government throughout India had not been thwarted in England, the growth of this predatory confederacy would have been effectually checked, but the fatal policy adopted by the Court of Directors fostered it into a formidable power, the suppression of which, after eight years of impunity, as Lord Minto observed, would require much “laborious arrangement and combination, both political and military.” It was the misfortune of his administration to be cast between the vigorous administrations of Lord Wellesley and Lord Hastings, one of whom organized, and the other consummated, the system of maintaining the tranquillity of India through British supremacy. It fell unhappily to his lot to act upon the neutral policy of the home authorities, of which he entirely disapproved, though he had to bear the odium of it. The boldness with which he repressed the ambition of Runjeet Sing, and the irruption of Ameer Khan into Nagpore, when he had an opportunity of acting on his own impulse, shows that, notwithstanding his constitutional caution, he would have dealt vigorously with the Pindarees if he had not been restrained by the India House. But his Government was, nevertheless, of essential service to the interests of India by demonstrating to the authorities in England the impracticability of their system of non-interference, and by preparing them to abandon it under his successor.

Review of the Permanent Settlement, 1813

At the close of Lord Minto’s administration twenty years had elapsed since the introduction of Lord Cornwallis’s permanent settlement and judicial institutions, which formed an important era in the history

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of India, and it becomes necessary to review the effect they produced on the welfare of the country. After twenty-five years of unsatisfactory experiments in revenue settlements, the Government in England, and Lord Cornwallis in India, by a generous and noble inspiration, resolved at once to constitute the zemindars who had to this time been the simple collectors of the revenue, or rather the “hereditary administrators of the revenue, with a beneficial interest in the land,” the actual proprietors of every estate in Bengal and Behar, and to make a permanent and irrevocable settlement with them, when only two-thirds of the land were under culture. But the great boon thus conferred was saddled with one condition, which proved fatal to the great majority of them. Under the Mohamedan government the zemindar, when he fell into arrears, was summoned either to Dacca, or Moorshedabad, and subjected to great indignities, and sometimes even to torture, till he made provision for paying them up; but he was rarely deprived of his zemindaree. This system of coercion was repugnant to the British character, and the penalty of eviction was adopted in its stead. The zemindar was required to discharge every Instalment of revenue on the day on which it fell due, and, on the first failure, his estate was put up to sale by auction, and knocked down to the highest bidder; but punctuality is not, in any circumstances, an oriental virtue, least of all in pecuniary matters. The zemindars had been brought up in prodigality and improvidence; they fell rapidly into arrears, and were inexorably sold up. In the course of seven years, dating from 1793, most of the great zemindars who had survived the commotions of more than a century, were ejected from the estates of which they had been recently declared the sole proprietors. It was a great social revolution, affecting more than a third of the tenures of land in a country the size of England. In. some respects this eviction was injurious to the people, for the old reminders had lived in the bosom of their tenantry for generations, and being almost exclusively Hindoos, had laid themselves out to promote their social

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and religious festivities. They maintained large households, and expended with a lavish land, in their circle, the sums which had been drawn, probably by extortion, from the ryots. The estates thus brought to the hammer were bought by the new aristocracy of wealth, which had grown up in the political, the commercial, and the judicial service of the Company, and with the growth of trade and the security of property. They were often absentees, and in every case strangers to the ryots, and all the beneficial ties which had associated the agricultural population with the old zemindars were thus dissolved. But the breaking up of these unwieldy zemindarees, equal in some cases to entire districts, was by no means unfavourable to the extension of cultivation, and the general improvement of the country.

Condition of the ryots, 1793–1813

The settlement of 1793, however, made no adequate provision for protecting the rights and interests of the ryot. After a century of discussion, it is now admitted that the ryot was the ancient and hereditary proprietor of the soil, possessing all the privileges of ownership, but bound to pay a certain proportion of the produce of every field, generally three-fifths, to the Government. This principle is enshrined in the ancient Hindoo maxim, “whose is the sweat, his is the land.” In some parts of India the right of the ryot to his land is designated by a word which signifies indestructible. Tenant right, indeed, appears to have been from time immemorial the basis of all revenue systems. The Mogul settlement of Akbar, in 1582, was made with the ryots. After a minute survey and a careful valuation of the lands, field by field, his great financial minister, Toder Mull, fixed the proportion of the produce calculated in money, which was to be paid by each cultivator to the state; and this scale remained without alteration till the days of Lord Cornwallis, who acknowledged it to be the asul, or fundamental rent. The Mogul government appointed revenue officers, subsequently called zemindars, to collect the public dues from each village, granting them a commission of about

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ten per cent., or its equivalent in land. The office was necessarily invested with large powers, and gradually became hereditary, and the zemindar came to occupy the position of the fiscal representative of government within his circle. Whenever the nabob was anxious to augment his revenues, he levied an additional impost on the gross payments of the zemindars, and they distributed the assessment on the ryots, generally in proportion to their rents, which thus became the standard of supplementary taxation. These ceases were usually legalised by the nabob’s Government, but the zemindar often abused his power and levied arbitrary and unauthorized benevolences on the helpless ryot for his own exclusive benefit, the jumma, or rent all the while remaining the same. The settlement of Lord Cornwallis provided that all these ceases should be consolidated with the rent, and embodied in a pottah, or written lease; and it peremptorily prohibited the exaction of any additional imposts. For the protection of the ryot it was ordained that the ancient and hereditary khoodcast ryot, who had been in possession of his fields twelve years before the settlement, should be liable to no enhancement of his rent, and that from ryots with the right of occupancy of a later date, the demand should not exceed the pergunna or customary rate, as recorded in the register of the village accountant. The zemindar did not therefore, at the period of the settlement, receive an absolute estate, with all the English adjuncts of ownership, nor was he at liberty to let the lands by competition. The ancient and still recognised rights of the ryots imposed an effectual limitation on his movements, and he was amenable to the civil courts if he infringed those rights. A large field was still left for improving his income; first, by planting new men on his waste lands, which he was at liberty to let for whatever sum he could obtain; and, secondly, by inducing the old ryots to cultivate the more valuable articles of produce, inasmuch as he was entitled, according to the custom of the country, to demand higher rents from the fields on which. they were raised. The rule of proportion is the ancient and

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prescriptive standard of assessment in the land of Munoo. It is the Indian solution of one of the most intricate and important of social questions. It is equally applicable to every stage of improvement, and it gives the zemindar, since he has been endowed with the rights of the Government, an equitable share of the increased value of his estate, while it prevents his grasping the whole of it, and crushing the ryot. These restrictions on the zemindar at the time when he received the boon of proprietorship were in accordance with the usages of the country, and were intended, as the Court of Directors said, “to protect the ryot from being improperly disturbed in his possessions, or subjected to unwarrantable exactions.” The Government likewise reserved the power of enacting regulations at any future time for the welfare and protection of the ryots. But this protection, instead of being steadily and honourably maintained, has been gradually weakened. By the 5th Regulation of 1812, the zemindars were allowed, except in the case of hereditary khoodcast ryots, to form engagements on any conditions which suited them, and they immediately interpreted it to signify that they had authority to dispossess even ryots with a right of occupancy if they refused to submit to their demands. From that time the course of legislation has invariably been adverse to the interests and rights of the ryots, till, in 1859, an Act was passed to “prevent illegal exactions and extortions in connection with demands for rent,” and to restore the ryot to the condition in which the Government pledged itself to sustain him by the sacred compact of 1798.

Distraint and sub-letting, 1813

The condition of the ryot was further deteriorated by the power of summary and unlimited distraint with which the landlord was armed by Regulation 7 of 1799. It afforded him the most ample means of oppression, and was regarded throughout the country with feelings of intense horror. The wretchedness of the ryot was consummated by the system of sub-letting which came in with the permanent settlement. The zemindar, having now obtained a distinct property in his estate, parcelled it out at enhanced rates, on leases

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of two or three years to farmers, who in their turn sub-let it to others at a still higher rate. The sub-letting often descended to the fourth grade. The accumulated demand was extorted from the cultivator by every ingenuity of oppression, and by threatening him with the awful penalties of the law of distraint. The rapid succession of these hungry adventurers was fatal to the interests of the ryot, who lamented his unhappy fate, in his own homely language, in having “three bellies to fill” in addition to those of his own family. He paid the extortionate demand while there was anything left in his hut, or as long as his muhajun, or money-lender, would supply him with money or grain, and then deserted his village, and too often took to dacoity. The country thus became impoverished and depopulated; and five years of sub-letting was found sufficient to reduce the number of houses in a village from a hundred to forty, and the cultivation in the same proportion. As the peasant moved off the land, the wild hogs took possession of it, and the increase of the one was an unerring index of the decay of the other. Under the operation of this system of sub-letting, and the exactions to which it gave rise, the district of Nuddea, within forty miles of Calcutta, was pronounced in 1810 to be the finest hog-hunting field in Bengal.

Ceded and conquered provinces, 1809

On the acquisition of the ceded and conquered provinces, which now constitute the Agra Presidency, Lord Wellesley, who considered a permanent settlement indispensable to agricultural improvement, engaged, in 1803, to bestow it on them after the expiration of the decennial leases. The promise was confirmed in 1805. But Sir George Barlow and Lord Minto were so anxious to confer this blessing, as they deemed it, on the provinces, that commissioners were appointed to carry the new system into effect before the termination of the old arrangements. But they found the revenue department a mass of confusion; they could obtain no reliable information regarding the tenures of land, or the rights of property, or the resources of the districts, or the means and prospects of improving them. There were extensive

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waste lands without a proprietor, and a fourth of the arable land was unfilled. Mr. Tucker, a member of the commission, and the highest financial authority in India, stated, in spite of his attachment to the principles of a permanent settlement, that he did not consider these provinces prepared for it, and that it would entail a heavy and irretrievable sacrifice of revenue, without any corresponding benefit to those connected with the land. Lord Minto and his colleagues, however, controverted Mr. Tucker’s opinions and conclusions, and continued to maintain the necessity of an immediate and permanent settlement. But the Court of Directors, whose sanction was necessary to confirm the arrangement, suddenly changed their opinions in 1813, and prohibited the formation of any such settlement at any future time. This repudiation had all the appearance of a breach of faith with the zemindars of the northwest; but under the periodical settlements which were made, the revenues were increased fifty per cent., by a crore and a quarter of rupees a-year, leaving the ryot a rag and a hovel.

Settlement of the Madras Presidency, 1808–1813

The Madras Presidency consisted of the five northern Sircars acquired by Lord Clive in 1765, the conquests made by Lord Cornwallis in 1793, and the acquisitions of Lord Wellesley seven years later. The Supreme Government, enamoured of the zemindaree system, determined to extend it to the Madras territories. No zemindars, however, were to be found, but, under orders from Calcutta, some who appeared to answer the description were at length discovered, or created, in the older provinces, and a settlement was commenced with them. Soon after an attempt to make village settlements was advocated by the Board of Revenue, and sanctioned by the Court of Directors. But, after repeated vacillations, it was resolved to abandon both plans, and to adopt the ryotwary system, which was created and matured by a little band of soldiers, of whom Sir Thomas Munro, with whose name it is identified, was the most eminent. He assumed that the Government was the absolute proprietor of the land, to the entire exclusion of all individual rights.

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The settlement was to be made from year to year with each ryot, and the assessment was to be equal to one-third of the produce. After the lands had been surveyed and classified and assessed, the potail, or head man of the village, when the ploughing season began, distributed the fields among the villagers, who were not permitted to select their own lands; but constrained to take the good and the inferior in due pro. portion. When the season was so far advanced that a judgment could be formed of the crop, the rent of the year was fixed, nominally, by the European officer, but, in practice, by a native, called a tehsildar, who was generally imported from another village to prevent loss to the revenue from local influences. If the crop of particular fields failed, the deficiency was assessed on the whole village to the extent of ten per cent., which was often as much as the ryot himself received for the labour of the year. But the cultivator, though debarred from choosing his fields, was responsible for the rent of those arbitrarily allotted to him, and the collector had power to confine, punish, and flog him if he obstinately refused to cultivate them. If these oppressions drove him from his village, the collector followed him wherever he might go, and caused him to make good the assessment. The system was aptly described by the Board of Revenue as one which “bound the ryot by force to the plough, compelled him to till land acknowledged to be over-assessed, dragged him back if he absconded, deferred the demand upon him till the crop came to maturity and then took from him all that could be obtained, and left him nothing but his bullocks and his seed grain,” and even these he was often obliged to dispose of. Successful efforts have been made during the last sixty years to mitigate the more flagrant evils of this system, but it is inherently and incurably vicious. It operates as a check on industry; it perpetuates a state of poverty throughout the country; it prevents the growth of capital and the accumulation of landed property, and it deprives the Government of the powerful support of a landed aristocracy.

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Civil jurisprudence, 1793–1813

A brief review of the working of the Cornwallis institutions of civil and criminal jurisprudence and police during this period of twenty years may be found interesting. Under the native Governments, all the functions connected with revenue, justice, and police were concentrated in the same individual – nabob, zemindar, or village agent. Even where the Government did little to give justice to the people, it left them at liberty to procure it for themselves. For some time before the introduction of British rule, the judicial machinery appears to have become deranged; but those who administered the rough forms of justice then in use had still the advantage of belonging to the country, of being assimilated to the people in language and religion, conversant with their usages, and not altogether indifferent to their good opinion. Their proceedings were simple and their decisions summary and final, and generally conformable to equity and good sense. The British Government, as a foreign power legislating for a conquered people, might have been expected to adopt a simple and intelligible system of jurisprudence, which could be easily worked. But Lord Cornwallis lived in an age when English law was considered the perfection of reason, and he took it for his model. His code was an intricate and perplexing network of law, and the machinery he constructed for administering it was clogged with technical rules and complicated forms. The business of the court was conducted in a language foreign to the judge, the suitors, and the witnesses. The judges who presided in it, and who regulated all its proceedings, were imperfectly acquainted with the language, feelings, opinions, prejudices, and moral habits of the people, and some of them were pronounced by their own brethren to be unfit for any branch of the service. The novelty of a court established for the exclusive cognisance of civil suits, attracted crowds of suitors. Every man who had a claim, or could manufacture one, hastened to the new court, and unbounded scope was given to the national passion for litigation. The demand for justice, or law, soon began to exceed the

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means of supply. In the year 1797, the number of suits instituted amounted to 330,000, and such was the pressure of business that some of the judges were known to conduct two or three cases at the same time. To secure perfect justice, appeal was allowed on appeal, but as the privilege was resorted to only to gain time, or to evade immediate payment, or to harass an opponent, it only served to impede the course of justice, and to defeat its own object. The judicial system speedily became so cumbrous and unwieldy, that serious apprehensions were entertained of its breaking down altogether. To reduce the files, legal fees were multiplied, in the hope of discouraging litigation. During Lord Minto’s administration, various expedients were adopted in the courts in which the European judges presided, to expedite the progress of justice, but with only partial success. Some additional courts were established, but the cost of the judicial establishments which had risen in fifteen years, from thirty to eighty lacs of rupees a-year, began to excite alarm. The only real improvement of the time, consisted in increasing the number and the pay of the moonsiffs, who decided half the cases in the country. Their allowances were actually raised to fifty rupees a-month, but the most violent prejudices against the employment of native agency in the department of civil justice still continued to reign among the civilian judges, who considered that the want of integrity rendered it impossible for them to decide justly. Yet the existing system combined both the evils of European inefficiency and native venality. The helpless and bewildered European who sat on the bench, and whom it was the object of all parties to mystify, in most cases placed confidence in his able and astute shristadar, or head ministerial officer, who thus acquired such influence in the court, as to be able to boast, and with perfect truth, that it was “he who decreed, and he who dismissed.” Hence the object of the suitor was – in the homely phrase of the day – “to make the crooked mouth of the shristadar straight.” His evening levée was crowded; justice was sold to the highest bidder, and that office became

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one of greater power and emolument than that of the judge himself.

Criminal jurisprudence and police, 1793–1813

The provisions for criminal jurisprudence and the police resulted in the same disappointment. The zemindars were formerly entrusted with the responsibility of the police, but as they had in some cases abused the power – in India all power is in all places abused – they were divested of it in 1793; and the duty was committed to an officer styled a daroga. The districts were unwieldy; – that of Midnapore was fifty miles in breadth, and a hundred and thirty in length; – and some of them contained a million or inhabitants. It was impossible for the magistrate, weighed down as he was with duties at the station, to visit his jurisdiction and check abuses. The daroga became a prince in his own circle. He was usually selected from the servants and dependants of the magistrate; he was inadequately paid by the state, but indemnified himself by extortion, and reaped a harvest from every crime. He inflicted unheard-of tortures on the people, beating and binding and starving them at his pleasure, and often scorching them with torches. It was this officer who apprehended accused or suspected persons, and sent them in to the magistrate with a train of witnesses. The magistrate, who was also loaded with the charge of civil justice, was often unable for months to take up the case, and to decide whether the party should be released or committed for trial to the court of circuit when it arrived. During this period the accused or suspected person was kept in confinement, at his own expense, amidst the contamination of the gaol, and in one district there were at one time no fewer than fifteen hundred individuals awaiting the leisure of the magistrate to investigate the charges against them.

Dacoity, 1813

The period under review was marked by a great increase in the crime of dacoity, or gang robbery. It had been the curse of Bengal throughout. British rule, and probably, long before; but it received a fresh stimulus from the oppression of the sub-letting system and the vices of the

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police arrangements. The great body of the dacoits followed their occupation of agriculturists and mechanics by day, and the vocation of dacoity by night, under the guidance of professional leaders. They were generally assembled in gangs of forty or fifty by one of the acknowledged chiefs, who organised the expedition against some wealthy shopkeeper or money lender, or someone who had given information against them. On reaching the rendezvous, a priest performed a religious service to propitiate Doorga, the goddess of thieves, to whom a portion of their spoil was devoted. They then lighted their torches and proceeded to the village, often letting off a gun to warn the villagers to remain within doors. The house marked for plunder was surrounded, and the inmates tortured to reveal their property. The gang then departed with their plunder, and resumed their usual occupations the next morning. The great object of the villagers was to conceal the robbery, in order to avoid a visit from the daroga, whom they dreaded more than the dacoits. When he was able to obtain information of such an occurrence, he came down on the village, seized the most respectable householders, and exacted all they would pay to escape being sent up, either as suspected accomplices or as witnesses, to the magistrate’s court, forty or fifty miles distant, to be indefinitely detained, or fleeced by his native officers. The dread of being obliged to give evidence also operated powerfully in keeping the crime concealed. Under the established judicial system, the chances of the dacoit’s escape greatly exceeded those of his conviction, and, if liberated, he never failed to wreak his vengeance on the witnesses, sometimes to the extent to putting them and their families to death. Hence, when a requisition for evidence reached a village, it was no uncommon thing to find it at once emptied of all its inhabitants. To remedy this “monstrous and disorganized state of society,” as it was aptly described in a minute of Lord Minto, the zemindar was invested with the office of commissioner of police, but as he was expected to bear all the expenses connected with it, and was to act in subordination to the detested daroga, the

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scheme fell to the ground. Special magistrates were then appointed to repress dacoity, one of whom was the far-famed linguist and poet, John Leyden; but they acted with a vigour beyond the laws, and apprehended men by thousands, of whom not one in forty was convicted. Their agency was speedily dispensed with, but the rigour of their proceedings served for a time to diminish the crime.

Remarks on the Cornwallis system, 1813

It is a painful task to record the defects of the Cornwallis system, which was once pronounced “the noblest monument of a just and liberal policy that was ever erected in a conquered country.” It was, undoubtedly, distinguished by a complete absence of selfishness and an earnest feeling of benevolence, and the sterling purity of motive which dictated it was a legitimate object of national pride. But it aimed at too much, and established judicial institutions unsuited to the native character and habits. The permanent settlement was a generous and self-denying act, and it developed the resources of Bengal and Behar, beyond all expectation; but it inflicted poverty and wretchedness on the great body of the cultivators. A singular fatality, indeed, seems to have attended all our revenue settlements in every province throughout an entire century, as we shall repeatedly have occasion to remark hereafter, and though devised with the best intentions, they have never been successful in promoting the welfare of the agricultural community. The failure of Lord Cornwallis’s institutions was for the first time disclosed in the celebrated Fifth Report of the House of Commons, drawn up by Mr. Cumming, one of the ablest officers of the Board of Control. It took the public, who reposed entire confidence in the perfection of the system, completely by surprise; but it produced a salutary effect. It dissolved the dream of optimism in which the public authorities had indulged, and directed their attention to those reforms which have now been zealously and successfully prosecuted for half a century.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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