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Leader (1850-1860), 28th May 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 679, , -- "' " -*"."— ' ^i jT^^m- tw if -n-^ jT* T AT flj \ J 1VI JVI Jli IjC C; I JK-l-j ' -»- - »- -*- _ j- .-«-*-«- ¦v- ' ¦ . "^~ * i

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      Untitled Article

      Lieut . Col . C , E . Faber , Madras Engineers , has leave to reside at Bangalore , or in any portion of Mysore . Mr . R . A- Ii . Greeves has been niarried at Bangalore to Fanny , daughter of iae ' iii .-Gol . Arbuthnot . Sir . Charles Treyelyan has begun his adminis .-trative labours at Madras by sweeping off a lot of the copying and correspondence . This will cause a dreadful howl among the enormbus host of half caste and native winters , who have already been sadly aggrieved by the copying machine , lithography , and the printing press . The saving will be very great indeed .

      ' Sir Charles is taking measures * to abolish compulsory cart hire in Ms Presidency . He has likewise in hand the reform of the deputy collectors . A general exhibition is to be held in the Vellore district of Madras in April , 1860 , as also of a preliminary cattle show in December , next . The total expense of building and shows is not to exceed 500 / . The works of the Baree Doab Canal , one of the really great undertakings of India , are so finad vanced that on tlie 11 th April water was admitted at Madhopoor with great success .

      Untitled Article

      LATEST INTELLIGENCE . . Alexander , May 19 . The India and China mails leave to-day . The dates are—Calcutta , April 22 nd : Madras , 29 th ; Hongkong , 13 th . The new Five-and-a-Half per Cent , loan was announced to be open on the 1 st of May , when the Fire per Cent , would be closed , except to holders of IFour per Cent , paper in Europe , for whom the Fives remain open till the 1 st of June . ; Import markets steady . Money abundant . Freights unaltered . Exchange 2 s . l £ d . for credits . China markets generally dull . Exchange at Hongkong 4 s . 8 fd . At Shanghai ,, on tlie 4 th of April , the silk settlement was 2 , 500 / bales . A decline of 20 to 25 taels in Tsatlees and Taysaanis . Exchange on London , 6 s . 5 d . to 6 s . 5 £ d .

      Tea markets generally inactive . Decrease in exports to great Britain , 4 , 439 , 000 lbs . We have been favoured with the following telegram by the Peninsular aiid Oriental Company : — " The Nepaul , with the mails from Calcutta and China , arrived at Marseilles at eight a . m . yesterday ( Thursday ) . " . The mails left for iondon at ten a . m . " The mails left Malta for Southampton on the 23 rd inst ., at nine a . m .

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      EXPERIENCES OF A LEASEHOLDER AND INDIGO PLANTER IN EASTERN BENGAL . " An unpretending pamphlet , written by a gentleman of position and large experience , is worth attention , as corroborating , if that were needed , the proofs laid before the House of Commons Committee , that a rndicnl reform was necessary in the laws of Indian lund tenure ; and will help to secure moral support fur Lord Stanley in those changes lie has announced as in contemplation . The

      of collecting the rents of the jowar , and left only the trouble of paying the Government revenue . " During these investigations I need not say how little of the rent swelled the profit account in my ledger ; the necessity of keeping up a host of people to watch the proceedings on the spot and at the courts ran away with thousands of rupees yearly . " Fortunately , a reasonable member of the Calcutta Board of Revenue at last condescended to listen to my prayers , that the whole estate might be measured and any surplus land at once confiscated by Government . Fortunately-also the estate had been measured at the Decennial Settlement by a

      Government officer , and all the confusion arose from the circumstance that between 1792 and 1834 nearly the whole land had been carried away by the rivers Ganges and Megna , and reformed . Orders were transmitted to the Commissioner to carry into effect the measurement prayed for ; and after two or three years of farther inquiry , and measurement , it was found that instead of two hundred and five doorarrs , of which the estate consisted in 1792 , I had in all not more than one hundred and sixty-one , and consequently that I had been unnecessarily harassed and the time of the authorities most unprofitably wasted , independent of the cost of an army of subordinates for nearly ten years .

      " But I have not yet done with tins estate . A part of it consisted of right of fishery . This formed the object of a distinct proceeding on the part of the llevenue officers . It was taken froni me in the end of 1836 , which led to the usual routine of proceedings ; and as it clearly appeared that their claim was bad , it was about to be restored to me , when an auction purchaser of a third of a pergunnah , whence my estate had been separated at or before the perpetual settlement , in 1792 , . ' urged that the fishery belonged to the pergunnah of which he had only the year before become a shareholder . Against his claim there was the fortv-five or fiftv 3-ears' silence of the

      ioint tenant of the remaining two-thirds of the estate , some of whom had ¦ been in possession'from dates antecedent to the settlement . It might have been considered only fair and equitable that I should have bben put in possession by the Government of what it had wrested from me , and that lie should be left to seek his remedy . Such , h o wever , was not the Commissioner ' s view of the subject , and his decision was to the effect that this' new claimant of one-third of the fishery should be put in possession of the ¦ whole at a rent something under the half of what was offered for it - , but this rent was to be lodged-in the Collect orate , and I had iiermission to sue for possession . '

      "In the course of the following year—that is , in 1839 , a suit against the Honourable Company and this , their farmer of the fishery , was instituted ; and at considerable expense , in the payment of ameens deputed by tlie law court to inquire on the spot into the facts of the original separation and management of the collection subsequent to 1792 , the result was a very clear decision in my favour in 1842 , and recovery of possession in the following year . But , in the meantime , the fishery rents accumulated from 1886 to 1843 , in the Collectorate , and the Collector demurred to the estimate of the court specifying the

      amount he received , and the rate of interest to be allowed . Three or four months , therefore , after the period allowed by law had lapsed , the Revenue authorities appenled to the Kuddcr Dcwany , where also the farmer had gone . There the matter slumbered for eight years , and in 1851 was taken up to be reopened by the Judge . of the SuddorDcwany Adawlut , on the ground that I ought to hayo . included in my suit all the proprietors , known or unknown , of Fergunnah poro , though they had all maintained the most respectful silence while the contest was in progress—indeed , for above a half century beforo it began .

      " To add to the absurdity of this docision , the farmer in his appeal actually slated that ha held no interest in tho subject matter in dispute , having some timo previously made it over to his wife , that he might not bo troubled afterwards for cost of suit . In course of timo ho died , leaving a son ( a minor ) and an aclivo guardian , who , to carry into effect tho nonsuit of the { Suddor , compelled my agents to refund the collections made between 1843 and 1851 . These , however , instead of paying into tho treasury , as the position of farmer required , he was suffered to appropriate altogether , before thoSudder Court could

      bo satisfied of tho error they had committed in granting- execution to n party not entitled to anything beyond his own costs . A change having , in the inoantimo , taken place in tho administration ol rovonuo matters in tho Eastern provinces , u now Commissioner took tho troxiblo to inquire into the subject , and satisfied the Rovonuo Board that tho original deoislon ought not to have boon disturbed 1 that I should not bo called on for tho Government expenses in tho appeal , and that I might have possession of tho rights of fishery on indemnifying tho State against ail claims of tho SSUmeondars . X was also promisod payment of tho collections made

      boauthor , whose misfortune seems to have been , not youth or inexperience , but confidence in Government titles , would scam to have laid out n , considerable capital of others in purchasing sundry parcels * of cultivable lnnd escheated by tl . ic authorities from revenue defaulters . The sorrows lie met with in several cases nre so naively , but forcibly depicted , that wo would willingly amuse our readers- —even at tlio expense ' of the victim—by their recital . Hut scarcity of spnee restricts \\ s to tho following simple story , which we have , as it is , taken tho"libovty of compressing a little :- — « ' My eavliost purchase was a holding , paying a rovonua to Government of 2 , 00 . 0 rupees a-yoar . This Bcomod a good puxehaso , as tho price paid was -under 20 . 000 rupees . It was , however , soon discovered that thoro was " something rotton in the State "—in short , every biga of ground hud been noted by the emissaries of the Itovonuo Court as now creation ( by alluvial deposition ) , and no less than ton resumption suits had to bo decided before I could call mysolf master of an aoro . For several years tliis went on 5 commissioner after commissioner was deputed to moasnro , take evidence , and report . Two or three deputy collectors honoured tho estate by visiting and mapping it , and thoro seemed a fair pro 8 . poct that I should speedily bo ontirely relieved * Abor 4 con ; John flmftli . London s glmpkin and Go .

      Untitled Article

      They say , too , that her IVInjvst /' rt Proclamation having alread y called the attention oj" the public to the only municipal law on the Hiil » jeot—viz ., the Foreign Enlistment Act- ^ -it is nob fin- her Majesty's Government to give any exposition of tlu . it Act with reference to any particular case . Tlroy leave the public , and especially the shipowners , very much to their own councils , and compel them to look at tho sources of their present difficulties . ' They spring , as wo stated In . 'jfc week , and as seems now to be universally admitUul , muo . li more from our own Act of Parliament ibnn ( rom the usual practices of belligerent . * towimls jioutrals . notorious Act

      -v NEUTRAL TRADE—THE FOREIGN ENLISTMENT ACT . TVf O progress whatever appears to have been ' - * - * ' made in the present week in ascertaining what articles are now to be considered contraband of war . If the ministers know anything on the subject they will give no information . They content themselves with replying to questions—that Tuscany must be considered a belligerent , and that neutrals carrying contraband of wur to Tuscan ports are liable to confiscation ; 1 'hI they give us no information as to what is continlnuul of war .

      As we then stated , too , this was passed for the very purpose of preventing our people from giving nasistunco to U 10 Colonies of Spain . ¦•* • ' In 1819 , Castlorcaglj , Sidmouth , Canning , PalmorBton , and tho rest of tho Toriua , . really , though not nominally—for that , greatly to the cluurrm of the party , tho Constitution forbadformed a part of tho Holy league *«>• supporting kings against people , tyranny againut Jruodoin , and ignorance against knowledge 5 and they passed the Foroi"n Enlistment Act , to enable Ferdinand VII . to subdue his revolted Spanish colonies . Not contented with prohibiting the supp ly of warlike stores or war ships , they prohibited our people from assisting tho South Americans by lending them " transports or store ships . " Though these terms are susceptible of U technical definition ,

      Untitled Article

      tween 1836 and 1843 , but am left to recover those of 1844 ; and 1851 as I can , from a person who has no tangible property , and if he had property , at the risk of repeated nonsuits from not including in my plaint all the known and unknown shareholdersmen , women , and children , who have rested undisturbed far beyond the limit allowed by the statute of limitation . Altogether the litigation has cost considerably more than the sum originally paid for the entire estate , and remains , and must ever remain , a proof of the great good sense which guides our Indian courts , and an exemplification of the reasons why land in the most fertile country in the world has hitherto been selling at from three to ten years ' purchase . "

      Owing , to a number of similarly misplaced confidences , the author finds himself " in receipt , after a life in India , of but 600 Z . a-year from estates with a . noininal rental of 3 , 000 Z ., after paying 2 ,. 0 ' 0 ( M . ayear to the revenue . The perusal of his narrative will , we think , satisfy the reader that the vexatious spirit of Chancery lately exorcised from among ourselves , has a . mig hty stronghold on the banks of the Ganges , which the present rulers of India will do well to besiege and lcxel . Such talcs are , unfortunately , too common to rouse more than smiles in those well acquainted with India ; but the continuance of such a regime as could permit them would , we hope , draw indignation from the public

      at homo . What wonder that , as stated by all the witnesses before the Indian Colonisation Committee , the number of settlers decreased in India during the last .. 'thirty' years in the face of a policy that could tolerate , and , it may be , from a spirit of exclusion , foster , such enormities ? "What wonder that the European settlers , under such ' pressure as this , cherished in their hearts a-spirit of resistance , termed by the old Conservative party " mutinous . ?'•' But let us hope that , with those of otlier abuses , the days of this one are numbered , and that , under a future law providing simpler and securer tenure , a stream of British settlers , as well as British skill and money , may be turned into the broad dominion that cries so loud for all of them , and will give so much in return for them .

      Untitled Article

      News . ] THE LEADEB . 679

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 28, 1859, page 679, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2296/page/23/