LORD CORNWALLIS.

463

four years, 1786-90, be laboured, with the help of an ableBengal civilian, John Shore , to arrive at the facts of thecase. Warren Hastings had introduced, unsuccessfully andonly for a period, a five years’ settlement of the land revenue.

Lord Cornwallis , after three years of inquiry and of provisionalmeasures, introduced a ten years’ or ‘ decennial ’ settlement The De-(1789-91). Up to this time, the revenue had been collectedpretty much according to the old Mughal system. The m ent,zamindars, or Government farmers, whose office always tended l 7 $ 9 - 9 1 -to become hereditary, were recognised as having a right tocollect the revenue from the actual cultivators. But noprinciple of assessment existed, and the amount actuallyrealized varied greatly from year to year. Hastings seems tohave looked to experience, as acquired from a succession of Period ofquinquennial settlements, to furnish the standard rate of thefuture. Francis, on the other hand, Hastings’ great rival,advocated the fixing of the State demand in perpetuity. Thesame view recommended itself to the authorities at home,partly because it would place their finances on a more stablebasis, partly because it seemed to identify the zamindar withthe landlord of the English system of property. Accordingly,Cornwallis took out with him in 1786 instructions to introducea Permanent Settlement.

The process of assessment began in 1789, and terminated The Per-in 1791. No attempt was made to measure the fields or g la t "j entcalculate the out-turn, as had been done by Akbar, and as is 0 f Bengal,now done whenever settlements are made in the British Pro- U 93 -vinces. The amount to be paid in the future was fixed byreference to what had been paid in the past. At first thesettlement was called decennial, but in 1793 it was declaredpermanent for ever. The total assessment amounted to SikkaRs. 26,800,989, or about 3 millions sterling for Bengal. Lord Cornwallis carried the scheme into execution ; but the praiseor blame, so far as details are concerned, belongs to Sir John Shore , afterwards Lord Teignmouth, a Civil Servant , whoseknowledge of the country was unsurpassed in his time. Shore would have proceeded more cautiously than Cornwallis ’ pre-conceived English idea of a proprietary body, and the Courtof Directors’ haste after fixity, permitted. 1

The second Mysore war of 1790-92 is noteworthy on two Secondaccounts. Lord Cornwallis , the Governor-General , led the M y soreBritish army in person, with a pomp and a magnificence of 1790-92.

1 The Permanent Settlement will be referred to in greater detail, andits practical working exhibited, in the Administrative chapter.