sand villages or parishes in the Provinces; and that the assessment had been so equitable and moderate as to leave a considerable margin to the peasant proprietors. Conjointly with this cardinal operation there had been undertaken a registration of title and a 'Record of Rights.' The idea of this record was grand, a Doomsday book and Magna Charta combined. It had not been carried into effect with completeness, but a beginning had been made throughout the Provinces. In fact the record was the best that could be prepared under a certain limited time, a rough or preliminary one in some tracts, a more advanced one in other tracts; at all events a basis or starting-point everywhere. Theoretically the correct and accurate preparation of the Register or Record, at the time of the Settlement, might seem feasible, but practically it was not. The tenures, always minute and complex, had been brought into confusion by wars and revolutions. Native society was in a transition state. Accuracy could not be obtained without the co-operation of the people, and to real enquiry they had never been accustomed. Consequently the great Record, though good in some respects, was inevitably imperfect.
Now Thomason resolved that in due process of time this Record should be rectified bit by bit, till it was rendered almost perfect; that first the European Officers should be instructed how to rectify it, and that the Native proprietors should be educated by degrees to aid in the rectification. Such was the broad design which he pursued until something near
