perfect success was attained. And this constitutes one of the chief reasons for his posthumous renown.
In his manual of 'Directions to Collectors,' already mentioned in chapter VII, he writes: —
'In the early days of British rule in the North- Western Provinces it was thought that the decision of all questions of individual right might be left to the operation of the ordinary Courts of Justice. Experience, however, has proved the contrary. The Natives of the country were unaccustomed to examine questions regarding rights of property with a view to their classification. It is surprising even to this day how ill informed Native gentlemen are on the subject (1849). But still less were they able then (1803 to 1833) to appreciate the change that had been effected in the old village institutions by engrafting on them the modes of procedure adopted by the British Government. The English functionaries, on the other hand, understood their own rules but had no leisure to study the old institutions of the country. Injustice and confusion necessarily ensued. Designing men usurped rights which did not belong to them, and blunders of all possible kinds were committed by those who ought to have protected the rights of the weaker parties. In such confusion the litigation increased, till the whole machinery of the judicial administration was choked, and it became necessary to take active measures to introduce order and certainty where hitherto confusion and uncertainty only had reigned. Hence resulted the system of Record which was introduced in 1822. There are some who still look with despair on the magnitude and difficulty of this undertaking. They see the country divided into small properties, which are held on peculiar tenures differing one from the other. They are aware of the general ignorance and are brought into intercourse with the most designing, crafty and unprincipled of the mass. There is no
