Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/151

stamped out, but never extinguished, in all the troubles that had swept over the Upper Ganges Valley. To his mind, the British Government was in duty bound to preserve this property wherever it was found to be still existing, not to re-create it where it had been lost, but to conserve and even develope its existence where it was still living, even though the vital spark might be faint. But then he noticed that the value of this property must depend on the determination of the land tax. By immemorial law and custom the ruling power was entitled to a share in the produce of cultivation, and there was nothing, save the will of that power, to regulate the proportion of the produce represented by such share, which he termed 'the Government demand.' He felt that if this share should be fixed too high, and if the State demand should become excessive or uncertain or capricious, then the property would be depreciated or almost valueless; if on the other hand, the demand should be temperately and equitably regulated, then the property would be a living thing of actual and enjoyable value. It would be his first duty to search out this property everywhere, for the sake of his people, to bring it into full operation, to hedge it round with reasonable security. For that object the Settlement, with the assessment of the land tax for thirty years, had been fixed throughout the country, well and justly as he believed. He still had the power, not indeed to enhance, but to reduce the assessment, and he would not suffer the demand anywhere to be such as to injure the property in land.