the erection of a school, the building of a ghát, the march of a high official through the district, the receipt of a title or a dress of honour from the Government, the termination of a great lawsuit, or any other propitious or unpropitious event: and it may certainly be conceded that, if not in the exact position of an English landlord, the Zamíndár was by Lord Cornwallis raised from an uncertain to a well-defined place, and to one of emolument, privilege, and power. It could no longer be altered at the caprice of some wayward autocrat ruling at Dacca or Murshidábád. It was stamped with the seal of a foreign power whose representatives were known to be men of their word. It could only be forfeited by incapacity or wilful default. And finally the Zamíndár might raise money on his estate, mortgage and sell it, and transmit it to his heirs and successors, increased in value, unimpeachable in title, and unaffected by any rise in price or any further claims of the State.
In treating of the rights, interests, and position of the Ryot, it would be impossible, in the limits of this memoir, to describe the various Ryotty tenures to be found in the Provinces to which the Perpetual Settlement was applied. Many which bear different titles in different districts of the Lower Provinces, are in substance and reality almost identical. In some cases the distinctions are more apparent than solid; and certainly at various epochs, when the position and claims of the Ryots have been investigated, it has
