bulk of it was drained off by a few native officers, a number of Zamíndárs, or revenue-farmers, and a swarm of greedy underlings, at the cost not only of the Company, but of millions of helpless rack-rented husbandmen. After the famine of 1770 the collecting of revenue in many districts seemed like trying to squeeze water out of a dry sponge.
For some weeks before Cartier's retirement, Hastings had attacked this burning question with his wonted energy and statesmanlike breadth of view. When the final orders from England reached him, a scheme for settling the land revenue on a sound footing for a term of years had already been laid before his Council, and a committee appointed to carry it out. In the heats of a Bengal June, the Committee, headed at first by Hastings himself, set forth on a round of investigation through all the districts of the province. During many weeks of wet, stormy, or sultry weather, they pursued their labours with much diligence and painstaking research. But it was soon discovered that the only way to get through a task so formidable with due despatch was to farm out the land revenue for five years by the short and simple process of public auction. The lands of Bengal were leased to the highest bidders among the Zamíndárs, or hereditary rent-collectors, whom Lord Cornwallis afterwards transformed into real landowners of the modern English type. Those Zamíndárs whose biddings fell below the mark were pensioned off, and their lands put up to sale.
