the correction of the errors. It is the design of the present treatise to aid him in such an undertaking, and to show that it is not difficult at any time to make a fresh commencement, and to attain that degree of accuracy which it was designed to ensure at the time of Settlement.'
He then proceeds to give minute directions to his many District Officers for the rectification of the Record of Rights. Moreover he takes good care that these directions are carried out, not hastily nor spasmodically, but cautiously and steadily, locality by locality, tract by tract, village by village, till in the course of years the whole thing is virtually done throughout his widely extended Provinces.
He is particular in urging his European Officers, after having instructed themselves, to instruct their Native subordinates, and then the Natives generally. Thereon he expresses a sentiment which was very near to his heart: —
'The Revenue system, when rightly understood and properly worked, affords the greatest stimulus to the general education of the people. Indeed it cannot be expected that the registration of rights will ever become perfect till the people are sufficiently educated to understand it, and to watch over its execution.'
This Record related, as he himself phrased it, to the rights of the people in the land. This property, rightfully and virtually possessed by masses of men in his Provinces, had he thought been over-ridden, trampled under foot, blurred, defaced, obscured, almost
