BENGAL.
2S0
them by the Government.
proprietors of the estates entrusted to
In
793, Lord Cornwallis declared their rights perpetual, and made over the land of Bengal to the previous quasi - proprietors or zamitiddrs, 1
on condition of the payment of a fixed land tax. This great piece is known as the Permanent Settlement of the Land Revenue. But the Cornwallis Code, while defining the position of the proprietors,
of legislation
adequate recognition to the rights of the under-tenants Its Regulations formally resen-ed the latter class
failed to give
and the
cultivators.
of rights, but did not legally define them, or enable the husbandmen to enforce
them
in the courts.
After half a centurj^ of rural disquiet,
an attempt was made to formulate the rights of the cultivators by Act X. of 1859, and by several subsequent enactments based upon it
This series of measures,
endeavoured to the
Cornwallis
holders.
The
effect
Code
for in
now known the
as the
Land Law
of Bengal,
under - holders and cultivators what
1793 had effected
for
legislation of 1793, conjointly with
superior land-
the
that of 1859
and
subsequent enactments, sought to define the status of each class of person interested in the soil, from the Government as suzerain, through
zam'tnddrs or
the
tenure-holders,
The
superior
landholders,
and the under-tenants, down
the
intermediate
to the actual cultivator.
practical working of the later measures disclosed, however, that
the protection which they gave to the rights of the cultivators was less effective
Code
and
less
complete than the protection given by the Cornwallis After a patient trial, extending
to the rights of the landholders.
Land Law of 1859, the Bengal Government issued a Commission to inquire into the conover twenty years of the Acts inaugurated by the dition of the agricultural classes,
and
to submit proposals for placing
the relations of landlords and tenants on a better footing.
The Report
Commission forms an invaluable storehouse of information A Tenancy Bill was based regarding the rural population of Bengal. on its recommendations at the instance of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and introduced into the Supreme Legislative Council in 1883. of the
This important measure is still under discussion by the Legislative Council (1884). The Land Act of 1859 dates from the first year after the transfer of India from the Company to the Crown ; for meanwhile the
Mutiny had burst out
chiefly took place in
in
1857.
The
Northern India, and
will
events
of
that
revolt
be summarised under
India and the North-Western Provinces; the uprising, although and for a time perilous to our supremacy, was quickly put down. In Bengal it began at Berhampur and Barrackpur, was communicated to Dacca in Eastern Bengal, and for a time raged in Behar, producing the memorable defence of the billiard-room at fierce,
