the peasants for their proper share, subject to an appeal in the courts, if there was a dispute. The practice thus adopted appeared to be satisfactory, and it was rendered the more so by the vigorous efforts made to correct all abuses which manifested themselves. Meanwhile active steps were also taken to ascertain accurately the state and value of the land, the boundaries and nature of private rights, and the tenures of the various persons who were interested. It is evident that this information — necessary for the conclusion of an equitable settlement — could not be gained immediately, and though only acquired and digested long after the period in which we are now concerned, the fact that this great and important work was promoted in Lord Hastings' time deserves mention in this volume.
In the Madras Presidency, Sir Thomas Munro, who became Governor in 1820, introduced and carried the ráyatwári system — by which the cultivators of the soil became the direct payers of revenue, without the intervention of either a zamíndár or the village community — and this form of tenure prevails to the present day[1]; at the same time the peasants were relieved of unjust exactions to which in the past they had been obliged to submit. In Bombay, Government was principally occupied in making investigations, and the settlement begun was founded on the village system, where the head-men made the
- ↑ See Hunter's Indian Empire, &c., Ed. 1882, p. 340.
