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tax be really such a system of grinding and rack-renting oppression, as the enemies of the Company would make out, how comes it that men, who can get 12, 16, and 25 per cent. interest for their money, choose to lay out their hard-earned savings in land, and thereby constitute themselves payers of the land-tax? They evidently consider that the land, in spite of the tax, is a profitable investment, and that the Government demand does leave a fair profit to the landholders. There is scarcely a district in the provinces, where a similar spirit is not displayed by the bankers and merchants.

Among the appendices is to be found a table, exhibiting the mutations of property, which have taken place since the cession. From this, it appears, that out of 2,258 estates, 279 have been transferred by the voluntary acts of the owners, 453 under the orders of the courts of law, 405 by the operation of the revenue system, making a total of 1,450, and leaving a remainder of 858 in the possession of the original proprietors. To such an extent does the land change masters. It should be remembered that out of the 405 revenue sales, 185 were subsequently reversed by the special commission.

We should not omit to notice, that this district furnishes one instance of a Biswadari settlement, that is, a settlement, which declares that two parties possess a proprietory interest in the soil-namely, the Talukadar, or feudal lord, and the Mukuddum, or sub-proprietor-and which curtails the powers of the first and secures the rights of the second. There is also one case, in which the fiscal rights of Government having been conferred on a Jaghirdar, the proprietors of the land are not left to his mercy, but are both assessed and protected in the same manner, as if they held estates which pay revenue to Government. The principle is obvious enough: but the neglect of it, in former years, had opened the door to much oppression.

Subsequent to the settlement, with its mass of tables and statements, the collector's record office has vastly increased both in bulk and importance, and a corresponding degree of attention has been bestowed on its internal arrangements. Minute instructions were issued by the Sudder Board of Revenue in 1844, with a view to prevent fraud both in the way of abstracting and inserting, and to facilitate and expedite referMr. Montgomery states, that in Cawnpore these directions have been thoroughly acted up to, and that the records are in excellent order. The account is wound up with the following sentence: -"When we look back to our ignorance at the commencement of our legislation, and then contemplate the present

ence.

period-now that we have a record of every boundary and every proprietory right, that each cultivator knows his fields, and that he cannot be ejected without cause, and that the Government demand has been fixed for thirty years, and that at a glance the whole history of every village may be known-it appears that past errors have been atoned for.". (Para. 121).

From this retrospect of the settlement, we proceed to treat of the improvements, which have been effected in various branches since that time, and to consider several matters of a miscellaneous nature.

The new census and statistical returns first claim attention. The results of this census are embodied in the Statistical Manual, published by the Government of Agra in 1848. The first paragraph of the prefatory memoir runs thus:-" The late settlement of the N. W. Provinces has provided many statistical facts, which it is of importance to bring together and place on record with precision." This work, therefore, is one of the many corollaries of the settlement. The first statistical return for the N. W. Provinces was made in 1826; the next in 1842.* The home authorities considered these returns unsatisfactory, and ordered a fresh investigation in 1846. In the same year, the Agra Government circulated instructions to the revenue authorities for the preparation of more trust-worthy documents. Tabular forms were furnished, and a rough calculation was also drawn up. Attention was specially directed to the returns of area and population.† Past errors in area had been ascertained to proceed from change of boundaries, omission of unassessed estates, and of waste or forest tracts, and the retention of lands, which had been destroyed by the incursions of rivers. These causes would also have affected the accuracy of the former census; and, besides these, it was found that the female population, the residents of towns, &c., had sometimes been excluded. The new area returns were to be based on the settlement records. For the preparation of the new census, enumeration of persons was to be discarded, as vexatious and impracticable. Houses and families only were to be regularly enumerated. A rough average of persons to each family or house was first obtained, by accurately counting the persons in a certain number of houses, and extending this average to the whole. This total average was tested by other class averages, such as, town and village averages, kacha house and pucka house averages, caste averages, Hindu and Mussulman aver

* Vide Preface to Statistical Manual.

+ Ibid.

ages, &c. The whole population was divided into two classes, agricultural and non-agricultural. The agricultural population was defined to mean all persons, who derived any portion of their subsistence from the land, whether they had other sources of income or not.* The number of persons to a house was ascertained to average from 4 to 5, and to a square British mile of 640 acres, 322.3. In some districts, the number exceeds 400.† In Belgium, the most populous country of Europe, the number averages 296; in the British Isles 166. Thus it appears that the N. W. Provinces are more densely populated than any country of Europe, and many portions of them much more so. The investigation was brought to a close in 1848. The main impediments to its progress arose from misapprehensions regarding the definition of a house or family, and the distinction between the agricultural and nonagricultural classes. It was found that the dislike, which the people formerly entertained to enquiries of this kind, had greatly abated.§ The Cawnpore returns were first drawn up in 1847; but, when subsequently tested by Mr. Montgomery in person, inaccuracies were found to have arisen, from the custom, which had prevailed, of registering only the chief cultivator, omitting any person who might cultivate in partnership with him, and from the misunderstanding with respect to the definition of a house or family, and the meaning of the term agricultural as applied to population. The proper definition of "agricultural" has been already given. A house was defined to mean "an enclosure, where one or more members of the same family resided, having one common entrance.' The revised census gives 424.9 persons to a British square mile, which number exceeds the average population for the whole provinces by one-third.

Many particulars of local importance might be evolved from the statistical returns of Cawnpore; but we have only room for points of general interest. These statistical results were calculated to aid materially the investigation, which was being made into the state of indigenous education. In this respect, Cawnpore is again above the average; but still it must be admitted that the population is plunged in deep

* Vide Correspondence prefixed to the Statistical Manual.

+ Statistical Manual, passim.

From a census taken for the Lower Provinces in 1822, the number to a square mile was ascertained to be 243. Vide Honourable Court's letter, printed with the Statistical Manual. In China, the number is 277.-Davis's China.

§ The Cawnpore district can show a case in point. There is a small slice of territory within the Cawnpore limits, which was granted to a Mabratta Prince. No census was made of the people, who dwelt within that petty jurisdiction, because such a measure would be distasteful to the Maharajah.

ignorance. The following particulars comprise the main results of the enquiry, which was closed in the year 1846. There are in all 533 indigenous schools, which are attended by 4,619 pupils. Thus the average of scholars to a school is only 8.55. The number of schools is, relatively speaking, large, and the proportion to the population would be

1 School to every
1 Scholar

.................................

1,825
215 persons.

For the whole of the North West Provinces, the proportion would stand thus :*—

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Assuming the number of male children (for females are never educated) of a school-going age to equal one-twelfth of the whole population, then it would appear that of the children fit for instruction only 6.6 per cent. are being taught. And if the number of female children be included in the calculation, then even this slender proportion must be halved. Throughout the Upper Provinces, the schools are of four kinds, viz., Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Persian. Cawnpore forms no exception to the rule. The respective numbers of each class

in this district may be detailed as follows:

Sanskrit.
58

Hindi.
280

Arabic.
16

Persian.

179

It will be observed, that the most popular and useful language next after the Hindi, namely the Urdu, is not taught in any school. The Sanskrit schools are almost entirely for Brahmins; the Arabic for Mussulmans. In the Hindi schools the scholars are principally Brahmins, Kayths, and Bunniahs; in the Persian Mussulmans, Brahmins, and Kayths. The great preponderance of Rajputs amongst the landed community has been already adverted to. Now, in the year 1845-46, there were only 371 Rajputs learning Hindi, and 43 learning Persian. Thus it would seem, that the landholders are as destitute of education as any section of the population. The instruction given in the Sanskrit and Arabic schools of these provinces is generally a dead letter. But this remark does not apply to Cawnpore. There the Moulvis and Pandits seem to be men of real learning and succeed in imparting some portion of it to their pupils. The schedule of instruction, adopted in

Vide Educational Reports for N. W. P., published annually, since the year 1843-44.

the Persian schools of Cawnpore, embraces a tolerable course of literary study. In the Hindi schools, the merest rudiments of practical knowledge are taught. In the Persian schools the teachers are pretty well paid, receiving about Rs. 6-4-6 per mensem. But the Hindi teachers only earn about Rs. 3-12-8. The latter often eke out a livelihood by cultivating. It is stated in the statistical report, that an impulse has been given to education by the circulation of elementary school books furnished by Government. In the course of one year, 3,953 copies were purchased from the depôt at the Collector's office. A report was called for from the jail, regarding the number of prisoners who could read and write. The relative numbers were as follows:

Number of prisoners, male and female in jail............
Number of male prisoners, who could read and write...

825

65

Thus to

None of the females had received any education. every 12.7 prisoners, there was one who could read or write. This proportion is very singular, when compared with the proportions which hold good for the population of the whole district. The amount, expended in indigenous education, amounted annually to Rs. 26,115.

Among the appendices to the statistical report we find a register of traffic on the Grand Trunk Road. During the year 1846-47, a párty of five individuals, with one overseer, were stationed at the two principal bridges. The men relieved each other night and day. The following figures may convey some idea of the importance of this great artery in the body politic; of the traffic, which annually passes along this great channel of communication; and of the advantages, which might be anticipated from a railway. During the year 1846-47, there passed along the road at the Pandu bridge, as transport

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