It was what I
expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority
should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The
distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably
tended to heighten the general discontent; _yet I have reason to fear
that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and
oppressive administration_. Of a multitude of petitions which were
presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not
relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and
the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence
most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is
this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the
proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their
stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their _pottah_ by the
tenure of paying _one half_ of the produce of their crops, either _the
whole_ without subterfuge, or a _large_ proportion of it by a _false
measurement_ or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for
a fixed rent _in money_, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken _in
kind_.
Pages:
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557