the "zumeendary of Dinagepore was confirmed by a "firmaun of Shah Jehan about 1650." So the origin of the "Burdwan zumeendary may be traced to the year 1680, "when a very small portion of it was given to a person "named Aboo." Nuddea and Lushkurpore zumeendaries áre of later date, about 1719. See Mr. Shore's minute.

We have seen above, that at the very end of the seventeenth century the "husbandmen paid their rents to the 66 crown." ." This goes to prove, that whatever be the antiquity of the families of the zumeendars just mentioned, they were at the date of the Ayeen Akburee considered "husbandmen:” and we know that the Viceroy of Bengal, Jaafur Khan, "dispossessed almost all the zumeendars." I would again ask, how this vast accumulation of property has arisen? Some of those zumeendars pay half a million sterling of public revenue. Did they purchase the lands? The value, at ten years' purchase, would be five, millions! The malikana of ten per cent. at ten years' purchase, would amount to (four millions) four crores of rupees. Where was the capital to purchase this? It is evident no purchase ever took place; that, consequently, no transfer of the soil was ever made; and that, therefore, those zumeendars are not owners of it.

I shall conclude these remarks on the zumeendary tenure (referring to what I have said on the question of law) by quoting the authority of an intelligent native, questioned by Mr. Shore (the present Lord Teignmouth), on the received opinion and custom of India with respect to the right of a żumeendar in the soil, and of the sovereign to confer such right. This intelligent person was the son of the former Nazim of Behar, and author of the Seeurool-Mootooakhereen, Gholam Hoseyn Khan. Query. “How

"is a zumeendar appointed?" Answer. "According to the "strict right, no person can become the proprietor of "land but by one of the three above-mentioned modes, "viz. by purchase, by gift from the proprietor, or by in"heritance; though, by usage, the emperor or his repre"sentative may displace him (a zumeendar) for contuma"cious and refractory behaviour and appoint another by "sunnud in his room. The person so appointed is by 66 usage considered as zumeendar and proprietor of the "soil, though according to strict right he be not so.”—Q. "Is a zumeendarry hereditary?" A. "Whatever land a "zumeendar may have become the proprietor of by any "one of the three above-mentioned modes (viz. purchase, gift,

inheritance), descends in the line of inheritance; but "whatever is not actual property, is consequently not of "an hereditary nature" (alluding to his official capacity of zumeendar which is not "actual property" doubtless). "If a zumeendarry be the actual property of any person, "his heir has an undoubted right to succeed without the "sanction of the ruler."

Now here it is evident a distinction is intimated between lands the "actual property," which may be called the "hereditary" estate, and lands belonging to the zumeendarry, not "actual property." For example, by sunnud from the king, the zumeendar might be vested with the management of the revenue of his own hereditary lands, and other lands adjacent, and the charge of the police, &c. (for that was an essential part of a zumeendar's duty), also the care of extending the cultivation of waste land, &c.: and it is worthy of remark, that, throughout the whole series of answers to Mr. Shore's queries, Gholam Hoseyn invariably keeps this essential distinction in view; though from the questions, that great

distinction

distinction seems to be entirely overlooked by Mr. Shore, who appears to take it for granted that an imperial sunnud is a full title to the actual property of the soil, as it is to the official rights of zumeendarry.

But a sunnud, firmaun, or by whatever name a grant from the crown may be called, can convey no right but what is vested in the sovereign; and that is, the collection of the public revenue: I mean over lands held by cultivators, such as I have defined. And let it be observed, that this distinction is marked by the names given to the allowances which government granted to zumeendars, "malikana" and "nankar:" the former meaning the dues belonging to a "malik," or real owner of land, the

latter to a manager. "Malikana," says Gholam Hoseyn, "is the unalienable right of proprietorship; but nankar "depends upon fidelity, and a due discharge of the public 66 revenue. Nankar is expressly the reward of service. "If a zumeendar is displaced, it would be undoubtedly "taken from him. But malikana is the right of the "proprietor of land, who receives it (malikana) under "the ruler; and therefore, if he receive it (malikana) "under the ruler, how can an altumghadar, jageerdar, "&c. withhold it from him?"

There are instances of the sovereign purchasing land from a zumeendar. On this point Gholam Hoseyn is asked: Q." Why did the king purchase lands, since he "was lord of the country, and might therefore have "taken by virtue of that capacity?" A. "The emperor " is not so far lord of the soil as to be able, consistently "with right and equity, to sell or otherwise dispose of it "at his mere will and pleasure. These are rights apper"taining

E 4

"taining only to such a proprietor of land as is mentioned "in the first and second answers. The emperor is pro"prietor of the revenue, but he is not proprietor of the soil. "Hence it is, when he grants aymes, altumghas, and "jageers, he only transfers the revenue from himself to "the grantee."

It may not be unedifying to note in conclusion, what, in 1772, was the estimation in which the zumeendars and their titles were held by the English government. The government proclamation on this point is dated 11th May 1772, notifying the determination of the English government to assume the Dewanee, by order of the Court of Directors; and enumerating the several branches of business appertaining to the Dewanee, among which are: "the constituting and dismissing of zumeendars, with the 66 concurrence of the Nazim.”

They then, 14th May 1772, proceed to divide the country into farms of purgunnahs; but so as not to exceed one lac of rent per annum. In this document the zumeendars appear to be understood merely as government officers. "That in like manner the zumeendars, "talucdars, shicdars, and other officers of government, be "forbid to lend money to the ryots.'

How far the practice of India coincided with the law, in the system of government generally in matters of revenue and finance, in countenancing the right of the sovereign, or of the zumeendar, or of the cultivator to the property of the soil, may be farther seen, in addition to what I have already quoted, by referring to the Institutes of Timour, which

* Proclamation of 1772.

which are formed so closely on the model and principles of the Moohummudan law, that it is impossible to mistake their origin. The Institutes of Akbar, in the Ayeen Akburee, are evidently formed from those of Timour; and are, in fact, in their most material parts, a copy of the former.

From the Moohummudan law, down through those two works, the eye of a Moohummudan lawyer has a view of the whole system of Indian government: obscure latterly, it must be confessed, but still sufficiently marked to admit of his tracing the original. There is also the code of the Moghul emperor of Persia, Ghaznan Khan, above-mentioned, promulgated about the year of our Lord 1260; all, as indeed might be looked for, scions from the same stock. Where, indeed, at that early period of Moohummudanism, may it be supposed a Moslem prince would go for law, save to the sacred repository of his faith?

But there are other documents extant, of still greater force and of recent date. Among these I shall mention Aurungzebe's firmaun, dated in 1668, directed to Moohummud Hashim, containing instructions for collecting the khurauj. These are eighteen in number, and profess to be issued "that the mutusuddees and amils, from "one end of Hindoostan to the other, may be informed "in all points regarding the khurauj, as directed to be "levied in the enlightened law of the pure and holy religion, "and as approved by the good and authentic traditions." These rules for the collection of the khurauj are entirely copied from the writers on the Moohummudan law; following the practice adopted by Omar, when he settled

the