Clarke, Richard [Hrsg.]: The regulations of the government of Fort William in Bengal in force at the end of 1853 - to which are added, the acts of the government of India in force in that presidency: with lists of titles and an index (1): Regulations from 1793 to 1805 (London, 1854)

238

REGULATION XLIV.

[A.D. 1793.

Reg. XLIV. 1793. A.D. 1793. REGULATION XLIV.
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Preamble. 1. THE public demand upon the etates of the proprietors of lands with
whom a settlement has been or may be concluded under the original
regulations for the decennial settlement, having been declared fixed for
ever, it is to be apprehended that many proprietors, either from improvi-
dence, ignorance, or with a view to raise money, or from other causes or
motives, may be induced to dispose of dependent talooks to be held at a
reduced jumma, or fix the jumma of the dependent talooks now existing
in their respective estates at an under-rate, or let lands in farm or grant
pottahs for the cultivation of land at a reduced rent for a long term or in
perpetuity. Such engagements, if held valid, would leave it in the power
of weak, improvident, or ill-disposed proprietors, to render their property
of little or no value to their heirs ; promote vice and injustice; occasion a
permanent diminution of the resources of Government arising from the
lands, in the event of the rent or revenue reserved by such proprietors
being insufficient for the discharge of the amount of the public demand
upon their estates ; be an abuse of the great and lasting benefit which has
been conferred upon the landholders by the possession of theirjands being
secured to them in perpetuity at a fixed assessment; and moreover be
repugnant to the ancient and established usages of the country, according
to which the dues of Government from the lands (which consist of a
certain proportion of the annual produce of every begah of land, demand-
able according to The local custom in money or kind, unless Government
has transferred its right to such proportion to individuals for a term or in
perpetuity, or fixed the public demand upon the whole estate of a pro-
prietor of land, leaving him to appropriate to his own use the difference
between the value of such proportion of the produce and the sum payable
to the public so long as he continues to discharge the latter), are unalien-
able without its express sanction. It is, at the same time, essential that
proprietors of land should have a discretionary power to fix the revenue
payable by their dependent talookdars, and to grant leases, or fix the rents
of their lands for a term sufficient to induce their dependent talookdars,
under-farmers, and ryots, to extend and improve the cultivation of their
lands, and that such engagements should be held inviolable in all cases
except where they may interfere with or affect in any shape the primary
and indefeasible rights of Government. Upon the above grounds, and as
the proprietors of land, previous to the decennial settlement being declared
perpetual, were not entitled to enter into any engagements with their