The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, dated 1st September, 1772, declared, "that the
lands had suffered unheard-of depopulation by the famine and mortality of 1769; that the
collections, violently kept up to their former standard, had added to the distress of the
country, and threatened a general decay of the revenue, unless immediate remedies were
applied to prevent it." That the said Warren Hastings has declared, "that, by intrusting the
collections to the hereditary zemindars, the people would be treated with more tenderness,
the rents more improved, and cultivation more likely to be encouraged; that they have a
perpetual interest in the country; that their inheritance cannot be removed; that they are the
proprietors; that the lands are their estates, and their inheritance; that, from a long
continuance of the lands in their families, it is to be concluded they have riveted an
authority in the district, acquired an ascendency over the minds of the ryots, and ingratiated
their affections; that, from continuing the lands under the management of those who have a
natural and perpetual interest in their prosperity, solid advantages might be expected to
accrue; that the zemindar would be less liable to failure or deficiencies than the farmer,
from the perpetual interest which the former hath in the country, and because his
inheritance cannot be removed, and it would be improbable that he should risk the loss of it
by eloping from his district, which is too frequently practised by a farmer when he is hard-
pressed for the payment of his balances, and as frequently predetermined when he receives
his farm." That, notwithstanding all the preceding declarations made by the said Warren
Hastings of the loss of one third of the inhabitants and general decline of the country, he
did, immediately after his appointment to the government, in the year 1772, make an
arbitrary settlement of the revenues for five years at a higher rate than had ever been
received before, and with a progressive and accumulating increase on each of the four last
years of the said settlement.

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