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of respectability! Poor respectability again! Universal panacea for legal vices! Are we to judge of the moral effects of this last circular by the present state of the Native bar? If so, by all means let us wash our hands of respectability, and take to something else. The change can hardly be for the worse!

A reform of this sort must have a beginning, and how can it begin better than in the Zillah Judge's own Court? The office of pleader in this Court is one calculated to bring prominently into notice all the mental and moral attainments of a young educated Native. By the exercise of his profession he would realise a sufficient and often a handsome income. His position would be one of comparative independence and real respectability, for there would be no necessity to cringe at the feet of any man living for favour or promotion. His future career should depend entirely on his moral conduct and abilities; for from the educated Vakeels of the Zillah Judge's Court would we fill up the vacancies in the Native bench as they occurred, making our selection, however, by examination, and not by favour. The tendency of this system, we believe, would be to inspire ambition, incite honourable rivalry, and encourage self-respect,-three great wants in the Native character. In each of our large Mofussil stations we should have introduced some ten or twelve enlightened men, superior to the superstitions, and, let us hope, some of the meaner vices of their uneducated brethren. Between them and ourselves much of the same sympathy might be excited that exists at present among the educated Natives and English of the Presidency town. Their countrymen, seeing the respect in which they were held, and the means by which they had attained it, would regard our educational projects with a very different eye. In conclusion, is it too much to say that these are the men through whose agency a general reform, not only in our Courts of law, but in the tone and character of our Native society, must eventually be achieved? May we, reader, live to see some of the growing refinement and elegance of Native society in Bombay introduced into the banishment of "the Mofussil, or the World we live in."

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VOL. IV.-NO. II.

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ART. IV.-USURERS, RYOTS, AND THE LAW OF BANKRUPTCY.

Usurers and Ryots: being an Answer to the Question, “Why does not India produce more Cotton?" By an Indian Civil Servant. London: Smith, Elder, & Co.; 1856.

WE would gladly see more pamphlets like this issue from the English press, for only by means of that press will useful information regarding India be disseminated in Europe. The brochure before us has faults which must be patent to every critic, but they are chiefly those of an author unused to controversy, and we agree with a writer in the Indian News, that it is "a practical essay from the pen of one who has evidently had practical experience of the ryot, and known his nature." The hand has been clearly set in motion by the heart; and when people who know and feel what they write address a British public, and take India for their theme, we are bound to claim for them respectful attention.

Of late years much has been said, and not enough has been written, on Indian reform. A few members of Parliament, who take an interest in the subject, endeavour, "according to their lights," to understand it, but their lights are unfortunately in many instances the worst from which any illumination can be derived. Their authorities are grievance-mongers, ambitious men, who have the bump of self-esteem largely developed; who have been mortified to find that their merits do not stand as high in other men's as in their own valuation; would turn the world topsy-turvy to suit their own selfish views; commence, continue, and conclude their efforts with fault-finding; who, in a word, abuse everything that has ever been done, but rarely point out a specific improvement. Even such as ought to have better lights by which to guide their course are too fond of their own crotchets, upon which they have not the good sense to take the opinion of better-informed men than themselves. The consequence of all this is, that the majority in the Houses of Parliament-the members who really represent the mind of the British public-cannot find anything tangible in the information put before them on which to base their opinions, and therefore abstain from Indian subjects altogether. The debate on the annual financial statement for the Indian Empire, which is laid

Information wanted in England.

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by the President of the Board of Control before the House of Commons, is held before thirty members. Still the people require information on Indian subjects, only they will not take the trouble of studying parliamentary blue-books to obtain it; they want it to be made more palatable, and he will be a benefactor to India who will supply their want. How many hundreds of comparatively idle men, especially in the Army, must there be in this country, who could do so, each in his own way! Military men at home engage in politics, write novels or books of travel, illustrate the social and political condition of the manners and customs of foreign nations;-why should our military men here, who will not yield the palm of superiority in their professional capacity to any one, be far behind their brethren the Royals in this respect? Indian civilians also need to be reminded that they might do good service, by drawing public attention to the real wants of India, without neglecting their manifold and onerous duties.

The British public have a larger share of practical common sense than any other community in the world, and when, either from selfish or philanthropic motives, their interests are engaged in any matter, they are quick to perceive and ready to adopt such common sense views as may be brought before them. Consider, for instance, the material development of Indian resources: any one who a few years ago might have talked upon the English Stock Exchange about the success of railways or electric telegraphs in India, would have been laughed to scorn. Now that such projects are found by actual experience to answer, none are sought after more eagerly, and not a montli passes that we do not see some new scheme of the kind proposed, and the shares at once rising to a premium. As with the material, so with the moral advancement of India: the British public require practical suggestions, and if these can be leavened with the argumentum ad hominem, so much the better. The author of the pamphlet before us offers such suggestions, and we will now apply ourselves more particularly to the pith of the arguments he has adduced, viz. that the indebtedness of the Indian ryot is such as to check the production of raw material, and that it is mainly attributable to a vicious legislation, unsuited to the genius of the people.

Indian cultivators are generally in debt, and, we may therefore conclude, have no capital. Without capital they can have no agricultural stock, or at all events not more than is sufficient for the cultivation of so much land as will just supply them with food, and stop their creditors from proceeding to extremities. When a man is once in a money-lender's power, the market rule

of demand and supply, very much perverted, regulates their transactions one with another. The latter wishes to keep the former in his dependent position, and therefore only demands from him just as much as he can get without stopping his capability of production;the former requires, for his own and his family's existence, food, which he can only procure by exerting himself to supply what the latter demands. The power of breaking through the terms of the compromise, however, being all on the side of the money-lender, the borrower takes his only means of making a profit, in addition to the mere return he gets for the use of his stock and his labour, and cheats the lender. The consequence to one very important branch of Indian commerce-cotton-is thus shewn in the brochure under review :

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"Take the case of cotton :-the grower picks it carelessly, with a quantity of the leaf and rubbish which are so injurious to our delicate spinning machinery it all adds to the weight of the crop, and thus tends to his advantage. This dirt, and other deteriorating substances, instead of being scrupulously extracted by the cotton-cleaner, who next gets the staple into his hands, is added to, but in a more skilful manner, by exposure to dews, &c. anything is lawful so long as be can cheat those who purchase from him, and thus make his profit. Letting alone the accidental adulteration of the material by the bales being rolled through mud, or exposed to dust-laden winds, the crews of the native coasting craft which convey the cotton to the port of embarkation for Europe or China, must have their profit; this is effected by good cotton being taken out, and rubbish or sea water, all good as weight, being substituted. What adulteration it undergoes in its final stage before being shipped home, let Manchester cotton-spinners testify. What tales could a bale of East Indian cotton, sold on a Tuesday in Manchester, tell, if all the stones, tiles, rags, cotton-seed, mango-stones, leaves, and rubbish contained in it could speak! It cannot be denied that a deal of fraud of this description could not be carried on if bad articles could not find a market; but it must at the same time be acknowledged that there would be less inducement to practice it were the grower a free agent. If he had the chance of finding his own market, instead of having to sell his produce to his creditor at the valuation the latter chose to put upon it, he would discover the greater value of a clean staple, and would act accordingly."

We may have a word to say presently about bad articles which find no market. Capital, in the hands of the actual cultivators of the soil, and independence of action to use it, are the great desiderata for the increased production of raw materials in India. Railroads can only be relied upon to stimulate production by promoting the circulation of capital, and preventing the accumu lation, where not required, of the bulky raw material, which is the origin of capital; although we are also in hopes that their political effect will be to break down antiquated prejudices, and to invite foreign capital from abroad, when men have seen the capabilities

which the country affords for its employment. For ourselves, we do not despair of seeing the day when European energy shall be directed to the right employment of European capital in the Mofussil; when we shall have manufactories of paper, sugar, cotton fabrics, and numerous other articles of commerce, erected in the Concan, the Deccan, and Guzerat; when branches of the Oriental, Mercantile, and Commercial Banks shall be established in the principal towns of all the Bombay Collectorates. Then will it be discovered that the pagoda tree has not been sufficiently shaken, and its golden showers will be poured plentifully into the laps of the first adventurers, till the market is overstocked.

But the object before us now is to discover how the ryot is to accumulate capital, so as to enable him to produce more than he does. He must first get rid of his debts. In order to ascertain the best method of accomplishing this, it will be necessary, in the first place, to find out how he got into debt, and for this we must refer to our pamphlet.

"We start by the supposition that a cultivator wishes to borrow a hundred rupees, or ten pounds sterling. He goes to a money-lender, who first of all demands something before he will commence any transaction of business at all: two rupees would be a small sum for the purchase of this favour. Then a premium on the lean is required, and a bargain struck— say, for five more. If the borrower holds a respectable condition, and is likely to pay, he gets cheaply off at 1 per cent. per month, or 12 per cent. per annum, as the rate of interest at which the loan is to be granted: this rate will frequently be twenty, thirty, or even sixty per cent. If twelve is agreed to, the first year's interest-making up, with the five and two already mentioned, nineteen rupees-is deducted, and the balance of eighty-one is handed over to the borrower, very often in coin of a less valuable currency than that entered in the bond. The borrower buys a stamped paper, on which a bond, to be legally valid, must be written, and the bond is then passed for the full hundred rupees, bearing compound interest, and the borrower's crops for the ensuing season are given in it as security for the payment of the debt. When the crops ripen, the creditor takes them at his own valuation, without allowing his debtor the chance of finding a good market for himself, and the latter is credited with much less than their worth, interest being always deducted before capital. This goes on for a year or two, and an action is then brought upon the bond, which, being proved, the defendant, probably through ignorance, or collusion with bis creditor, not appearing to defend the suit, a decree is passed against the debtor for the full sum claimed, with the addition of the costs of the suit. The creditor then waits for a favourable opportunity, when his debtor is going to give some caste entertainment, and takes out an execution against the property of the latter, who buys off his creditor, to save his house from disgrace, with a fresh bond for a hundred and fifty rupees, bearing interest as before. The same process goes on, perhaps, till the debtor dies. Upon his death the money-lender distrains his property, consenting to give it up to his son on the passing of a bond for more than