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2 to every one to seek redress for any grievance which he miglit not other-
3 wise have had inclination or courage to bring forward. This circumstance
4 in itself must be a check to oppression, and constitutes perhaps the
5 chief advantage of the Ryotwarree system which strictly prevails in
6 Mysore.
7 It is on these occasions of distributing the Puttahs’ that: the subject of
8 remissions is taken up and inquired into; the Superintendent keeps this
9 entirely in his own hands. There is no strict principle laid down upon
10 .which remissions are made ; each individual case is taken up and decided
11 on its own, merits, the condition and means of the applicant being” the
12 ‘ruling causes, But generally speaking the assessment is ‘not levied on
13 land which has not been turned up by the plough, or purposely kept
14 fallow for pasture, whenever it can be shown that the Ryot had not the
15 means of cultivating it that year. ‘The-truth or otherwise of such repre-.
16 sentations is readily ascertained, for all the cultivators of the village are
17 present to refer to; and the applicants for such remissions are generally
18 of the poorer classes, The Superintendent decides upon the question at
19 once, and every body sees that it is an act of his own, and not of any
20 bribe-expecting mediator.
21 The consequences of such summary decision of remissions are, first, a
22 check upon unreasonablé or false applications’ for remissions, because*
23 .no corrupt trade is made-in them; and secondly; that there are no out-
24 standing balances (or very small ones) in the collections at the end of
25 the year, because those who could not possibly pay up the full demany
26 have been relieved of that difficulty.
27 On these Jummabundy circuits, the Superintendent causes an
28 -examination to be made of the village accounts as kept by the Shan-
29 bogues, which again are compared with those, (and the abstracts made
30 from them,) which are kept in the Talook Cutcherries, The extent
31 of Buttayee lands cultivated is compared with that of former years, rela- ‘
32 tively also to the current season and quantity of rain which had fallen.
33 The amount value of the produce of those lands is also compared
34 with that of former years relatively to the concurrent rates of
35 prices. The changes in the holdings of Candayem lands are closely
36 scrutinized ; and concealed cultivation sought out and brought to
37 account ; as the latter can never occur without the connivance of the
38 village Shanbogue, the persons to whose advantage the concealment
39 tends are usually fined in double the proper assessment, and the Shan-