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2 gentlemen, were not always unanimous, even: in cases where instant
3 decision was necessary. In the course of a short time, therefore, it was
4 deemed advisable to place the whole country and its relations in imme-
5 diate subordination to the Supreme Government ; to substitute four
6 European Superintendents for the Native’ Wouzdars of Divisions ; and,
7 breaking up the Board, to vest the entire authority in one sole Commis-
8 .sioner with whom it has ever since remained, Finally, but not till
9 1843, the post of Resident was abolished by Lord Ellenborough, and the
10 duties specially appertaining to the office were ordered to be discharged
11 by the Commissioner himself, or by any one of his pupetante he might
12 depute for the purpose.
13 Of the task which was before the Commission, and of the manner in
14 which if has been executed, a better notion may be gathered from one
15 fact than from the most elaborate details, At the time of the assump-
16 tion*it was estimated by an eminent Civil Member-of the Commission,
17 ‘Mr. John Macleod, that the Revenue, which had sunk under the Rajah .
18 _ to atrifle more than twenty lakhs of Pagodas, might eventually with
19 care be raised to twenty-two lakhs. It has for the last few years yielded
20 upwards of twenty-seven lakhs, and this notwithstanding that taxes have
21 been struck off of the annual value of no less than ten lakhs and seven-
22 ‘ty-three thousand Rupees.
23 The Revenue sygtem which has been followed, as directed by Lord
24 William Bentinck, is the Ryotwari, which, in Mysore at least, .appears
25 the only one adapted to the wants and traditions of the people. It was
26 brought back as far as possible to the state in which it was left by Poor-
27 niah, but liberalized in all its details, and vigilantly ‘superintended in its
28 working, with higher views however than the mere swelling of a Balance
29 Sheet, as was too much the case with that celebrated administrator, The
30 money rents were lowered in all cases where the authorities were satisfied
31 that they were fixed at too high arate; and the payments were made
32 as easy as possible to the Ryots by abandoning the system of exacting
33 the khist before the crops were gathered, and receiving it instead in five
34 instalments payable at periods fixed: in the: first instance by the Ryots
35 themselves with reference to the times of harvest. This has the effect
36 of saving them from the: grasp of the village usurers, and they have
37 also been freed from the harassing periodical inspection of their.
38 crops, and other vexatious interferences with their cultivations, These
39 changes were highly appreciated by the Ryots themselyes, but were