This
much shall be left to him; what remains is land-tax, and shall go to
the public treasury." For, considering her territory as a private
estate and her subjects as serfs, she appropriated the whole produce
of their labour, with the exception of what sufficed to keep body and
soul together. It was by these means . . . that a factitious state of
prosperity was induced and maintained, which, though it might, and I
believe did, deceive the Begam's neighbours into an impression that
her country was highly prosperous, could not delude the population
into content and happiness. Above the surface and to the eye all was
smiling and prosperous, but within was rottenness and misery. Under
these circumstances the smallness of the above arrear is no proof of
the fairness of the revenue. It rather shows that the collections
were as much as the Begam's ingenuity could extract, and this balance
being unrealizable, the demand was, by so much at least, too high.'
The statistics alluded to are:
Average demand of the portions of the Begam's Rs.
Territory in the Meerut district . . . .
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