will be saved, and an obligation will be conferred upon those cultivators who pay lakhs of rupees of landrevenue, and indeed on many labouring classes of India.

On Stamp.-The stamp-duty is considered by some only an easy source of realising the Government income; but it is obvious from the stamp regulation that the former stamps, together with those that are recently introduced, do not leave the people to perform their occupations freely. They are required to buy stamps in every transaction of life, and at every step of every proceeding. Besides this they have also to bear other losses on account of stamps. It is not proper for the Government to take any duty, or wish to have money for giving justice, but it is right to keep the way of justice open as much as possible. For these reasons this impost must be reduced as much as practicable.

Municipal Taxes and Chowkeedaree.-The municipal taxes and chowkeedaree should also be, if possible, abolished. If it be impossible, the Government should reckon the chowkeedaree tax, which is established for protecting the people in its income from other sources. And, if the municipal system is to be continued, there should not be several sorts of taxes and duties imposed on the people for this purpose, except that which shall be approved by the inhabitants of the locality. The Government should also become a sharer in the work. The authority on the spot should act as one of the municipal body.

These and all other taxes and duties which may prevent people from following their occupations freely

should be abolished. As the Government income can be made up from the taxes and duties on the items above mentioned, there is no objection to abolish all other imposts. What I mean is this, that there should be no other tax or duty except those that are described as the sources of income. I hope that by this means there shall be left little cause for the people to be discontented, because they will be saved from the oppression and left to perform their occupations unmolested. This system is in accordance to their custom, and will not, I think, be much different from the policy of the Government.

CHAPTER XI.

FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS IN HINDOSTAN.

THE dreams of the chivalrous Dupleix were not destined to fulfilment, and French intrigues in the Carnatic and Mahratta States were ultimately buried in the graves of Bourquien and of Lally. All that now remains to mark the past designs of France are some few specks on the horizon of our Indian possessions, the names of which are seldom quoted in the marts of policy or com

merce.

Of these Pondicherry claims pre-eminence to-day as still boasting of some slight mercantile importance, the more political settlement of Chandernagore having long since fallen into insignificance and decay, by reason of its close proximity to Fort William. Yet beyond this statement of the de facto prominence of Pondicherry as the commercial and political mainspring of French possessions in East India, naught remains to tell of interest to the general reader. Her exact position, population, and pretensions are items that concern herself alone, and as such need no comment at our hands.

Seventeen miles above Calcutta, and further removed from the insalubrious mouth of the Hoogly, the

traveller catches sight, on turning a long reach, of what appears a large well-built emporium of trade. Chandernagore, with its ruined quays and past remains of greatness, contrasts strangely with many of our modest Indian coast-stations, and the system of commercial makeshifts frequently resorted to by the practical merchants of Great Britain. Still this is not surprising, for the endeavours of France to plant her foot in India were prompted by national pride and jealousy of the rapidly increasing colonial importance of other nations in the seventeenth century; while in our case a company of merchants sued for and obtained a quasi recognition from the English Crown, with leave to establish factories within certain geographical restrictions, and enjoy specified monopolies, imperilling their own lives and capital at their own sole risk.

Herein lies the radical difference between English and French colonial enterprise. Both started from the principle that the rights of the infidel inhabitants of foreign climes were subordinate to those acquired by Christian discovery and conquest; but whereas England contented herself with giving tardy encouragement and a scant support to her successful adventurers, not heeding those who failed, France ever took upon herself to organise each struggling settlement in distant and uncongenial climes upon a Governmental basis, and deemed it incumbent on her to sustain her sovereign rights, and the honour of her flag, wherever it had once been rashly planted.

The most successful of French colonies originated in the days of Huguenot contention, when some patriotic

leaders of the persecuted party conceived the idea of a refuge beyond the sea, where they could still work in peace for the glory of the mother country; and the Government, surrounded by embarrassment, was not sorry to accept an outlet for disaffected elements. With repeated change at home, however, came changes in the character and composition of the joint-stock companies then trading to the West. But though Jesuit influence eventually supplanted Calvinistic, Canada still grew and flourished. The unerring genius of Colbert rendered him a stanch supporter of maritime and commercial enterprise; and it was not till the war of 1756 that Canada, after a gallant struggle, accrued to the British Crown. Yet the memory of France did not altogether die with Montcalm on the heights of Abraham; for now, after a century of our dominion, blue-books are printed by Her Majesty's command at Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa, counting money in pounds sterling, but written in a foreign tongue, which has outlived a change of masters.

From this somewhat irrelevant digression on the failure of France in the West to reap the fruits of colonisation and foreign industry, we may turn in a fitting frame of mind to the study of her doings in the East, where she had to grapple with still greater difficulties, and failed yet more conspicuously.

The two positions are indeed somewhat opposed. In the West, France found far-spreading sparsely-peopled plains thirsting for the colonising element. She, flattered by the returns which the virgin soil yielded to the emigrant's first touch, bestowed much gratitude upon this country, and ultimately struck so firm a hold