22 BENGALI LITERATURE religion and rewarded piety; they fostered arts and learning and were patrons of literature. But the iron hand of the new system brought ruin upon this hereditary aristocracy. The total change, in the management of the revenue, had brought in an innovatiou by which property, along with its administration, not only changed hands but was placed on a new foundation, and thus deeply affected the condition, individually as well as Effects of the new collectively, of the people of Bengal. 77 oy Sa toni রা system, introduced in the ceded districts, ignored the customary rights of the zemindars and sold their estates by public auction for increasing the revenue. The result -was most lamentable. The lands were let out for a short term of three years to the highest bidder at the auction- sale. “ Men without fortune or character” we are told “became bidders at the sale: and while some of the former farmers, unwilling to relinquish their habitations, exceeded perhaps the real value in their offers, those who had nothing to lose advanced yet further, wishing at all events to obtain an immediate possession. Thus numberless harpies were let loose to plunder whom the spoil of a miserable people enabled to complete the first year’s pay- ment. ‘lhe renters under so precarious a tenure could not venture to encourage inferior farmers by advancing money, which is seldom repaid within three years; and without the advance, even the implements of husbandry were wanting to cultivate the lands.”! Even the appoint- ment of supravisors in 1769 in the appropriate districts, and the two councils, one at Murshidabad and the other at Patna, did not work any improvement. The Committee of the House of Commons could not help remarking— “Seven years had elapsed from the acquisition of the
1 Verelst, op. cit. pp. 70-71.
