xation to the parties_.

REVENUES.

PART II.

That the said Warren Hastings has on sundry occasions declared his
deliberate opinion generally against all innovations, and particularly
in the collection and management of the revenues of Bengal: that "he was
well aware of the expense and inconvenience _which ever attends
innovations of all kinds_, on, their first institution;[9]--that
innovations are _always_ attended with difficulties and inconveniences,
and innovations in the revenue with a suspension of the
collections;[10]--that the continual variations in the mode of
collecting the revenue, and the continual usurpation on the rights of
the people, have fixed in the minds of the ryots a rooted distrust of
the ordinances of government."[11] That the Court of Directors have
repeatedly declared their apprehensions "that a sudden transition from
one mode to another, in the investigation and collection of their
revenue, might have alarmed the inhabitants, lessened their confidence
in the Company's proceedings, and been attended with other evils."[12]

That the said Warren Hastings, immediately after his appointment to the
government of Fort William, in April, 1772, did abolish the office of
_Naib Dewan_, or native collector of the revenues, then existing; that
he did at the same time appoint a committee of the board to go on a
circuit through the provinces, and to form a settlement of the revenues
for five years; that he did then appoint sundry of the Company's
servants to have the management of the collections, viz., one in each
district, under the title of _Collector_; that he did then abolish the
General Board of Revenue or Council at Moorshedabad, for the following
reasons: "That, while the controlling and executive part of the revenue
and the correspondence with the collectors was carried on by a council
at Moorshedabad, the members of the administration at Calcutta had no
opportunity of acquiring that thorough and comprehensive knowledge which
could only result from _practical experience_; that the orders of the
Court of Directors, which established a new system, which enjoined many
new regulations and inquiries, could not properly be delegated to a
subordinate council, and it became absolutely necessary that the
business of the revenue should be conducted _under the immediate
observation and direction of the board_."[13]--That in November, 1773,
the said Warren Hastings abolished the office of Collector, and