ee tenure, and gave him a deed signed by
himself and his heir-apparent, declaring expressly that it should
descend to him and his heir for ever. He died lately, and his son and
successor, who had signed the deed, resumed the estate without
ceremony. On being remonstrated with, he said that 'his father, while
living, was, of course, master, and could make him sign what he
pleased, and give land rent-free to whom he pleased; but his
successor must now be considered the best judge whether they could be
spared or not; that if lands were to be alienated in perpetuity by
every reigning Nawab for every dose of medicine or dose of prayers
that he or the members of his family required, none would soon be
left for the payment of the soldiers, or other necessary public
servants of any description'. This was told me by the son of the old
physician, who was the person to whom the speech was made, his father
having died before Amir Khan. [W. H. S.] Amir Khan was the famous
Pindhari leader. H. T. Prinsep translated his Memoirs from the
Persian of Busawun Lal (Calcutta, 1832).

14. The ancient deeds of grant, engraved on copper, of which so many
have been published within the last hundred years, almost invariably
conclude with fearful curses on the head of any rash mortal who may
dare to revoke the grant. Usually the pious hope is expressed that,
if he should be guilty of such wickedness, he may rot in filth, and
be reborn a worm.

15. Revenue officers commonly observe that revenue-free grants, which
the author calls rent-free, are often ill cultivated. The simple
reason is that the stimulus of the collector's demand is wanting to
make the owner exert himself.

16. These leases now carry with them a right of ownership, involving
the power of alienation, subject to the lien of the land revenue as a
first charge. Conversely, the modern codes lay down the principle
that the revenue settlement must be made with the proprietor. The
author's rule of agricultural succession by primogeniture in the
Nerbudda territories has survived only in certain districts (see
_post_, Chapter 47). The land-revenue law and the law concerning the
relations between landlords and tenants have now been more or less
successfully codified in each province. Mr. B. H. Baden-Powell's
encyclopaedic work _The Land Systems of British India_ (3 volumes:
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1892) gives very full information concerning
Indian tenures as now existing, and the law ap