in the policy of Hindoostan, the modern name by which the renters of land are distinguished. They hold their possessions by a lease, which may be considered as perpetual, and at a rate fixed by ancient surveys and valuations. This arrangement has been so long established, and accords so well with the ideas of the natives, concerning the distinction of casts, and the functions allotted to each, that it has been invariably maintained in all the provinces subject either to Mahometans or Europeans; and to both it serves as the basis on which their whole system of finance is founded.

Reflecting the precise mode, however, in which the ryots of Hindoostan held their possessions, there is much diversity of opinion; the chief of which are very impartially delineated in note iv. to the Appendix of Robertson's Historical Disquisition, &c. concerning India, p. 345. to which we refer such of our readers as are interested in this subject of finance.