It is somewhat unpleasant to reflect that the system which Mr. Hodgkin so strongly condemns, and which he even regards as one of the causes of the downfall of the Roman Empire, is—­save in respect to the intervals of periodical reassessment—­very similar to that which exists everywhere in India, except in the province of Bengal, where the rights conferred on the zemindars under Lord Cornwallis’s Permanent Settlement are still respected in spite of occasional unwise suggestions that time and the fall in the value of the rupee have obliterated any moral obligations to maintain them.  Nor are the results obtained in India altogether dissimilar from those observable under Roman rule.  The knowledge that reassessment was imminent has, it is believed, often discouraged the outlay of private capital on improving the land.  More than this, it is notorious that, at one time, some provinces suffered greatly from the mistakes made by the settlement officers.  These latter were animated with the best intentions, but, in spite of their marked ability—­for they were all specially selected men—­they often found the task entrusted to them impossible of execution.  Unfortunately political or administrative errors cannot be condoned by reason of good intentions.  Like the Greeks of old, the natives of India suffer from the mistakes of their rulers.

The intentions of the British, as compared with the Roman Government are, however, noteworthy from one point of view, inasmuch as from a correct appreciation of those intentions it is possible to evolve a principle perhaps in some degree calculated to avert the consequences which befell Rome, partly by reason of fiscal errors.

In spite of some high-sounding commonplaces which were at times enunciated by Roman lawgivers and statesmen, and in which a ring of utilitarian philosophy is to be recognised,[17] and of the further fact that, as in the case of Verres, a check was sometimes applied to the excesses of local Governors, it is almost certainly true that the rulers of Rome did not habitually act on the recognition of any very strong moral obligation binding on the Imperial Government in its treatment of subject races.  The merits of any fiscal system were probably judged mainly from the point of view of the amount of funds which it poured into the Treasury.  The fiscal principles on which the Emperors of Rome acted survived long after the fall of the Roman Empire.  They deserve the epithet of “barbarous” which Mr. Hodgkin has bestowed upon them.

The point of departure of the British Government is altogether different.  Its intentions are admirable.  Every farthing which has been spent—­and, it may be feared, often wasted—­on the numerous military expeditions in which the Government of India has been engaged during the last century would, in the eyes of many, certainly be considered as expenditure incurred on objects which were of paramount interest to the Indian taxpayers.  Moreover, a whole category