A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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All the land belongs either to the English government,
the East India Company, or the native princes.
It is let out
altogether; the principal tenants divide it into small lots, and
sublet these to the peasants. The fate of the latter depends
entirely upon the disposition of the principal tenant. He
determines the amount of rent, and frequently demands the money at a
time when the crops are not harvested, and the peasant cannot pay;
the poor people are then obliged to sell the unripe crops for half
their worth, and their landlord generally contrives to buy it
himself in the name of another person. The unfortunate peasant
frequently has scarcely a sufficiency left to keep life in himself
and his family.
Laws and judges there certainly are in the country, and, as
everywhere else, the laws are good and the magistrates just; but it
is another question whether the poor ever receive justice. The
districts are so extensive, that the peasant cannot undertake a
journey of seventy or eighty miles; and even when he lives near, he
cannot always reach the presence of the magistrate. The business of
the latter is so great, that he cannot himself attend to the
details, and generally he is the only European in office, the
remaining officials consisting of Hindoos and Mahomedans, whose
character - a lamentable fact - is always worse the more they come in
contact with Europeans. If, therefore, the peasant comes to the
court without bringing a present, he is generally turned away, his
petition or complaint is not accepted or listened to; and how is he
to bring a present after being deprived of everything by the
landlord?
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Page 357 of 708
Words from 95162 to 95445
of 187810
