'The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B., late envoy to Persia, and governor of Bombay; from unpublished letters and journals. In two volumes. Vol. II.' [‎548] (565/654)

648
THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT.
ferred to England.* The immediate question is Nuzzurana, or
a fine on succession (like our copyhold), and by my plan this
decreases or increases, in conformity with Indian usage, like our
legacy duty, according to the proximity or remoteness of the heir
to the deceased. Adoptions, which are universally recognised as
legal among Hindoos, are not a strict right (any more than direct
heirs) where grants of land are for service, as to your friends the
Puttuwardars, Appa Dessye, &c.; but we have received the sub
mission of the Jagheerdars, confirmed their estates, honored them,
and have continued to do so by treating them as princes. But
while a few have been permitted to adopt, others are denied the
privilege; and while we declare their direct heirs are entitled to
succeed, we lie in wait (I can call it nothing else) to seize their
fine estates on failure of heirs, throwing them and their adherents
and the country into a state of doubt and distraction. These
families should either never have been placed in possession of these
countries, or never been removed from them. If expediency and
troubled times dictated the first measure, the good of the country
and policy required us to abandon the second. The Bengal Go
vernment, influenced by, if not composed of, men bred in Calcutta,
take a mere fiscal view of the subject, and believe, I imagine, our
chiefs and Jagheerdars to be like the Baboos and Bengal Zemin
dars ; but the local part of the question is trifling in comparison
with its importance as one of state policy, connected as it is with
our recently established privileged orders of the Deccan ; it gives
the fairest hope I have ever seen of forming a native aristocracy
worthy of the name, reconciled, if not attached, to our govern
ment."
Abolition of the Military Board.— [Bombay, October 13,
1829.]—"I wrote you before my opinion regarding the Military
Board. It was quite impossible for me to carry my reforms to the
extent necessary, and which economy and efficiency alike required,
without suspending the functions of this torpid and unwieldy
means of check and control I met with no obstacles; if
I had, I was quite prepared to enter most fully upon the sub
ject, and to show what delays, what absurdities, what increase of
vouchers with diminution of real checks has resulted from this
* The decision of the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. was unfavorable to the scheme.