The Friend of India and Statesman Friday March 8th 1878

Petersburg; that Russia has withdrawn her demand for a portion of the Turkish ironclad fleet and for the Bulgarian and Egyptian tribute ; and that by far the larger portion of her compensation for the cost of the war is to be in the form of territorial acquisitions in Armenia. [...] oe accompanzecnproven:out of 'India by the creation of zemindars of whole 'districts or of simple villages." The clearness with which he chews how these schemes "originated in extreme ignorance of the state of the landed property of the country and of the. [...] Our Government certainly has abolished the principle that the State's right to demand should be limited only by the subject's power to withhold ; and it has deliberately chosen to draw the line of maximum exaction farther and farther from the line of taxable capability till now the shares of the State and the landlord are theoretically equal. [...] For consider only the mode in which the revenue used to be assessed and collected ; the utter absence of all strict reckoning ; the compromises between force on the one side and resistance on the other ; the boundless opportunities of collusion between landlord and tenant for the purpose of defrauding the Goverment ; the relations half feudal half territorial between the lord of the manor an [...] If we could once establish a trade with that city we should command the centre of the commerce of agreat part of Asia the town towards which converge the caravans of devotees and speculators from the confines of Siberia and the heart of China.