perpetuity was therefore negatived, the Court of Directors having set their faces against any such grants.

Colvin was by no means satisfied with the position, and taking the Court of Director's Despatch as his theme pointed out (21st June, 1848) that in one place it was the Court's wish that the leaseholders should be encouraged to look after their grants and replant the areas cut over, and that to do this would only be possible if the grantee had his lands on a long tenure; whilst other clauses of the Despatch expressly forbade the wholesale disposal of the forest lands by sale outright or the grant, as he wished and proposed, of perpetual leases.

It is difficult at the present day to enter into the reasons which influenced Colvin to take up the attitude he so strongly maintained. For an official in his responsible position to advise and press for the sale to private parties of large areas of Stateowned land, including the population resident or existing in the areas, appears to be so short-sighted a policy as to almost pass comprehension.

Colvin followed up his first letter with communications relative to the rates of duty to be charged on teak logs, Rs.4 for the Attaran and Rs.2.12 only instead of Rs.3 for each log brought down the other rivers.

In their letter of 7th August, 1848, Government authorised the adoption of the proposed scale of duty, and on 13th September following they sent a full report dealing with Colvin's recommendations, as regards the length of tenure of the leases, and the orders of Government thereon to the Court of Directors under instructions from the Earl of Dalhousie, the Governor of Bengal. The favourable consideration of the Court of Directors was solicited to the proposal of Mr. Colvin for converting the leases from ninety-nine years into grants in perpetuity. The Court replied to this report on 12th September, 1849. They disapproved of Colvin's proposal for granting leases in perpetuity, but sanctioned all other measures which had been suggested and those which had been introduced, the modified rates of duty included.

On the subject of the proposed leases in perpetuity, the Court wrote the following important pronouncement :

"We cannot accede to any recommendation which would alienate from Government in perpetuity the proprietary right in these forests. We attach little importance to the argument urged by the Commissioner as we are of opinion that, where the prospect of obtaining any remuneration for the labour

and expense bestowed on the forest is so distant, as must necessarily be the case in regard to the plantation of young teak trees, a perpetual tenure would have little, if any, advantage over a ninety-nine years' lease, in inducing the grantees voluntarily to incur that labour and expense, where there exists no express condition to that effect. We consider that a far more effectual plan for securing a renewal of the forests on the tracts occupied by the present holders would have been to make it a condition of the lease that three seedlings should be planted whenever a tree had been cut down, and that any default in this respect (which might be ascertained by periodical inspections) should render the grant liable to resumption. Such a condition, if faithfully performed, could secure for the future a constant supply of teak timber, and it might be held out as an inducement to the lessees to exert themselves for the improvement of the forests, that if they were successful in that object, they might look forward to a renewal of the lease at the expiration of the present term."

The Court of Directors further were adverse to any proprietary rights being granted to individuals whether European or Native, to either the growing timber or the land in the Thoung-yeen Forests. In connection with Colvin's remarks and recommendations with reference to the Thoung-yeen Forests the Court observed that "in the proceedings of the local officers there appears to be a tendency to blend the right of property in timber with the fair reward for labour." The Court considered that the Karen inhabitants might "reasonably expect a fair remuneration for their labour in felling and preparing the trees, but they must not be allowed to have any right of property in the timber itself or in the land on which it grows.

"

These orders of the Court of Directors were communicated to the Commissioner of the Tenasserim Provinces on the 14th January, 1850, and bring the period here dealt with to an end.

Colvin had, in dealing with the question of the nurseries of young teak which had been established, especially the one in the Thengan-nyee-Nyoung Forest, applied for the services of an official from the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. As a result of this application Dr. Falconer, the Superintendent of the Gardens, was deputed on a tour of inspection of the Tenasserim Forests. This tour he carried out between January and April, 1849. His report will be dealt with in the next period.

An interesting paper was written, dated April, 1849, by Mr. O'Reilly, the author of the Memorandum on the Regulations of the timber trade at Moulmein already alluded to. In this second paper entitled "Observations in connection with the route across to the head of the Houndrow River," Mr. O'Reilly gives some valuable data on the extent and conditions of the teak forests as observed by him in the cold weather of 1848-49. Falconer's Report, however, covers most of this ground.

The following were the exports of teak from Moulmein for the years 1840 to 1848 inclusive :

to which may be added 3,415 tons appropriated to ship and house building and other purposes, giving a value, at the rate of 40 rupees per ton, of Company's rupees 869,800 as an annual amount derivable from this commercial staple of Moulmein."

When it is remembered that fellings somewhat on this scale had been going on for a score of years it is not surprising that the Tenasserim teak forests were ruined !

CHAPTER X

FOREST OPERATIONS IN UPPER INDIA-NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDH, CENTRAL INDIA, PUNJAB, BENGAL AND ASSAM, 1796-1850

THE FIRST MEETING OF THE BRITISH AND THE GURKHAS

E

ARLY in the beginning of the nineteenth century the British experienced considerable trouble with the Gurkhas. The latter had come into notice about the middle of the eighteenth century, at the time Clive fought and won the battle of Arcot, and had gradually assumed a dominant influence over the whole of the extensive valley and hills of Nepal. During the second administration of Lord Cornwallis (1786-93), who was the first GovernorGeneral to be appointed also Commander-in-Chief, the Gurkhas had acquired territory which had a land frontier on the English side of 700 miles. Disputes arose between them and British feudatories on our side of the frontier. The Gurkhas besieged Bhootwal (a border district of the ancient viceroyalty of Oudh), and in succeeding years carried out a series of invasions into British territory. In 1813 the GovernorGeneral, Lord Minto, demanded a return of all the usurped territories. Lord Hastings, who had succeeded Lord Minto as Governor-General, received what amounted to a refusal to this demand. The British were reluctant to engage in hostilities with the Gurkhas for many reasons and endeavoured to settle the matter amicably. The negotiations were broken off abruptly by the latter, and a British detachment was sent from Gorakhpur to occupy the disputed territories. This was done, native officials were placed in charge, and the British troops withdrew. But the arrangement showed how little the character of these northern mountaineers, who had ousted the petty Hindu chieftains and assumed sway over the tract of country at the foot of the Himalaya running from the Sutlej in the west to the Tista River in the east, was understood by

the British authorities. These Hindu rajahs had previously been tributary to the Mogul and received in return protection from the aggression of the lawless hill-chiefs, most of whom maintained their independence; though some were content to own a sort of vassalage to the empire in return for the possession of a portion of the magnificent sâl forests of this region and of the rich plain called the Terai lying between them and Hindustan proper. The hill-chiefs had warred upon the plains people from time immemorial and had held their own till the decline of the Mogul Empire. It was the news of the early victories of the English in Bengal which incited Prithi Narayan Sah, Rajah of the small state of Gurkha, to arm and discipline a body of troops after the European fashion, and with these he gradually subdued and absorbed all the neighbouring petty states, exterminating the family of each chief as soon as subdued, to avoid trouble from subsequent claimants. The Gurkhas had now decided to measure their strength against the British, considering that their fastnesses in the hills would enable them to wage the war on their own lines. They reoccupied Bhootwal and the other disputed territory, killing the pollce stationed there and murdering the British official in a barbarous fashion. The Governor-General demanded from the Court at Katmandu, the Gurkha capital, an explanation, but received in return a menacing reply, and war was declared in 1814. Four divisions were ordered to march upon different points of the frontier. The campaign opened with the siege of the petty fortress of Kalunga situated on an isolated hill a few miles to the north-east of Dehra Dun, the monument to the fallen on which spot is so well known to generations of later Dehra residents. The fort was only garrisoned by six hundred men, but we lost more than that number in taking it, including the gallant General Gillespie who led the first unsuccessful assault. General Ochterlony was the only one of the Generals in command who grasped the position and recognised that the disciplined Gurkhas were a very different class of troops to the Indian native troops of the plains, great armies of whom had so often been previously defeated by a mere handful of British soldiers and native auxiliaries. He met the Gurkhas with their own methods, and for the first time in Anglo-Indian warfare erected stockaded posts. Whilst Ochterlony was engaged in capturing Gurkha forts and the fortified posts erected on a lofty and difficult ridge projecting into the Sutlej, the Governor-General was