East India Company. The highly important 5th Government Report of 1812

The Fifth Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company. Ordered By the House of Commons to be Printed, 28 July 1812.  Parliamentary Report [London] 1812 1st edition folio.

1002pp. Contemporary blue paper covered boards, spine paper lacking,  boards ( and a few leaves of text) detached,  but the main text block is clean and soundly stitched apart from first and last four pages which are loose and a split down three quarters of the stitching at pp526/7.  old library stamp of King’s College London (with WITHDRAWN stamp) to reverse of volume title page [there is a separate title page for the paper itself]. The paper (watermarked 1812) is of good quality and therefore does not suffer from any of the deterioration found in some later blue books. British Parliamentary Paper No 377. The final report itself is just over 100 pages and the vast amount of the work consists of the detailed appendices. This massive and most important report (a glossary explaining Indian terms used in it was produced in a later volume of Parliamentary Papers). The government Index to East India Papers summarises the contents thus: Bengal:- Systems of Government antecedent to 1784. Reforms introduced by Lord Cornwallis; Permanent Settlement of the Land Revenue. Sayer duties; Tax on spirituous liquors; Monopoly of salt and opium; Completion of the new system of government, and enactment of a Code of Regulations; Revenue Department; Civil and Criminal Courts of Justice; Police; extension of the new system to Benares and to the Ceded and Conquered Provinces; Practical effects of the new system of government. Fort St George:- Systems of land revenue down to 1802; Northern Circars, Jaghirs; Home Farms; Cuddalore; Permanent Settlement. Progress of Revenue collection in the modern possessions; specification of modern territory; Havelly lands; permanent settlement in particular districts; Landed Tenure; Polygar lands; Permanent settlement of particular Pollams; Practical effects of the permanent settlement. Judicature and Police. [Appendix:- Minutes, &c by Lord Cornwallis, Mr Shore, Mr Petrie, Lieut-Col Munro, Lord W Bentinck, Mr Thackeray, Col Barry Close, Mr Mace, Mr White; Mr Grant’s Analysis of the finances of Bengal from the Mogul Conquest; Mr Hodgson’s Memoir on Permanent Settlement; Reports on Land Tenures and Settlements in various districts of Bengal and Fort St George; Reports from Magistrates, &c in answer to Lord Wellesley regarding police; Political Survey of the Northern Circars; Poligars in the Ceded Districts; Constitution and duties of the office of Canongoe. Richard Thackeray comments in the Appendix “The first thing is to govern this country; then, to govern it well” and this report shows the efforts the company was making. This is a very heavy volume (nearly 4 kgs): shipping overseas will be rather expensive.  aug31/3