Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c6.s3.94

c6.s3.94

Having most attentively and seriously deliberated upon the whole of the subject as you must be convinced from the present discussion we should have felt inclined to direct the abolition of the house tax. But from an apprehension we entertain that this measure might be mistakenly considered as originating in a disposition on the part of your Government to yield to the influence of popular clamour, and that of thus exciting in the minds of the natives an expectation of still further concessions, we might at length be called upon to relinquish entirely the very principle of taxation, by which we looked for an augmentation of our resources by the institution of duties upon such articles as might from time to time be thought to afford a fair prospect of revenue, without their being felt as oppressive by the native inhabitants. We are willing therefore to hope that under the modifications which you had it in contemplation to adopt, calculated in your opinion to obviate any just ground of complaint against the house tax, the same has, since the date of your letter of the 12th February 1811, been quietly collected: but if not withstanding these modifications, the house tax shall have continued to be obnoxious to the feelings and prejudices of the natives and productive of further dissatisfaction and clamour, we think you ought to adopt the most speedy measures for its repeal, and which you think it will be possible for you to carry into execution, without compromising in too conspicuous a manner the authority of Government.