100

The latest change has been to create Assam into a
separate Chief Commissionership, it being taken under the
direct orders of the Governor-General under the provisions of
the Act of 1854.

The Nown-Regulation Provinces.

The reason why all provinces and territories
were not at once annexed to the larger presidencies
was two-fold :—

Frrstly—It would have made the territories
attached to the Bengal Presidency inconveniently
large and straggling, and the administration could
not have been conveniently carried on,
Secondly. —By the statute of 1800, new territories
 annexed to presidencies would at once have
come under the regulation law of the presidency
to which they were attached, and this would have
been inconvenient in many ways. Certain systems
of revenue administration had grown up in the
presidencies which were not applicable to newlyacquired
 territories. The latter were more backward
 than the older territories, and new problems
and customs had to be dealt with, It was, therefore,
 deemed advisable to form these territories
into distinct provinces, and to extend only such
of the regulations as were at once applicable,
gradually applying others as the new territories
developed, and at the same time providing new
laws more suited to the wants of the new terri-“ories.