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ART. III.-1. Statements submitted by the Nizamut Adalut, relative to the Administration of Criminal Justice in Bengal, during the year 1846. Calcutta, 1847.

2. Reports on the State of the Police in the Lower Provinces, for the year 1846. Calcutta, 1847.

3. Parliamentary Papers relative to Crime in the British Islands, during the year 1846. (Companion to the Almanac for 1818. London.)

THIS is by no means a new subject. It has employed some of the wisest heads and the ablest pens that have ever busied themselves with Indian affairs. The pages of this review have lent their aid in drawing attention to discussions which, however important to the welfare of our native fellow-subjects, are regarded by the majority of Europeans with little interest or solicitude. And to what purpose have been these endeavours? The reports of public officers, the records of the Courts of Justice, the experience of all who reside in the Mofassil, or hold much intercourse with the natives, combine to shew how comparatively little has been done by the most civilized Government in the world, during a space of three quarters of a century, towards the attainment of the great object of Society and Civil Government, security for person and property The Police of Bengal has ever been the ne plus ultra of corruption, inefficiency, and mischievousness. Our Courts have held a place but one degree higher in the estimation of those who have known them best. Our prisons are unrivalled as nurseries for felons. The consequence of all this is easily demonstrable, and year by year becomes more obtrusive and undeniable. Crime is, if not actually on the increase, certainly not diminishing. The mass of the people are still in an extremely abject and insecure condition. Industry, energy, independence, are words unknown to the language or ideas of the Bengalí; and the only thriving class is that of criminals.

It may be thought that we assume too much in ascribing the state of backwardness and misery which characterizes the most fertile portion of our Indian Empire to defects in the system of Police or Criminal Justice. The blame, it will be alleged, rests upon the immoral character of the natives, their religion, their inveterate evil habits and customs. And far be it from us to palliate or deny the sinister influences which these unitedly do What we mean to affirm is, that these are not the sole causes in operation. It may sound almost like a truism to say that good or bad government has much to do with the prosperous or

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adverse circumstances of any people. But it is a truism too of ten practically forgotten. Now the more immediate objects of Government are twofold, the repulsion of foreign aggression, and the administration of justice; in other words, the defence of the community against external and domestic foes. Until these objects are secured, of what avail to the mass of the people are Universities, Councils of Education, Municipal and Medical institutions? Foreign affairs have no doubt always had due weight assigned them. The question of Military Defence is with the Government one of life and death. This, indeed, is a subject to which all Governments, whether paternal or despotic, must ever find it their interest to attend.

Lavish are the pensions, imposing (in a double sense, occasionally) the advertisements of testimonials, gorgeous the banquets, spirit-stirring or tear-drawing the eulogiums in honour. of him who prudently provokes or successfully terminates a sanguinary war. What then may be expected for him who devotes his time and talent to the noble purpose of rendering life and property secure and enjoyable, to devising means by which the social character of millions may be elevated, and honesty and independence take the place of corruption and slavishness? If he escapes unnoticed he may consider himself fortunate. To be snubbed and shunned as a "bore," to be sneered at as a restless innovator, full of new fangled ideas and Utopian theories, is the portion he must often look for. The profits and the patronage of the Honorable Company are goods palpable to all; the blessing of diffusing good order, intelligence, morality and religion among a community is beyond the appreciation of all save a few!

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Impressed with this profound truth, we feel a delicacy in touching upon a hopeless and irreverent theme. It will not however be the first time that this Review has had to advocate unsupported the cause of the lowly and despised. It is a necessary characteristic of our undertaking, that in such contests we must fight single-handed. Europe a powerful press is ever on the look-out for abuses and grievances affecting the mass of the community. This is the kind of matter most interesting to the bulk of newspaper readers; John Bull being proverbially "never so happy as when the has a good grievance," such a theme is therefore found to be most popular and profitable. In this country, on the other hand, the subscribers to English Journals, generally speaking, know little and care less about the condition and circumstances of their native fellow-subjects. Living in cities of palaces or Semi-European Mofussil stations, and too often avoiding all con

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tact and intercourse with the natives, they learn to look upon them as a parcel of good-for-nothing black fellows, fit only to pull punkahs and discharge other menial services, and the less said about them the better. The periodical press, if it would thrive, must chime in, more or less with the prevailing tastes of its supporters, and hence we find our local papers usually very much devoted to furloughs and promotions, the prospects of "the plant," the remonstrances of disappointed candidates for Government employ, and the doleful pleasantries of a Calcutta "Punch."

But it is time to turn to the facts which, we conceive, justify a recurrence to a well-worn theme. The last published report of the Superintendent of Police for the Lower Provinces states the number of offences ascertained by the police to have been committed during the year 1846 as amounting to 1,19,932. What proportion this number bears to that of the cases that never come to the cognizance of the police, is matter of opinion and assumption. The committee of 1838, was of opinion that "in most cases the people, oppressed and inconvenienced in various ways, quietly submit to be robbed rather than apply to the police for assistance." Many residents in the Mofussil would, we believe, estimate with show of reason, the amount of crime unreported to the Magistrate at two or three times the amount of that which appears in his official statements: but we believe if we set it down as of equal extent we shall be on the safe side. This would raise the total of offences actually committed to about 240,000. Now the records of the Courts of Justice shew that, on an average, in every criminal case, two persons are concerned, the proportion of the guilty to the innocent being as 1.25 to .75 nearly. Hence, the number of persons guilty of some crime or other during the year may be said to be 300,000, or 1 in 130 of the entire population.

The parliamentary papers on crime, published last year, shew the number of persons tried in 1846 in England and Wales, to have been 25,107, of whom 18,144 were found guilty. The number of offences concealed from the knowledge of the authorities, in a country where the ready co-operation of the people with the police renders the latter almost unnecessary, is of course very small; and, we believe, if we increase the above amount by one-fourth, it will be an ample allowance for those who in England altogether escape detection. This would give us 22,680 in all, or a proportion to the population of 1 in 700, who in the course of the year committed some offence. The final result then is, that, in proportion to the population, crime is between five and six times as abundant in Bengal as it is in England.

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This is an astounding fact, and should make all who are interested in the welfare of India perceive that something must be done. Even if the premises assumed by us were too large by two or three times as against this country, (which we confidently assert they are not,) a sufficiently enormous difference would remain to be accounted for, and to render some inquiry and attempt at reform indispensable for the maintenance of our national character.

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Let us now glance at the state of crime as compared with past years. Not to fatigue the reader with data and details which may be found in their proper places, we will merely notice the conclusions which they have served to establish. In 1838 the Prison Discipline Committee declared their conviction that, so far from crime having decreased in Bengal," the immense year by year increase of prisoners can only be accounted for by an increase of crime." Since then, as was shewn on a former occasion,* "the number of prisoners accused and convicted of crime has doubled," and, (a proof that this is not to be attributed to increased efficiency in the police,) "the number of acquittals has been nearly trebled." It was also shewn in a former number,t and on the best authority, that "for the last two or three years dakoity had been on the increase, and the conviction of dakoits on the decrease." In his last published report, that for 1846, the Superintendent of Police again alludes to the "difficulty in procuring convictions in cases of dakoity," which is "becoming greater at almost every Sessions"-and this crime, be it remembered, towards the suppression of which our efforts are thus confessed to be unavailing, is one of the most atrocious and alarming to society that can be imagined. While it is unknown in other civilized countries, it is here safely and systematically perpetrated, not, as might be supposed, by the outcasts and dregs of society, the brutal, the starving or the desperate, but resorted to as a regular trade by organized gangs and entire families, protected and salaried by men of substance and apparent respectability, the zemindars of the land.

How little do we who sleep secure in lofty houses, surrounded by swarms of domestics and armed attendants, know of the agony of apprehension endured by the poor husbandman in his mud hut in the lonely jungle, when the dark nights invite the dakoit to the pusuit of his exciting and lucrative trade! How little do we sympathize with the feelings of a family roused from

Cal. Review, No. XII. Art. on " Prison Discipline."

Cal. Review, No. XI. Art. on " Administration of Criminal Justice."

slumber by the curses and threats of marauders, the glare of torches, the din of crow-bars and mattocks, the glitter of swords and spears. To abandon the fruits of industry, the saving of years of toil and care, is the smallest part of their distress. Naked or wounded, the only resource of men, women and children, is instant flight or concealment. The next day they return to their desolate homestead, their ears still ringing with the threats of the dakoits against any that shall dare to inform against them. Well knowing, as Mr. Dampier observes, that the amount of legal proof required by the tribunals is almost impossible to be procured, anticipating only trouble, expense, and loss of time from an appeal to the police, dreading the transfer from the Darogah to the Magistrate, thence to the Sessions Court, and ultimately to the hoarded vengeance of the robbers, is it to be wondered at that their first thought is how to efface all traces of the occurrence, and keep it from the Magistrate's ears?

In collecting into one view the different reforms which our system of Criminal Justice most urgently demands, and most easily admits of, we would not be understood to lay claim to much originality. The enforcement of truth, rather than the discovery of novelty, is our object. Most of the remedies we shall allude to, had been suggested and advocated by the philosopher and the philanthropist before the Calcutta Review came into existence. A transient and spasmodic effort in the right direction has occasionally been made by the Government. At certain intervals Committees are appointed, and valiant resolutions to "allow no financial consideration to stand in the way of changes so urgently required" are come to. By the time that a full and valuable report has been drawn out, the subject has become tiresome, or money is wanted for some other purpose, necessary or superfluous. The dull inglorious subject of crime and punishment is postponed for consideration sine die, and the result of much labour and ingenuity and experience is consigned to vermin and oblivion.

The following, in few words, are some of the Reforms we would advocate

1. The separation of the Executive and Judicial functions at present united in one individual (the Magistrate.)

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2. An improved system of convict labour and prison discipline. The introduction of a summary and much less severe punishment for perjury.

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A more uniform and centralized system of Police. 5. An increase in the pay of subordinate Thanah officers. 6. Limitation of the power of Appeal in Criminal cases. 7. The education of the sons of large landed proprietors.

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