to hand over the search to the trackers of that

village.

The head officer at each station receives criminal charges, holds inquests, forwards accused persons with their prosecutors and witnesses to the Zillah magistrate, uses every exertion for the apprehension of criminals and the preservation of the peace in his district, and regularly reports all proceedings to the European magistrate from whom he receives orders. The village police, together with the village corporation officers (such as the barber, schoolmaster, accountant, waterman, measurer, &c.), land agents, zemindars, &c. are all required to give immediate information of crime committed within their limits and to aid in the apprehension of offenders. There is a mounted police officered by natives, and a river police conducted also by natives.

The police officers are furnished with precise and brief manuals of instructions, and the abuses which prevailed are being rapidly removed; what was good in the native laws has been retained, and what was evil obliterated, and an excellent system still open to improvement has been the result. The general system of police in India, and its gradations of ranks is thus detailed in the recent evidence before Parliament. The lowest police officer is the village watcher. There are several in a village who perform the lower offices. They are under the control of the head of the village; the head of the village is under the control of the Tehsildar, who is a native collector of revenue; the Tehsildar is under the magistrate, who is the collector. The village watchers are remuner

ated by a small quantity of grain from the produce of the village, and from certain fees from the inhabitants; and the head of the village has also similar allowances, to a greater extent. The Tehsildar is a stipendary officer of the government, employed in the collection of the revenue. There are police officers appointed to towns, called Aumeems of police, who have a jurisdiction also beyond those towns; and there are officers called Cutwals, a kind of high constables, resident chiefly in market towns. There are, in some districts, paid police; and there were formerly various classes of native peons, under different denominations, many of whom have of late been dismissed as unnecessary.' years

The strength of the civil service at each presidency, according to the Bengal Finance Committee, is as follows:

* The terms here given have been continued ever since the East India Company was a mere trading company, new designations are necessary.

EAST INDIES.-VOL. II.

D

See large edition of this work for a specification of the recent revision of allowances for the civil functionaries of Bengal.

The foregoing details will enable the general reader to form an accurate idea of the nature of the Anglo Indian government.

CHAPTER II.

MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS OF BENGAL, MADRAS AND BOMBAY-RISE AND PROGRESS, AND CHARACTER OF THE INDIAN ARMY; THE MARINE, MEDICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS-THE PATRONAGE OF INDIA-ITS DISTRIBUTION, &c. &c.

THE Anglo Indian army, amounting to nearly 200,000 men, well deserves examination, whether in reference to numbers, discipline, gallantry in the field, fidelity to its government, or political importance :

RISE, PROGRESS, AND CHARACTER OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF INDIA 1.—Though Bombay was the first possession which the English obtained in the East, the establishment on that island was, for a very long period, on too limited a scale to obtain more than its European garrison, and a few companies of disciplined sepoys. On the coast of Coromandel, which became towards the middle of the last century a scene of war fare between the English and French, who mutually aided and received support from the princes of that quarter, the natives of India were instructed in European discipline. During the siege of Madras, which took place in a.d. 1746, a number of peons, a species of irregular infantry, armed with swords and

1 Abstract of the late Sir John Malcolm's description as laid before Parliament.

spears, or matchlocks, were enlisted for the occasion; to those some English officers were attached, among whom a young gentleman of the civil service, of the name of Haliburton, was the most distinguished. This gentleman, who had been rewarded with the commission of a lieutenant, was employed in the ensuing year in training a small corps of natives in the European manner; he did not, however, live to perfect that system, which he appears to have introduced into the Madras service 1.

It appears from other authorities, that the first sepoys who were raised by the English were either Mahomedans or Hindoos of very high caste, being chiefly Rajpoots. One of the first services on which the regular sepoys of Madras were employed was the defence of Arcot, A.D. 1751. The particulars of that siege, which forms a remarkable feature in the life of the celebrated Clive, have been given by an eloquent and faithful historian 2; but he has not informed us of one occurrence that took place, and which, as it illustrates the character of the Indian soldiers, well merited to be preserved. When provisions were very low, the Hindoo sepoys entreated their commander to allow them to boil the rice (the only food left) for the whole garrison. Your English soldiers,' they said, can eat from our hands, though we cannot from theirs; we

1 'It was by one of our own sepoys' (the Council of Fort St. David observe, in a despatch dated 2nd September, 1748, in which they pass an eulogium on the character of Mr. Haliburton) that he had the misfortune to be killed, who shot him upon his reprimanding him for some offence; the poor gentleman' (they add) 'died next day, and the villain did not live so long, for his comrades that stood by cut him to pieces immediately.' The name of Mr. Haliburton was long cherished by the Madras native troops, and about twenty years ago, on an examination of old grants, some veterans, wearing medals, appeared as claimants, who called themselves Haliburton Saheb Ka sepoy, or Haliburton's soldiers.

2 Orme.

will allot as their share every grain of the rice, and subsist ourselves by drinking the water in which it has been boiled.' I state this remarkable anecdote from an authority I cannot doubt, as it refers to the most unexceptionable contemporary witnesses.

During all the wars of Clive, of Lawrence, of Smith, and of Coote, the sepoys of Madras continued to display the same valour and attachment. In the years 1780, 1781, and 1782, they suffered hardships of a nature almost unparalleled; there was hardly a corps that was not twenty months in arrears; they were supported, it is true, by a daily allowance of rice, but this was not enough to save many of their families from being the victims of that dreadful famine which during these years wasted the Company's dominions in India. Their fidelity never gave way in this hour of extreme trial, and they repaid with gratitude and attachment the kindness and consideration with which they were treated by their European officers, who, being few in number, but, generally speaking, very efficient, tried every means that could conciliate the regard, excite the pride, or stimulate the valour of those they commanded.

In the campaigns of 1790 and 1791 against Tippoo Sultaun, the sepoys of this establishment showed their usual zeal and courage; but the number of European troops which were now intermixed with them, lessened their opportunities of distinguishing themselves, and though improved in discipline, they perhaps fell in their own estimation. The native army in some degree became a secondary one, and the pride of those of whom it was composed was lowered. The campaigns of Lord Cornwallis and General Meadows were certainly not inferior, either in their operations or results, to those of Sir Eyre Coote; but every officer can tell how differently they are regarded by the sepoys who served in both; the latter may bring to their memory the distresses and hardships which they suffered, and perhaps the recollection of children who perished from famine, but it is associated with a sense of their own importance at that period to the government they served, with the pride of fidelity and patient valour. The pictures of these three distinguished leaders are in the great room of the