in such case the Commissioner was to cease to exercise any powers in regard to the Magistracy and Police. In Bengal a single Superintendent of Police was accordingly appointed. After a short experience, however, it was found advisable to exempt from his jurisdiction the extra Regulation Provinces of Assam and of the south-western frontier and the province of Orissa, and to replace them under the Divisional Commissioners. The division of Chittagong was similarly removed in 1850. On the 23rd March 1854 the Court of Directors sanctioned the abolition of the appointment and the transfer of his duties to the respective Revenue Commissioners.

It has been stated that under the Code of 1793 the Civil Judges were constituted Magistrates of their respective jurisdictions, and that the offices of Judge and Magistrate long remained united. The separation was not actually effected for nearly forty years, but in 1810 a permissive Regulation was passed (Regulation XVI of 1810), by which Government was empowered to make a distinct appointment of a Magistrate.

The system introduced by Cornwallis and Barlow lasted during successive administrations, with only

LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK.

Provincial Courts abolished, 1829.- the necessary modifications engrafted Commissioners of Revenue and Circuit: in it by time and circumstances; but their powers-judicial, revenue, and police. under Lord William Bentinck extensive changes were again effected. By Regulation I of 1829 the executive officers of both police and revenue were placed under the superintendence of Commissioners of Revenue and Circuit, each of whom was vested with the charge of four or five districts. Lord W. Bentinck abolished the Provincial Courts, stigmatizing them "as resting-places for those members of the service who were deemed unfit for higher responsibilities." The Commissioners were appointed to go on circuit as Sessions Judges. The appointment of Superintendent of Police was abolished and vested in the Commissioner with the fullest police control. The Revenue Boards in the provinces were also abolished and their powers vested in the Commissioners under the control of the Sudder Board at Calcutta. The Commissioners were absolutely to superintend both the finance and the criminal justice of their different divisions.

Civil Judges vested with Sessions powers -1831-1835.

These arrangements were not, however, found completely successful, and after a very few years the Governor-General exercised his right of transferring the judicial powers of the Commissioners to the Civil Judges. It was declared (Regulation VII of 1831) competent to Government to invest the Civil Judges with full powers to conduct the duties of the Sessions, and by Act III of 1835 the Government was authorized "to transfer any part or the whole of the duties connected with criminal justice from any Commissioners of Circuit to any Sessions Judge, and to define the powers which shall be exercised by each respectively." Commissioners, however, still continued to hold judicial powers, and were occasionally so employed. But Regulation VII of 1831 and Act III of 1835 were both repealed by Act VIII of 1868, and under the present law Commissioners have no

such powers, as all Sessions Judges and officers invested with powers of Sessions Judges are appointed under the rules of the new Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Judges under Lord William Bentinck's arrangement held a jail delivery every month. But Civil Judges divested of magisterial powers. Union of Magistrate and Col- the Judges were also the Magistrates, lector-1831. and as such it became evident that they were unable to cope with their additional duties. It was considered (1831) necessary to divest them of their magisterial responsibilities, and these were accordingly transferred to the Collector. This was the creation of the present unit of the administration, the Magistrate and Collector, or executive head of each district.

Under Regulation VIII of 1833 the appointment of additional Judges was sanctioned, who were to perform any part of the duties of the District Judges to which they might be appointed.

In 1831 Lord William Bentinck established also a higher grade of native Judgeships. Previously to this period there had been in fact but two classes of native Judges, with very limited powers and small salaries. The higher class was Native Civil Judges. known as "Sudder Ameens," the lower as "Moonsiffs." The Moonsiffs, originally denominated Commissioners, had been appointed by Lord Cornwallis to relieve the pressure on the European Judges. In 1803 the office of Sudder Ameen. was instituted, with a jurisdiction extending to suits of Rs. 100. In 1821, after some intermediate enlargement of the powers of both classes, the Moonsiffs had been empowered to try cases extending to Rs. 150, whilst the Sudder Ameen took cognizance of cases to the amount of Rs. 500. In 1827 the authority of the latter had been doubled. Lord Bentinck now established a superior class of judicial officers, known as Principal Sudder Ameens, with enlarged powers and higher salaries. They were subsequently authorized to try cases involving property to any amount, and an appeal lay from them to the European Judges. The Small Cause Courts in Bengal were established by Sir John Peter Grant under Act XLII of 1860. In 1867 the Judges of the Small Cause Courts and the Principal Sudder Ameens and Moonsiffs were amalgamated into one service. Small Cause Court Judges and Principal Sudder Ameens have since been called indifferently Subordinate Judges, and are eligible alike for Small Cause Court work or for the work of the ordinary Civil Court.

The office of Uncovenanted Deputy Collector was established under Regulation IX of 1833. The appointment was in the first instance open only to "natives of India of any class or religious persuasion," but was extended by Act X of 1843 to all persons of whatever religion, place of birth, descent, or colour.

Up to 1834 the whole of Bengal Presidency, including Benares and the ceded and conquered provinces of Upper India, were directly administered by the Governor-General of Bengal in Council. In 1834 the Governor-General in Council became Governor-General of India, and Bengal was then governed by the Governor-General in the capacity of Governor of Bengal without a Council. At the same time.

G

power was given to create a separate Governor of Agra, which was shortly modified, a Lieutenant-Governor being substituted for a Governor in 1836. From this time the civil history of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, becomes entirely separate from that of the Upper Provinces. The machinery of the revenue administration and civil justice

Establishment of the Subordinate Exe cutive Service-1843.

having been strengthened, the expediency of a more extensive employment of uncovenanted agency in the criminal branch of the Judicial Department forced itself into notice. But it was not till 1843 that an Act was framed by the Legislative Council empowering the Government to appoint in any district one or more uncovenanted Deputy Magistrates, with or without police powers as might be determined. The union of the offices of

Separation of the offices of Magistrate

and Collector-1837.

Magistrate and Collector, as established under Lord William Bentinck, was however only of temporary duration. It so happened that at that time the business of a Collector became engrossing and onerous, while the duties of the Magistracy were comparatively disregarded. The additional work imposed by the operations for the resumption of revenue free tenures was treated as if it had been permanent. In 1837 Lord Auckland and the Court of Directors sanctioned the separation of the offices of Magistrate and Collector.

The progress of separation of the office of Magistrate and Collector went on gradually until 1845. In that year the magisterial and fiscal offices were disunited everywhere except in three districts of Orissa and in the independent Joint-Magistracies of Pubna, Maldah, Bogra, Bullooah (or Noakhally), Furreedpore, Bancoorah, Baraset, and Chumparun. The salaries of the separated Collectors were uniformly fixed at Rs. 23,000 a year, except in Bhaugulpore, Monghyr, and Beerbhoom, where they were Rs. 18,000; but the salaries of Magistrates, which it was intended at the time of separation should be in two grades of Rs. 18,000 and 12,000, were reduced in 1842, by order of the Court of Directors, to Rs. 10,800 per annum.

At this point may be noticed the creation of the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal. In 1854 the Government of Bengal was entrusted to a Lieutenant-Governor, and the personal connection with the Government of India, resulting from the union of the offices of Governor-General of India and Governor of Bengal, which had hitherto subsisted, ceased. Henceforth the Government of India and Bengal became entirely distinct.

In 1859 the offices of Magistrate and Collector were again united.

Reunion of Magistrates and Collectors

1859.

This reunion had been the subject of anxious deliberation in India for six years before it was finally resolved.

It was

upon. The measure was strongly advocated by Sir Frederick Halliday, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, by Lord Dalhousie, and by Lord Canning, and was as strongly opposed by Mr. Grant. sanctioned by Lord Stanley, who was then Secretary of State for India, in his despatch No. 15, dated 14th April 1859. He directed (1)

"that the offices of Magistrate and Collector, where now disunited in Bengal, should be combined in the same person, and that such of the covenanted officers as are now Magistrates, and are not absorbed in the higher office, should be employed as Joint-Magistrates and Deputy Collectors, but without any increase of salary; and (2) that the JointMagistrate in each district should ordinarily have the superintendence of the police under the general control of the Magistrate." These orders were rapidly carried out in all the districts of Bengal where the appointments were separate.

abolished.

At the same time seven of the eight independent Joint Magistracies already alluded to were established The independent Joint-Magistracies full Magistracies and Collectorates. At first these were offshoots from large districts, and were created as quasi sub-divisions in the early part of this century to stem the tide of crime and dacoity in localities so remote from the head-quarters station. The Joint-Magistrates of these subdivisions, from exercising a joint-jurisdiction with the Magistrate of the district, gradually came to exercise independent criminal powers, but in revenue matters they never were invested with more than the powers of a Deputy Collector, and the land revenue always continued to be paid at the head-quarters treasury. Of these eight Joint Magistracies and Deputy Collectorates, four were upon Rs. 18,000 per annum, and four upon Rs. 12.000. At the time of the reunion of Magistrates and Collectors, Baraset was abolished and reduced to an ordinary subdivision.

The present Joint-Magistrates were created by Lord William Bentinck in order to afford more effiThe present grade of Joint-Magistrates. cient aid to the Magistrate-Collectors than could be given to them by mere Assistants vested only with the powers of an Assistant under the Regulations. Lord W. Bentinck established two classes of Covenanted officers subordinate to the District Officer-one, a Joint-Magistrate and Deputy Collector on a salary of Rs. 1,000 a month; the other a Head Assistant, on Rs. 700. The latter was abolished by Government order dated August 16th, 1836, and a second grade of Joint-Magistracy was constituted in its stead on the same salary, but with the full powers of a Joint-Magistrate and Deputy Collector. The first were appointed Magistrates when the separation of the offices had been resolved upon, and now correspond to our first grade Joint-Magistrates. The salary of the appointment, as has been intimated, was reduced to Rs. 900 a month in 1842.

In 1861, shortly after the reunion of Collectorates and Magistracies, the police was established as a The Bengal Police Act, 1861. separate department under the Magistrate; and District Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents of Police were appointed to discipline the force. An Inspector-General and Deputy Inspectors-General were placed at the head of the police. to supervise and inspect the department.

These salaries were local, the salaries of particular classes being attached to particular districts. To remove the administrative inconveniences which resulted from this arrangement, Sir John Peter Grant proposed in that year the following changes: firstly, that the salaries of Magistrates and Collectors be made personal, instead of local, by throwing these officers into grades; and, secondly, that there be only two instead of four such grades or classes of Collector and Magistrate and rates of salary. He provided for 20 MagistrateCollectors in the first grade on Rs. 23,000 per annum; one Magistrate and one Collector at the 24-Pergunnahs, who, each of them drew the full salary of Rs. 23,000; and 15 Magistrate-Collectors in the 2nd grade on Rs. 18,000-altogether 37 officers. The separate appointments of Magistrate and Collector in the 24-Pergunnahs were amalgamated in April 1865 into a single first grade Magistrate-Collector. The number was thus reduced to 36. At the same time two officers were taken from the second grade and added to the first grade, and until the past year there were therefore 23 Magistrate-Collectors sanctioned in the first grades and 13 in the second grade. The modifications that have recently been effected will be noticed in the chapter of the report for the present year on the Changes of Administration.

All the above has reference to what are called the regulation provinces.

NON-REGULATION PROVINCES.

were

The Non-Regulation Provinces under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal consist of (1) new conquests or cessions to which the Regulations never extended; (2) tracts of country formerly subject to the general Regulations, but which were removed from their operation by special enactments; and (3) semi-independent or tributary estates administered in the Political Department. Regulation X of 1822

First deregulationizing law-Regulation

X of 1822.

established the principle that there were races of people within these territories entirely distinct from the ordinary population, and to whose circumstances the system of Government established by the general Regulations was inapplicable. Such were the mountaineers of Bhaugulpore, the Paharia community, for the reclaiming of whom special arrangements were carried out by Augustus Cleveland before the introduction of the regular system. The uncertain and semi-barbarous territory on These the officers were the Magistrate-Collectors of Pooree, Balasore, and Cuttack, who were Salt Agents as well.