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nanted Civilians. In the Non-Regulation Provinces Commissioned military Officers of the Staff Corps are more often employed on civil work. The annexed table shows the distribution of officers employed in the Non-Regulation Provinces during 1872, exclusive of Extra Assistant-Commissioners.

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N.B.-The proportion of Covenanted Civilians employed in the Non-Regulation Provinces of Bengal during 1872 was 12-2 per cent.

Administrative staff.

The following is a list of the principal gazetted officers who were employed on the 31st March 1873 in the executive administration of the country, in the administration of justice, in the ordinary duties connected with the collection of the revenue, and in the chief offices in the Police, Customs, Education, Registration, and other departments :—

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Collector of Land Revenue, Excise, and Stamps, and

Collector of Income Tax in Calcutta

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Inspector of Schools

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Principals and Professors of the Presidency College,

Sanskrit College, and Madrissa

Superintendent of Botanical Gardens

Meteorological Reporter

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Joint-Magistrates and Deputy Collectors, 1st grade

Acting

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Joint-Magistrates and Deputy Collectors, 2nd grade
Assistant Magistrates

Cantonment Magistrates

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Deputy Magistrates and Deputy Collectors

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Principal Judge of Small Cause Courts in Jessore and
Nuddea

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Executive administration.

The unit of the executive administration, whether in Regulation or Non-Regulation districts, is the District Officer-in the one case styled Magistrate-Collector, in the other Deputy Commissioner. The Superintendents of Police are the right hand of the Magistrate. The ordinary district jails, while placed in the hands of an officer, usually the Civil Surgeon, selected for the duty, are under the general control of the Magistrate. A similar arrangement has been carried into effect in the department of education, but that forms the subject of separate treatment in this report. All District Officers are ex-officio Registrars. The Department Public Works, while placed in the immediate charge of the District Engineer, is under the Magistrate's general control. The District Officer is the executive chief and administrator of the tract of country committed to him, and is or ought to be supreme over every one and every thing, except the proceedings of the Courts of Justice. As District Magistrate he is also head of the department of criminal justice, which is charged with the summary trial of small cases, and the inquiry into greater cases previous to trial at sessions, although he generally rather distributes and superintends this work than does a large share of it himself.

At the disposal of the District Officer are the subordinate magisterial, police and revenue authorities. The District Superintendent of Police, who is the head of the police under the Magistrate, confines his attention to police administration and kindred subjects; but the subordinate Magistrates combine revenue with their magisterial functions. The subdivisional officers, who are Assistant and Deputy Magistrates in charge of divisions of districts, exercise in their own jurisdictions the delegated power of the District Officer except in matters of police, over which they have only judicial and no executive control.

The Sub-Deputies and the sub-divisional establishments, which have recently been sanctioned to strengthen the executive influence of sub-divisional officers and to enable Magistrates to administer the country more completely, are the lowest stratum to which the executive Government can look; they are the agents of the superior executive officers in all departments.

Above the District Magistrates are the divisional Commissioners. Their duties are principally those of supervision; in almost all matters they exercise a general superintendence, and especially in the Revenue Department they keep a control over the Collector's proceedings. Commissioners are the channels of communication between the local officers and Government, sifting, collating and bringing together in a compact form the information they receive. In revenue matters the Commissioners are in their turn subject to the orders of the Board of Revenue, in Calcutta ; in other matters they are under the Government direct.

The executive Government of Bengal is finally administered by the Lieutenant-Governor, aided by two Civil Secretaries and several Under-Secretaries, and by a Secretary in each of the Departments of Irrigation and Public Works. The Lieutenant-Governor has in his hands the whole internal management of the administration, and the patronage of the Covenanted and Uncovenanted Services is at his

absolute disposal. He has no Council, and exercises in his own person all the powers of Government. Under the decentralization scheme of the

Jails.

Registration.
Police.
Education.

Medical Services,
except regular Medi-
cal Establishments.
Printing.
Roads.

Civil Buildings.
Miscellaneous.

Public Improve
"Petty construction

and repairs of Im-
perial buildings in

the Civil Depart

ment.

late Lord Mayo's Government, the powers and responsibilities in respect to the public expenditure in the marginally noted departments were made

over to the local Governments under certain conditions. In the remaining branches of administration the power of the purse in respect of expenditure is centralized in the Government of India, by whom grants to the local Government are made on detailed estimates of the needs of each department.

The legislative authority in Bengal is the "Council of the Lieutenant-Governor for the purpose Legislating authority. of making Laws and Regulations," which was established in 1862 by the Governor-General in Council, under the powers conferred on him by Section 44 of 24 and 25 Vic., Cap. 67 (the Indian Council's Act). The Lieutenant-Governor is the President of the Council. He is empowered to nominate twelve Councillors, not less than one-third of whom must be non-official members, and their nomination is subject to the confirmation of the Governor-General. The authority of the Council extends over all the provinces, districts, and places which are administered by the local Government; but before any law comes into force, it must have received the assent of the Governor-General of India as well as of the LieutenantGovernor of Bengal.

The restrictions to the exercise of its powers are as follows:

"It shall not be lawful for the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, except with the sanction of the Governor-General previously communicated to him, to make regulations or take into consideration any law or regulation for any other purposes next hereinafter mentioned, that is to say:

"(1.) Affecting the public debt of India, or the customs duties, or any other tax or duty now in force and imposed by the authorities of the Government of India for the general purposes of such Government.

"(2.) Regulating any of the current coin, or the issue of any bills, notes, or other paper currency.

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(3.) Regulating the conveyance of letters by the post office, or messages by the electric telegraph within the Presidency.

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(4.) Altering in any way the Penal Code of India as established by Act of the Governor-General in Council, No. 45 of 1860.

"(5.) Affecting the religion or religious rites and usages of any class of Her Majesty's subjects in India.

"(6.) Affecting the discipline or maintenance of any part of Her Majesty's military or naval forces.

"(7.) Regulating patents or copyright.

"(8.) Affecting the regulations of the Government with foreign provinces or states.

"Provided always that no law, or provision of law, or regulation, which shall have been made by any such Lieutenant-Governor in

Council, and assented to by the Governor-General in Council, shall be deemed invalid only by reason of its relating to any of the purposes combined in the above list."

A considerable part of the legislative enactments which affect Bengal still, therefore, proceeds from the Indian Legislature.

Revenue administration.

The revenues of the Presidency of Bengal are derived from the following principal sources,-the Land Revenue, the monopoly of Opium, Excise on spirits and intoxicating drugs, Stamps, Salt, Income-tax (abolished since the close of the past year), and the Customs. Of these land revenue, excise, and stamps are, and the income-tax was, managed by the District Collector and his establishments, but the opium, customs, and salt revenue, are under special departments. The District Collector is controlled, as we have seen, by the Revenue Commissioner, who again is subject to the orders of the Member of the Board of Revenue in charge of the department. The Board consists of two Members, who are now each the heads of their own departments and exercise full powers independently of one another. The Senior Member, devotes his undivided attention to the great department of land revenue. The Junior Member kas charge of all other sources of revenue. The opium branch of the revenue is under the management of two Opium Agents-the one stationed at Patna, and the other at Ghazeepore; but although the latter station lies in the North-West Provinces, both officers are subordinate to the Government of Bengal. They are aided by a local agency of principal assistants and sub-deputy agents. The general superintendence of the opium revenue, under the immediate direction of the executive Government, is vested in the Member of the Board in charge. At the head of the Customs is a special Collector, who is aided by one Covenanted and several Uncovenanted assistants. There is also a large body of Preventive Officers. The minor Custom Houses at Chittagong and Balasore are under the control of the local district officers.

The most important duties of the Marine Department refer to the management and pilotage of the port Marine administration. and river of Calcutta. The whole establishment is under the control of the Master-Attendant and a succession of assistants. The department engages a large share of the time and attention of the Government of Bengal. The port proper of Calcutta has now been entrusted under recent enactments of the Bengal Council to the Port Trust Commissioners, leaving the river Hooghly outside the port to be managed by the Marine officers of Government. The governing body of the Port Trust consists of twelve members appointed by the Government, most of whom are connected with the trade of the port.

tion, Railways.

The ordinary Public Works are unDepartment of Public Works, Irriga. der a separate management from the Railways and Irrigation Works, which are special departments.

The highest officers of the Department of Public Works are nominated by the Government of India; the management of the State. Railways and supervision of the Guaranteed Railways has also been

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