the Calcutta maidan; but as the Commander-in-Chief objected, and the Government of India expressed itself averse to any encroachment on the Calcutta maidan, whether within or beyond the official limits of the esplanade of the fort, that plan was dropped.

It has since been proposed, as being the most economical arrangement in the first instance, to utilize for the purpose the structure known as Writers' Buildings, on the north of Dalhousie Square, as well as the Custom House. It was intended to enlarge Writers' Buildings. As many offices as possible would be put in this range, and in the old Custom House, which would be connected with Writers' Buildings by a light foot-bridge thrown across. Any further accommodation necessary would be built in the Custom House yard. The river face of the Custom House yard is reserved for carrying out the project of a combined new Custom House, Marine Office, and Port Commissioners' Office, which the Lieutenant-Governor has sanctioned. The office of the Board of Revenue would be close at hand, and might be retained. This scheme, however, is indefinitely delayed, because the Government of India have not found accommodation for the offices of the East Indian Railway, who at present rent part of Writers' Buildings from this Government.

The best site of all which might now be obtained has not been mentioned; because its purchase would cost more than the means of this Government can meet, and the Government of India has not been willing to defray the cost. Thus all attempts to concentrate the offices, and use in their erection the money which has been provided, have hitherto proved abortive.

Parallel lines of promotion.

The necessity for the nearer equalization of salaries of the Magistrate-Collectors of districts and of the district Judges, of the heads of the Judicial, and of the heads of the Executive departments, in the same place, was dwelt on at some length in last year's administration report. It was also mentioned that in July of last year the Government of India and Secretary of State had been pleased to sanction the reduction of the salary of the Judgeship of Beerbhoom from Rs. 30,000 a year to the pay of a 1st class Magistrate and Collector (as these officers were then graded) on Rs 23,000 per annum, and had permitted the saving, or Rs. 7,000 per annum, thereby effected. to be used to raise the pay of two 1st class Collectors to Rs. 26,500, or something less than the pay of a Magistrate-Collector in the North-Western Provinces. In pursuance of the same object, the Lieutenant-Governor addressed the Government of India again in January last, proposing the establishment of parallel lines of promotion in the Executive and Judicial branches of the Covenanted Civil Service. He proposed that there should be 30 officers of each grade, 15 of each on Rs. 2,500 per mensem, and 15 on Rs. 2,000.

His Excellency in Council provisionally accepted His Honor's views, with certain modifications, and Provisionally sanctioned. subject to the sanction of the Secretary

of State, approved of the following arrangements, viz.

1. That Judges, including Additional Judges, shall be classified in two grades; those in the first grade, up to the number of fifteen,

drawing each a salary of Rs. 2,500 a month, and the remainder in the second grade a salary of Rs. 2,000.

2. That Magistrate-Collectors shall be classified in two grades, with salaries fixed at Rs. 2,250 and (for the present) Rs. 1,800 respectively.

3. That effect shall be given at once to the proposed scheme, so far as funds become available, from the reduction in the salaries of the Judges on the occurrence of vacancies, the pay of some of the Magistrate-Collectors, to the number of 15 at least, being raised to Rs. 2,250 whilst fresh promotions, which would hitherto have been made to the existing first grade on Rs. 1,916, shall now be made to a salary of Rs. 1,800 only, the difference being used to raise the salaries of officers now drawing Rs. 1,500 to the same rate of Rs. 1,800.

The judicial appointments on Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 2,000 have been designated Judgeships of the 1st and 2nd grade respectively, and so long as the arrangements are in a state of transition, for the sake of convenience the executive appointments on Rs. 2,250, Rs. 1,916, Rs. 1,800 or Rs. 1,500 respectively, are styled Magistrate-Collectorships of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades respectively. The number of officers that are permanently to be attached to each of the grades was not then settled, but depends upon the number of districts that may definitely be decided on. The pay in the grades has been declared personal, and not necessarily attached to districts.

These sanctioned arrangements have been, and are being, carried into effect as vacancies enable the Lieutenant-Governor to act. Up to the present time junior Judges of the 2nd grade have been appointed on the salary of Rs. 2,000, and 12 Magistrate-Collectors have been raised to the salary of Rs. 2,250, so that the scheme has been in great part already carried out. One or two vacancies just announced will enable the Lieutenant-Governor at once to complete the full number of 15 first class Magistrates.

The Lieutenant-Governor's arrangements for establishing parallel lines of promotion did not, however, commend themselves to the Hon'ble Judges of the High Court.

Objection taken by High Court to the Lieutenant-Governor's proposals.

The Hon'ble Judges favoured the Lieutenant-Governor with a copy of their letter to the Government of India on the subject, in which they asked the Secretary of State not to sanction the proposals made by this Government. The High Court did not enter into any comparison of the relative claims of the executive and judicial service, but protested against what they considered the lowering of the latter.

The Lieutenant-Governor, however, thought that great as was the importance of the judicial service, His Honor's reply. it could not be doubted that the executive was at least as important,-indeed more important. In all parts of the world, and in all arrangements, the executive authority ranks first; the judicial second: and in a district the Lieutenant-Governor saw no anomaly in saying that the Judge should not be considered superior to the chief executive officer.

The Court's letter, the Lieutenant-Governor remarked, correctly described the system hitherto followed: "All the average and some

of the better men of the service, whether possessed of judicial ability or not, accept judgeships because of the salary attached." The evils of the system could hardly be put more vividly or more truly. It came to this, that when men have served their time as Magistrate-Collectors, if they have not received, or see no immediate prospect of receiving, promotion in the executive line, in which all their previous service has been spent, they become Judges, "whether possessed of judicial ability or not," because the salary of Judges has hitherto been much higher than that of Magistrate-Collectors. When the youth and vigor of the service have been very much spent, and the men selected for the higher executive employments have been eliminated, the residue enter for the first time and form the judicial branch of the service. Taking the average of promotion in a service constituted as is the Civil Service, this promotion to judgeships could not ordinarily take place under the system hitherto followed till men have served seventeen or eighteen, or perhaps twenty years, and have reached the age of forty or upwards. That they should then, with rare exceptions, under the conditions of service in India, distinguish themselves as Judges, could not be, and had not been, the case.

Under the new system, men at the age and standing when they have hitherto obtained charge of districts, will choose or be selected either for districts or for judgeships. Thus a man who is selected by open competition from the best educated men in England at the age of (say) 20, and who comes to India at 22 or 23, may be made a District Judge after 12 or 13 years' service at 35 to 38 years of age. Looking to the way in which these men are selected, to the precocity of intellect and conduct induced by Indian service, and to the comparatively early age at which Indian service finishes, the Lieutenant-Governor has no hesitation in saying that men at that age and service will make quite as good Judges as they would five or six or eight years later. His Honor has also said, with some confidence, that a larger proportion of good men would select the judicial service at that age before they had served so long as to have the chance of the higher executive appointments, than at the later age, when all who could, have obtained, and others saw the prospect of, promotion in the other line; and the Lieutenant-Governor is quite sure that in India, where on an average men retire under 50, a man who becomes a Judge at 35 is much more likely to acquire the requisite knowledge and experience, and become a good or distinguished Judge, than a man who does not enter the line till 40 or 42. The Lieutenant-Governor submitted that, as compared with the previous system, that now commenced would not deteriorate, but would improve the judicial service.

Then came the question whether, if the services are to be rearranged, the advantages offered to the judicial as compared to the executive branch are sufficient. The Lieutenant-Governor observed that there was now in the grades rising to judgeships a considerable change in the character of the service. Probably the majority of the Haileybury men had, cæteris paribus, a preference for the executive line, though they seldom carried it to the point of remaining on lower pay when they could get higher pay as Judges. But the Lieutenant-Governor did not think it was so with competition men.

They come out at a later age; they have all had some legal training; many of them are little given to the riding and shooting which are supposed to accompany executive employment, or to which at any rate executive employment gives opportunity. Many such men have considerable taste and aptitude for judicial employment, and it was His Honor's conviction that, cæteris paribus, judicial appointments would be preferred by at least as many as prefer executive appointments,—the physical ease, dignity, and independence of the one being set against the risk, exposure, and constant subjection to superior authority of the other. His Honor's only doubt was whether the superiority of salaries which the Government of India had given to Judges would not give to that branch a decided advantage, which is not desirable.

The determination of the whole matter lies now with His Grace the Secretary of State.

The Lieutenant-Governor has made another proposal with a view to further increasing the efficiency of Proposal to appoint Assistant Judges. the Judicial branch of the service. Even though he has by the new arrangement been able to make some men Judges at an age when they may still have 10 or 15 years to serve, it is evident that it must be an evil that a man should be placed in so high a position as that of a district Judge without having had any experience or practice whatever in the department of civil justice, the most difficult and important part of his duties. To remedy this, it has been proposed that an opportunity should be given to officers of judicial aptitude to enter the judicial service somewhat earlier and in a lower grade. The Lieutenant-Governor accordingly submitted for sanction a proposal to take advantage of existing vacancies to make an experiment in this direction. It was proposed to reduce the district of Bancoorah; and the Lieutenant-Governor wished to substitute for two 2nd class Judges, viz. the Judge of Bancoorah and one of the Additional Judges, three Assistant Judges, with the power of Assistant Judge as defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the civil powers of a subordinate Judge. He would have given these officers salaries of 1,500 per mensem, or possibly 1,250. The High Court entirely approved of the proposal. The Government of India has, however, postponed the consideration of this question. The existing vacancies have therefore been filled up, and the question must stand over for another opportunity

In the last report the want of knowledge of their districts on the part of District Officers, in conPermanency of district officers. sequence of frequent changes, was prominently brought to light. In the year 1871 the Board of Revenue had occasion to bring to the notice of Government "that only six Collectors in the Regulation Provinces of Bengal have been at this time in charge of their respective districts for a period of two full years, and only two out of these six for four years." The Lieutenant-Governor's strenuous efforts have been used to Frequency of transfer of subordinate remedy this evil. It is too true that the success of the arrangements in regard to the changes of subordinate officers is still sadly marred by frequent changes. The applications for leave on medical certificates and

officers inevitable.

other occasions for change are so constant, that nothing but the most unremitting attention, and the firmest hand, can mitigate the bad effect of changes in the lower grades. Great improvement, however, has been effected in regard to the higher grades. At the end of the official year to which this report refers, Higher officers now rarely transferred. the Magistrates of the following districts had continuously or otherwise been more than two years in charge of their respective districts, and many of them for a much longer period:

Hooghly.
Nuddea.

Moorshedabad.
Rajshahye.

5 Dinagepore.
Pubna.
Julpigoree.
Cooch Behar.
Dacca.

10 Furreedpore.

Backergunge.

Mymensingh.

Sylhet.

Chittagong.

15 Noacolly.

Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Patra.
Gya.
Shahabad.

20 Tirhoot.
Bhaugulpore.
Sonthal Pergunnahs.
Balasore.
Hazareebaugh.

25 Lohardugga.
Maunbhoom.
Kamroop.
Durrung.
Seebsaugor.

30 Luckimpore.

Garo Hills.

Naga Hills.

The important districts of Rungpore and Cuttack were in charge of Officiating Collectors who had served long in those districts in subordinate capacities. The furlough rules, occasional illness, promotion, and other causes, combine to make some changes among District Officers unavoidable. But it has been the Lieutenant-Governor's effort to post officers returning from leave to districts where they had previously served; and the recent orders improving the salaries of senior Magistrate-Collectors have enabled the Lieutenant-Governor to keep in the executive department many able and experienced officers whose standing would under the old system have entitled them to a transfer to the judicial department of the service. The Lieutenant-Governor still hopes that the Government may yet be able so to arrange that changes in the subordinate offices shall be less frequent than they have hitherto been.

Progress towards the completion of the sub-divisional system.

The sub-divisional system in Bengal is gradually approaching completion. In 1845 thirty-four subdivisions were authorised. In 1858 one hundred additional sub-divisions were sanctioned, but the measure was only partially carried into effect. The system has now been more or less completely introduced into the following divisions,-Burdwan, Presidency, part of Dacca, Cooch Behar, Patna, Bhaugulpore, Orissa, and the greater part of Assam. It is in the Rajshahye division, and in some parts of the Dacca and Chittagong divisions, that its further development is required. In Dinagepore there are no sub-divisions, and in Sylhet there have hitherto been none, though the establishment of two has just been ordered; Rajshahye, Rungpore, Tipperah, and Chittagong, have hitherto had only one outlying sub-division a-piece. The table published