&c. &c., were all effected through the Police, or Kardars, according to convenience; and such orders, and all others, even in the Revenue department, were transmitted by the hand of the plaintiff or petitioner, which opened the door for much bribing and extortion whilst the officer, from whose Court the process emanated, frequently heard nothing more of the case. Fraudulently, debtors were allowed to be imprisoned on the payment of their subsistence money by the decree-holder. No remuneration was given to witnesses summoned in civil suits. Those required in criminal cases were paid, at the discretion of the Court, up to four annas per diem. The adjudication of cases by Punchayat was authorized and recommended; and the Magistrates gladly adopted a system congenial (fortunately) both to themselves and to the people. In suits connected with land, and in cases of undue exaction on the part of a landlord, or of nonpayment of rent on the part of tenants, there was equal confusion and want of system. A perwannah (often loosely worded) to the Kardar generally terminated the case; though it might only have called for information on certain points; and this frequently was never given at all. The evil practice, so common under native governments, was freely adopted in Scinde, viz. that of granting provisional orders, that, if the Kardar on enquiry should find so and so to be the case, then he should do so and so a practice, which was tantamount to the delegation of judicial authority from the Governor down to the lowest order of officials. It has been stated that no stamps were employed: but subsequently five per cent. on the value of property in litigation was ordered to be levied in all cases. In other departments of the administration, it is not to be denied that there were many points of excellence, but in that of civil justice we can see absolutely none.

We turn next to the Police, which Sir Charles Napier has, in his public dispatches, styled "admirable;" and so, in some respects, it was. The European officers were distributed in three divisions; the Captain and a Lieutenant were stationed at Kurrachí, and Lieutenants at Hyderabad and Shikarpúr. The force under these officers consisted of mounted, rural, and town Police. There were in round numbers:

The greater part of these were retained at head-quarters; the remainder were scattered over the country in small detach

ments of three or four men, and a native officer, in charge of a district. The mounted and rural Police were drilled and disciplined, and went into their districts with their arms and accoutrements, the former a fusil and bayonet. The town Police were located only in cities, to patrol the streets. One of the reasons for forming this Police, was to render them capable, on an emergency, of taking the place of regular troops: and this they have often (especially the mounted Police of Upper Scinde) most praiseworthily done in small "dours." But if the Police were not required internally, why raise them at all? And if so required, and they were drawn together to repel foreign attacks, who were to supply their room in the districts? Moreover, when we consider that the greater portion of the Police was nearly always (in bands of a few men) distributed over the country, we cannot expect that their discipline would remain intact. When so situated, such men are better without discipline at all. Their dress and their heavy arms unfitted them for the duties of an active Police. The horse were excellent as patrols, but we speak more of the rural Police. No man, acquainted with the native character, will attempt to deny that a man on seven, or even ten, rupees per mensem, placed in a village far from controul, with extensive powers, will abuse those powers, and do as little active work as may be. Now, it is a known fact in Scinde, that although less evil resulted than might have been expected-yet that the Police in the villages did commit many overbearing acts; that men were kept in the stocks, were sent as prisoners long distances to the nearest Magistrate on frivolous and sometimes groundless charges; that immediate steps were not always taken to apprehend offenders; and that they had the power, and frequently used it, of submitting men of respectability to much inconvenience, if not to absolute disgrace. No regular mode of reporting existed: and the general mode of procedure was to detain a prisoner in the stocks, until the Policeman (frequently a naick or havildar) had made such investigation, as the case appeared to him to require. After, in many cases, a long detention, the prisoner and witnesses were sent in to the Magistrate, even though the Police officer might have considered him innocent. These acts are not to be laid to the policeman, for he had no contrary instructions, whilst vast power was left in his hands: and it would be absurd to suppose that the men, who formed the Scinde Police, were a superior class of men. We do not recollect having heard of any case in which the Police prevented crime, and few in which they even were the bonâ fide apprehenders of criminals. The people trusted in most cases to their own efforts; where crimes

were committed at a distance from the Police station, they were seldom reported; for the inconvenience and discomfort attendant on our Courts were such as prevented a man's willingly coming forward. He knew that he seldom recovered his property through the Government agents; and, if he did, that circumstance was no compensation for the loss sustained by a long journey, and probably longer detention at the Magistrate's Court. In petty cases of assault, petty theft, &c., it was not left optional to the parties to prosecute-not reporting such acts led to the imprisonment of the prosecutor himself. We have said that the people generally trusted to their own exertions to recover their property; and this is certainly advantageous in all countries: but that is no excuse for a Police becoming less vigilant or active. Mutual assistance should be given and received. In most Oriental countries, there exist systems of internal Police of greater or less efficacy according to the nature of the Government. In Scinde, such a system had long existed in great perfection. It may be observed, that the act of tracking up thieves and cattle by their foot-prints was one in general use, and carried out with astonishing success. As the zemindars of villages were held responsible for property so traced to his village, unless he could carry the marks out of it on to the lands of another, it was his interest that his village should boast of one or more able and experienced trackers: and, as they were well paid, they were a numerous body. But it must be borne in mind, that the zemindars had then greater influence in their villages. They were respected and looked up to, and consequently possessed the means of producing the thief, if really in the village; and they received several privileges and immunities for these and other responsibilities attached to their position. Besides this, there were several other village officers, kotwals, and choukidars, who remained at the village, and watched and protected it, receiving for their pay either certain lands at the village, or fees at harvest time in cash or in kind. Now our rule superseded all this internal economy, or at all events disregarded it. It is true we adopted the system of tracking, and acknowledged the responsibility of zemindars in cases, when the prints were taken to their villages. But here the trackers were not the only parties in such pursuits: the Police must be there too and in all cases the tracker must be sent up to the Magistrate, and suffer all the losses attendant thereon. Good trackers therefore became scarce. They bargained not for all their new extra labour and unpaid endurance: it was no longer an honourable and well-paid employment. In many cases, they did not even receive the original fee bargained for; and thus we lost the

best aids to our Police, that could have existed. But if a good tracker was not procurable, one must be forced from the nearest village, who, in all probability, never tracked for twenty yards in his life. His only course was at once to proceed to the next village, and throw the responsibility on the zemindar. What was originally, and is, in itself, an admirable preventative of crime, became under us the means of injustice and oppression, and tended to facilitate crime. Moreover, we had, from a bias against zemindars in theory, and a tendency to uphold their tenants and dependants against them, caused them to lose much of the respect and influence they formerly possessed; and we therefore crippled them in their ability of knowing and watching the internal condition of their villages: at the same time that they lost under us all their former periodical grants in the shape of remissions, lúngis, &c. &c. Was it fair then to continue holding them equally responsible? The people no longer paid, with their wonted regularity, the kotwals and other village officers, who accordingly no longer performed their duties. Government did not enforce them: and all these causes led to the natural result of a general break down of all that was good and useful in the old regime, while in its place was substituted an inefficient and uncongenial Police.

It has been frequently remarked that Sir George Clerk, when Governor of Bombay, and on a visit to Scinde, highly praised the Scinde Police: and, seeing it, as he did, this was no wonder. He came to Kurrachí, stepped on board a steamer, and was conveyed to Hyderabad; whence, two or three days afterwards, he returned by the same conveyance to Bombay. His Excellency therefore had no opportunity of seeing the Police in villages, or of hearing the accounts of villagers: and, highly as we must esteem the opinion of such a man, we cannot, in this instance, take it as at all affecting the real merits of the case. The powers and duties of the European Police and revenue officers were not sufficiently defined. Both were Magistrates: but offences committed by the Police were punishable only by their own officer, and not by the officer, in whose district they were serving; and consequently they had no dread of the latter. If a policeman committed an offence, or neglected his duty, he had to be sent ninety or a hundred miles off sometimes, although two or three Magistrates were located on the road. The one officer complained, and the other retorted: and this constant clashing of their masters led to similar misunderstanding amongst the subordinate native officers. Scinde, from first to last, was a compound of parties.

The Scinde Police has been upheld by some on account of its cheapness. It was certainly small in number: but we must recollect that its duties were limited, and that a great portion of its real duties were thrown on the regular troops. In a country, where the Military and Civil Government was in the hands of one man, this was easy. In Scinde, the guards over Civil Treasuries, the Jail guards, Treasure (civil) escorts, guards over prisoners on the roads at the Central Jail, and the guards over gangs of prisoners sent from one Jail to another, were taken from troops of the line. Deducting all these expenses from the Civil Department in India, or the Punjab, and testing the result, cheap enough would be the Police required for other purposes! Further, we must not forget that, if internal disturbances had taken place, the Police, scattered about in small numbers, could have done nothing by themselves: but there were troops of the line at hand to aid them. There were troops at Sukkur, troops at Shikarpúr, troops at Larkanah, troops at Khangrah, and at out-posts along the frontier, troops at Hyderabad, and troops at Kurrachí! The tranquillity of Scinde is not so much to be ascribed to the Police, as to the presence of the soldiery, and to the natural peaceableness of the people.

As connected with the Police, we cannot pass over the Jails of Scinde. They were, for the most part, inappropriate buildings, admitting no classification of the prisoners. All were kept together and the hardened criminal and the young offender, convicted of a first misdemeanour, worked in irons, side by side. Sufficient attention also was not paid to their food and treatment. No reports have reached the world, but many emeutes have occurred, which, had they happened in India, would have called up a hurricane of indignation, and lengthened enquiries. Prisoners shot en masse in attempting to escape, and gangs effecting such escape, are not incidents unknown to the Scindians, though they are unknown beyond its frontiers. In every country, especially in a newly-acquired one, such occurrences may take place. They are mentioned here to shew that the amazing efficiency and excellence of all Scinde measures are not quite so apparent, as some have wished to shew.

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We have yet one more department to notice, namely, that of the canals and forests. The intention, which led to the formation of this department, was an excellent one. The country, being visited by no periodical rains, was dependent on artificial irrigation, beyond the influence of the inundation of the river. Any thing, therefore, likely to render the means of irrigation more extensively and amply available to