Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/798

774 774 INDIA [ADMINISTRATION. only lately taken its place in the accounts, and is due to the circum - stance that large payments in gold require to be made in England by means of the depreciated rupee. It is, of course, not a matter of expenditure proper, but merely the result of a peculiar mode of book-keeping, which estimates the rupee at the arbitrary value of 2s. In 1869-70 the loss by exchange was more than balanced by an equally nominal entry of gain by exchange on the other side of the ledger. In 1876-77 this item attained its maximum of nearly 1| million net. The expenditure on public works is provided from three sources (1) the capital of private companies, with a Govern ment guarantee, (2) loans for the construction of railways and canals, (3) current revenue applied towards such works as are con sidered to be not directly remunerative. In 1877-78 the total capital raised by the guaranteed railway companies was 95^ millions, and the net earnings were 5 millions, thus showing on the average a satisfactory balance-sheet. In the ten years ending with 1878 29 millions were expended under the second head upon works classed as reproductive or extraordinary, of which 19 millions were appro priated to state railways and 10 millions to irrigation. The amount spent from revenue upon ordinary public works in 1877-78 was nearly 3| millions. The division of the expenditure into that paid in India and that paid in England becomes of importance when it is remembered that the latter portion requires to be provided in gold. In 1877-78, out of the total expenditure of 62 millions, 48 j millions, or 78 per cent. , were paid in India, and 14 millions, or 22 per cent., in England, including the guaranteed interest of the railway.companies. Local Finance. Independent of imperial finance, and likewise independent of certain sums annually transferred from the imperial L 1 exchequer to be expended by the provincial governments, there is fi;, ce another Indian budget for local revenue and expenditure. That consists of an income derived mainly from cesses upon land, and ex pended to a great extent upon minor public works. In 1877-78 local revenue and expenditure were each returned at about 3 millions. Municipal Finance. Yet a third budget is that belonging to the M {. municipalities. The three presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras, c i and Bombay had in 1876-77 a total municipal income of 668,400, fij ce of which 519,322- was derived from taxation, being at the rate of 7s. per head of population. In addition, there Avere 894 minor municipalities, with a total population of 12,381,059. Their aggre gate income was 1,246,974, of which 979,088 was derived from taxation, being at the rate of Is. 7d. per head. In the presidency towns, rates upon houses, &c. , are the chief source of income ; but in the district municipalities, excepting Bengal, octroi duties are more relied upon. On the side of expenditure the chief items are conservancy, roads, and police. Army. At the present time (1881) the entire constitution of the A y, Indian army is under the consideration of a commission. The ex isting organization is based upon the historical division into the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay There are still three Indian armies, each composed of both European and native troops, with their own commanders-in-chief and separate staff, though the commaiider-in-chief in Bengal exercises a supreme authority over the other two. Theruis also a fourth army, known as the Punjab fron tier force, which, though on the Bengal establishment, is under the immediate orders of the lieutenant-governor of the province. Established Strength of the Indian Army in 1877-78. Native Troops. European Troops. Grand Total. Artillery. Cavalry. Engineers Infantry. Body- Guard. Total. Artillery. Cavalry. Engineers. Infantry. Staff, &amp;lt;fec. Total. Bengal armv .. 748 13,016 1,743 3,587 1,241 1,461 537 48,806 31,081 22,296 122 8 72 63,933 34,293 38,355 6,879 2,811 2,549 2,898 966 483 232 1 57 1 68 1 29,420 8,271 8,271 854 628 339 40,283 12,733 11,710 104,216 47,026 38,355 Madras, , Bombay, , 153 Totals 901 18,346 3,239 102,183 202 124,871 12,239 4,347 357 1 45,962 1,821 64,726 189,597 Police. Excluding the village watch, which is still maintained as a subsidiary force in many parts of the country, the total regular police of all kinds in British India in 1877 consisted of a total strength of 157,999 officers and men, being an average of one police man to every 7| square miles of total area or to every 1096 of the total population. The total cost of maintenance was 2,511,704, of which 2,165,073 was payable from imperial or provincial revenues. The former figure gives an average cost of 3 per square mile of area and 3d. per head of population. The average pay of ach constable was 7 rupees a month, or 8, 8s. a year. Jails. In 1877 the total number of places of confinement in British India, including central and district jails and lock-ups, was 636 ; the total number of prisoners admitted during the year, or remaining over from the previous year, was 587,288 ; the daily avera^a was 118,456113,087 males and 5369 females. These figures show 1 male prisoner to every 868 of the male population, 1 female prisoner to every 17,244 of the female population, and 1 pri.soner to every 1618 of the total population of both sexes. The places of transportation for all British India are the Andaman and jJicobar Islands, where there are two penal establishments; these contained in 1.877 a daily average of 9145 convicts. EDUCATION. The existing system of education in India is mainly dependent upon the Government, being directly organized by the state, at least in its higher departments, assisted throughout by grants-in-aid, and under careful inspection. But at no period of its history has India been an altogether unenlightened country. The origin of the Deva-Nagari alphabet is lost in antiquity, though that is generally ad mitted not to be of indigenous invention. Inscriptions on stone and copper, the palm-leaf records of the temples, and in later days the wide-spread manufacture of paper, all alike indicate, not only the general knowledge, but also the com mon use, of the art of writing. From the earliest times the caste of Brahmans has preserved, by oral tradition as well as in MSS., a literature unrivalled alike in its antiquity and in the intellectual subtlety of its contents. The Mahometan invaders introduced the profession of the historian, which reached a high degree of excellence, even as compared with contemporary Europe. Through all changes of government vernacular instruction in its sim plest form has always been given, at least to the children of respectable classes, in every large village. On the one hand, the tols or seminaries for teaching Sanskrit philosophy at Benares and NadiyA recall the schools of Athens and Alexandria ; on the other, the importance attached to in struction in accounts reminds us of the picture which Horace has left of a Roman education. Even at the present day knowledge of reading and writing is, owing to the teaching of Buddhist monks, as widely diffused throughout Burmah as it is in some countries of Europe. English efforts to stimulate education have ever been most success ful when based upon the existing indigenous institutions. During the early days of the East India Company s. rule the promotion of education was not recognized as a duty of Government. The enlightened mind of Warren Hastings did indeed anticipate his age by founding the Calcutta madrasa for Mahometan teaching, and by affording steady patronage alike to Hindu pandits and European students. But Wellesley s schemes of imperial dominion did not extend beyond the establishment of a college for English officials. Of the Calcutta colleges, that of San skrit was founded in 1824, when Lord Amherst was governor-general, the medical college by Lord William Bentinck in 1835, the Hooghly madrasa by a wealthy native gentleman in 1830. The Sanskrit college at Benares had been established in 1791, the Agra college in 1823. Meanwhile the missionaries made the field of vernacular education their own. Discouraged by the official authori ties, and ever liable to banishment or deportation, they not only devoted themselves with courage to their special work of evangelization, but were also the first to study the vernacular dialects spoken by the common people. Just as two centuries earlier the Jesuits at Madura, in the l All Officers.