Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/583

Rh morality and religious hope &quot;which Christian missions represent.

.—Nor are the diversities in race and reli gion among the 66f millions of Bengal less marked than their different capacities for self-government, and the vary ing degrees to which they can be subjected to administrative control. They exhibit every stage of political develop ment, from the great municipality based upon English models, with powers of self-taxation and a public debt of its own, down to the primitive hill-hamlet, which pays no rent, acknowledges no higher tenure than the aboriginal one of priority of occupation, clings to its ancient system of nomadic husbandry, and is scarcely aware of any power superior to that of its own tribe fathers. Including Assam, which up to February 1874 formed a part of Bengal, the territories imder the Lieutenant-Governor consist of five great provinces, each of which speaks a language of its own, and has a separate political and ethnical history. For administrative purposes these five provinces are divided into 58 districts, of which 36 are regulation districts, whose advanced state has rendered it expedient to place them under the complete system of Anglo-Indian law ; while 22 are non-regulation districts, in which this has not yet been found practicable. The latter contain territories of three distinct classes. The first of them consists, for the most part, of newly-acquired territory, to which the general regulations have never been extended in their entirety. The second, of tracts inhabited by primitive races specially exempted from the operation of the regulations, to whom a less formal code of law is better adapted. The third, of Semi-independent or tributary states, administered, or partly administered by British officers. The management of the whole is firmly concentrated in a single man, the Lieu tenant-Governor of Bengal, who is answerable to the Govern ment of India, and through it to Her Majesty s ministers and Parliament. His responsibility is divided by no executive council, as in Madras or Bombay. All orders issue through his secretaries in his own name ; and although his policy is subject to the watchful control of the Govern ment of India, represented by the Viceroy, yet to the lieutenant-Governor personally belongs the reputation or disgrace of a successful or an inglorious administration. In making laws for his people he is assisted by a legislative council, composed partly of his principal officers, partly of leading members of the non-official European and Native communities. In his legislative, as in his executive func tions, a power of control, amounting if needful to veto, rests with the Government of India a power which, from the English talent for harmonious proconsular rule, is very seldom exercised. The administration is conducted by a body of covenanted civilians, supplemented by a few military officers in the less civilised districts, and aided by a staff of subordinate officials. The civilians are appointed direct from England, enter into a bond with the Secretary of State, and give securities for the discharge of their highly responsible duties. In 1871 they numbered 260 men. The military officers belong to the staff corps of the Bengal army, and are employed to the number of 52 in the backward tracts, which do not require so exact an administration, and cannot afford to pay for the cost of it. The subordinate district officials are appointed in Bengal by the Lieutenant-Governor, and consist chiefly of natives and Anglo-Indians ; but several departments, such as the educational, telegraph, and public works, are now officered to a certain extent by gentlemen engaged direct from England, The revenues raised in the territories under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal amounted in 1871-72 to 17,687,072. Of this sum, 16,713,636 accmed from the imperial taxes laid on by the Government of India, and 973,436, from provincial, municipal, and rural taxa tion. The total cost of government was only 6,338,968, leaving a surplus from this single one of the Indian local governments of 11,348,104. It is scarcely too much to say, that so long as the British power retains the port of Calcutta and the rich provinces under the Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal, it would have sufficient revenue to effect the reconquest of India if any accident should happen in the Panjab or north-west. The vast income which the Lower Provinces yield is not altogether derived from their people. China pays an annual tribute of over 5 millions in the shape of opium duty, and the inland parts of India contribute about a third of a million to the customs of Bengal. Taking the total thus obtained from other terri tories at a little over 6 millions, the population under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal pays, in round figures, 11 millions a year, or about 3s. 5d. a head. This includes imperial, provincial, municipal, and rural taxation of every sort. The return which the Government gives for this light taxation may be briefly summed up as follows : It assures to the provinces absolute protection from foreign enemies. The army employed in the territories under the Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal numbers only 11,554 officers and men, exclusive of a detachment of Madras Native infantry stationed at Cattack, in Orissa, and numbering about 600 men making a gross total of troops in Bengal of about 12,000 men. Of this small force 4662 are massed in Calcutta and its environs, with a view to their proximity to the sea-board, rather than with an eye to the internal requirements of the country ; 6892 guard the frontiers, with detachments on the line of railway, which now forms the great highway of Bengal ; a detachment of about 600 effective troops of the Madras Native infantry is stationed in Orissa. Taking 12,000 as the total military force stationed in Bengal, 3000 consist of European troops and English officers, and 9000 of Native officers and men. The Government is a purely civil one, the existence of any armed force being less realised than in the quietest county of England ; and of the 66-f millions of people under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, probably 40 millions go through life without once seeing the gleam of a bayonet or the face of a soldier. Internal order and protection to person and property are secured by a large army of police. This force consists of two elements : a regular constabulary introduced by the English Government, numbering 33,913 men in 1871, and costing 584,059 to the state ; and an indigenous police developed out of the rural watch of the ancient Hindu commonwealth, numbering 184,645 men, and costing 435, 336 a year, paid by grants of land, or by the villages and landowners. The total number of the Bengal police amounts therefore to 217,558, or one man to every 307 of the population; and, excluding uninhabited swamps and hill jungles, about one policeman to each square mile of area. This minute supervision costs just over a million sterling a year, being at the rate of 4, 2s. l/d. per square mile, or 3^d. per head of the population. A great system of state education has been rapidly developed since 1854. In 1871-72 the Government and aided schools numbered 4383, with 7292 teachers, and 163,280 pupils, maintained at a total cost of 194,716, of which Government contributed rather under one-half, or 89,649. The total annual cost of education per pupil was 1, 12s. 9d., of which Government bore under one-half, or 15s.; the remainder being obtained from school fees, local subscriptions, &amp;lt;kc. .Besides these, there were 10,907 ascertained schools not receiving aid from the state, with 1 1,026 teachers, and 169,917 pupils. In addition to these, there is a vast number of petty hedge schools in Bengal, of which no statistics exist. The total of state and ascertained 