Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/210

 and if to transportation, he is shipped off to Singapore. Prisoners are generally employed at road making, out of doors, or in some manufacture if within doors; the proceeds of which go far to meet the expenses of the establishment. Formerly they were allowed so many pice a day to provide for their subsistence, but lately rations have been served out, ready cooked.

It is worthy of remark, that the magistrate is the superintendent of the jail, and that the civil surgeon's duties are only confined to the prisoners when sick. At present the superintendents of jails in Bengal, Agra, and the Punjaub, are medical officers, and it appears to me that the system would work well if all civil surgeons were appointed to be superintendents of zillah jails, the duties of which should be learned during the period of their probation at the general hospital. The civil surgeon has. ample time to devote to that duty which the magistrate has not, and with due care all jails ought to be self-supporting. Of course, extra pay would require to be granted for the extra duty.

4. NATIVE CHARACTER.—No two nations could possibly differ more completely than the British and the Hindostanni They have scarcely a sympathy in common, more than self interest and family affection. Almost all their manners and customs are the reverse of the European; they