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 202 INDIA British ministry, who is assisted by a council of 15 persons, 9 of whom must have had at least 10 years' experience in India. Originally 7 of these councillors were appointed by the East India company, but the secretary of state for India has the power to fill future vacancies. Their term of office is 10 years. The law- making power is vested in the governor gen- eral in council. The seat of government is at Calcutta. The governors of Madras and Bom- bay are appointed directly by the crown, but the lieutenant governors and commissioners of the other provinces are appointed by the vice- roy subject to the approval of the crown. The governor general's council consists of five or- dinary members, and the commander-in-chief of the army as an extraordinary member. The military force maintained by the British govern- ment in India in 1872 numbered 190,264 men, of whom, exclusive of officers, 60,632 were English, stationed chiefly in the Punjaub and along the valley of the Ganges. All appoint- ments to the civil service are made upon com- petitive examination. The district is the unit of the general civil administration of the Brit- ish in India. The districts vary greatly in area and population, as, for example, from 1,200 to 12,000 sq. m., and from 500,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants. The chief government official in each district is the collector and magistrate. He receives the revenue, is in- trusted with magisterial powers and certain ju- dicial functions, and is generally responsible for the public welfare. He is usually aided by several deputies and assistants. The highest judicial authority in the district is vested in the district judge, who exercises original juris- diction in criminal cases, reviews the judicial determinations of the collector and magistrate, and hears appeals from the numerous civil courts held by native judges. There are high courts at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, with general appellate jurisdiction, special powers concerning cases affecting Europeans, and origi- nal local jurisdiction. A code of criminal pro- cedure regulates the administration of the laws relating to offences. With the exception of Nepaul and Bootan in the north, the native states of India are all more or less subject to British control or interference. Estimates of the area and population of these states appear in the following table : NATIVE STATES UNDER Art* in sq. m. Population. 885,296 79.156 5.890 48.8T7 28,899 81.953 72,076 27.71 6.3T.2 2.189,565 1,284.691 6,086,502 1,095,275 2.871.883 6,552,170 Vhwest Provinces Central Provinces. Total native states 646,147 46,245,888 In the north, British supremacy is acknowledged in Cashmere, although that country is not in- cluded in the above estimates. Bhawalpoor is the next in importance of the states supervised by the Punjaub government, which also super- intends the Sikh districts lying between the Sutlej and the Jumna. Further S. is Rajpoot- ana, the agent for which resides at Ajmeer, in the small British district of that name, in the centre of the country. The native states of central India form what is called the Indore agency. Among them are Gwalior, Bhopal, and the Mahratta country. Guzerat, Catty- war, and Cutch are under the Bombay admin- istration. In the Deccan, the chief dependen- cy is Hyderabad. The Madras government presides over Cochin and Travancore in the extreme south. The French possess Pondi- cherry and Carical on the Coromandel coast, and Mahe on the Malabar coast, as well as the town of Chandernagore, 17 m. N. of Calcutta; but the aggregate area of the French colonial possessions in India is estimated at only 196 sq. m., and the population at about 260,000. The territory of Goa, on the Bombay coast, Damaun, a seaport of North Concan, and Diu island off the southern coast of Cattywar, are colonies of Portugal. Goa has an area of about 1,000 sq. m. and contains about 418,000 inhab- itants. The principal mountains and rivers of India have been referred to in the general description of the country. The respective lengths of the chief rivers are : the Indus, 1,960 m. ; the Ganges and Brahmapootra each over 1,500 m., if the latter be regarded as including the Sanpo ; Jumna, a tributary of the Ganges, 800 ; Sutlej, a branch of the Indus, 900 ; Che- naub, a tributary of the Indus, 750 ; Gunduck, a branch of the Ganges, 400 ; Godavery, 900 ; Kistnah, -800; Nerbudda, 800; Mahanuddy, 550; Cavery, 470; and Taptee, 450. India, considering its great extent, is singularly de- ficient in lakes. In the province of Orissa is the Chilka lake, 44 m. long and from 5 to 20 m. broad; and on the Coromandel coast is the Pulicat lake, 33 m. long and llm. broad. These, however, are salt, and are in fact little more than lagoons formed by the sea breaking over the lov sandy shore. There are a few other lakes, but none of much size. The cli- mate of India varies from that of the temper- ate zone in the Himalaya to the tropical heat of the lowlands. On the central and southern ta- ble lands the climate is comparatively mild, the thermometer falling as low as the freezing point in winter ; but on the great plains which contain the principal cities and the bulk of the population the heat during the greater part of the year is excessive, the thermometer fre- quently rising to 100 and 110' F. A marked influence is exercised on the climate and sea- sons of Hindostan by the winds called mon- soons, which blow half the year from the S. W. and the other half from the N. E. The S. W. monsoon begins in the south of Hindostan early in June, and in the north somewhat later. It brings with it from the Indian ocean floods of rain, which continues to fall at intervals un- til the end of September. During this rainy