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188 District Judge was charged with the conduct and supervision of civil justice within his jurisdiction. The functions of the District Magistrate were confined, more or less, to the pursuit and detection of crime, the trial of the less heinous offences, the police, the collection of the revenue, and the general executive work and government of the District. Under Lord Dalhousie's system all the duties of administration, judicial, revenue and police, were firmly combined in the hands of one officer, the Deputy Commissioner, as the head of the District, aided by assistants under his immediate orders.

In process of time this Non-Regulation system has undergone changes in both its essential aspects. As the country settled down and required a more detailed administration, the Chief Commissioner developed into a Lieutenant-Governor, and a Local Government with large powers of independence was created for the Province. Thus the Punjab is now a separate Lieutenant-Governorship; Oudh has been united with the North-western Provinces under a Lieutenant-Governor; and the creation of a Lieutenant-Governorship for Burma (Upper and Lower) is one of the current Indian proposals of the day. In like manner, as the people grew in prosperity, and as the legal questions attendant upon the growth of industry and trade became more complex, a separation gradually began to take place between the judicial and the executive