proprietors of small estates, or by the sharers in village communities. The greater part of the province is cultivated by tenants possessing no permanent rights. Custom has gradually been giving way to competition in the determination of rents. Much, however, has been lately done to improve the position of cultivators. The Tálukdárs have been wise enough to see that resistance on their part to inevitable reforms is, in their own interest, bad policy, and they have concurred in legislation to render the condition of tenants less precarious. Under an Act passed in 1886, important checks have been placed on enhancement of rent and eviction. Sitting tenants are now, as a general rulewith, however, certain unfortunate exceptions-entitled to continue in undisturbed occupation of their holdings, at present rates, for periods of seven years; and on the expiry of each period they are entitled to renewal at a rent not exceeding by more than 6 per cent. that formerly paid. In all cases compensation is due to tenants before they can be evicted.

In spite of all our mistakes and shortcomings in Oudh, the condition of the people generally is undoubtedly far better than it was before the establishment of our Government. There has been a great increase of cultivation, the means of communication have been immensely improved by the construction of roads and railways, new markets have been opened, the prices of agricultural produce have risen, and the cultivators, although usually very poor, are better fed, better clothed, and better housed than they were.

In speaking of the system under which the assessments of land revenue are periodically revised, and under which land records are maintained, I referred to the improvements that have followed the creation of

a separate department for the control of this branch of the administration. I must return for a moment to this subject.

Lord Mayo was the first Governor-General who gave practical recognition to the value of the study of questions connected with Indian agriculture.

For generations to come,' the Government of India wrote in 1870 to the Secretary of State, the progress of India in wealth and civilisation must be directly dependent on her progress in agriculture. Agricultural products must long continue the most important part of the exports, and the future development of Indian commerce will mainly depend upon the improvement in the quantity and quality of existing agricultural staples, or on the introduction of new products, which shall serve as materials for manufacture and for use in the industrial arts. . . . There is perhaps no country in the world in which the State has so immediate and direct an interest in such questions. The Government of India is not only a Government but the chief landlord. The land revenue, which yields more than 20,000,000l. of her annual income, is derived from that portion of the rent which belongs to the State and not to individual proprietors. Throughout the greater part of India, every measure for the improvement of the land enhances the value of the property of the State. The duties which in England are performed by a good landlord fall, in India, in a great measure, upon the Government. Speaking generally, the only Indian landlord who can command the requisite knowledge is the State.'

In 1870, a separate Department of Agriculture and Commerce was created under the Government of India.

It was foreseen by Lord Mayo that this central department of control would be able to do comparatively little until working departments with similar objects had been established under the local Governments. In 1875, when I was myself Lieutenant-Governor, the first provincial department of Agriculture was created in

the North-Western Provinces, and the example has since been followed in the other provinces of British India.

These departments are still in their infancy, and mistakes have not been infrequent, but they have already led to most valuable reforms. I do not doubt that much will ultimately be done, by the application of more scientific methods, towards the actual improvement of Indian agriculture, but up to the present time the chief work undertaken has been the improvement of the land revenue administration, the better organisation of the system for maintaining accurate land records, and the reform of the methods under which the land revenue is assessed. I have shown some of the advantages which have been already obtained in the North-Western Provinces.

LECTURE X.

AN INDIAN PROVINCE (continued).

THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION-THE COVENANTED AND UNCOVENANTED SERVICES -THE EMPLOYMENT OF NATIVES IN THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION-AN INDIAN DISTRICT-THE MAGISTRATE AND COLLECTOR OR DISTRICT OFFICER -HIS FUNCTIONS-SUBDIVISIONS OF DISTRICTS-THE TAHSILDARS-THE JOINT, ASSISTANT, AND DEPUTY MAGISTRATE AND COLLECTOR-THE POLICE -JAILS-HOSPITALS-SANITATION-PUBLIC WORKS-EDUCATION-MUNI

CIPALITES-LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT-COMMISSIONERS OF DIVISIONS—THE

REVENUE BOARD-HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS-THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR -THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-THE JUDICIAL COURTS-THE RESULTS OF BRITISH ADMINISTRATION-CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE-EMIGRATION— CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE-CRUEL CUSTOMS-CRIME-INFANTICIDECRIMINAL TRIBES.

I NOW propose to give a sketch of the manner in which the administration of an Indian province is carried on, taking, as before, the North-Western Provinces and Oudh as my example. In regard, however, to many matters connected with this subject, I have little to add to what has been already said. I have given in previous lectures some account, more or less generally applicable to the whole of British India, of the constitution of the provincial Governments, of the system under which justice is administered, of the measures taken to encourage education, of the railways and works of irrigation, and of the principal sources of the public income. I shall now speak more particularly of some of the executive branches of the provincial administration, to which I have hitherto made little reference. I will begin by describing the constitution of the Civil Service.

The Civil Service of India is usually but not very accurately said to consist of two great divisions: the Covenanted and the Uncovenanted Service. The Statute of 17931 reserved to the former all the principal civil offices under the degree of member of Council, but the provisions of that law were modified in 1861. An Act of Parliament passed in that year 2 enumerates the offices which, under ordinary circumstances, can only be held by covenanted civilians. It includes the offices of the civil Secretaries and Under-secretaries, the head of the Account department, the Civil and Sessions judges, Magistrates and Collectors of districts in Regulation provinces, Joint and Assistant magistrates and collectors, members of the Board of Revenue, Commissioners of Revenue, and others. Persons not belonging to the covenanted service can only be appointed to these offices, under special circumstances, with the approval of the Secretary of State, and of a majority of his Council.3

The requirements of these statutes have been in one important respect modified by subsequent legislation.

Parliament during the last fifty years has from time to time enacted measures with the avowed object of giving to the Natives of India a larger share in the administration. The Act of 18334 declared that no Native of the said territories, nor any natural-born subject of His Majesty resident therein, shall by reason only of his

1 33 Geo. III. c. 52.

2 24 & 25 Vic. c. 54.

3 The meaning of the term 'covenanted' is as follows: The superior servants of the East India Company were obliged to enter into covenants, under which they bound themselves not to engage in trade, not to receive presents, to subscribe for pensions for themselves and their families, and other matters. This custom has been maintained. Successful candidates, after passing their final examinations, enter into covenants with the Secretary of State before receiving their appointments.

4 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 85.

S