selves in possession of as ample a supply of statistics, bearing on crime and criminals, as it may be possible to obtain with the means at their command. We, however, are already in a position to shew that like effects do not spring from like causes in the East and West. Without entering upon any minute details as to the many descriptions of crimes and offences committed in this country by the natives of the land, we will content ourselves with considering them all as classed under the two principal heads to which we have already alluded, viz: crimes and misdemeanors.

In the Appendix* to the Prison Discipline Report of 1838, may be found a very ably-penned communication from the Magistrate of Shahabad to the Officiating Judge of the Court of Circuit for the Division of Arrah, upon the subject of criminals and their treatment in Jail. The remarks therein are so entirely to the purpose of this article, and appear to be written by one so thoroughly conversant with the subject, that we prefer giving the official opinion on the classification of criminals, and the consideration their cases require, in the words employed in the paper.

"I assume it," says the Magistrate of Shahabad," as an axiom, that almost all persons convicted of misdemeanors, are landed proprietors or agriculturists; and that all those convicted of burglary, theft and the higher offences, or connivances at the same, are invariably tradesmen, and mechanics, or persons of the lowest castes, such as domes and gwallas, who can be taught any trade without violence to their religious prejudices. It will be seen that, as far as regards this Zillah, I am justified in the assumption, for out of sixty-five, (the total number sentenced to private labor, when I last made the calculation) there was only one tradesman, the greater proportion being brahmins, rajpoots and persons of the superior classes. This proportion is not accidental. It arises out of the nature of things, and will always continue in the same ratio. Affray is the only prevalent species of misdemeanor. The industrious and well-disposed tradesman has neither interest nor leisure to assist in the com'mission of this offence, while to him, of opposite habits and disposition, felony is a more lucrative source of transgression. The same observation applies to persons of the lower orders above specified. They have little or no interest in the soil, the fertile parent of affrays. In cases of misdemeanor, the reformation of the offender is not the object. His general character may be excellent. The chief, and perhaps the only object in such cases, is to deter him by punishment from a repetition of

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Appendix, No. 31.

the offence. The persons whose reformation of character is ⚫ principally desirable, are those who are guilty of felonies, among which theft and robbery are the most prominent. But this re'formation can only be effected by infusing into such persons a habit of industry; and to ensure this, an active and vigilant superintendence over their labors is requisite. They are too easy in their circumstances to work for the sake of the compensation; ' and the terms of their imprisonment are comparatively too short • to make it worth their while to work out their liberation. The

other description of offenders have, on the contrary, every inducement to prove themselves worthy of indulgences held out, and many of them would, I am convinced, manifest the disposition, if they had the opportunity, to display their industry; considering therefore private task-work as the best method of stimulating industry,-and industry to be essentially necessary to reformation,—and reformation to be only or chiefly requisite in the cases of persons convicted of felonies and the more serious offences, I am of opinion, that private labor ought to be includ'ed generally in the sentences of thieves and robbers."

The official report goes on to advocate, on the same grounds, that, as far as a public example is concerned, prisoners of a superior grade convicted of misdemeanors, should be placed to work in public on roads or some such occupation, where their employment would act in a salutary manner by impressing the minds of rich and poor, that offended justice is no respecter of persons; whilst to place the poor wretch who committed an offence of a higher character under the extreme pressure of destitution and hunger, in the like position, would not only be without effect on himself, but also on others, who would be rather tempted to pity the poor creature, whilst he would be in no degree reformed by this mode of punishment.

As regards the influence which the employment of the convict during confinement, may have on his after-conduct and occupation, the same authority is equally clear and emphatic :

Proceeding on the principle which I have assumed, and ' which I hold to be incontrovertible, that persons guilty of thefts, burglaries, and the higher offences, are, generally speaking, either tradesmen and mechanics, or domes, gwallas, dosauds, pusbans, and other persons of low caste, who have no prescribed occupation, and who can exercise any handicraft without detriment to their religious persuasion; and that those convicted of misdemeanors are agriculturists and persons of the superior classes; the inference I think must follow, that as to the question of inculcating habits of industry to be available to the prisoner on his release from confinement, the object must be in a great measure defeated by the restrictions pre

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scribed by the Nizamut Adawlut; for, by employing the first description of offender on the roads, he loses his familiarity with his own proper art in which he has been educated, and acquires no other which can be serviceable to him afterwards; while, by employing the second description in manufactures, no ultimate benefit will accrue to the individual; for it is obvious, that he will not continue an occupation through choice, 'which he was driven into by compulsion, and to which his nature is averse. Thus neither class would be benefitted by employment which they would relinquish the moment they were at liberty to do so those who had been accustomed to any particular trade or manufacture, would be positively injured by a long discontinuance from the exercise of their skill; while 'those of the inferior classes, to whom no handicraft had been familiar, would leave the Jail with their morals probably unimproved, and in a state of total incapacity to provide an honest livelihood for themselves and families; their future support ' depending mainly on their own exertions, from the unwilling'ness notoriously displayed by the respectable part of the community, to take into service persons who have been punished for theft and similar offences. Had they been taught while in confinement the simple art of making baskets even, they might easily have secured an honest and independent livelihood. Those of the highest tribes, on the other hand, who have been 'compelled to engage in manufactures which form the occupation of the inferior classes, will return to their families with a reputation blemished from no fault of their own; and with a stigma annexed to their characters which no plea of want of free agency can wholly remove. To degrade a man in the 'estimation of others, and consequently in his own, is not the most likely mode of making him a virtuous member of the community. In every light in which I can view the subject, to insure honest industry after liberation, it appears to me that 'misdemeanors should generally be punished with public, and thefts and similar offences, with private labor."

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Whether criminal statistics of the present day would bear out the statement contained in the Report of 1838, as to the classes chiefly committing crimes and misdemeanors, may be left. an open question; though we cannot avoid the belief that a considerable number of those convicted of the more serious offences, are in some districts of the agricultural class. An inundation, or a long continued want of rain, will sometimes so blight the prospects of the poorer class of ryots, that absolute destitution not unfrequently drives them to the commission of offences. other than mere misdemeanors.

But be this as it may, we are agreed in the maintenance of

the great principle contended for in the Official Paper quoted from above. Whether regarded as a means of reformation and occupation in after life, or as a source of present remuneration in aid of their cost to the state, the employment of prisoners should be such as we have indicated, as much as possible in conformity with their previous occupations, as well as of a nature likely to be adopted by them in their after-career. Although it would be highly desirable that we possessed data, as to the after-career of liberated prisoners, in order to judge of the moral effect of their punishment, we need no statistics to assure us that an agricultural laborer put to weaving, or carpentering, or smith-work whilst incarcerated, will not follow any such occupation on his return, however skilful he may become in his forced calling; but will, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, prefer his own caste profession, poorly though it may remunerate him, and uncertain though it may be.

Equally certain are we that the petty trader, or dealer, or artificer, who may be put to agricultural, or any description of out-door or field work, would not take to it under almost any inducement when liberated, but would prefer having recourse to the calling in which he had been brought up from his early days. The well-known character of the natives of this country leads us to this belief, a conviction which scarcely requires proof in tabulated returns.

It follows then as a natural consequence of this conclusion, that we are wasting time and flinging behind us our opportunities for good, in teaching a ryot to make gunny bags or table-covers, bathing-stools or frying-pans; and that the sooner we put him to something more just, prudent and profitable in a moral and economical point of view, than making roads or pounding soorkie, the better for humanity, the better for the State. Every native reclaimed from the chances of a re-commission of his offences, is an honest man gained to the community. Somebody once said that the worst use we can put a man to, is to hang him we turn him to but little better use, when we herd him with others in a limited space, in close contact with the worst criminals, to exasperate and worry him with some hateful occupation, when perhaps the poor wretch committed the offence for which he suffers under the pressure of extreme want.

Whilst we are quite of opinion, with the writer of the document just quoted, as regards the work to be exacted from nonagricultural offenders, and those who may have been guilty of affrays, tumults, &c., we would advocate the use of some agricultural labour for ryot offenders against the laws, whose offences were thought of a serious character. In all industrial occupation

within or without our Jails, let the teaching be of an improving, an elevating character. Every new idea you can instil into the mind of the poorest ryot, every improved process you can introduce amongst the most abject class of toilers on the soil, at the loom or at the forge, will prove the germ of after good; the spring for some future stream of thought, polluted and unsightly at its source, but as it flows onwards becoming purified and wholesome.

We are in the habit of complaining that the Hindus are impregnable to new processes, and hopelessly attached to the ancient systems of their country. Let us then introduce improvements, when the power of doing so is in our hands, by the instrumentality of convicts. The native is given to doubt the value of any new method; it is most difficult to persuade him, that time, and trouble and outlay on some time-honored system, will yield sure and ample returns. If we can but demonstrate the truth of our new theory by practical illustration, we shall generally succeed in overcoming all the opposition. The reason why so little has been done in India in the way of improving agricultural or other processes, has been that no persons were to be found willing to incur the first experimental outlay. Let those experiments be made by means of Jail labor in the vicinity of our Jails, and at the cost of Jail funds. Let the State bear the brunt of it in the first instance, for, in the long run, the State will be the great gainer.

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If we are not greatly mistaken, Dr. Mouat has already made some proposal of this kind to the Government. Most cordially do we back the suggestion. Let it be tried by all means. Every novelty is at first regarded in the light of a vexatious innovation. We remember when the "Road Ordinance was introduced into Ceylon, compelling every man to give six days' labor, or the equivalent in money, towards the construction of new roads, the opposition to it was most violent. But the Government were firm; and at the end of the first year, so sensible had the natives become of the benefit derived from the law, that in many districts, they volunteered ten and twelve days' labor!

We can see no practical objection to the formation of small model farms attached to some of our Jails, where circumstances will allow of its being done without incurring too heavy an outlay for guards. Can we for a moment doubt the ultimate value to the country of improvements in the preparation of the soil, in the system of rotation of crops, in the agricultural implements employed, in the application of manures, in the better cultivation and preparation for the market of such plants as hemp, flax and jute? Let these or some of them be put in practice on