I ought to have mentioned that the police of a district, in our Bengal territories, consists of a magistrate and his assistant, who are European gentlemen of the Civil Service; and a certain number of Thanadars, from twelve to sixteen, who preside over the different sub-divisions of the district in which they reside with their establishments.  These Thanadars get twenty-five rupees a month, have under them four or five Jemadars upon eight rupees, and thirty or forty Barkandazes upon four rupees a month.  The Jemadars are, most of them, placed in charge of ‘nakas’, or sub-divisions of the Thanadar’s jurisdiction, the rest are kept at their headquarters, ready to move to any point where their services may be required.  These are all paid by government; but there is in each village one watchman, and in larger villages more than one, who are appointed by the heads of villages, and paid by the communities, and required daily or periodically to report all the police matters of their villages to the Thanadars.[16]

The distance between the magistrates and Thanadars is at present immeasurable; and an infinite deal of mischief is done by the latter and those under them, of which the magistrates know nothing whatever.  In the first place, they levy a fee of one rupee from every village at the festival of the Holi in February, and another at that of the Dasehra in October, and in each Thanadar’s jurisdiction there are from one to two hundred villages.  These and numerous other unauthorized exactions they share with those under them, and with the native officers about the person of the magistrate, who, if not conciliated, can always manage to make them appear unfit for their places.[17]

A robbery affords a rich harvest.  Some article of stolen property is found in one man’s house, and by a little legerdemain it is conveyed to that of another, both of whom are made to pay liberally; the man robbed also pays, and all the members of the village community are made to do the same.  They are all called to the court of the Thanadar to give evidence as to what they have seen or heard regarding either the fact or the persons in the remotest degree connected with it—­as to the arrests of the supposed offenders—­the search of their house—­ the character of their grandmothers and grandfathers—­and they are told that they are to be sent to the magistrate a hundred miles distant, and then made to stand at the door among a hundred and fifty pairs of shoes, till his excellency the Nazir, the under-sheriff of the court, may be pleased to announce them to his highness the magistrate, which, of course, he will not do without a consideration.  To escape all these threatened evils, they pay handsomely and depart in peace.  The Thanadar reports that an attempt to rob a house by persons unknown had been defeated by his exertions, and the good fortune of the magistrate; and sends a liberal share of spoil to those who are to read his report to that functionary.[18]