Page:A Statistical Account of Bengal Vol 1 GoogleBooksID 9WEOAAAAQAAJ.pdf/102

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TOWNS OF THE 24 PARGANAS
87

martial, condemned, and hanged before all the troops in garrison, the former on the 8th and the latter on the 22d April.

The 19th Regiment, from Barhampur, marched into Barrackpur to their disbandment on the 31st March, the sentence being carried into execution in the presence of all the available troops, European and Native. As a mark, however, of their penitence and good conduct on the march from Barhampur, the sentence was not accompanied with any marks of disgrace. They were not stripped of their uniforms, and were provided at the public cost with carriage to convey them to their homes. In the case of the 34th, however, who had stood by while their officers were being shot at, clemency was out of the question, and on the 6th of May the seven companies of the regiment who had witnessed the outrage were drawn up to receive their sentence of disbandment. There was no mitigation of punishment as in the case of the 19th; so, when they had laid down their arms, the uniforms which they had disgraced were stripped from their backs, and they were marched out of cantonments under an escort of Europeans, the number of the regiment being erased from the Army List. The subsequent spread of the mutiny belongs to the general history of British rule in India, and has found an eloquent chronicler in Sir John William Kaye.

(13) Satkhira.—The headquarters of the Subdivision of the same name, situated on the Betná River; area of town, 7808 acres, or 12.20 square miles; 1942 houses. Population, according to the experimental Census of 1869, males, 4543; females, 4394—total, 8937. Population as ascertained by the Census of 1872: Hindus, males, 2411; females, 2024—total, 4435. Muhammadans, males, 2327; females, 2217—total, 4544. Total of all denominations, males, 4738; females, 4241—grand total, 8979. Average number of persons per house, 4.6; number of persons per square mile, 736. Municipal income in 1869, £254, 12s. 0d.; expenditure, £167, 4s. 9d. Income in 1872, £253, 4s. 0d.; expenditure, £297, 12s. 0d. Rate of taxation, d. per head of the population. The Municipal Police force for the protection of the town consists of 1 head constable and 18 men. Major Smyth, in his report on the District, states that Sátkhirá ‘contains many Hindu temples, a large native school or Pátsálá, and a dispensary in charge of a native sub-assistant surgeon from the Calcutta Medical College. The school is entirely supported by the zamíndár, who has established it for the education of the better class of his tenants. The dispensary is a recognised