made to the peasant proprietors for enabling them to undertake these various improvements; and all such loans were honourably repaid. The district officers, officially styled Magistrates and Collectors, have at all times and in all places throughout India, regarded themselves as the patriarchs of their districts and as the stewards for the improvement of their national estates. But never before had this idea been so firmly grasped by any Civil Governor as by Thomason, by none so fully carried into effect.
His police arrangements on the Grand Trunk Road have been already mentioned. This constabulary belonged to what may be called the regular force; besides this, however, there was the watch and ward in every village, existing from time immemorial; and he improved the status and emoluments of these watchmen when the Settlements, already described, were made with the Village Communities, in the certainty that thereby the efficiency and trustworthiness of this rural constabulary would be augmented. He also paid due attention to prison discipline, the question of indoor labour as against outdoor labour was in his time mooted. The sanitation of all the district jails was greatly advanced, and under him was established at Agra a great central prison which for many years served as a model to northern India.
The public health was probably never out of his thoughts during any day in the year. Medical schools and colleges had not yet begun to exist in northern India, still he obtained many trained Natives
