Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/168

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160
JOHN RUSSELL COLVIN

Government at Agra. He had marched through much of them; had learned not a little of their circumstances and needs; had personally become acquainted with the various classes by whom they were inhabited, with their agricultural tenures, and with the character of their great cities. He knew many of the leading officers; and to all his name and antecedents were familiar.

Since 1853 the limits and the jurisdiction of the North-West Government have been greatly changed. Subsequently to 1857, considerable tracts, which up to that date had been under the Lieutenant-Governor, were transferred to other administrations. In 1876 Oudh was added to his charge. In 1853 the Province comprised fifty-one districts, with a population of about 35,000,000, the majority being Hindus, mixed with a large and powerful Musalman element. It occupied an area of nearly 120,000 square miles, and numbered about 100,000 townships or villages, contributing to the revenues of India little less than £6,000,000 sterling. It extended from a point on the Sutlej to the frontier of the Bombay district of Khándesh; and from Nímach in the heart of the Rajwára States to the boundary of Nepál. In the superintendence of the judicial affairs the Lieutenant-Governor was assisted by a Chief Court of Appeal, corresponding to the Sadr Court of Bengal in Calcutta, where Mr. Colvin had recently sat. Revenue matters were administered under his authority by a Land Revenue Board. In certain outlying tracts