BENGAL.
319
Saiteuce continued frotn p. 317.]
This Board consists of two members, each of in
own department
his
revenue, the second to
branch agents
although the
all
stationed latter
devoting
other
exercises full powers
attention
sources of revenue.
to
the
land
The opium two opium
is
at
the agents are subordinate to the
aided by a local
whom
his
under the management of Patna and the other at Ghazipur; but station lies in the North-Western Provinces, both
revenue
of the
— one
one
staff
Government of Bengal. They are and sub-deputy agents. At the
of assistants
head of the Gustoms is a special Collector. The minor custom-houses Chittagong and Orissa are under the control of the District Officers. It is scarcely too much to say that, so long as the British power retains the port of Calcutta and the rich Provinces under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, it would have sufficient revenue to effect the re-conquest of India if any accident should happen in the Punjab or North-West. But the vast income which the Lower Provinces yield is not altogether derived from their own people. China yearly contributes to it about millions in the shape of opium duty, and the inland parts of India contribute over a third of a million to the customs of Bengal. Taking the average thus obtained from other territories and from tributes at under 8 millions, the population subject to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal pays, in imperial, provincial, local, and municipal taxation, nearly 12 millions sterling gross, or about three shillings and sixpence a at
head.
—The
army employed in the territories under the Bengal numbered in 1881-82 only 7875 officers and men, exclusive of a regiment of Madras Native Infantry 720 strong, stationed at Cuttack in Orissa; making a gross total of Of this small force about 4000 troops in Bengal of about 8500 men. are massed in Calcutta and its environs, with a view to their proximity Military Force.
Lieutenant-Governor of
an eye to the internal requirements about 4000 guard the frontiers, with detachments on the lines of railway, which now form the great highways of Bengal. to the seaboard, rather than with
of the country
Taking 8500 as the total military force stationed in Bengal, 2800 consist of European troops and English officers, and 5700 of Native officers and men. The Government is a purely civil one, and the existence of any armed force is as little realized as in the quietest districts of England. Of the 69^ millions of people under the LieutenantGovernor of Bengal, probably 40 millions go through life without once seeing the gleam of a bayonet or the face of a soldier. Internal order and protection Police, and Criminal and Civil Justice. for person and property are secured by a large body of police. This a regular constabulary introduced by force consists of two elements the English Government, and an indigenous police developed out of
—
