678 British India, and [JuNE, 



tended to produce. But how stand the facts ? those " stubborn chiels," 

 as Burns sings, which " winna ding, and canna' be disputed ?" The 

 subjoined table will answer. 



Number of gang-robberies committed in the Lower Provinces from 1803 

 to 1825 inclusive, divided into Jive periods. 



Average of each year, from 1803 to 1807 inclusive 1481 

 Ditto of ditto, from 1808 to 1812 inclusive 927 

 Ditto of ditto, from 1813 to 1817 inclusive 339 

 Ditto of ditto, from 1818 to 1822 inclusive* 234 

 Ditto of ditto, from 1823 to 1825 inclusive! 186 



If this be not sufficient to expose the fallacy of Mr. Rickards' state- 

 ments, and their thorough unfitness to be used as premises from which 

 any conclusions may safely be drawn, with regard to the state of crime 

 and police in that part of the country to which they refer, we may state, 

 that in the year 1808, no less than 329 gang-robberies were committed 

 in the single district of Nuddea,| being ninety-five more than the 

 average for the whole of the Lower Provinces, from 1818 to 1822 ; and 

 143 more than the average of the term, from 1823 to 1825. Yet Mr. 

 Rickards is one of the especial guides who has undertaken to conduct 

 the public mind to a right understanding with respect to the condition 

 of the native inhabitants of British India ; and he fills, we understand, 

 the office of crammer to one of the most talented and intelligent mem- 

 bers of a certain noble committee. 



But we have not quite done with Mr. Rickards' notice of gang-rob- 

 beries. He remarks the increase which took place in 1819, as compared 

 with the preceding year, without the most distant allusion to the fact, 

 which may be substantiated by reference to page 8, of the very volume 

 of selections, which he quotes at page 11. That the local government 

 of Bengal had placed upon record their anticipation of such a temporary 

 increase of crime, as the necessary consequence of a regulation passed 

 in 1818, appointing a commission to visit the several district gaols, and 

 release as many of the persons confined as notorious gang-robbers, 

 until they should give security for their good behaviour, as might be at 

 all consistent with the preservation of the public peace. We find ac- 

 cordingly, that no less than 336 persons who were in custody, under 

 the circumstances specified above, were released from the gaol of Nud- 

 dea alone, between the date of the regulation in question, and the close 

 of 1819. The result was, that gang-robbery increased m that juris- 

 diction as under : 



18174. 18187- 181923. 1820-28. 



This deterioration, however, called forth immediate and energetic 

 measures on the part of the officers of police, and the calendars of the 

 four following years show the following returns. 



182111. 182212. 182311. 182410. 



Before the end of 1822, eighty-six more notorious offenders had been 

 set free, leaving only fifty in detention; and in 1823, those, also, would 

 seem to have been allowed to go at large ; nevertheless there was na 

 further increase of crime. 



* This period of course includes the year 1819, in which the increase took place to which 

 Mr. Rickards makes his ostentatious reference. 



f We have no later records at hand for immediate reference. 



\ Bfuddea, or Rishennugger, a district about seventy miles from Calcutta. The Lower 

 Provinces contain twenty-five or thirty other districts of equal extent. 



