TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 95 
pean and native, with few exceptions, appear to have got through the current business 
of each year; and to a greater or less extent to have diminished the arrears of former 
ears. 
: The administration by natives appears to have worked quite as well as before; 
from ninety-seven to ninety-nine per cent. of the whole civil business having been 
performed by them; and sufficiently well performed, if the amount of appeals, and 
number of reversals of decisions, be the standards by which to judge. A decided 
improvement has taken place in the shortening the average duration of suits in all 
the courts under the Bengal and Agra governments; in the highest court of appeal, 
(corresponding to Chancery) from one year seven months and eight days in 1841, to 
one year and one month in 1844. The Zillah and city judges (European) shortened 
the time of their average decisions from ten months and eleven days in 1841, to seven 
months and seven days in 1844; the principal Sudder Ameens from seven months 
and ten days, to five months and twenty-two days; the Sudder Ameens from eleven 
months and fourteen days, to five months and five days; and the Moonsiffs from five 
months and nineteen days, to four months and fourteen days, from 1841 to 1844 re- 
spectively; the last three descriptions of judges being natives. The Agra judges 
were a still shorter average time in their decisions than those of Bengal,—the Su- 
preme Appellate Court reducing its time from seven months and thirteen and a half 
days, to six months and eighteen days; the European Zillah judges from seven 
months and three days, to four months and sixteen days; the principal Sudder Ameens 
from three months and eleven days, to three months and seven days; and the Moon- 
siffs from three months and one day, to two months and twenty-one days. ‘The Sud- 
der Ameens had slightly increased their former average time. 
The value of the litigated property before the tribunals in Bengal, varied from 
7,845,178/. in 1841, to 3,006,154. in 1844; before those of Agra, for the same 
petiods, from 1,637,941/. to 1,442,8612. 
Colonel Sykes observes, that an opinion obtains in England, and even in India, 
that the land-tax is oppressive to the cultivators or farmers; but under the Bombay 
government for the years 1842, 1843, and 1844, the only farmers or cultivators in 
jail at the instance of government for arrears of land-tax were nine, five, and two 
only for the respective years; and as this was out of a population of between six and 
seven millions of souls, it cannot be believed that the land-tax is of the oppressive 
character represented. 
Statistics of the Criminal Courts of India. By Lieut.-Colonel Syxzs, F.R.S, 
The author submitted detailed tables of the operation of the various criminal 
courts under the four governments of Bengal, Agra, Madras, and Bombay. The 
want of a common form for the returns from the several courts under the respective 
governments occasioned discrepancies in the amount of the information supplied; 
a drawback upon the utility of the returns which can be easily remedied. In the 
Bengal courts, out of 322,394 prisoners tried in the four years, from 1841 to 1844, 
both inclusive, 112 offenders were condemned to death, being only 0-034 per cent. of 
the whole offenders, or one in 2878 criminals. In the Madras courts 271,842 
offenders were tried during the four half-years, commencing with the second half of 
1842 and ending with the first half of 1844, both inclusive ; of this number eighty- 
four were condemned to death, or 0-031 per cent., or one in 3286 criminals; a 
singular approximation to the proportions under Bengal. In the Bombay courts, in 
the years 1843 and 1844, there were tried 113,080 offenders, and of this number 
forty were condemned to death ; being 0-035 per cent., or one in 2827 criminals; 
a still closer approximation to the Bengal proportions than the Madras returns gave. 
The criminal courts of Bengal, Agra and Bombay, permit of appeals against their 
sentences to the Nizamut or Foujdary Adawlut, the supreme criminal court; and the 
importance of this privilege is manifested by the fact, that the Nizamut Adawlut of Bom- 
bay, in 1843, annulled ninety sentences and mitigated eighty-nine others out of 1021 
appealed. Important modifications or revocations of sentences appear also to have 
taken place under the Agra government. The Bengal returns do not show the 
decisions in appeals; and, under the Madras government, the returns do not indicate 
that appeals are permitted. 
Under all the governments in India, transportation for life in lieu of imprisonment 
