The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-20 00:00:00

INDIA.

(From the Calcutta Monthly Journal
SUPREME COURT.
CALCUTTA,—TuEspAir, J. 18, Int").

In the course of the day the Grand Jury came into Court, and
made the following presentment :
To the Honourable Sir FRANCIS WORKMAN MACgAOITTF:N,
Knight, Senior Justice, and the lionoura.bh Sir ANTON Y
BuLLER, Knight, Puisne Justice, of the Supreme Court of
Judicature at Fo RT WILLIAM in Bengal.
The Grand Jury, having disposed of all the bills submitted
for their investigation, wait on your Lordships to offer the re-
suit of their deliberations on the important subjects suggested
for their notice from the Bench when entering oh their duties;
and to solicit their discharge.
Your Lordship on that occasion recommended to their atten-
tion the state of the Police of the Town, as twics,efficieney for
the prevention of crime, - and particularly with reference to its
numerical strength.
Sensible of the importance of the qtiestion, as w as of The
respect due tosuggestions thus offered, the Grand Jury did not
fail to obtain such information as might enable them to form
an opinion on the subject; and the result of their mature con-
sideration is, that, whatever improvemenatthe system of the
Police may require, it cannot be considered numerically inef.
ficient.
The 'town of Calcutta, having a river in front, and being
bounded landward by a broad open road, seems particularly
well circumstanced for municipal protection. It is computed
to contain from 70 to 80,000 premises—but it is a remarkable
fact, in respect to its population, and apparently relevant to
the subject, that upon an accurate computation nearly one half
of the people who inhabit it in the pursuit of their occupations
during the day, have their domiciles beyond its boundary, to
which they retire in the evening.
The several Police establishments for the duties of the town,.
are as follows :

On the river, and extending over a space of not more than 6
miles, there are allotted 9 boats, with a comfliment of 108
persons. _ _ _

Round the land boundary, including the riverside, there are
22 stations, with an establishment of 289 men.
In the town there are 40 tannahs, with an establishment of
1,440 persons; among whom are 809 watchman, exclusively
appropriated to night duty, and 480 as a day an night patrole,
within the limits of their respective tannahs:
The Girdwarre and Ooperguslitee establishment consists of
103 men, who are not limited to any particular line of charge,
but left at the disposal of the Magistrates in charge of the
executive police.
The aggregate thus furnishedi exclusive of the Europeans
and others attached to the Police-office, is 1,920 persons, which
is an increase, since 1821, of more than 8(0 men ; and the
Grand Jury submit to your Lordships that this number, duly
distributed, ought to be adequate to the protection of property,
as far as that should be left to the responsibility of ?tiblic esta-
blishments.
Your Lordships are requested to consider the opinion, re-
spectfully submitted, merely as it regards the efficiency of the
Police in respect to number. The Grand Jury are well aware
of the codstant depredations committed in private houses, and
the scarcely less frequent, arjd far more extensive, plunder to
which commercial property is subjected, almost invariably be-
fore it reaches the warehouses of the merchant, and conse-
quently when its security becomes, most-properly the duty of
the police.
In private houses, there appeats much reason to believe that
thefts are very generally committed under circumstances against
which no preventive system could be rendered effectual. The
great number of servants entertained in every family of respecta-
bility, whether European or Native : the habit, in which, all
servants are of leaving.their masters houses at night ; the ignor-
ance, almost unavoidable in Which masters are of the circum-
stances and character of their servants, for the documents pro-
duced as characters arc, it is well, know ter4angeable
commodity among that class of Natives—and the entity of an
individual is not easily ascertained—and thi facilities of ingress
and egress—are all favourable to the commission of crime, and
unfavourable to ita prevention or detection—and so far seems
to exculpate the Police from remissness in its preventive dia.
racier.

But in regard to the depredations committed on merchandiza
arriving by water, either from sea or from the interior of the
country, and which appear to occur either from on board the
ships or boats, or in its transit to or' from the Custom House—..
the Grand Jury lament to say that no such exculpatory circum-
stances can be alleged. They have been informed by the
principal mercantile Houses that this plunder has been carried
to a serious extent ; and that at .length, through the able and
active zeal of one of the magistrates, a large quantity has been
discovered, in consequence of which a circular letter has been
addressed to them—tendering on due recognition their respec-
tive properties in the goods thus recovered. Some have been
found in the town ; but the depots now particularly alluded to
the Grand Jury are at liberty to observe, have been found, in
villages on the banks of the river at some distance from Cal-
cutta ; from which it, appears probable, independent of other
evidence, that the business is mainly conducted on the water,
notwithstanding the existence of nine boats on the police esta-
blishment of the town, besides the Zilah police establishments,
and the pontingent assistance which might be expected from
the Custom House and Salt Agents' boats in the discharge
of their inspection into the passage of property about the
River.

Considering the immense value of the property constantly
afloat, and its particular liability to depredation, the Grand Jury
respectfully submit the expediency of rendering, by every pos-
sible means, the portion of the Police Establishment appro-
priated to the river duty actively efficient; and they conceive
that it might with great advantage be placed under the charge
of one or more Magistrates, wholly devoted to that • Fee vice ; who
might be vested with power to command the co-operation of
the boats belonging to any public Establishment, whose duties
placed them in situations calculated to render their services
available towards the object of their superintendence. And we
venture to suggest that, in such a case, it might prove highly
beneficial if the jurisdiction of the River Police Magistrate
could be made to extend froM the town to the entrance of the
river ; so as to include every place at which ships become sta-
tionary or deliver cam—from which time the goods are exposed
either in course of delivery on board, or subsequently in the
River Craft, to thefts.
Besides the foregoing, the Grand Jury are not prepared to
advance any specific change in the system of the Police—they
are aware that it is a subject of much delicacy-:-of far too much
importance to be duly treated by a bod': convened as they are
for a temporary object of a different nature—and in fact that it
is more properly their province to point out apparent defects
than to suggest remedies. But they trust your Lordships
may consider what has been advanced as naturally, and legi-
timately deducible from the facts they possessed.
It remains only, with reference to your Lordship's charge,
that they express their entire concurrence in the sentiments Or-
pressed of the inadequacy of the punishment provided by the
existing law for the crime of Mayhem. It is to them a matter
of not less surprise than regret, that the representations which
your Lordships appear to have made to the authorities at home
on such a subject, should have remained unnoticed, and thus
have left the perpetrators of an offence, alway's disgustingly
barbarous, and often short of murder, not from want of inten-
tion, but ability to complete it, in the enjoyment, it might al-
most be said, of impunity. They entreat vuar Lordships again
to bring the matter forward, that so heinous an offence may be
placed in its proper grade of criminality,
We have in deputation visited the Gaol and 'louse of Cor-
rection. in both of which the appearance of the prisoners, as
well as that of the occupants, indicated in a most satisfactory
manner that the duties of the officers were faithfully dis-
charged. •
We were shewn, and urged to represent, that the gratings
intended to secure the windows of some of the lower apart-
ments of the Gaol are quite inadequate; the place, through
which a convict lately efrected his escape, continues unaltered.
The Gaoler also stated, that eight convicts, sent from Cey-
lon for transmission to New South Wales a considerable time
ago, are still there without apparent prospect of relief.
IVe also went to the Town Guard, and a place attached to
it denominated the Kuttrah. In Cie former, intended, we
.
apprehend, for the temporary lodgement
.of persons inirnedi-
ately on their apprehension during !nvestigation of the
charges preferred against them, or of the Cases in which they
are supposed to be concerned, we were sin-prised to find one
hundred and eight men, of whom two were in irons, and many
were stated to have been • several months in confinement.
Those on one side the house are persons reported in the felony,
and on the Qther, in the mist:len:var. ltpartrner.z. The 1