moral and material progress, the number of murders reported to the police of India is smaller than the number reported in any European State. The Indian Government issue no statistics, so far as I am aware, of the numbers tried; it is, therefore, impossible to institute any comparison between Europe and India upon this important point. But when we come to the number convicted it is again found that India presents a lower percentage of convictions for murder than is to be met with among any other people. It may, however, be urged that the statistical records respecting Indian crime are not so carefully kept as the statistics of a like character relating to England and the Continent. Sir John Strachey assures us that this is not the case; he says that these statistics are as carefully collected and tabulated in India as they are at home, and we may accept them as worthy of the utmost confidence. The following table, which I have prepared from the official documents already mentioned, may, therefore, be taken as giving an accurate account of the condition of India between 1882-6, as far as the most serious of all crimes is concerned. In order to facilitate comparison I have drawn it up as far as possible on the same lines as the other tables in this chapter. --------------------------------------------------------------------- |Population |Years.| Cases of Homicide. | over Ten. | | Reported. Convicted. | ----------------------------------------- | | |Annual |Per |Annual |Per | | |Average.|100,000 |Average.|100,000 | | | |Inhabitants.| |Inhabitants. India|148,543,223|1882-6| 1,930 | 1.31 | 690 | .46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------