The New System Compared with the Old--Early Difficulties Gradually Overcome--The Village Police in India--Discreditable Methods under the Old System--Torture, Judicial and Extra-judicial--Native Dislike of Police Proceedings--Cases of Men Confessing to Crimes of which they were Innocent--A Mysterious Case of Theft--Trumped-up Charges of Murder--Simulating Suicide--An Infallible Test of Death--The Paternal Duties of the Police--The Native Policeman Badly Paid. The regular police of India, as it is now constituted, dates from the disappearance of the East India Company. Under the old system, taking Bengal for our example, the district magistrate, a member of the Civil Service, was the head of the district police. He had under his orders a certain number of constables, fifty or more, who were called _burkundazes_; they were distributed among the various stations or _thannahs_, each of which was under a thannadar, who was more commonly called a _darogah_, and was practically a police superintendent. This officer was responsible to the magistrate only, just as the magistrate was directly responsible to the supreme Government. But after 1859 the police throughout the province of Bengal, and eventually throughout India, was constituted into a special department; the regular force became a species of Government constabulary, under the central authority of an Inspector-General seated at Calcutta, with Deputy-Inspectors and Superintendents in charge of divisions and districts respectively. The senior police official in every district, generally a military officer, was associated with and subject to the orders of the magistrate in all executive duties, such as the repression of crime and the maintenance of peace and good order; but as regards administration, in all questions of pay, clothing, promotion, and so forth, the chief police officer looked to his police superior, the Inspector-General. Nevertheless, the character of the new police was as little military as [Illustration: A COURT OF JUSTICE IN THE JUNGLE.] it could be made consistently with the control and discipline of a large body of men. Constables learnt the rudiments of drill, and wore uniform, but were seldom armed except when employed in gaols or to guard treasuries. As a general rule supervision was entirely entrusted to Europeans, but there was a superior grade of native officer fairly well paid. Yet the service was not generally popular, owing to persistent local prejudices, and good material was not always available either for sub-officers or for constables. Natives preferred to enter the fiscal and administrative departments.