s of the Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of the
North-Western Provinces, now the Agra Province in the United
Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The Begam's history will be discussed in
chapter 75, _post_.

6. The members of the reformed police force, constituted under Act V
of 1861, generally on the model of the Royal Irish Constabulary, have
no reason to complain of insecurity of tenure. It is now very
difficult to obtain sanction to the dismissal of a corrupt or
inefficient officer, unless he has been judicially convicted of a
statutory offence.

7. Ordinarily there is for each district, or administrative unit, a
separate Sessions and District Judge, who tries both civil and
criminal cases of the more serious kind. Occasionally two or three
districts have only one judge between them, who is then usually in
arrear with his work. Sessions for the trial of grave criminal cases
are held monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, according to
circumstances. In some districts, and for some classes of cases, the
jury system has been introduced, but, as a rule, in Northern India
the responsibility rests with the judge alone, who receives some
slight aid from assessors. Capital sentences passed by a Sessions
Judge must be confirmed by two Judges of a High Court, or equivalent
tribunal.

8. The historian Thornton (chapter 27) went so far as to declare that
Lord William Bentinck has 'done less for the interest of India, and
for his own reputation, than any who had occupied his place since the
commencement of the nineteenth century, with the single exception of
Sir George Barlow'. The abolition of widow-burning is the only act of
the Bentinck administration which this writer could praise. Such a
criticism is manifestly unjust, the outcome of contemporary anger and
prejudice. The inscription written by Macaulay, the friend and
coadjutor of Lord William, and placed on the statue of the reforming
Governor-General in Calcutta, does not give undeserved praise to the
much abused statesman. Sir William Sleeman so much admired Lord
William Bentinck, and formed such a favourable estimate of the merits
of his government, that it may be well to support his opinion by that
of Macaulay. The text of the inscription is:

TO

WILLIAM CAVENDISH BENTINCK,

who during seven years ruled India with eminent prudence,
integrity, and benevolence;
who, placed at the head of a great Empire, ne