A Contribution Towards a History of the Police in Bengal

The outbreak of the Plague in 1666 was the natural result of the absence of all municipal government and the citizens themselves took up the question and formed voluntary societies one of the principal of which was the Society for the Reformation of manners in the cities of London and Westminster." The Magistrates in London as in the counties at this time were a very inferior class of men and [...] The Ain-i-Akbari gives the following account of the duties of the Fouzdar the Emperor's chief representtive in the provinces of the Mir A'dl and the Kazi his judicial representatives and of the Kotwal the thief police officer of the larger towns :— THE FOUZDAE. [...] From the first till the 19th of the month of Farwardin during the whole of the month of Aban the days of the sun's passage from one sign of the zodiac to another namely the first of every solar month the 16th of the same the Ilahi festivals the days of the eclipse of the sun and moon and on the first-day of the week lie shall prohibit men from slaughtering animals but hold it lawful as ti [...] The latter conducted the trial and stated the law; the other passed judgment and seems to have been the superior authority; the distinction probably arising from the modification introduced by the will of the prince and the customs of the country into the strict Mahometan law of which the cazi was the organ. [...] The chief merchant in the name of the Company stood in the place of the zamindar and the other Europeans whose number was very small and who lived within the compound of the warehouse were in the position of the members of the zamindar's family.