500
Penal servitude 1,707
Imprisonment 175,795
Fines 628,092
Over two years' imprisonment 7,576
Between one and two years 39,067
Between fifteen days and one year 86,653
Under fifteen days 34,517

The following were the most serious crimes in 1902:

Arrests. Convictions.
Offenses against public peace 15,190 5,088
Murder 3,255 1,102
Assault 42,496 12,597
Dacoity or highway robbery 3,320 706
Cattle stealing 29,691 9,307
Ordinary theft 183,463 45,566
House-breaking 192,353 23,143
Vagrancy 25,212 18,877
Public nuisances 216,285 201,421

The following table will show the total daily average of prisoners,
men and women, serving sentences for penal offenses in the prisons
of India during the years named:

Men. Women. Total.
1892 93,061 3,142 96,202
1893 91,976 2,988 94,964
1894 92,236 2,941 95,177
1895 97,869 3,216 101,085
1896 100,406 3,280 103,686
1897 109,989 3,277 113,266
1898 103,517 2,927 106,446
1899 101,518 2,773 104,292
1900 114,854 3,253 118,107
1901 108,258 3,124 111,382

Those who are familiar with criminal statistics in the United
States and other countries, will, I am confident, agree with
me that this is a most remarkable record for a population of
300,000,000, illiterate, superstitious, impregnated with false
ideas of honor and morality, and packed so densely as the people
of India are. The courts of justice have reached a high standard;
the lower courts are administered almost exclusively by natives;
the higher courts by English and natives together. No trial of
importance ever takes place except before a mixed court, and
usually the three great religions--Brahminism, Mohammedanism and
Christianity--are represented on the bench.

One of the most difficult and delicate tasks of the British
authorities has been to prevent infanticide, the murder of girl
infants, because from time immemorial among all the races of
India it has been practiced openly and without restraint an