Crime In The East Indies

A correspondent of the Pall Mali üazette, writing from Madras, sayB : "ïhe great jail ilelirery Which took ! place in India üh New Year's tlay gives i one a strange notion of the vastness of j our Eustern empire. On thut day 10 ' per cent. of the criminal popxüation were turned loose upon the land, to the number of 15,988. It is trae that a few of ! these were political oflenders, and that a considerable proportion were prinoners ! who luid been sentenoed to one month's imprisonment, and had worked out j half of their term. Others were inipris ; oned debtors who had been thrown "into jail for Binas not exoeeding 100 rttpees, and whose debts were then disclinrged. Bnt aftei' making these allowances, we símil not be íax wrong in estimating the actual criminal populutiou of the Indian jails on the lust day of 1876 atfully 140,000 persons. Tliis is the force of the i standing anny of Indian crime that lins to be maintained at no trifling eost to the State, and with only a negative ! vantage. While in prison they are powerlesK to do vil, but the frequency of recommittals proves the inenicacy of ' the systems of penal dineipline enforced in the majority of Indian prisons."