especially in the regulation provinces, the Act was a dead letter, and that there were judges under this very Act in India entrusted with the highest magisterial and civil powers, who, after ten years service, were only paid a pound a day, or very nearly the amount earned by a mechanic at home or a carpenter. "A long experience," says Sir William Jones, "makes us sad." It does so particularly with India. As we write we cannot help quoting from the reflections of a friend, made on the very subject on which we are now writing. We shall be pardoned if we use his own words. Referring to no particular act of the Government of India, and basing his reflections on the general tenor of present official patronage in India, he thus writes:"We once again realize in actual practical every-day life the "fictions of the past, enriched even as those fictions are by the "imagery of the past or the dim veil of mythology. Strange "as such fictions may seem, and facts are often stranger than "fiction, they may afford some points of strong parallism "with the occurrences of every day around us. "The prolific brain of Reynolas has interspersed the pages "of the mysteries of the court of London with characters sensual " and blood-thirsty in excelsis. We might establish a parallelism "between the lives of men of the present generation and those "of Reynold's heroes of the past. Ancient mythology, involving "the very quintessence of fiction, may seem strange when compared with even the most ungoverned imaginative productions "of the day, but it only furnishes proofs that humanity continues "at this very moment to be unaltered from what it was cycles "( ago. "Our readers who occasionally recur in thought to the class room, will remember the celebrated Pandora, the first mortal "woman whom the gods concerted to render a paragon of beauty "and mental accomplishments. Venus conferred on her beauty, "and the rather difficult art of pleasing; the Graces the power "of captivating; Apollo taught her vocal music; Mercury and "Minerva enriched her with eloquence and splendid ornaments. "Some of us may have wished to have been in the shoes of "Pandora, and possibly in the simplicity characteristic of un"sophisticated youth even hoped to have basked in the sunshine "of the smiles and favour of the complacent gods. Maturer years "may have long since dissipated this day-dream, this delusive phantom, sketched out in the regions of fancy; nevertheless "we startle the sobriety of our readers by asserting that Pandoras " abound around us, with this difference only, that they belong "not to the fair but to the rough sex, and are vastly more for"tunate than the mythical lady herself, prefigured by Hesiod. 66 "We mean Indian officials:-these are the antitypes. A full"blown Lieutenant quits the scene of his labours redolent of pipeclay and bad leather, and takes the professional chair of an "assistant to the Chief Engineer. The gods smile upon him, and "by and by he holds the administrative charge of a district that "will hold any twenty counties of England. Anon he is meta"morphosed into a coadjutor of the highest judicial functionary "of the land, and finally sees the interior of a forum as an "impeccable lawgiver." Now, it has been allowed that in discussions of questions which affect the public, the public alone have a right to decide. So long as nothing was known of public justice as administered in the Mofussil, so long no opportunity could offer for public opinion to express itself. But public opinion often unerring, seldom wrong, has on this subject, whether through the press of India or of England, or whether in the discussions and debates of Parliament, expressed itself pretty clearly and loudly. An Act of Parliament has allowed the admission of pleaders, Scotch advocates, or English or Irish barristers to the Indian bar. To cope with men who have had a professional training, it will be necessary to have men on the bench who have also had a professional training. There is no more powerful engine of education which the State can offer to a people than a well-conducted trial. Politics, theology, the American war, the merits of the Schleswig-Holstein dispute, these are subjects quite within the range of conversation, in which most people take a passing interest; but the trial of Muller or Howard, and the appeal of Mrs. Yelverton, are subjects on which the public, from the highest Judges of the land to carmen and fat boys, have a right to pass an opinion, because in every trial a principle is involved. On no subject is the press more unfettered in its opinion. A public principle is involved, and the persons who come before the public are public characters acting in a public capacity. In the strongest language used by the press in its animadversions on the best of officials, the law will impute no libel.* The powerful sarcasm of Lord Macaulay still holds up to derision the public conduct and private character of Judge Jeffries. The Chief Justice of the Irish bench is still remembered in his connection with the leading trial of Major Yelverton. On the other hand, a fair trial impartially conducted is an useful and valuable State-lesson. In the reserve and impartiality of a good Judge, in the strictness of aim and purpose, rendered compulsory by the rules of pleading * Sec. 499 Act XLV of 1860, Exception 4th. and evidence, in the control of a jury which can be exercised by the court, in the constant check upon extravagant, wandering and bullying questions which vigilant advocates can employ on behalf of their clients, lies material for a great variety of the most useful instruction of all who hear and read the proceedings. We are not here using the language of any special pleader. But if the public were to have the option of choosing between barrister or military Judges, the public would select probably the men with long gowns and wigs,-men with at least some special training and with university diplomas. We believe Sir Erskine Perry has made himself unpopular in India for this suggestion. But in supporting that suggestion, we do so only on grounds of public justice, and unbiassed by any prejudices or favourite theories. We do not mean to condemn the system at present in vogue. We look upon Sir Erskine Perry's measure as an alternative one. The present system has its bright as well as its dark side; its recommendations as well as its drawbacks; its advantages as well as its disadvantages. But what we mantain is a wider selection with a due advertence to professional knowledge. We trust that the new judicial system which has now been inaugurated will tend to correct some of the defects of the past. Much in the way of improvement has already been effected. The increase of litigation in the courts shows that our judicial courts are fast becoming popular with all classes of the native community. A healthy infusion of the barrister element will tend, it is to be hoped, to make them popular with the European community as well. The rules of procedure which have already been introduced under Act VIII of 1859 have not been found to impede justice. While in the Central Provinces, the Punjab and Oude, the average duration of suits has been considerably diminished, there are few arrears on the files at the end of the year. Business habits, the foundation of success,-have been inculcated and officers have been taught by a judicious control over the workings of subordinate courts, by a system of prompt check and proper distribution of work, to correct many defects which had necessarily been associated under the old system with the administration of civil justice. The elimination of pleas and issues are now better understood; and irrelevancy, the chief defect of the old system,-does not, in so many instances, disfigure and confuse the simple procedure which is now aimed at in the disposal of cases. "If errors still exist, their removal," writes one of the most able and talented of our present Indian administrators "can only be accomplished by a course of self-training, 'of which few of our officers have a just apprehension, and to 'which fewer subject themselves. The task is, perhaps, more "difficult in provinces like these, where each officer performs "judicial, administrative and executive functions in all branches "of the administration, but it is for that very reason the more "necessary to accomplish it. The routine must be methodized, or "the work cannot be well done. Organization is at the root of 66 success, and officers must remember that it rests with them"selves alone." ART. III.-1. Mémoire pour le sieur Dupleix contre la Compagnie des Indes, avec les pièces justificatives. Paris, 1759. 2. An account of the War in India between the English and the French on the coast of Coromandel from the year 1750 to the year 1760. By Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. London, T. Jeffereys, 1761 3. A History of the Military Transactions of the British 4. Histoire de la conquête de l'Inde par l'Angleterre, par 5. 6. The History of British India. By Mill and Wilson, in ten volumes. London, John Madden and Co., Leadenhall Street, 1851. The National Review, Vol. XV. London, Chapman and Nouvelle Biographie Générale, depuis les temps les plus THE peace between the powers of Europe which had been signed at Aix-la-Chapelle afforded, as we have already stated, an opportunity for the introduction into India of a system, afterwards carried to a very considerable extent, whereby the European powers, moved by promises of material advantage, lent out their European soldiers to the native rulers. It is but right to add, that in almost every case the temptation came from the natives, and it should also be remembered that the treaty of Aix-laChapelle had been concluded at a time when an unusual number of the troops of both nations had been thrown on the Indian soil, and when therefore the employment of, and provision for, these soldiers, caused no little anxiety to the governors of the settlements. Dupleix indeed, in a letter which he wrote to the * Dated 31 March 1749. Ꭺ |