It must not be forgotten, that the class of society from which government are necessitated to select the functionaries employed is the needy and middling rank of the people; the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone stated before the Lords in 1830, that none of the higher order of natives are employed as judges, from their indisposition to undertake that office. This acute observer and generous promoter of the interests of the natives says that "most of the high ranks of society have been accustomed to great arbitrary authority under the former government, and would not be content with so limited a share of power as they would possess under our system ;" and he adds, "I am not certain their acceptance of office would improve the administration of justice, as it is probable that those great chiefs would be less attentive than persons of lower rank,” (2504-2505). In another place Mr. Elphinstone states, "the administration of the zemindars, or aristocracy, at Bombay is attended with very bad effects."

Nowithstanding all these facts, how has the government acted? Why it has carefully striven to induct the natives into office in every part of India. Mr. Elphinstone, in detailing to their Lordships the manner in which civil justice is administered in the provinces under Bombay, says, "there is a judge in each district, and under him there are a certain number of native judges in divisions of the district, with salaries from £200 to £500 a year,* according to the extent of their power to try causes from £50 to £500. They are partly paid by a salary and

The native judge at Poonah receives about 800 rupees (£80) a month, and the subordinates from 200 to 400 per month. In the revenue branch natives are employed with increased powers, and salaries varying from thirty to 600 rupees a month. In all cases it is politic of the government to give as high salaries as possible, for they will thus be the more certain of fixing the integrity of the great body of the people.

partly by fees. No fee is levied on any cause under one hundred rupees, but the fee for those small causes is paid by government, so as to make it the interest of the native judge to try many causes."

A similar system has been put in practice in Bengal, and Mr. Chaplin states that in Madras "the natives are employed to a very considerable degree;" that " a number of the natives have been appointed, on comparatively high salaries, to the judicial and to the revenue offices."* (Lords p. 359.)

There is a college also at Madras, for the purpose of educating pleaders in the courts of law, officers and pundits, and examining all those who are candidates for office. Mr. Hodgson, who served twenty-seven years in India, and who is a strenuous advocate for the natives, states that since the regulations of 1816 the experiment has been tried of extending the jurisdiction of the district judges with much success throughout Madras; that a further experiment has been tried of creating a native judge in the town of Seringapatam, where a European judge formerly presided.+

By regulations of the Bengal government, within the present year new courts of law have been established in the upper and lower provinces of an extensive jurisdiction, with native judges and subordinates. The Sudder Aumeen of each court has five hundred rupees (£50) a month, which according to the expenditure of a Hindoo, is equivalent to nearly four times the same sum, as a salary for a European judge. The subordinate officers are paid in propor

tion.

* Mr. Sinclair says that in Tanjore the native servants amount to one thousand; of the European servants in the revenue department the number is four or five.

+ Evidence before the Lords, page 476.

While I am now writing, a bill has been introduced into Parliament by the philantrophic President of the Board of Control, by which the natives at the three presidencies are eligible, when qualified, to act as justices of the peace and to officiate as grand jurors. Heretofore the natives served only on petty juries, and the functions of justices of the peace were confined to the provinces; now, it rejoices me to say, that a Hindoo, or a Parsee, or a Mussulman, or any native of the British possessions in India, when qualified by talent and integrity, may proudly take his station on the bench beside a European magistrate, and the invidious distinction between a grand and petty juror no longer exists.* Other measures are in progress at home and abroad for inducting the natives into a further share of responsible power, and those who so loudly complain of the natives being shut out of all chance of improving themselves, must not therefore think, or endeavour to make the British public believe, that they possess a monopoly of kindness or feeling for the Hindoos; it is not by writing two immense volumes to prove to the natives how much they are oppressed by the revenue system of the British government, and then, when called on by the Parliamentary Committee and Board of Control to offer any suggestions for another financial scheme, declaring that he has none to offer, and that "it would be quite impossible to

* A copy of the bill will be found under the Judicial chapter.

+ Mr. Rickards told the Committee that he had no suggestions to offer, and that he "did not think it safe or wise to attempt further modifications or ameliorations of the system, where so many able heads have already decidedly failed, until (says Mr. R.) the best-informed and most experienced of the natives are consulted." Why, what has Sir T. Munro, Mr. Elphinstone, Sir J. Malcolm, Mr. Butterworth Baily, Lord W. Bentinck, Sir C. Forbes, and other warm advocates of the interests of the natives in India, been doing? A stranger would be led to conclude from Mr. Rickards' writings, that no person cared for the Hindoos but himself!

reduce the aggregate amount of land taxation in India abruptly."*

cast blame on an indi

It is not, I say, by stimulating the passions of the Hindoos, and censuring the authorities without being able to sketch out any plan, that the former are to be benefited: nothing is easier than to vidual or on a government, but the person doing so should ask himself how he would act if placed in a similar position. Mr. Rickards has not condescended to inform us of any new system which he would propound. We have the important testimony of the Right Honourable Charles Grant in 1832, that he acknowledges with pleasure that the general principles upon which the Court of Directors have acted with reference to the natives of India to be, "their eligibility to fill important and responsible offices in the administration of its affairs, when sufficiently qualified."

A little reflection would teach those who complain of the past tardiness in admitting the natives to the highest situations, that the governments of India have had a most difficult and painful duty to perform, and a reference to the past will explain sufficiently their nature: those difficulties are now being removed; we are becoming more acquainted with the peculiar and varied characters of the natives, and they are acquiring a knowledge of our institutions and objects. Every real and sensible well-wisher of the natives agree, that our government should proceed steadily in its present course; that, according as we find men qualified, and feasible opportunities, the Hindoos, Mahomedans, and all classes, should have trust gradually reposed in them, leaving always something open for the reward of talent, industry, and integrity. If any man be instantly nominated to the highest post which his am

* Evidence before the Lords, Qu. 4000.

bition can prompt him to aspire to, he becomes lazy and careless, he has no further spring for his capabilities to be exercised on, and he sinks into the condition of an automaton, performing merely as much duty as will retain him in his situation; but if there be even only one post of dignity or emolument open to one hundred candidates, each will aspire to it, and in seeking to attain it, elevate himself in moral and intellectual worth: if, again, there be many intermediate steps between the highest and the lowest, every successive elevation will raise the candidate higher and higher in his own estimation and in that of his fellow citizens. I need not here dwell on the necessity of adequately rewarding those who are employed by government, particularly in such a country as India, where the investiture of a man with the lowest constable's staff, has too long been considered a license to plunder and oppress. Lord Cornwallis found that the best method to secure the integrity of the European functionaries was, by paying them well; the same principle is equally applicable to the Asiatic, especially to those in civil life who are without the stimulus of glory, or deprived of the harmless vanity of military pomp and personal distinction: but, with an expenditure exceeding the revenue, and in the unsettled state of the future government of India, it is not so easy immediately to carry into effect this desirable amelioration to its full extent. It is unnecessary to dilate longer on a subject on which so many are agreed; which is avowed as well in India as at the India House and Board of Control; I therefore close a chapter which to me has been a most disagreeable one, because of my being necessitated to view the dark side of human character, and the terribly demoralizing effects which physical as well as mental despotism are so certainly calculated to produce.

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