The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-30 00:00:00

JUDICIAL REFORM IN INDIA.

THERE are some statesmen who have an
unhappy tendency to raise endless complica-
tions out of the simplest affair. If anything
goes wrong at an election in a particular
borough, nothing will satisfy them but con-
vulsing the country from end to end with a
new Reform Bill. If a difficulty occurs in
some locality on the subject of rates, the
whole system of rates must be revolutionised
to meet this exceptional case. If there be a
trifling defect to be remedied in the adminis-
tration of the revenues of the Church, they
must forthwith introduce a measure that
brings into jeopardy the very existence of a
Church Establishment. The idea conveyed in
the sentence that "sufficient for the day is
" the evil thereof," is one which they cannot
realise. They must be perpetually fishing in
troubled waters; and the result of all is th it
they can never manage to abate a nuisance
without creating a dozen new ones, each more
intolerable a great deal than the one they have
attempted to put down. Now, it is precisely
after this fashion that the Government 15
acting in its mode of dealing with Judicial
Reform in India. The whole question in itself
is as simple and easy of solution as any ques-
tion can be. There are, as all the habitual
readers of this journal must know, two kinds
of judicial courts in India. The first the
Queen's courts, which are formed on the
model of the courts at Westminster, the
Bench being filled by judges selected by the
Crown from among the barristers practising
at the English and Irish Bar. The second
the Company's courts, of which the Bench is
filled by members of the Civil Service of the
Company unacquainted with the law, and
whose whole lives up to the date of their
being transferred to the Bench have often
been spent in the duties of collector or post-
master, or other offices of a similar kind. In
the Queen's courts the English law is ft,l-
ministered ; in the Company's the law luid
down in the regulations made by the Govern-
ment from titno to time. In the Queen's
courts, the, form of I procedure tis similar

MAY 30, 1857.

to that observed at Westminster; in the
Company's it resembles more the form ob-
served by an English country magistrate
when disposing of a case at home. The
Queen's courts have exclusive jurisdiction at
the Presidencies, and over all persons living
in the Mofussil, or interior, of European birth
or descent ; the Company's courts have
exclusive jurisdiction over all persons living
in the Mofussil except those belonging to this
latter class.
Now, of these two kinds of courts, the
Queen's courts have always given the greatest
satisfitetion, owing to the learning and ability
with which they administer the law. In regard
to the Company's courts, the case is precisely
the reverse, for both the ignorance and the
partiality exhibited by them have long been
the subject of remark. Under these circum-
stances it must be clear that the proper mode
of dealing with the question of Judicial Reform
in India would have been to confine the re-
form to the courts that needed it (the Com-
pany's), leaving the others that needed it not
(the Queen's) alone. Quieta non movere was
the favourite maxim of WALPOLE, and it was
exactly the maxim to be guided by in a case
like this. All that was required was to make
such reforms in the Company's courts as
would bring them more into harmony with
British institutior.s, and with the require•
meats of the aga Vacancies on the Bench,
caused by the death or retirement of the pre-
sent non-professional judges, should have been
filled up by professional judges selected from
the local Supreme Court Bar. The regula
tions of Government, which formed their
corpus juris, might have been repealed or
nwilified,: where obsolete, unintelligible, or
inconsistent with the present state of the
English law. More of the regular forms of
judicial proceedings might have been gradually
imported into the Mofussil courts, and thus
at no distant period the Bench, the law, and
the mode of procedure there, would have been
brought into harmony with the courts of the
Queen. The reform would have been gradual,
but it would have been progressive and sound.
The direction taken would undoubtedly have
been the tight one, and the N%hole change
would eventually have been completed without
the slightest disturbance of existing interests,
or agitation of the public mind.
The course, however, that has been adopted
by the Government is precisely the reverse of
this. It can see no way apparently to the
reform of the Company's courts but by pulling
both them ar.d the Queen's courts down, and
creating a new kind of hybrid court out of
the ruins of both. Nor is this all ; for, not
only are the separate edifices to be destroyed,
but the old English law and Company's
regulations are to be swept away with them.
The law substituted for these is a code
after the Bentham fashion, It hich aims at
wonderful simplicity, but succeeds only in
making the law on every topic it embraces
about ten times as obscure and doubtful as
it was before. The result is, that the
several Presidency populations, and more
especially the European portion of them, are
in a ferment to which nothing but the condi
tion of the American colonies on the passing
of the Stamp Act can compare. Public meet-
ings are held, the must violent language is
applied to the Government, and in this school
of agitation the natives are taught the lesson
of resistance to the ruling race. Some
speakers openly declare their determination
to abandon India as a domicile degrading to
an Englishman if the law be passed ; while
others make direct allusion to what was done
in England under the STUARTS, and tell their
hearers that there are other ways besides
talking for defending their rights. In fact,
the proposition has thrown a quiet. people, a
loyal people, and a wealthy people, into a fever
that for the time has made them mad

Now, the question for the Government to
consider is whether it be worth while to increase
this frenzy by persisting with a measure it can
never possibly enforce? In the face of the
disaffection exhibited by our Sepoy soldiery
and by the natives at large, is it wise thus to
alienate men of our own blood and kindred,
the people alone in all India on whom we
could otherwise in the hour of need rely?
India fell an easy prey to us, owing to the dis-

THE PRESS.

sensions among its native people ; do not let
us loose it by a similar folly. Better that
the courts of India were left unreformed for
ever, than that an agi:ation should continue so
violent and rancorous, and we may add so dan-
gerous, as this. If the Government is wise, it
will at once yield to the expressions of public
opinion in India which it has evoked, and
abandon with a good grace a plan which it will
be impossible to carry out. It will thus restore
that peace and confidence which have been for
the moment imperilled, and put an end to a
state of things which those who really know
India must view with the deepest anxiety and
alarm.

LORD PALMERSTON AND THE ARMY
ESTIMATES.
MIDDLE-AGED men about town declare that
they feel quite young again as they see the
names of GRIST and Maato in the hills of the
Opera ; and old Parliamentary stagers got a
juvenile sensation last Monday as they saw
and heard Viscount PALMERSTON moving the
Army Estimates with even more levity than
the gay Viscount could have ventured to
exhibit in 1809 In that year, after only
three weeks' experience of the post, " clever
Henry John " would, we dare to say, have
ventured in doing that from which Sir JOHN
RAMSDEN seems to have modestly retired.
Our previous remarks on the new Under-
Secretary, that his present post is not that in
which his special qualities would be best
utilised for the public advantage, seem to be
confirmed. Judging by previous instances, we
should not have been surprised if Sir .JouN
RAMSDEN, even on a short notice, had under-
taken the duty ; and on the whole we should
rather have seen the Hon. Baronet attempt
it. In the latter part of the evening the new
Secretary spoke well, and to the purpose.
The Premier's speech was highly charac-
teristic. The gay Viscount alluded to " his
honourable friend " the Member for Lambeth.
Nobody in either House has such a gift for
extemporising " honourable friends " as Lord
PALMERSTON. He is perfectly lavish of his
Parliamentary " friendship," though the best
bred political chiefs are more chary in this
respect. Calling a person on a very slight
acquaintance " a friend " is a Hibernianism ;
and the Irish boast that Lord PALMERSTON is
an Irishman, and call Sir JAMES GRAHAM to
testify to the point. We always thought that
Lord PALMERSTON was an Englishman, but at
times his Lordship shows some strong Irish
qualities. His playfulness and his pugnacity
are blended together in a truly Hibernian
style.
The Noble Viscount's statement on Monday
was clear, but commonplace. Like an old
debater, the Prime Minister avoided commit-
ting himself; but we should like to have seen
the positive evils in our military system
treated with a bolder tone. The statement
was pitched, from first to last, in the key of a
vivacious red-tapist. The deeply important
considerations arising from the state of the
Army Medical Department were not touched
upon at all, and Mr. STAFFORD was right in
saying that. it was no answer to his complaint
" that a commission had been appointed on the
subject,' which is much like telling an exhaueted
litigant "togo to Chancery." All the remarks
which fell from Mr. STAFFORD on this subject
were worthy of attention, and we hope that
Government will attend more closely to the
systematic organisation of the medical staff of
the army.
The fortification of our great naval ports
wasthe most important part of Lord PALMERS-
TON'S speech. We concur with the propriety
of our great naval arsenals being fortified.
We should not leave such places as Ports-
mouth, Plymouth, Devon, Sheerness, and
Pembroke open to the assaults of an enemy
either by the land or the sea side. The tem-
porary possession ty a foe of one of those
places might be of serious importance: and
though some persons may think such precau-
tions useless, it is best to be on the safe aide.
But discussions on such subjects arc not con-
ducive to the public welfare, and the House

523

of Commons appeared to agree with what fell
from Lord PALMERSTON on these grave points.
The practical education of our military
officers, and the advantages of the camp sys-
tem, were subjects treated cursorily by the
Premier. His remark was true enough, " that
" you might as well expect a man to learn to
" swim by stretching himself on a mahogany
" table as to learn military evolutions by read-
" ing books in his arm-chair." We may, how-
ever, be overrating the advantages of a camp
system. As yet only partial advantages have
been manifested by it. Ou this, as on other
military subjects, we see that it is almost
hopeless for us to rival the completely scien-
tific training which can be given in the vast
continental armies. We have made, however,
a step in the right direction, and, like other
improvements, " Military Reform " cannot be
achieved in a day. General attention must be
concentrated on it, and the great principles on
which it should be conducted must be kept
before the public mind.

Some pahs of our military system require a
more generous outlay ; but it is not likely, nor
is it even desirable, that the House of Com-
mons should sanction further expenditure
until the extravagance of the Civil Service he
reformed. The nation has ample means which
are now wasted, and those who wish to pro-
mote " Military Reform " will do well to
enforce the necessity of retrenchment in the
Civil Service. In an econoinied point of
view, the two questions are closely connected
together.