The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

THE INDIAN MAGISTRACY.

ONE of the greatest wants of India at the
present moment is a want of district magis-
trates. On this point all parties, of whatever
way of thinking they may be in regard to
other matters, are fully agreed. But had there
been the slightest room for doubt upon the
subject, the Report of the Torture Commis-
sioners would have set it at rest for ever.
These distinctly attribute the abuse of
authority on the part of minor officials so per-
petually taking place in India to the absence
of a sufficient number of European magis-
trates to listen to and investigate complaints.
What with the enormous size of the districts,
and the vast amount of revenue and other
duties heaped upon them, it is declared to be
physically impossible for them to investigate
more than a fraction of the complaints re-
garding injustice of any kind that the ryots
may bring forward. In other words, it is ad-
mitted that there is an habitual denial of
justice simply from the absence of an ade-
quate number of constituted tribunals to
afford redress. Such a state of things is

579

utterly indefensible—for the first duty of
every Government is to provide for the people
the means of obtaining justice. But if inde-
fensible in any Government, it is scandalous
in our own, for the constant plea in defence of
annexation is the alleged neglect of this duty
by native Governments, and the superior con-
scientiousness in respect of it exhibited by
ourselves. We can only conceive so grave au
error on the part of Government to arise from
indolence or from calculation, it being, per-
haps, unwilling to incur the necessary addi-
tional expense. In either case it is clear that
this state of things must be put an end to if
we be not content to sacrifice in the face of
Europe all pretension to being better rulers
than those of the worst managed and most
despotic kingdoms whom we so habitually
condemn. Nor would neglect of reform on
this point affect our reputation merely—it
must also prove injurious to any attempts at
usefulness in the highest degree. For how
can we hope to interfere effectually in behalf
of the oppressed in other countries when the
rulers of these have so ready a mode of
answering us by pointing to what we allow to
be done in India ourselves ?

At first sight, no doubt, there appears to be
a considerable difficulty in dealing with this
important question. The Civil Service of
India is so costly that any sufficient increase
in that body to meet the demand is more
than the Government, unless under the ex—
tremest pressure, would be likely to assent to.
At the same time, the attempt to meet the
want in that way could only prove effective at
a distant period, as even if the Civil Service
were increased ever so largely, it would take
several years before the persons now entering
it could be qualified to undertake a district
magistrate's charge. Then, as to the army,
it has been already so largely drawn upon for
officers for civil employ, that the Commander-
in-Chief in India has reported himself unable
to go on unless some means be taken to re-
duce the draughts upon it within more mo-
derate bounds. There is another class, the
uncovenanted Europeans; but their duties
have been hitherto chiefly confined to assis-
tantships in public offices, particularly at
the Presidencies, and there is not a very large
number of them, perhaps, who would be in
the highest degree fitted for duties of this
special kind. Those members of the legal
professions in India, on the other hand, who
from long residence there and a familiar ac•
quaintance with the natives would be perhaps
the best fitted of all for the task, would not be
found willing to resign their positions at the
Presidencies for the moderate emoluments
which the appointment of district magistrate
would hold out. The salary, considering all
things, could hardly be expected to be fixed at
a higher rate than five or six hundred rupees
monthly, with the usual batta when travelling
of five rupees per diem more. This would
make the cost of each district magistrate to
the State about a thousand pounds annually,
his clerks, stationery, and other extra ex-
penses include:l—a sum as great as in the
present state of the Indian finances could
reasonably be looked for, and sufficient to
obtain men perfectly competent for the office,
whose united labours would go far to remove
those evils which are the opprobrium of the
Indian Government at present. The nomina-
tion of fifty such magistrates to Bombay, a
hundred to Madras, and a hundred and fifty
to Bengal and the north-west provinces, would
be one of the greatest boons to India that
could be bestowed, and would not in the
aggregate cost more to the Government yearly
than three hundred thcusand pounds. is this
too much to devote to the fulfilment of an obli-
gation so paramount? It is but a third of
the surplus income which the Directors pro-
fess to have exacted, as a penalty for his ne
glect to do justice, from our late ally, the de-
posed Sovereign of Oude.
Such being the probable scale of remunera-
tion for these duties, and so pressing the de-
mand for persons qualified at once to under-
take them, we know but one source towards
%vhich we could look successfully for a supply
of men in every way fitted for the task. This
is in the lists of retired officers—civil, military,
and medical—of the Company's service, many
of whom we have no doubt would be very