The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-10 00:00:00

sequences would often ensue. vi'e say nothing of
the Local Judges, who not unfrequently are fund
guilty of corruption, and over whom the Company
find it necessary, for the sake of the natives, to
hold a tight hand ; but there arc now a few ex-
amples of the Supreme Courts, acting on a well-
known maxim that it is the part of a good Judge to
seize every occasion for extending his jurisdiction,
placing the Government in the greatest danger. With -
out knowing any thing of India, the customs, habits,
and character of the people, a lawyer, on arriving
in the character of a Judge in India, boldly applies
the rules of English law to a state of circumstances
to which they are often utterly inapplicable. Thus,
for instance, in a Minute, No. 10, of the Appendix
to the Memoirs of Sir Thos. Munro, Nye have a
striking example of a mischievous blunder of the Su-
preme Court of Madras, originating in the Chief
Justice, concerning grants of jagheers by Indian
Princes to be identical with grants of Crown lands
in England, and thus confounding a temporary
grant of revenue with a grant of property in land.—
Though the Court possessed only jurisdiction over
such natives as are inhabitants of Madras and its
limits, because the defendant had once been in Ma-
dras, the Coutt boldly arrogated to itself the right
of its process to act upon the property anywhere
within the Company's territories. In this way the
Judges, by stripping the East India Company of
its land revenue, might have overturned the Com-
pany's Government. Sir Thomas Munro observes,
" the Supreme Court are, by their Charter, ex-
pressly prohibited from taking cognizance of any
matters relating to the public revenue; but in the
present instance they get over this difficulty by say-
ing that the revenue of the jagheer having been as-
signed to Asim Khan, was no longer revenue,
but private property, subject to the same laws
which regulate private inheritance. If this doctrine
were admitted, it would lead to the most danger-
ous consequences; for it would enable the Court to
entertain suits against the Company in all cases of
jagheer, enaum, or other grants of public revenue,
wherever situated, on the plea, that having been
granted, it is no longer public revenue. As all the
native religious establishments and municipal ser-
vants throughout the country are maintained by
grants of land, the Supreme Court might gradually
extend their jurisdiction over them, destroy their
respect for the authority of Government, and throw
the affairs of the country in►o confusion. Were
the Court once to begin to receive suits respecting
lands assigned for the maintenance of public ser-
vants, it would be impossible for Government to
realize the revenue, or to maintain good order in
the country. It may be said that the Court is not
likely to interfere in such matters ; but of this we
can have no assurance at present; for, but a few
years ago, its interference in the jagheer of Kullum
Oolla Khan, about 100 miles from the limits of its
jurisdiction, was regarded as equally improbable.
There will never be wanting men whose interest it
will be to bring into Court, at all hazards, the jag-
beers and enaums allotted to the civil and religious
establishments of the country ; and as the Court
will judge for itself, in determining whether these
lands do or do not come under the description of
what is meant as revenue by the Charter, I own
that I see no hope, after what has passed, of their
being regarded as any thing else than mere private
property. The only effectual way in which the
Government would he secured against the mis-
chievous effects of the Courts extending their inter-
ference to public revenue, assigned in the form of
services and charity for the maintenance of various
establishments, would be by restraining the Court
from taking cognizance of any suit regarding any land
whatever, situated beyond the limits of its jurisdic-
tion." Lord Melville observed truly, that "it was
very well to talk about the independence of the Judges
in India; but it was not an independence in truth.
They must have that sort of discretion not to put
the country into danger by exercising the power
which belonged to their Courts." "It had hap-
pened to him (added his Lordship) more than once
to have to advise his Majesty to recall a Judge from
India. He had not the slightest doubt that on such
occasions he had expressed himself in a manner si-
milar to the sentiments of his Noble Friend." Sir
Thomas Munro, speaking of the use made of habeas
corpus at Madras, observes that " the authority of
the Nabob over his family and dependents has been
impaired by political events, and still more by the
interference of the officers of the Court. Daughters
of Walajah (the Nabob) have turned prostitutes,
and been released from the custody of their husbands
and the Nabob by habeas corpus. Other women of
rank have been encouraged by their example and
their impunity to follow the same courses. The dis-
grace of these women is felt not only by their own
families, but by every Mussulman here as a degra-
dation of their caste. The Mussulman population
of Triphiam, always distressed and dissatisfied since
the assumption of the Carnatic, has had its discon-
tent increased by those transactions." The contest
with the Bombay Court was occasioned by a habeas
corpus directed to issue concerning a Zemindar of in-
fluence and property, which the Government stopped.
In every country there must be a supreme power.
In this country the supreme power is Parliament;
in India it is the Government; and whenever the
Government and the Judges come into collision, the
latter must give way. From what we have said as
to the necessity for controuling the Judges in India,
it does not follow that we approve of the mode of
appointing Judges in the Provinces. Mr. Stuart
alluded to a censure passed by Sir John Leach on a
local India Court ; but the liberating them from the
controul of Government would tend very little to
the improvement of these Courts. The names of
the Committee will be found in our Report. Mr.
Weidman drew some very gloomy inferences re-
specting the state of the country from our exports
and imports. But we have not space now to enter
on this subject.—Morning Chronicle.

LENT SPRING ASSIZES.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.

(Before Mr. Justice LITTLEDALE and Mr. Baron Bot-
LAND. )
Berkshire—Friday, Feb. 26, at Reading.
Oxfordshire—Tuesday, March 2, at Oxford.
Worcestershire—Saturday, March 6, at Worcester.
City of ditto—The same day, at the City of Worcester.
Staffordshire—Friday, March 12, at Stafford.
Shropshire—Friday, March 19, at Shrewsbury.
Herefordshire—Thursday, Match 25, at Het,ford.
Monmouthshire—Saturday, April 3, at Monmouth.
Gloucestershire—Wednesday, April 7, at Gloucester.
City of ditto—The same day, at the City of Gloucester.