APPENDIX. Ixxi 



The decisions of the latter, on appeals from the several courts of Sudder Adawlut 

 in India, are but few. In consequence, however, of communications which Sir 

 Alexander Johnston has had with his Majesty's Ministers, the President of the 

 Board of Control, and the Chairman of the East-India Company, arrange- 

 ments will be made, by which all the cases now in arrear will be brought 

 forward, and those which may be appealed in future will be decided without delay. 

 Reports of the cases and of the decisions will be printed and published, and will afford 

 the Society authentic information as to what the King in Council conceives to be the 

 genuine laws of all the natives who are under the British authority in India. 



With respect to the collections of customs in different parts of India, the Committee 

 hope to derive much information from the reports which have been made to the 

 several governments of India by many of the civil and military servants of the East" 

 India Company ; and also from the inquiries which will be made by Lord William 

 Bentinck, who, in consequence of a communication which he had with Sir Alexander 

 Johnston previous to his departure from England, is likely to adopt the same mode 

 for collecting all the local laws and customs of the different people of India as has 

 been adopted by the government of Ceylon for collecting all the local laws and 

 customs of the different people in that island. 



With respect to the different Castes of the natives of India, the Committee conceive 

 that the influence of caste upon the feelings of the people of India is a subject most 

 worthy of the consideration of the moralist and the statesman ; it may be used with 

 great advantage by those who are in authority to reconcile the people to the adoption 

 of the most beneficinl improvements, and much information may be collected upon 

 the subject from some of the Company's military and civil servants who are now in 

 England, from many of the papers of the late Col. RIackenzie, from the Budhoo 

 priests on Ceylon, and from their works, which are valuable, in consequence of their 

 containing information upon the subject of caste, which differs materially from that 

 in works written by the Brahmins, and throws a new light upon the origin of castes 

 and the subsequent modifications which the Brahmins have introduced in them, for 

 the purpose of establishing and perpetuating their religious and political ascendancy 

 over the people of the country. 



With respect to the tenures of Land — the state of agriculture, the happiness of 

 the people, and the revenue of Government, depend upon an accurate knowledge 

 on the part of those who are at the head of the government of the history and 

 the moral and political effects of the different tenures under which land is held, 

 and the different proportion of its produce which is exacted by Government in 

 different parts of India. The Committee, in tracing the history of tenures in ancient 

 times, will refer to the series of ancient inscriptions upon this subject in the 

 Mackenzie Collection. In tracing the history of tenures in more modern times, it 

 must look for information from those members of the Society who for so many 

 years while in office in India have devoted their time and their talents to a full 

 consideration of the question. 



