158 BELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



by the name of 'suits' are so petty, that in Bombay they are 

 never brought to a regular Court at all ; but the general statistics 

 do not bear this out, as in the Bombny mcfassal in 1877 there were 

 144,412 suits to a population of 15i millions, while in Madras there 

 were only 190,290 to above 31 millions. Again, I understand from 

 MR. CARMICHAEL, Member of Council at Madras, who has kindly given 

 me much information, that the bulk of them are not between usurers 

 and ryots. But the fact remains that a very inferior agency can 

 dispose successfully, without appeal, of suits not lower in value, 

 though differing somewhat in nature, from those with which we have 

 to deal. Although, however, village-munsifs may thus be a fairly 

 efficient institution in Madras, where they are a survival of 

 ancient times, and where society is still in a comparatively simple 

 state, it would be impossible at the present day to constitute them 

 by law throughout all villages or village-circles in our Deccan 

 districts. The people are now too independent, too active-minded, 

 too irreverent to accept implicitly the decision of village seniors 

 as such, or, as a native newspaper puts it, 'in the present times 

 of freedom and liberty, when even children do not obey their parents, 

 the village headmen have no authority and influence.' Even if we, in 

 Bombay, could successfully impose on our hard-worked and ill-paid 

 patch this, to them, novel function, there is the further diffi- 

 culty in their case that the bulk of our petty suits are brought by 

 money-lenders, with whom the patel would too often be, by want of 

 education or by absolute interest, unqualified to cope. Our 

 advanced conditions postulate a more skilled judicature, better 

 Judges, and, consequently, fewer of them ; and these the Government 

 must in the main provide. At the same time, there can be no harm 

 in taking advantage of the present opportunity to empower the 

 Government to invest with petty jurisdiction up to Rs. 10 any village 

 patels whom it may here and there find to be qualified by education 

 and character. We may hope that the number of such 

 will gradually increase. 



Next above these new Munsif's Courts come the existing 

 Courts of Subordinate Judges, who are all trained officers, divided 

 into two classes, with proportionate powers, and receiving salaries 

 of from Rs. 200 to Rs. 800 per mensem. These Courts it is proposed 

 to strengthen in two ways. Their number will be increased froin 

 24 to 06, thus diminishing their local jurisdictions and the distances 



