RELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 187 



better, attained by making the Courts move about. The existing 

 Judges, it is added, have not got too much to do as it is ; and the new 

 summary procedure, with the temptation to refer difficult points to 

 arbitration, will lead to their having still less. That the Courts should 

 move about to some extent would certainly be advantageous ; and I 

 hope that the hitherto dormant powers of section 23 of Act 14 of 

 1869 will now be exercised to enable them to do so. But this can 

 never be more than a limited benefit. There are rarely above two or 

 three villages in a taluqa containing suitable accommodation for a 

 Subordinate Judge and his clerks, to say nothing of parties and their 

 witnesses ; and even these are often not conveniently accessible in the 

 rains. The presence of a considerable body of strangers, too, is always 

 a source of annoyance and expense to the villagers, even if the calls on 

 them do not exceed those of hospitality. Time would likewise be 

 lost in travelling and settling down at each place ; pleaders in non- 

 agriculturists' cases would be inconvenienced, and minor practical 

 difficulties would crop up. It is questionable whether, between 

 waiting till the next visit to the locality to begin, and adjourning till 

 the next visit to complete, any saving in time would result ; while, 

 finally, the ryot would in very many cases be living no nearer 

 to the selected village than to the Court's head-quarters. 

 As to the other statement, it remains to be seen whether 

 the duty of going more fully into cases will not neutralize 

 any saving in time obtained in other ways. But however this 

 may be, I can see no good reason why the judicial unit of adminis- 

 tration should be larger than the executive unit. Every taluqa ought, 

 in my opinion, to have its Subordinate Judge as well as its Mamlatdar. 

 If the civil work proved insufficient to occupy the Subordinate 

 Judge's full time, he should be invested with criminal powers. The 

 Mamlatdar and his first karkun, being proportionately relieved, could 

 then better overtake the multifarious and increasing duties heaped on 

 them, besides taking back, at a great saving of expense, the registra- 

 tion work, of which they were a few years ago relieved. 



I will now notice three subjects, the entire omission of which 

 from the Bill has been the cause of much adverse comment. The 

 first is that of a modification of the rigidity of our land-revenue 

 system. The Anglo-Indian Press, and seven out of the eleven 

 Vernacular newspapers of the Bombay Presidency which have noticed 

 the Bill, have commented more or less emphatically on the absence of 



