315 



material document ; third, the subsidiary facts found not 

 warranting the main fact derived therefrom, or the facts 

 ascertained not warranting the judgment founded on them. 

 The above are the main outlines of the scheme propoimded 

 by Mr. Strange, and doubtless it would require modifications 

 in detail, more especially in regard to the definition of 

 matters of law and matters of fact, but the broad principles 

 on which the scheme is based are, I believe, quite sound and 

 as applicable to the litigation of the present day as they were to 

 litigation thirty years ago. The principal changes which have 

 occurred since Mr. Strange wrote are the immense improve- 

 ment, owing to advance of education, in the learning, eflBciency 

 and probity of the native judges, and the substitution for 

 the old corrupt, inefficient race of petition writers, of a class of 

 intelligent native legal practitioners, who have mostly received 

 a university education and whose moral tone and general 

 probity are daily advancing. It is not my object to do more 

 than draw attention to the necessity for reform in the direc- 

 tions pointed out by Mr. Strange, and I have, therefore, 

 refrained from suggesting any detailed scheme. It is, how- 

 ever, my impression that though more courts will have to be 

 established than were contemplated by Mr. Strange, and the 

 Provincial courts will have to consist of two judges in like 

 manner with District courts, the needful reform can be 

 carried out without entailing on Government any appreciable 

 additional cost. The extension of communications in recent 

 times has diminished the inconvenience to suitors in having to 

 proceed to the stations in which the courts are held, and this 

 inconvenience might be still further minimized by the courts 

 holding sessions in different stations within their territorial 

 jurisdiction in different periods of the year. The despatch 

 of business might also be expedited by allowing one judge 

 to take the evidence of witnesses, both the judges, however, 

 hearing the cases argued before them. Arrangements, it 

 seems to me, can easily be made for all European and native 

 officers in the Civil Service being made to serve as judges 

 in these courts. 



109. The administration of crirninal justice is believed to 

 _,..,,,. be even less satisfactory than that of 



Cnminal Justice. ...... , o ,^ . « . 



civil justice on account ot the interior 

 character of the agency which has to be employed, though 

 latterly there has been some improvement. Petty cases are 

 disposed of by village magistrates under Regulation XI of 

 1816, but ^this agency is not as efficient as it ought to be, 

 and it is desirable that steps should be taken to secure the 



