300 BRITISH INDIAN GOVERNMENT. 



exertions of economy, and to every possible redaction upon 

 their establishments ; but these measures, so far as they 

 affect the military, have only given rise to considerable dis- 



The judicial arrangements introduced by Marquis Corn- 

 wallis proved, if possible, still less satisfactory than those 

 relating to revenue. In India, as over all the East, this branch 

 of administration was exercised directly and personally b\ the 

 sovereign or his deputy. The zemindar, in this last capa- 

 city, at once collected the revenues, maintained the police, 

 and decided in all cases civil and criminal. 1 his he did by 

 a summary process, hearing each cause from the mouths of 

 the parties, and judging according to principles of equity 

 without any technical rule or study. His sentences were 

 often corrupt and prejudiced ; but they were prompt, and 

 founded upon an intimate knowledge of the persons inter- 

 ested The British, on assuming the government, acted at 

 first upon this principle, so far as to combine the offices of 

 judge and collector. Lord Cornwalhs, rejecting these ar- 

 rangements, which were certainly false in principle, at- 

 tempted too hastily to substitute the full and regular opera- 

 tion of English law. The country was divided into zillahs, 

 each containing a court, in which presided a European 

 iudae, with native assistants. From these courts an appeal 

 lay to superior tribunals at Calcutta, Patna, Dacca, and 

 Moorshedabad, and from them a final appeal might be 

 made to a supreme judicatory in the capital, called the buil- 

 der Dewannee Adawlut, composed of the governor in coun- 

 cil, assisted by Mohammedan and Hindoo lawyers. I he 

 judges of the four appeal courts, going in circuit, tried 

 criminal causes ; but their sentences might also be brought 

 under the revision of a supreme tribunal, similarly consti- 

 tuted, called the Nizamut Adawlut. 



This system, however plausible and well intended, was 

 found in its operation very unsuitable to the habits of Indian 

 society. Instead of the brief and summary process, founded 

 on obvious and common sense principles, there was substi- 

 tuted a complex code, in a great measure unknown to the 

 people ; and, instead of stating their own case and obtain- 

 ing a decision at once, they were obliged to employ plead- 

 ers, a new class of men whom it was necessary to create 

 for the purpose, while thev had also to endure the numerous 



