HIGH COURT OF MADRAS. 



53 



Attornies and Solicitors 38 to plead in form before the Mayor and 

 Aldermen, but after all it is but a farce, for by experience I 

 found that a few pagodas rightly placed could turn the scales 

 of justice to which side the Governor pleased, without respect 

 to equity or reputation. 



" In smaller matters, where the case on both sides is but 

 weakly supported by money, then the Court acts judiciously 

 according to their consciences and knowledge, but often against 

 law and reason, for the Court is but a Court of conscience, and 

 its decisions are very irregular ; and the Governor's dispensing 

 power of nulling all that the Court transacts puzzles the most 

 celebrated lawyers there to find rules in the statute laws." 



This unfavorable opinion of the Mayor and Aldermen 

 does not seem to have been shared by their Honorable Mas- 

 ters in England, for in 1726 the Court of Directors, in order 

 to have their affairs managed with greater authority than 

 ever hitherto, applied to get the management of the civil 

 affairs as near as they could agreeable to the practice and 

 method of the Mayor's Court at Fort St. Greorge. 39 



John Shaw. 



38 There were no Barristers in Madras until the institution of the Supreme 

 Court. 



39 Letter to Bengal, 17th Fehruary 1726 ; Auber's Rise and Progress of 

 the British Power in India, vol. i, p. 29. 



