HIGH COURT OF MADRAS. 



89 



practice it was ordered on the 17th October 1743 that the 

 Justices do not attest or permit any mortgages of the nature 

 of those above described, or of a like tendency, to be 

 registered. 48 



The Sheriff's Court established in 1727 was disapproved of 

 by the Court of Directors, and accordingly on the 21st July 

 1729 it was determined by the Governor in Council that it 

 be no longer continued, and that the Justices sit weekly at 

 the Choultry for punishing petty offences which were daily 

 committed in the town, and which were of too trivial a 

 nature to be brought before the Quarter Sessions. 49 



On the 7th August 1729 the Deputy Grovernor and 

 Council of Fort St. David having requested instructions how 

 to prevent the great inconveniences which would arise by 

 their inhabitants being obliged to come up to Madras to get 

 their disputes settled by the Mayor's Court, were advised, 

 when such do arise, to persuade their inhabitants to go to 

 arbitration before the heads of their castes. 50 



The natives of Madras, on the other hand, seem hardly to 

 have appreciated the advantage of residing within easy reach 

 of the Mayor's Court. On the 21st October 1734 the Presi- 

 dent laid before the Board proposals which he had received 

 from several persons for erecting a weaving town within the 

 Company's bounds by the name of Chindadre Pettah, the 

 fifth of which proposals was : " That the heads' of the castes 

 be chosen^and have power according to Talabad, and that all 

 disputes about debts or accounts between the inhabitants be 

 decided by them or other arbitrators, and that the inhabit- 

 ants of the said town shall not be liable to prosecutions in 

 the Courts of Justice in Madras for any action of debt or 

 account, but shall be proceeded against according to the 

 customs of their several castes." The proposals were agreed 



« Wheeler's Madras, vol. iii, p. 322. 

 « Do. do. iii, p. 62. 



a° Ibid. 



13 



