90 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



to, but in considering them it was urged that perhaps some 

 ill-minded people might suggest that the fifth article was an 

 infringement of the Boyal Charter as granting an immunity 

 from the jurisdiction of the Courts erected by the authority 

 thereof within the limits assigned them ; to which it was 

 answered that it was undoubtedly in the power of the Grov- 

 ernment, on bringing new people from foreign parts, to agree 

 with them on such terms as they would consent to come in 

 upon, and that the grant proposed was consonant to the 

 instructions which the Honorable Court of Directors have so 

 often ever since the arrival of the Charter given us in their 

 letters, viz., that causes between the natives may and ought 

 to be decided by their own customs among themselves or by 

 Justices or by referees to be appointed by themselves, which 

 can be nothing but the heads so chosen among themselves. 51 

 It was probably in consequence of this concession that a 

 petition was presented about the year 1735 in the names of 

 the whole body of inhabitants of Madras— Braminys, Gruza- 

 ratts, Eight and Left G-entoos, and Moors — to Mr. Benyon, 

 the then President, and Council, in which the petitioners com- 

 plained of the delay and expense of proceedings in the 

 Mayor's Court, and of the right of appeal to England, and, 

 after stating that the Company had consented and ordered 

 that all disputes that happened among themselves should be 

 decided according to their own laws as usual, submitted 

 rules for deciding such cases by arbitration and enforcing 

 awards and orders by the Justices of the Choultry. They 

 also proposed that all matters of dispute within thirty 

 pagodas should be decided by the Justices of the Choultry, 

 and that upon the death of insolvents the Company should 

 be paid before all other creditors as " hath been for many 

 years customary among us." 52 



51 Wheeler's Madras, vol. iii, p. 127. 



52 General Letter to Madras, 31st January 1755, para. 106, and copy peti- 

 tion which accompanied it. 



