HIGH COURT OF MADRAS. 



93 



or any of the Factories subordinate thereto, also gave rise 

 to many disputes and difficulties in consequence of the 

 Company's bounds not extending in all directions to that 

 distance. 57 



The Government appear also to have asserted their right 

 in certain cases to arrest debtors upon the petition of their 

 creditors without any warrant issued from the Mayor's Court. 58 



CHAPTER IV. 



In 1746 Madras was taken by the French, and though it 

 was restored in 1749 under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 

 yet by reason of such the possession of the French, the Mayor 

 and all or most of the persons who at that time were 

 Aldermen of the Town were dispersed, and were before 1753 

 either dead, or returned to Great Britain, or settled in other 

 parts of India, whereby, as the Company were advised, the 

 Mayor's Court at Madras, and all and every the powers and 

 authorities given or granted for the administration of Civil 

 Justice there, were dissolved and at an end. It had also 

 been found by experience that there were some defects in the 

 Charter of 1726, and the Company therefore surrendered it 

 to King George II, together with the Charter of 17th 

 November 1727, and obtained in lieu thereof Letters Patent 

 dated the 8th January 1753 (26 George II), establishing new 

 Corporations at each of the three Presidencies, and constitut- 

 ing a Mayor's Court in each of them, and also Courts of Oyer 



57 Proceedings of Government, 19th April 1736, relative to the arrest of an 

 inhabitant of Cuttawauk in Trivitash, a village not two miles from the Fort, 

 hut out of the Company's hounds ; and 1st and 3rd June 1742, relative to an 

 assault committed in St. Thome. Wheeler's Madras, vol. iii, pp. 167, 266. For 

 the mode of proceeding against persons who had committed offences above 

 ten miles distant from any English settlement, see Proceedings of 25th 

 November 1735 and 24th January 1738. Wheeler's Madras, vol. iii, pp. 

 159, 181. 



58 Proceedings of 19th April 1736. Wheeler's Madras, vol. iii, p. 163. 



