134 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



The appeal to the Governor-General was not however done 

 away with till 1818. In that year a case of some magnitude 

 having been appealed to the Governor- General in Council, 

 the question whether the Governor- General had power to 

 decide appeals in the last resort was referred to the Advocates- 

 General of the three Presidencies, who were of opinion that 

 an appeal would lie of right to the King in Council from 

 Madras and Bombay from any final decision for any amount, 

 and the Governor- General in Council thereupon declared 

 that appeals were no longer to be made to him, and directed 

 the Madras Government to publish Eegulation VIII of 

 1818, by which it was enacted that appeals should in future 

 be transmitted from the Sudder Adawlut to the King in 

 Council. 



Unfortunately no directions were given for the conduct of 

 these appeals, and about 1826 it was accidentally discovered 

 by a gentleman engaged in some antiquarian researches 

 that there were a large number of cases, 107 involving questions 

 of Native law of great importance, which had been in appeal 

 from the Courts in India before the Privy Council for a 

 great many years, and that they had not been heard in conse- 

 quence of the ignorance of the parties as to the proceedings 

 necessary to be taken in England. 108 



This state of things was remedied by the Statutes 3 and 4 

 William IV, c. 41, and 8 and 9 Vic, c. 30. 



The four Provincial Courts of Appeal and Courts of Circuit 

 were abolished by an order in Council dated the 28th July 

 1843, and issued under the authority of Act VIII of 1843 ; 

 and the Office of Register of the Mofussil Courts ceased to 

 exist about the same time, though not expressly abolished. 

 The designation of the Zillah Courts and Principal Sudder 



21 from Bengal, 10 from Madras, and 17 from Bombay/ 

 Morley's Digest, Introd., p. xxiv. 



