III. LECTURE shall and lawfully may hold all such pleas and appeals in the manner and with such powers as it hitherto hath held the same, and shall be deemed in law a Court of Record; and the judgments therein given shall be final and conclusive; except upon appeal to His Majesty, in civil suits only, the value of which shall be £5,000 and upwards. Section 22.-And it is hereby further enacted that the Court aforesaid shall and is hereby declared to be a Court to hear and determine on all offences, abuses, and extortions, committed in the collection of revenue, or of severities used beyond what shall appear to the said Court customary or necessary to the case, and to punish the same according to sound discretion, provided the said punishment does not extend to death or maiming, or perpetual imprisonment. Section 23.-And it is hereby enacted that the Governor-General and Council shall have power and authority from time to time to frame Regulations for the Provincial Courts and Councils; and shall, within six months after the making the said Regulations, transmit, or cause to be transmitted, copies of all the said Regulations to the Court of Directors and to one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries. of State; which Regulations His Majesty in Council may disallow or amend, and the said Regulations, if not disallowed within two years, shall be of force and authority to direct the said Provincial Courts III. according to the tenor of the said amendment, pro- LECTURE vided the same do not produce any new expense to the suitors in the said Court. The Act also declared that no action should lie Indemnity. in the Supreme Court against any judicial officer in the country Courts in respect of any judgment or order of his Court, nor against any person for any act done in pursuance of such order; it being considered "reasonable to render the Provincial Magistrates, as well Native as British subjects, more safe in the execution of their office." And finally, with regard to the indemnity in respect of the hostilities which had been carried on between the Court and the Council wherein said the Act, "many things have been done not justifiable by the strict rule of the law;" it was enacted that the Governor-General and Council and Advocate-General and all persons acting under their orders, so far as the same related to the resistance to any process of the Supreme Court from January 1, 1779, to January 1, 1780, were thereby indemnified, discharged, and saved harmless from any action, suit, or prosecution whatsoever on account of the said disobedience and resistance to the execution of the orders of the Court. Settlement Thus within eight years the main provisions of the The Regulating Act were swept away. The Supreme of 1781. Court, however, continued to exist, and ultimately, with its diminished powers and pretensions, won III. LECTURE continued to be passed for half a century. Thus the Act of Parliament, the Revised Code, the Parliamentary recognition of the Sudder and Provincial Courts, the grant of legislative authority apart from the veto of the Supreme Court, the restriction of the powers of that Court, and the declaration of the right of Hindus and Mahomedans to their own laws and usages were effected in 1781. A complete settlement was made sufficient to form the foundation of the Indian polity for three generations, and to mark the commencement of a new era in Indian History. In that era the Supreme Court acquired authority and renown; and English lawyers in India have laid the foundations of a complete system of AngloIndian jurisprudence. They have carried out the ultimate end and object of the Regulating Act—an object which has redeemed the character of the Statute and of its immediate policy-viz. to teach both rulers and subjects in the East that respect for law which is the foundation of social order and the greatest gift which England has had it in its power to bestow on India. The angry opposition which has been at times excited has died away, and as India is now united under a monarchy which is itself limited by law, and is settling down, even in its farthest provinces, into a law-governed country the wishes of the authors of the Regulating Act which they so utterly failed to accomplish may be said to have been ultimately fulfilled. III. I shall now trace separately the history of the legis- LECTURE lative authorities which have from time existed throughout India, of the Supreme Courts and other judicial authorities established in the Presidency Towns, and of the Civil and Criminal Courts of the country. In eighty years we shall arrive at a new epoch, the date from which nearly all existing legislative and judicial authority derives its origin. LECTURE IV. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCILS. power of Two-fold power of legislation given-Extent of the first power-Extent of the second-Excessive exercise of the powers-Parliamentary recognition thereof-Mode of exercising legislative power prescribed-Legislative power at Madras-At Bombay and Madras-At Bombay-Extent of the power-Extension of legislative authority in 1813-Power of taxation-Sanction of Directors necessary-Jurisdiction of the legislature-Regulations to be laid before Parliament-Reservation of Sovereignty of the Crown-Power to make Articles of War-Customs-Power to alter the revenue and impose new taxes-Statute Law in 1834-Necessity for reform in the legislature-The Act of William the Fourth-Provisions relative to legislation-Indian Law Commissioners-Local legislatures superseded-Articles of War-Conclusion. Two-fold I HAVE already described the extent of the legislegislation lative power granted by Parliament to the Com- given. pany during the early period which preceded the passing of the Regulating Act. The most important exercise of that power, whether within or in excess of its terms it is unnecessary now to enquire, occurred in 1772. In that year the President* and Council of Bengal made and ordained certain general regulations for the administration of justice, by virtue of which certain Courts, both Civil and Criminal, such as have already been described, were established * See Colebrooke's Supplement to the Digest of Regulations, Vol. III, |