we will venture to assert that the expense is not one-half, nor the delay one-tenth part of what it is in these. We refer more particularly to the case of Prince of Wales' Island, where British law was administered for near twenty years, by a King's Recorder, to the entire satisfaction of a heterogeneous population of some 60,000 inhabitants, composed of Englishmen, of Chinese, of Arabs, of Hindoos, and of Mohammedans of Hindoostan,-the judge receiving no higher remuneration than a judge of one of the country courts, and for many years, at least, being entitled to no retiring pension.

In Bengal, the special jurisdiction of the King's Court, as is sufficiently known, is confined to the town of Calcutta, even its suburbs being generally under the authority of the Company's regulations. Mr. Rickards has contrasted the security and prosperity of Calcutta, and of the other towns similarly circumstanced, with the insecurity and poverty which prevail in the provinces. Mr. Robertson, having the range of about 328,000 square miles, fixes upon the suburbs in question for instituting a comparison between the effects of Indian laws,' and English laws.' Now,' says he, is it correct to say that this latter jurisdiction (the Company's) exhibits, in point of happiness, wealth and population, a melancholy contrast to the former? Is it correct to say that the people evince a disposition to migrate from the one into the other?' Nothing can be more unhappy than the selection which Mr. Robertson has here made, and we are confident he made it, as well as uttered his triumphant interrogatories, in profound ignorance of the real circumstances of the case. All commercial business of the least importance is transacted within the absolute strict limits of the town of Calcutta, within the strict boundary of the King's Court, and every merchant and other man of business has his office or counting-house here, and if he had not, no one would enter into engagements with him. Every such person, of whatever colour or complexion, although residing in the suburbs, is construed to be amenable to the jurisdiction of the King's Court. Perhaps 50,000 of the inhabitants of Calcutta sleep in the suburbs, but every one of them, notwithstanding, is within the jurisdiction of his Majesty's Court. All Europeans in the suburbs, even when they have no offices in Calcutta, are strictly subject to it. Moreover, the whole of the River Ganges, with every person, and every thing upon it, from Calcutta to the sea, is amenable to the same jurisdiction. The wealth accumulated under the protection of the Royal Court, and which has little room for investment within the narrow bounds of the town, overflows upon the suburbs and nourishes them; and these suburbs, besides, not to say their magistrates, have the obvious advantage of being controlled by the public opinion of the most enlightened and intelligent community in India. Do these suburbs then, receiving as they do unquestionable and direct benefit from the King's Court, form a fair subject of comparison between the

laws of the East India Company and the laws of England, or is this writer justified in prefering them to the remainder of the 328,000 square miles, of which he has taken no notice?

Mr. Robertson hints that the inhabitants of the village of Howrah, one of the suburbs in question, and which he calls, ‘a rich and populous place,' petitioned the local government not to be placed under the jurisdiction of the King's Court, such matter having once been in contemplation. He was told' by 'the best authority, that this took place some twelve or fifteen years ago.' It would be very convenient to have the best authority,' named in respect to so extraordinary a circumstance, and some absolute date assigned for the alleged transaction, instead of 'some twelve or fifteen years ago,' which is no date at all. This seems the more - necessary since a petition of the nature alluded to is believed to be in direct opposition to certain prejudices recently evinced by the Indians in favour of English law, as shewn by their petitions to the King and Parliament, claiming an extension of the very rights which they are here represented as deprecating.

Mr. Robertson admits with candour, that the King's court, after all, is a wholesome check upon the government, and is of incalculable benefit to the country.' 'Civil justice also,' he allows, 'is probably better administered within its jurisdiction, than within other parts of the country.' Without the slightest reference to superior legal knowledge, legal skill, and legal experience, or the superiority of the code of laws administered, our author coolly ascribes the whole advantage to mere superiority of physical number in the judges.-Thirty persons are employed,' he says, in the administration of justice,' upon a space not so large or so populous as the town of Benares, where two at the utmost do the whole business. There is a thoughtlessness, or at all events great unsoundness, in this comparison between Calcutta and BenaresBenares is an inland town without any foreign commerce, and, in comparison with Calcutta, with a very small commerce of any kind. -Calcutta has a foreign commerce with nearly all the world, and perhaps a moiety of all the foreign commerce of the Indies. The jurisdiction of the country court of Benares, is strictly limited to the town of that name. The King's Court at Calcutta, has an admiralty jurisdiction extending from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan. All British-born subjects whatsoever, whether residing in Bengal or in the Native states, are subject to its authority. All Natives in the service of the Company are amenable to it for wrongs and trespasses, and all Natives whatsoever, (and this comprehends nearly the whole class of persons who have commercial dealings with the people of Calcutta,) entering into a written agreement to submit to its decision, are amenable to it.

Quitting the administration of Civil justice as rather a hopeless case, our author turns to inform us, that he has heard' that in

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point of police the cities of Moorshedabad, Patna, and Benares, were some years ago better governed than Calcutta,' and he adds, that this would be made apparent by a comparative statement of crimes committed, &c. &c. And so it would if we had the statement, and that the statement was authentic; but the statement is not forthcoming, and thus our author leaves the superiority which he claims, in a state of uncertainty. The three cities above named, in the order in which we have mentioned them, are computed to contain respectively 150,000, 300,000, and 600,000 inhabitants. Calcutta contains 400,000. Does the inconsistency of imagining that one English gentleman, or at the utmost two,' can do that better for 600,000 persons, than thirty can for 400,000, not occur to our author; or would he claim for the class to which he himself belongs more than mortal powers, ubiquity or omniscience? Does it not occur to him that if two magistrates be necessary for Moorshedabad, there ought, to secure equal efficiency, to be four at Patna, and eight at Benares; or that if two be sufficient for Benares, one is enough for Patna, and that poor Moorshedabad requires, by the same rule, only the fraction of a judge. But really, if crime be so rare in the Native cities alluded to, we can only conclude that their inhabitants are the very best people alive; and do in reality govern themselves; for to imagine that one or two individuals, however gifted, can efficiently control the police of 600,000 souls, or of half the number, or of one fourth the number, is not to be credited for a moment by any person of common reflection, especially when it is considered that these magistrates have on their shoulders, also, the whole civil, and a great part of the criminal administration of justice, over the same hosts of men.

No such

The most curious charge made by our author against the King's Court, refers to the burning of widows. The reader will suppose, upon the bare mention of this circumstance, that these abominable suicides, or murders, are perpetrated in the very streets of Calcutta, and within the special jurisdiction of his Majesty's court. thing. In Calcutta they are illegal, but they are not so within the Company's jurisdiction; and so here then, and beyond the pale of English law, they take place frequently. Our author, who had before spoken so handsomely respecting the suburbs of Calcutta, and challenged a comparison between them and the town itself, now turns round, and charges upon the English law the abomination that is actually perpetrated under the Company's law. Why, the police of London, that will not allow a 'ring' to be formed in Grosvenor-square, or St. James's-square, might as well be charged with countenancing the fight,' that actually takes place at Moulsey Hurst, because the gentlemen of the fancy' sally forth from the metropolis, and proceed clandestinely to a spot beyond its jurisdiction, where the nuisance is tolerated.*

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Mr. Robertson is, it seems, against any attempt at abolishing the prac

It is quite impossible that any reasoning can be more inconclusive than our author's on this point, and we recommend it to him to reconsider it. Must it not appear obvious to him, that if the same laws existed, and the same public opinion were in operation throughout the rest of India, that prevail in Calcutta, there would at once be an end of the immolation of widows?

There is one point connected with the administration of justice, to which we shall shortly allude. The proceedings of the country courts, it is sufficiently known, are conducted in the Persian language, which neither plaintiff, nor defendant, nor witnesses, nor prisoners, nor prosecutors, understand at all, and which the Judge, being a stranger, always understands very imperfectly. Our author is one of the abettors of the Mussulman prejudice, which would preserve this dialect in judicial proceedings, in preference to a language which some one or other of the parties interested might understand. 'The Persian,' he observes, is a most flexible, comprehensive, and, what is of some importance, quickly written language.' Of what use are flexibility and comprehensiveness to those who do not understand the language, even admitting such attributes to belong to this rude dialect; it would be much better for such performers, if it possessed neither the one nor the other quality; for it would then be more attainable, and consequently more useful. As to the quality of its being quickly written,' the reader will be a little surprised when we inform him, that it is so very difficult to write,

tice of widow-burning, yet, let be borne in mind,' says he, that if we try and fail, we shall only aggravate the very evil we propose to abolish.' We abolished the practice of throwing children to sharks and alligators; we abolished the practice of destroying female infants, but we have not, by doing so, aggravated the very evils which we proposed to remedy. These matters are not above thirty years old, but our author does not appear to have thought of them; he prefers making a comparison between Indian widow-burning and European duelling, which is about as appropriate as drawing a parallel between a squabble at a country fair and the Trojan war, or Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Touching this subject of widow-burning, by the way, our author relates an anecdote, derived from unexceptionable authority,' which savours somewhat of 'the prejudice of his caste,' as he himself repeats the expression. A young widow announced her intention of destroying herself on the funeral pile of her husband, and the youthful Magistrate of the district offered her 500l. if she would desist, with a similar sum to the Bramins, if they would forbear being accessaries. This is just exactly such an act as we should have expected from a generous and warmhearted English youth. Our author, however, instead of assigning it to the national character, as we should naturally have looked for, challenges all the saints in England to produce the like. He would give us to understand, in short, that the vulgar pinchbeck of the national character was transmuted into pure gold, by passing through the alembick of the East India College at Hertford, and the writer's buildings at Calcutta. Will any of the declaimers about the suttee pretend,' exclaims he, to place themselves, in point of sincere zeal for its suppression, on a par with the young magistrate just alluded to?"

We

that no Englishmen ever acquires the art of writing it at all. have heard of a single instance, but we have never seen one, of an Englishman who had so far mastered the Persian language, as to be able to write a common letter in it. The Mohammedan natives of India, who begin to practise from infancy, acquire an adequate proficiency; but this is out of the question with those who never attempt it before manhood. When written intelligibly and distinctly, it is always written slowly; and, from the very nature of things, cannot indeed be otherwise, for many of the letters are separate and distinct from those which precede and those which follow them. Though forming a beautiful character when slowly written; yet, when written quickly (that is, with comparative quickness, for in this particular it by no means equals European writing), the Persian becomes an unseemly scrawl. In such a scrawl, witnesses are summoned, decrees and writs issued to parties who cannot understand one letter of what is addressed to them, and records are kept, to comprehend a page of which, the Judge would require an hour, and a dictionary, and perhaps the assistance of his preceptor into the bargain. How long is this absurd mummery to be persevered in? Mr. Elphinstone, himself a Persian scholar, and a Persian traveller, had the good sense to banish the Persian as the language of law proceedings from Bombay, substituting for it the vernacular languages of the people, which, although not the right course to pursue, is undoubtedly an improvement. In this matter there are unquestionably serious difficulties to surmount, as was the case with the Normans in England, the Spaniards in America,

and many other conquerors; but surely the cultivated language

which alone the Judge understands,-which alone those who control the Judge understand,-which the Natives are well disposed to understand, and which is the only one in which sound legal knowledge can be communicated, deserves a preference over unwritten dialects, and above all, over a foreign speech unintelligible to every party concerned !

With respect to the great question of Colonization or settlement, there is, undoubtedly, some confusion in our author's expression of his sentiments touching it. Sometimes he seems to approve of it, but soon he flies of; hints at a fault and hesitates dislike,' The first passage we have on the subject is to the following effect. To the good that has, in this division, resulted from the presence of respectable British settlers (for such they may be regarded), as indigo planters, I am very ready to bear witness." The districts

to which our author here alludes, are portions of the province of Bahar, in which he himself served. By his account, the European indigo planters here amounted, ten years ago, to forty in number; and we believe we may add, that they are the most numerous and wealthy body of this description in India. Shortly afterwards he observes, that the indigo planters of the district in question,' are,