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power has been unduly exercised, the contest generally involves in ruin either an innocent purchaser, or the helpless infant.

Remedy.

For the sake of both of these, it would be desirable that the existence of the necessity should be established, in the first instance, before some proper officer, (perhaps one of the police magistrates would be the best,) who should be authorized to inquire into it, and without whose fiat no title should be conveyed to a purchaser so as to bind the infant, and with whose fiat the purchaser's title should be secure, unless upon his fraudulent connivance with the real vender, for the signature of the infant is always obtained.

Petitions.

. The Judges of the Supreme Court have always been accustomed to receive and hear pauper petitions at chambers, a practice irregular indeed, (there being no cause in Court,) but highly beneficial to the inferior classes, to preserve them from the plunder and oppression of their greater neighbours, both Native and British, but particularly the former; and instances have occurred heretofore of summonses and summary decrees of the Judges having been enforced by imprisonment and other irregular methods.

The course which I have pursued is this: Having received a petition in writing from the complainant, I shortly examine him, ore tenus, as to the grounds of it, in order to ascertain the probability of them, and supply any defects, or correct any errors or inconsistencies apparent upon the face of the petition; and I take a note of his answers on the petition. This serves as a future check. If no probable ground be laid, or if the complaint be stale, and its staleness not satisfactorily accounted for, according to the subject matter, or if it turn out that the complaint has been before heard and determined upon a former petition to a Judge, in this or in any subsequent stage of the inquiry, the petition is of course dismissed.

If the petition be entertained, a summons issues to the defendant to appear on a given day; (and this is perhaps the most objectionable part of the proceeding, that a Judge should issue a summons without authority, and without legal means to enforce the attendance required, there being no cause in Court.) If the defendant do not attend on the summons, I proceed no further, but refer the petition to the inquiry and consideration of the pauper's attorney, (an officer appointed by the Court,) whose duty it is to examine the cause of complaint, to hear the party's witnesses (and, as it may be, to consult the pauper's counsel on matters of law,) and thereupon to report shortly to the Judge if the party has or has not a good probable ground of action, and also whether he is a pauper, (the criterion of which is, that he is not worth a hundred rupees besides his bedding and wearing apparel.) If the report be in the negative on either

ground, the petition is dismissed; if affirmatively, the Judge admits the petitioner to sue in formd pauperis; and then, if the defendant do not agree to refer the cause to some proper person, when required by the pauper's attorney, (for which purpose the defendant himself may also petition the Judge ;) or if it be of a nature unfit for reference, the suit proceeds in regular course.

If the defendant obey the summons and appear, I question him upon the several grounds of the plaintiff's petition, in order to ascertain what are the real points of difference between them, noting down the substance at least of his answers. This is a sort of pleading on terms, till, from the several answers of both parties in presence of each other, they are brought to one or more distinct issues; and if they agree upon the facts, and the difference is on matter only of law, the assistance of the pundit or the montire, as it affects Hindoos or Musulmans, is called in, and their answer sometimes decides the case. If the difference be, as it more frequently is, on matters of fact, it is inquired of them whether they agree to refer the decision to an arbitrator of their own choosing. If the defendant acquiesce, then, unless it is a very difficult or complicated question, I should not assist the plaintiff with the pauper's establishment in preference to arbitration. If the matter be referred, it is settled in that way; if the defendant decline a reference, the petition is then referred to the pauper's attorney, to inquire more regularly of the fact, and report, as before; or it may be first submitted, on the matter of law, to the advice of the pauper's counsel.

But it not frequently happens that, on the discussion before the Judge himself, the parties come to an agreement to do such and such things; and the fact of this mode of adjudication is, that there is no method of compelling the observance if either should afterwards swerve from his agreement. I think, therefore, that it would be useful to enable the Judge in such a case to direct a note to be taken of any agreement of the parties before him, and to make it a rule of Court to be enforced by attachment.

I should see no objection to giving the Judge a power to administer, if he thought fit, an oath to such parties as voluntarily offered themselves to be examined upon a summons. The stat. 41 Geo. III. c. 105. goes further, and authorizes Judges to whom certain petitions are referred, in order to ground proceedings in Parliament, to examine witnesses on oath.

These are some of the principal emendations most generally called for, but other inconveniences occur, from time to time, which require to be remedied. As to the best mode of applying the remedy, I refer to the general observations submitted in another paper. Natives of India. other than Hindoos, Mohammedans, and Christians.

There are Natives of India in Calcutta, who are neither Hindoos, commonly so called, (that is, Native Hindoos of the Gentoo religion,

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who alone, in common parlance, are here called Hindoos, in contradistinction to Mohammedans,) nor Mohammedans, nor Christians, whose legal condition is next to be considered. The Supreme Court, in addition to the British, which is its general text-law, is directed to take cognizance only of the Gentoo and Mohammedan codes, as established among the Native subjects. Hence, when questions have arisen concerning the laws of marriage, adoption, title, inheritance, and succession, as practised by others than Hindoos or Mohammedans within the British territories, there has been great difficulty and uncertainty in dealing with them.

Sikhs.

Since I have been here, questions have arisen concerning the inheritance and succession of Sikhs in Calcutta, depending upon the questions of marriage and adoption, the forms of which are different from those of the Hindoos in general; yet, in that instance, the difficulty was got over by considering the Sikhs as a set of Gentoos.

Burmans, &c.

The case of Burmans and Avanese, who are Bhuddists, and foreigners to Hindoostan, though approximating to the Gentoo faith, would be more difficult.

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But what shall be said to the Parsees and Chinese, the former of whom are beginning to spread to Calcutta from Bombay, and the latter are already become very numerous here, and are yearly increasing? What to the Ceylonese, Javanese, and others?

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Inheritance and succession of Foreigners settled here to be governed by Local Laws.

With respect to the title of land, it must follow the local law of the country in whosoever hands it is. If the person last seised be not a Gentoo (by which is understood here a Hindoo of the common superstition) or a Mohammedan, we can only apply to him the British rules of inheritance and succession; and in this there seems to be no inconvenience, for the owner may also vary this disposition by his will. But what is to be done with the marriage, divorce, and adoption of foreign settlers? The law of adoption has ever been local and special since nations have ceased to be migratory. The ceremony of marriage also is a local law throughout the world. If a marriage be contracted within the pale of the British laws by a form not recognized by our code, or by the Hindoo code amongst Hindoos, or by the Mohammedan code amongst Mohammedans, how is it to be recognized as conveying claims to property, for we have no authority to go by any other codes. The Hindoo codes, indeed, allows of all marriages and adoptions of strangers domiciled

amongst them, according to their own several national forms; but the Supreme Court has only authority to recognize Hindoo law as between Hindoos, not as between strangers.

The fashions of the several races of foreigners domiciled here are too fixed to bend readily to local customs; and the main question will be, whether the British Government is desirous, by a public recognition of their several domestic customs of marriage, divorce, and adoption, amongst themselves, to encourage these foreign settlers in Calcutta as the great mart of Asia, and thereby to form a link of connexion with their respective countries. Each of these knots of settlers herd together, and are continually increasing, particularly the Chinese, most of whom are stationary.

Arabs.

The Arabs, who are also as numerous as Musulmans, though foreigners, are within the letter, at least, of our legal provisions. Of these the Wahabees would seem to be only a sect.

Jews.

We have also a few Jews, who have probably, like their brethren in England, some private bond of conscience, by which all questions concerning their domestic relations are settled in foro domestico; for we never hear of them in Court, except sometimes as hired bail, so true are they to this calling all over the world.

Portuguese and other Christians of Native or Foreign Extraction, and Half-Caste.

The Portuguese, Armenian, and other Christians of Native or foreign extractions, together with the half-caste, or illegitimate Christian children of British fathers, form a very considerable and important class, which, for several purposes, is out of the pale of the British laws, though not within the Hindoo or Mohammedan rule.

In framing statutes for British India, the legislature seems only to have had in view three descriptions of persons: British European subjects, with their legitimate descendants, and the Hindoo (or Gentoo) and Mohammedan Natives of India: throughout these laws, British subjects, and subjects of his Majesty,* are terms used in contradistinction to Native inhabitants; and it is only under the description of the inhabitants of Calcutta that the Supreme Court now exercises any direct jurisdiction over the persons of whom I am immediately treating.

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If a Portuguese or Armenian Christian have his dwelling beyond

** The Court at Madras have lately doubted whether they could try a German soldier who had been 30 years in the King's service in a British regiment.

the Mahratta ditch, and commit a felony, he must be tried by the Mofussil Judge, but by what code of law I am unadvised. Such persons have not for many years served upon a jury in Calcutta ; but previous to the year 1780, Portuguese Catholics, as I am informed, did serve upon juries, and a gentleman of that description now living, tells me that he has done so; when sued in the Mofussil Courts, none of these persons can appeal under the late act 53 Geo. III. c. 155, the right of appeal being confined to British subjects in the sense I have stated.

This is not so much felt by the Armenians in general, who being in part an Eastern people in their habits and manners, (with the exception of a few principal persons here who have altogether adopted the European custom and manner of life,) are little troubled about their comparison with the British, though far from indifferent to it, and all of whom are respectable for their integrity. But with respect to settlers of Portuguese extraction, several generations of whom have been born and bred under the British Government, and some of whom have beeen educated in England, many of them men of wealth and liberal education, they necessarily feel their want of political consideration in these matters. A few of the Portuguese are Protestants; for the rest, if their being Roman Catholics were not thought to be an obstacle to their sitting upon juries before1780, it is not obvious why it should be so now. But I rather attribute the disuse of summoning them from that time to the construction which was put on the term, British subjects, in the Charter of 1774. The present depressed condition, however, of the mass of Native Christians of Portuguese extraction would practically operate to exclude most of them from the panel. Many used formerly to be employed as clerks in the offices of Government and of the principal merchants and agents, but of late years they have been superseded for the most part by the more ductile Hindoo sircars or writers, whose labours are cheaper; and they have consequently fallen into great depression and poverty. They are still, however, a numerous body, partially mixed in blood with the Hindoos; and though illeducated in general, many meritorious individuals are to be met with amongst them.

Half-Castes.

The illegitimate offspring of British fathers, usually denominated the half-castes, are not the least numerous class here, and are daily increasing and thriving; some of these having been educated at home as gentlemen, and others having received the best education this country affords, can but ill brook their exclusion from British privileges. Yet I fear that the general admission of them as a body into the jury-box would, from the low consideration they bear, clash with the feelings of not a few of those who now sit there, and of some perhaps of higher degree; though many persons I know (with whose judgment my own accords) think that the true policy.

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