court fuperintended by two covenanted fervants, aflifted by a Cauzee and Mufti : and by the present act, the Supreme Court of Judicature is to iffue commiffions of the peace, and juftices fo appointed may fit alfo in the courts of Oyer and Terminer *, and the juftices may affociate with the judges in caufes appealed; confequently, if the collector fhall be justice of the peace in addition to his other powers, as juftice he will fit in the court of Oyer and Terminer to execute the law of England; and if he remembers the 21ft of Geo. III. cap. 70, fec. 7, he will be able to elude the poffibility of an appeal laying either in British or native courts; for it is there enacted,

that the faid fupreme court shall not have, or exercife, any jurifdi&tion in any matter concerning the revenue, or concerning any act or acts ordered or done in the collection thereof, according to the ufage of the country or the regulations of the Governor General and Council."

I refer to the latest information, which

*Plans for British India, p. 132.

has been published by the permiffion of the Board of Control this year, in which Mr. Bruce has ftated the regulations of 1787, and the amended code of 1791; I was rather furprised to fee the code of 1787 fo foon amended, and notwithstanding I remembered Governor Holwell's opinion, that a collector had fufficient business if he attended to his duty of collector †, I did not conceive it poffible for any fyftem to have occafioned fuch complicated bufinefs, as appears by the returns from the diftricts to the Revenue Board at Calcutta in December 1791; at which period the undecided caufes amounted to feventyfeven thoufand, exclufive of Mhal caufes, and difputes between Reyut and Reyut, and between Zemindar, or Renter, and Reyut; and alfo exclufive of caufes in the Fougedarry departments, all which were then under the collector, together with his collection. It is expected the powers of the Naib Nazim, as head of the Nizamut

*Plans for British India, part 2, fec. 2. Debrett, 1793.

↑ Page 318.

Adaulet, being vested in the Governor General and Supreme Council, affifted by the Cauzee ul Cozaat, or head Mahomedan judge, and two Mufties, will be able to revise all the proceedings of criminal cafes tried before the Courts of Circuit previous to the execution of judgement: and that a farther amended code, in 1793, will amend the two former codes published since Lord Cornwallis's arrival at Calcutta; the Collector must then again define his Exchequer authority, and the civil and criminal jurisdictions will be again feparated; the regulations may define the feveral jurisdictions with accuracy; they did fo before they were univerfally united in the collector in 1787; but the cafes were fo blended in practice, that it was, and will continue to be, impoffible to clafs them, and determine to which tribunal they belong. It is not supposed that the Supreme Board of Judicature can be again thought of as a fubftitute for those defects of revenue judicature; that court remains under the present act as it ftood fince the act of 1781, with the addition of being now made a court of

the

admiralty, and will iffue commiffions of peace ordered by the Governor General; with fome encouragement, the old conteft for jurifdiction might be revived, and an act of indemnity would again be neceffary; but the confequence which Lord Clive predicted* is not likely to arife, if the Court of Directors, who are deemed by Parliament competent to felect governors, fhall acquiefce in the pretenfions of that court to refuse a barrifter the benefit of their licence without a reafon affigned; fo long as the Supreme Court of Judicature exists, reference to the Chief Juftice of the King's Bench fhould fanction the licence of Directors, without which no one should practise English law in India; the judges in Bengal fhould be responsible for the purity of the practice in their Court: but Sciant Judices fe jus dicere, non dare, Leges interpretari, non condere +." We are at prefent in no danger from British or from Hindoo law, but we are likely to become adepts in the Mahomedan law.

When we refer to the Koran as the univerfal code, we cannot be fuppofed to look for a definite rule; a celebrated writer informs us, the fubftance of the Koran, uncreated and eternal, brought from heaven by the angel Gabriel, was revealed in fcraps by Mahomed according as it fuited his policy or paffion; they were collected two years after his death and published, and the facred volume, in all its various editions, boasts the miraculous privilege of an uniform and uncorruptible text. At the end of 200 years the Sonna, or oral law, preferved by his wives and companions, was fixed and confecrated by the labours of Al Bochari, who difcriminated 7275 genuine traditions from a mafs of 300,000 reports of more doubtful or fpurious character; the work has been approved by the four orthodox fects of Sonnites. It appears that we have felected the commentary of Mobumed and Yuzef; we are told that for thirty years we had wavered

* Gibbon's Decline of the Roman Empire, Vol. V. Cap. 50.

+ Plans for British India, p. 493..