Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 18th December 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1391, INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS

Page 1391
Page 23
23 of 32

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS
  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      India And Indian Progress

      INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS

      Untitled Article

      To speak of no others , the indigo planters hav < given evidence generally of the corruption of th « amlah and the police , facts as notorious as to a resi dent is the state of affairs in a French department or a Spanish or Portuguese province . A corre spondent at Magoora , in the last Dacca News , re ports that , whereas formerly a darogah with 21 . 10 s . monthly pay , when deputed or proceeding to some village for investigation of any case , except murder was content with 21 . 10 s ., now , though thei salaries have been raised to 71 . 10 s . and 10 / . pe : month , they will not take less than 15 / . or 20 / . U give a truthful report ; and in the same way amon the lower functionaries , but the details of which we need not quote . It might be thought thai the limit of the market would be imposed by the people , and the old scale maintained , but . the condition of the people is rapidly improving , and the

      THE BRIBERY MARKET . THE LAST QUOTATIONS . There arc two institutions in particular in India which are curses to the country and demand reform—one is the amlah , and the other the policeand by which bribery , extortion , torture , and all the evils of bad government are brought to bear on the population , and to taint the character of our own administration . So long as these exist in their present . shape , it is perfectly idle to rely on English judges and magistrates , or even to increase their number , for we cannot ensure the administration of justice . In the earnest desire to administer native law , and under the plea of administering it in the native languages , the amlah , or native legal functionaries , have been maintained in each court—the clerk or registrar , the treasurer or receiver , the summoning officer—in all . their several grades and varieties , according to the importance of the court . The Government has made great exertions to ensure the purity of these officials by giving them regular salaries , and opening to them promotion to the hig hest judicial ranks , while all known cases of bribery or malversation have been severely

      punished . In the main , these efforts are fruitless , . and the suitors are oppressed . Iu some cases a native judge officiates , but much of the judicial business , civil and criminal , is transacted by Englishmen , who pass regular examinations in the native languages , and many of whom are very conversant with them . As to bribery of the English officials , it is enough to say their character has borne the severest tests , and is unblemished ; but , notwithstanding , bribes ar : e raised for them and in their names throughout the country . The amlah constitute the efficient agency for this ,

      and all kinds of villany . Much of the procedure is foy written documents , and the oral evidence , converted into depositions , takes that ultimate shape . By using a court language , which is iu many cases not the vernacular , and in consequence of the variety of languages and dialects existing iu some districts , the amlah acquire a technical mastery of the judge , who is shifted about from post to post every one or two years at some stations . As if this were not enough , the vilest scrip is used by the amlah , which neither suitors nor judge can understand , and by the perplexity so introduced the amlah and law agents profit .

      To form some idea of the state of . affairs we must go back to Scotland iu the last century , or England two centuries ago ; and the latter courts conic near the type of those of India , aud will give us a very good notion under other terms of the state of affairs . At that time some of the writs and proceedings were in Latin , some in Norman French , some in English , and this jargon was bandied about by numbers of functionaries high and low , oach court or office having its own form of document and its own style of writing . These were called court liauds , and the Court of Ghnuccry had more than

      One of these serins , and there were court hands tor the Exchequer , the Pipe ItolJ , Hannpcr , aud Filasscrs , giving abundant employment to the attorneys , scriveners , law stationers , and court copyists . Thus machinery was provided for a system of regular fees , nnd special fees , and irregular fees , of which expedition fees formed no moan part . From this systom it has been the work of the law reformers of the lnst half-century to emancipate us . Now , in what is called the bribery system , as it < cvas practised in England , and as it " is practised in India ; in Spaiai , in Naplos , iu Russia , and over a

      great part of tho world , bribery for tlio simple Eurposo of giving an unjust decision , instead of cing tho mam purt of the system , us wo suppose , constitutes a very small part , and in some countries is exceptional , or , indeed , does not occur ; and in India , on the whole , the number of unjust decisions is comparatively few , as the judges are men of integrity , A system of open , soiling of justice is much logs prejudicial to tho suitors , bocauso , if tho cause bo sola to tho highest bidder , tho losor has nothing to pay , and has only tho verdict against kiai } but , under a woll-orgauisod sohcino of bribery ,

      influence , and perquisites , both plaintiff and defendant , winner and loser , are amerced , and the winner may come worse off than the loser . The great engine of corruption is delay . Thus , a suitor appears to claim that a particular step in the cause be taken , but very conveniently the amlahj or corresponding officials , occupy so much time in complying with the requirements of his demand that he gets a shrewd notion their proceedings may be quickened if he so desire it , or if convenient to him , or embarrassing to his adversary , that they

      may be delayed . Some perquisites beyond the court fees effect this , or in Trance it is done . as a matter of favour or influence . Each party waits on the judge , or official * to solicit him , or his wife , or his daughter , or his mistress , that hispapers maybe expedited , orthat he may have time to answer his adversary , as the app lication may be . It may be the matter of a bouquet or a jewel , a dish of fruit , or a fee , or a reciprocal service , but the principle of action and the result are the same . Now the amlah , like other

      species of the same genus , instead of being unjust , have a marvellous love of justice , and they treat plaintiff and defendant in the same style . Thus , any man who has a cause in any of the countries we have named , becomes a taxable subject , and is exposed to all kinds of exactions ; the good things of his house , his garden , or his field are no longer for him or his famil y * but for the amlah and their families . When the cause is given in his favour , neither himself nor his adversary can longer endure the persecution , and it is within the limits of possibility that each may be ruined , for costs do not cover perquisites . In fact , each suit , however small , becomes , so far as delay and expense are concerned , a Chancery suit .

      The police work upon the same system , but as they have greater engines of annoyance at their disposal , they are more oppressive . They can worry a prosecutor or make a man a prosecutor , annoy a witness , and get up cases of suspicion against the greater part of the community . It is this action which makes the police so odious on the Continent ; and the common informer let loose among brothel-kccpers or publicans in this country gives unt a very slight notion of a legion of police exercising the like functions . An Englishman on the Continent may , with his passport , get an inkling of the way in which francs , florins , pauls , and roubles arc picked up , but his experience is casual , while the local population are constantly subjected to thi 3 peculation ,

      In the greater part of India it is the opinion of competent authorises that the police as or body arc the greatest scoundrels iu it , and that crime would be much diminished by the suppression of them , who arc the main perpetrators ot crime . To bribery it is notorious that they add torture , and so well is their character known to the Government that strenuous exertions are being made to supersede thorn by better men . After the suppression of the revolt , it is to be hoped the Government Ayill be able to undertake tho suppression of the polico , and to carry out the reforms of JMr . Ilulliday and others . It lias boon thought by some zealous men that an efficient means of weaning the police from corruptiou is to inoreuso their salaries ; but it is very doubtful whether this measure is any more to be relied upon in India than in Russia , but on the and tho

      contrary subjects the Government community to ' still greater loss , for tho incrcaso of salary causes an increased expectation and douaud of perquisites proportionate to tho ouhauccd importance of the man . A sagacious Emperor of Russia had a particular objection to increasing tho sularics on the like experience . In faot , tho fallaoy of increase of salary under such oircumstanccs is subjected to this practical tost—that an inorcaso of salary is only equivalent to promotion uud increased pay , and the jomadar who has his salary raised does as lie would wore he promoted to darogalx—oxaot higher perquisites . This is ncoordiug to tho nature of things , and ho does it tho more decidedly bocause Ins bettor salary couutouiuioos iu tho eyes of his superiors his making a Uglier appearance Thus the population of India la some . nlacos complain of tho Queen ' s Government booauso it has made these bloodsuckers moro voraoLoae .

      police thus profit by it . The remedy for all this is better men—English commissioners , superintendents , and inspectors of police . The grand remedy for the amlah is the use of the English language in the court proceedings , as recommended in his evidence by that eminent public servant , Mr . Francis Warden , and whose propositions are now being circulated by the Indian papers with general approbation . A subsidiary measure , well advocated by Mr . William Edwards of the Civil Service , in Wednesday ' s Times , is the use of the Roman character in all native documents in the law courts , so as to get rid of the cumbrous and mysterious scrip of documents 224 feet long , as lately recorded by us . Thus the judge would become independent of the amlah , and a direct communication would be established between the suitor and the judge .

      Untitled Article

      I No . 456 , December 18 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER , 1391

      Untitled Article

      The Indian Civil Service . —As there are at the present time vacancies in the establishment of the Secretary of State for India for eight writers , Lord Stanley has resolved to fill those vacancies by means of an open competitive examination . It will have , been observed that , under the regulations which have been recently promulgated for the examination of candidates for the Civil Service of India , tlie maximum age , which , since

      the introduction of the competitive system , has been twenty-three , was reduced to twenty-two . Having regard , however , to the just claims of students who are now preparing for the expected examination in July next , many of whom this rule , if immediately enforced , would have excluded from the right of competing , the Secretary of State for India in Gouncil has determined to suspend its operation until the examination in 1860 . In July next , therefore , the maximum ago for candidates will be tweritj ' -three ; and . after that occasion ,

      twenty- . Indiax Telegraphs . —The telegraph from Galle to Madras , through the submarine cable across the Straits of Manaar , is now open to the public . _ A bit of the coast lino between Madras and Calcutta is still imperfect , the bamboo posts put up in extreme haste and for n special purpose having rotted away . The overland mail of tho 9 th of October was , however , signalled from Gallo to Calcutta , v ' Bombay , in twenty-four hours . The line from Kurraouee to Bombay ia also complete , and there is not now an important city in India from which intelligence cannot be flashed to Calcutta in

      twolve hours . If you remember that India ia as large as Europe , Russia included ; that tho entire country is within tho range of tho tornados ; that our lines are all above ground ; that we have just regained the North-West ; and that the first idoa of a muttneor is to cut the vriro which conveys the " lightning mail , " you will appreciate the energy and services of the department A . H ia now ready for tho Red Sen telegraph , which is watched with extreme interest , notwithstanding a very general though vnguo notion that it -will prove " an infernal nuisance . " Indian merchants are too speculative altogether to appreciate certainty , Avhilo Indian statesmen abominate the idea of being puppets pulled by

      a wire . —Timvs . . ., East . India . Company . — -At a Court of Directors hold on Wednesday , Colonul Sykos , M . P ., was unanimously olooted ohnirman . * „ ., *„ Salt Thadb to Ciksa . — Mr . WndfloUl , secretaryto the Chamber of Commerce , lias had «» * f ° "i £ " J tho Hon . Sir . Bruoo , tho newly-uppol" od Ambassador to China who expressed «>» . «» l , uere » t ln . this question , and promrL hU boat endeavour * J * ^™** " ^ from tho Chinese Government . Ho boliovcd the Chinese \ Z Iwou bo glad of tho opportunity of using good LT and both oountrloi would undoubtedly bo gatnora by tho trudo . — Livurpool Albion .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1858, page 1391, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2273/page/23/