edure, and with all the impress of
authority. It is a question I merely glance at, as it does not come
within the scope of a book like this; but it is well known to every
planter and European who has come much in contact with the rural
classes of Hindostan, that there is a vast amount of smouldering
disaffection, of deep-rooted dislike to, and contempt of, our present
cumbrous costly machinery of law and justice.

If a villager wishes to level a withering sarcasm at the head of a
plausible, talkative fellow, all promise and no performance, ready
with tongue but not with purse or service, he calls him a _vakeel_,
that is, a lawyer. If he has to cool his heels in your office, or
round the factory to get some little business done, to neglect his
work, to get his rent or produce account investigated, wherever there
is worry, trouble, delay, or difficulty about anything concerning the
relations between himself and the factory, the deepest and keenest
expression of discontent and disgust his versatile and acute
imagination can suggest, or his fluent tongue give utterance to is,
that this is 'Adanlut lea mafich,' that is, 'Like a court of justice.'
Could there be a stronger commentary on our judicial institutions?

The world is waking up now rapidly from the lethargic sleep of ages.
Men's minds are keenly alive to what is passing; communications are
much improved; the dissemination of news is rapid; the old race of
besotted, ignorant tenants, and grasping, avaricious, domineering
tyrants of landlords is fast dying out; and there could be no
difficulty in establishing in such village or district courts as I
have indicated. All educated respectable Europeans with a stake in the
country should be made Justices of the Peace, with limited powers to
try petty cases. There is a vast material--loyalty, educated minds, an
honest desire to do justice, independence, and a genuine scorn of
everything pettifogging and underhand--that the Indian Government
would do well to utilise. The best friend of the Baboo cannot acquit
him of a tendency to temporise, a hankering after finesse, a too fatal
facility to fall under pecuniary temptation. The educated gentleman
planter of the present day is above suspicion, and before showering
titles and honours on native gentlemen, elevating them to the bench,
and deluging the services with them, it might be worth our rulers'
while to utilise, or try to utilise, the experience, loyalty, honour,
and integ