with a tremendous bound in the estimation of the people of India, if they but forsake this false god and do justice between the Natives and their own kith-and-kin impartially. Justice is the corner-stone of the British Rule in India. Take care not to disturb or damage it. Perhaps the Anglo-Indian Jurymen and Magistrates are afraid to incur the displeasure of their own countrymen in India who would not like an European to be punished for transgressing the law against a Native. I say to them 'Fear not and do your duty.' Sir James Mackintosh, a lawyer of great fame and eminence, was the Recorder of Bombay in the early part of the last century. There was no Supreme Court or High Court then. The Anglo-Indian Society was very small, and it required some courage on the part of a Judge to convict an European. Yet Sir James convicted the then Custom Master of Bombay of receiving sums of money as gifts or presents contrary to law. There was an outburst of indignation on the part of the AngloIndian Community, but Sir James faced it, although as said by him in a letter to a friend a few months after the trial" I was treated in the grossest manner. There was no liberal public opinion to support me and no firm Government to frown down indecent reflections on the administration of justice." Truly, Sir James showed British pluck.

The love of Justice flows in the vein of the English people. It is Englishmen's pride, and has largely contributed to make their sea-girt Isle powerful and wealthy. Even in the Medieval ages it existed. Chief Justice Gascoine promptly ordered Prince Henry to be confined in the prison of the King's Bench when he drew his sword on the Judge, angered by the Judge's refusal to release an associate of his. Wild and impetuous as the Prince was, he had the good sense to submit to the punishment. When his father King Henry IV. heard of this incident, he exclaimed "Happy is the Monarch who possesses a Judge so resolute in the discharge of his duty, and a son so willing to yield to the authority of the law!" Let our Anglo-Indian Judges show the spirit of Gascoine, and let the sense of appreciation of Justice shown by King Henry and the Prince be shown by our Anglo-Indian friends. Let not the belief of some people that a lamb can drink with a wolf at the fountain of British Justice be shaken, but strengthen it, foster it, and spread it far and wide among the people, adopting for your motto "Fiat Justitia, ruat cœlum."

Attempt to Retrench Powers of
High Courts.

The fourth grievance is very important. There is a universal feeling of apprehension among the people of India that the Government is highly anxious to retrench the powers of the High Courts. The Government, it is said, find the bit rather too tight, and want to loosen it, if not to snap it asunder. Some people say that Government would, if it could, reduce the High Courts to the status of District Courts, and make the Judges their pawns, wherewith to play their game on the expansive chess-board of India without fear of being checkmated. This is rather an unfair and uncharitable view to take of the Government, which, after all that may be said against it, is benevolent. But I fancy that the Government is growing rather jealous of the High Courts and desire to circumscribe their powers. It will be an evil day for the British Rule in India to shake the confidence of the people in the potency and greatness of the High Courts. The High Courts have come to be regarded by the populace as the tabernacles of their liberty, the havens of their safety, the towers of their strength and the palladiums

of their freedom. Lord Curzon, in his farewell speech at the Byculla Club, said that the Indian peasant "has no politics" and "knows very little of policies." Be that as it may, it is certain that he knows the High Court of his Presidency. He fondly turns to it in his hour of danger or difficulty as the needle turns to the pole, or, to take a vernacular phrase, as the camel turns his head towards Marwar when he is about to die. Whenever he is dissatisfied with a Mamlatdar, a Magistrate or a Collector, he thinks of the High Court at once, and makes a wry face when he is told that the High Court has no power to interfere in the matter. He cannot believe it, poor man. He thinks the High Court all powerful. Verily, the High Court is the chain which has secured fast the Indian ship to the British moorings. It is the wind-pipe of the British Rule in India, which cannot, without danger to it, be allowed to be inflamed or choked up by the glands of legislative impediments. I will give a recent instance. When Mr. Tilak was prosecuted for perjury and forgery in Poona about two years ago the sympathy of the whole Indian population, including those who were opposed to him politically was aroused by the appointment of a Special Magistrate to try his case. The Government acted somewhat indiscreetly in constituting a Special Court to try an alleged ordinary offence, and engaging the services of a counsel

from Bombay at a large expense and thus squandering public money. But I am not concerned with it, save to show that it caused alarm in the public mind and produced diffidence in the motive of Government. Mr. Tilak was convicted after a long and laborious trial, and the Sessions Court of Poona upheld the conviction in appeal, but reduced the sentence. The High Court was moved, and the Honourable Sir Lawrence Jenkins, Chief Justice, and the Honourable Mr. Justice Batty set aside the conviction and acquitted Mr. Tilak. The news spread like wildfire, and the triumph of British Justice was proclaimed. The people became jubilant over it, and went into ecstacies singing the praise of the High Court of Bombay. Sir Lawrence is a great and good Judge, dignified and courteous, and has won the hearts of the people of this Presidency by his judicial acumen, broad-mindedness and sympathy for them.

The Judges of the High Court should be as free as air and not dependent upon the Government of India for anything. The Judges of the late Supreme Court were, I believe, much more independent in that respect. Who has not heard of the incident between Sir John Malcolm, the then Governor of Bombay, and Sir John Peter Grant, the then only Judge of the Supreme Court, his two colleagues having died of a