should be guided, not by any visionary views, but by the rule of common sense and expediency. I will even take higher ground, and assert that the people have a right, as a mere measure of justice, to demand that the business of the courts and of the country generally should be administered in the vernacular language and character[1]. Such a proceeding as this would tend, in a great degree, to restore confidence, and promote a kindly feeling among our native subjects towards their British-Indian rulers.
June 1, 1834.
No. XXXVI.
ON THE PROCEEDINGS OP THE CIVIL COURTS.
For 'tis a question, (law you know*s our boast,)
If plainti£f or defendant suffer mosU-^/mlia, a Po§m,
The extreme difference between precept and practice in the British-Indian legislation has been often remarked ; and notice has been taken of the little distinction which has been drawn between these in the numerous and just complaints which have been made of the difficulty, indeed, almost impossibility, of obtaining justice from our courts. As regards suits and causes between individuals. Government certainly have been actuated by good intention; and the laws which have been enacted, although undoubtedly capable of great improvement, exhibit provisions in a considerable degree calculated to promote the end in view. Where the interests of the Government have been concerned, (or what has been supposed to be such, for, unfor- tunately, our British-Indian rulers have not yet made the dis- covery that the true interests of Government and of the people
- ↑ Some people have called upon the advocates of this system to prove that it would succeed. This is reversing the order of things. To carry on the concerns of any country in its own vernacular language and character, is so prima facie consonant to common sense, that those who support a different mode, ought first to be obliged to prove that the common-sense-one would not succeed. This never can be done, until the experiment shall have been fairly tried.
