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Leader (1850-1860), 18th December 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 23, THE BRIBEttY MARKET. THE LAST QUOTATIONS...

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    • INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS
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      No. 4,56, December 18, 1868.] T H E L E ...

      No . 4 , 56 , December 18 , 1868 . ] T H E L E A D E R . 1391

      India And Indian Progress

      INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .

      The Bribetty Market. The Last Quotations...

      THE BRIBEttY MARKET . THE LAST QUOTATIONS . There arc two Institutions in . particular in India which are curses to the country and demand reform- ^ -one is the aml ah , and ike other the police- ^ - and 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 coui't—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 iiio-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 .

      In 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 lias borne the severest tests , and is unblemished ; but , notwithstanding , bribes are 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

      by written documents , and the oral evidence , converted into depositions , takes that ultimate shape . By using a court language , which is in many cases not the vernacular , and in consequence of the variety of languages and dialects existing in some districts , the auilah 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 amhui and law accnts profit .

      To form some idea of the state of affairs -we must go back to Scotland in the last century , or England two centuries ago ; and the latter courts come near the type of those of India , aud will give us a very good notion , under otlier 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 , each court or office having its own form * of document and its ovyn style of writing . These wore called court hands , and the Court of Chancery had more than

      influence , and perquisites , both , plaintiff and defendant ; winner and loser , are amerced , and the winner may come worse off than tile 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 amlah , 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 France 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 his papers maybe expedited , or that he may have time to answer h ' is adversary , as the application 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 llius

      plaintiff and defendant in the same style , , 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 tilings of his house , his g arden , or his field are no longer for him or his family , 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 , aud get up cases of suspicion against the greater part of the community . It is tliis action which makes the police so odious on the Continent ; aud the common informer let loose ainong ^ brothel-keepers or publicans in this country gives but 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 are picked up , but his experience is casual , while the local population are constantly subjected to this peculation .

      In the greater part of India it is the opinion of competent authorities that the police as a body are the greatest scoundrels in it , and that crime would be much diminished by the suppression of them , who arc the main perpetrators of crime . To bribery it is notorious that they add torture , and so well is their character known to tho Government that strenuous exertions are being made to supersede them by bpttcr men . After the suppression of the revolt , it is to be hoped the Government will be able to undertake the suppression of the police , and to carry out tho reforms of Mr . Hulliday aud others . It has been thought by some zealous men that an

      one of these serins , and there were court hands for the Exchequer , the Pipe Roll , Hanapcr , and Blazers , giving abundant employment to tho attorneys , scriveners , law stationers , aud court copyists . Thus machinery was provided for a system of regular foes , nnd special fees , aud irregular foes , of which expedition fees formed no mean part . From this system it has been the work of the law reformers of the last half-century to emancipate us . Now , in what is called the bribery system , as it was practised in England , and as it is practised in India , in Spain , in Naples , in Russia , and over a

      efficient means of weaning the police lrom corruption is to increase their salaries j but it is very doubtful whether this measure is any move to he relied upou in India than in Russia , but on the contrary subjects tho Government and the community to still greater loss , for tho increase of salary causes an increased expectation and denaudof perquisites proportionate to the enhanced importance- of the man . A sagacious Emperor of Russia had a particular objection to increasing the salaries ou the like experience . In fact , tlie fallacy of increase of salary under such circumstances is

      great part of tho world , bribery ; for tho simple purpose of giving an unjust deoision , instead of bciug the mum part ; of tho system , as wo suppose , constitutes a very small part , and in . some oountrios is exceptional , or , iudood , does not occur 5 and in India , on the wholo , the number of unjust decisions is comparatively fow , ns tho judges are men of integrity . A system of open selling of justice is muoh less prejudicial to the suitors , because , if the Cause bo sold to tho highest bidder , tho loaor has nothing to pay , and has only tho vordiot against him ; but , under a woll-organisod scheme of bribery ,

      subjected to this practical tost—that au iuorcaso of salary is only equivalent to promotion and increased pay , and the jomadar who has his salary raised does as lie would were ho promoted to durogah-r-oxuet higher perquisites . This is according to the nature of things , and ho does it tho more decidedly beouuso lus belter salary countenances in tlie , oyes ol his supoiiors his making a bettor appearance . Thus tho population of India in somo nuioos oomplain of tho Queen ' s Government booauso it has made these bloodsuckers more voraolous .

      the lower functionaries , but the details of which we need not quote . It might be thought that the limit of the market would be imposed by the people , and the old scale maintained , but th « condition of the people is rapidly improving , and the 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

      To speak of no others , the indigo planters have given evidence generally of the corruption of the 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 correspondent at Magoora , in the last Daeca News , reports that , whereas formerly a darogah with 11 . 10 s . monthly pay , when deputed or proceeding to some village for investigation of any case , except murder , was content with il . 10 s ., now , though theii salaries have been raised to 71 . 10 s . and 10 / . pei month , they will not take less than 151 . or 20 / . to give a truthful report ; and in the same way among

      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 j udge .

      The Indian Civil Sekvice.—As There Are A...

      The Indian Civil Sekvice . —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 , the 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 Council has determined to suspend its operation until the examination in I 860 . In July next , therefore , the maximum age for candidates will be twenty-three ; and after that occasion ,

      twenty-two . Indian 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 line between Madras and Calcutta is still imperfect , the bamboo posts put up in extreme haste and for a special purpose having rotted away . The overland mail of the 9 th of October was , however , signalled from Galle to Calcutta , vi & Bombay , in twenty-four hours . The line from Kurrachee to Bombay is also complete , and there is not now an important jcity in India from which intelligence cannot be flashed to Calcutta in

      twelve hours . If you remember that India is as large as Europe , Russia included ; that the entire country is within the range of tho tornados ; that our lines are all abovo ground 5 that we have just regained tho North-West ; and that the first idea of a mutineer is to cut the wire which conveys tho " lightning mail , " you will nppreo into tho energy and services of the department All is now ready for tho Red Sea telegraph , which is watched with extreme interest , notwithstanding a very general though vague notion that it will provo " an infernal nuieanco . " Indian merchants are too spoculativo altogether to appreciate certainty , while Indian statesmen abominate tho idoa of being puppets pulled by

      a wire .- — Ttmes , „_ . , ,, East India Cqmvany . —At a Court of Directors hold on Wednesday , Colonel Sykos , M . P ., wna unanimously elected chairman . , . Salt Tuadk to Ci » NA .-Mr . Haduold secretary to tho Chamber of Cpmmeroe , has had au intorv ow with tho Hon . Mr . Bruco , tho newlr-appo ! . i od Ambaflaador to China , who expressed much interest in this question , and promised hl « best o . uloavoura to obtain concoasiona from IhiChlnoao Government . Ho bel ovod tho . Ohinese people would bo glad of the opportunity of using good saltand both countries would undoubtedly be gainers by tho trade . — Liverpool Albion .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1858, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18121858/page/23/