Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/284

 have been largely assisted by the intimate acquaintance you acquired, by assiduous study, and by availing yourself of the opportunities you had, with the Canarese language. It was no doubt through your knowledge of it, and consequently from being able to communicate freely with witnesses in Court, and with the people out of Court that you won the high regard in the Southern Division, which is such a compliment to yourself, and that you were able to effect the complete and beneficial reorganization of the judicial system there, which subsequently was adopted as a model for the Bombay judicial establishments. Before that task was accomplished, however, you had been paving the way for the assumption of greater responsibilities with the knowledge of affairs gained by work in the offices of Under-Secretary to Government and of the Registrar of the High Court ; and it was, I believe, during this latter period that you edited the Bombay Code of Regulations and Acts; and with the aid of Professor Buhler brought out at intervals the Digests of the Hindoo Law of Inheritance, of Partition, and of Adoption now accepted as a standard authority on the several subjects. But the Presidency proper was not alone to benefit by your aid. Your service in Sind enabled you to simplify and place on a comprehensive footing the judicial orders that had been issued at various times. Whilst at Simla as a member of the Indian Law Commission you were mainly responsible for the report which heralded the introduction of the Transfer of Property Act, the Trust Act, Easement Act, and the Negotiable Instruments Act. Neither have the benefits of your wise counsel been confined to the field of jurisprudence; for your home in England can show material proof of the gratitude of the contributors to the Civil Service Fund for your labours in their behalf. Neither have your services been confined to India and the British Empire, for in 1885, at actual pecuniary loss to yourself, you accepted the deputation to Egypt as Procureur General. It is no bad compliment to yourself to say that if your proposals then for a reform of criminal law were in advance of the conceptions of those responsible for the administration of Egypt, it has not taken long for official opinion there to catch up yours; for I understand that another distinguished Bombay Judge is generally following in the lines you laid down. It is hardly for me to pass an opinion on your work as one of H. M.'s Judges of the High Court : ample testimony to the firmness, impartiality, legal knowledge, and uprightness which you displayed there is to be found in the public records of the time in question, and in the fact of your selection as a Member of Council. It is not unlikely that of all your literary work, that which you lay most store by