Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/271

Rh a supreme Court of Justice, having a very ill-defined jurisdiction, was set up side by side with the Governor-Generalship in Calcutta.

It is easy now to perceive that this ill-constructed governing machinery, which stands toward our latest systems in the same relation as does the earliest traction engine to the present locomotive, contravened some primary principles of administrative mechanics. When it becomes necessary to organize a new régime in an Asiatic country acquired from a native ruler by cession or conquest, the first thing needful is to fix the chief local authority, arming him with ample though well-defined powers, to be used in general subordination to the central government.

What these powers should be depends upon the circumstances of the case, upon the character of the people, the state of their society, and often upon the distance of the new province from headquarters. The executive and judicial departments may be quite separate, or they may be more or less under the same superior control; in any case, the jurisdictions and the laws or rules applicable to the community are plainly marked out and promulgated. In all cases, due provision is made for empowering one chief governing person to decide at once, and on his own responsibility, in emergencies.

In 1773, on the other hand, the chief executive authority at Calcutta was vested in a majority of the Council, the Governor-General having only a casting vote, so that in a government where promptitude and