Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/30

6 toleration being extended by the Government to every persuasion.

The laws which prevail at this moment in India are based upon the Mahomedan Code, with an intermixture of the ancient Hindoo law, excepting at the three Presidencies and the islands of Penang and Ceylon, where, within certain narrow limits, the British laws are administered on precisely the same principles, and regulated by the same statutes as govern our courts in England.

The Supreme, or Queen's Courts, at the three Presidencies and the islands, consist each of three judges, selected by Ministers from the practising barrister in England. The advocates of these courts consist also of English barristers, and the attorneys, for the most part, have received their education and served their apprenticeship in London; though of late years a good many have been admitted who began as articled clerks in local offices. The Company's judicial establishments in the interior of Hindostan consist of a great number of courts of various degrees of power and responsibility; and at each Presidency there are supreme native courts, consisting of four judges each; while at the principal stations there are Courts of Circuit, and in every zillah (district) and populous city there is a single judge.

The costly and cumbrous machinery of the government of this magnificent empire is comprised in three separate departments, one in India, and the other two in London. The principal of these is the Court of Directors, in whose hands the power and patronage of all India are placed by charter. They are twenty-four in number, six of whom go out of office annually, to return to it next year. They are chosen by proprietors of India stock to a certain amount, and are usually selected from the members of the civil, military, or maritime services, or from among the merchants who have acquired knowledge or fortunes in India. This court enjoys full initiatory authority over all matters in England or India, relating to the political, financial, judicial, and military affairs of the Company; but its