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 BOMBAY IN THE DAYS OF GEORGE IV Court, both for irregularities of professional conduct. He next suspended from prac tice for overcharges made to clients, five of the six barristers practicing in his court. He insisted that the English residents must perform their jury duty, and he re formed the administration of the jailsThese reforms, all of them of vital necessity to the proper administration of justice, created violent opposition from successive governors of the company. In 1825 West, in an elaborate charge to the Grand Jury, then sitting, urged an investigation of the treatment of native prisoners by the lower courts, which were run entirely by the company; and an investigation into the unnecessary severity'' and even illegality of many sentences pro nounced by the company's judges and police magistrates. Unfortunately the Grand Jury declined to act, great as was the need of reform in the company's treat ment of the natives; and West's charge to the Grand Jury seems only to have aroused the increased enmity and hostility of the company and its • officers. At the same time there was great unrest and ill feeling in the Colony as is shown by the following paragraph: "The new year (1826) found Bombay society in a quarrelsome mood. Mr. Norton, the loud-voiced Advocate-Gen eral to the Bombay government, had been challenged by a Mr. Browne, but had refused to go out with him. Martin West (Sir E. West's nephew), had been insulted by Mr. Norris, a member of the Bombay government, and had been obliged to demand an apology. Mr. Graham, an attorney, had libelled and had challenged Mr. Irwin, a barrister, and on the challenge being declined had horsewhipped him. Mr. Warden had circulated a defamatory paper aspersing the character of Mr. Graham, and trials for assault and libel occupied the attention of the Supreme Court." Truly a

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most unhappy picture of life in the small English Colony at Bombay! In this stormy atmosphere it occurred to those who were smarting under West's recent charge to the Grand Jury, and who looked upon an independent King's Court as a nuisance, that the Chief Justice might, with advantage, be provoked into a duel. Accordingly the company's governor, Ephinstone, openly insulted the Chief Justice at a dinner, and upon the Chief Justice's asking an explanation, the gover nor promptly sent him a challenge. This West, in a very manly way, declined, point ing out the disgrace that would thereby be brought upon his court, but the entire episode made West's work more trying and more difficult. Through all these troublesome times West was constantly endeavoring to im prove the condition of the natives, and to soften the harshness of their treatment by the company. One difficult problem he worked out was a set of "Rules" regulating the service of Mahometans, Hindoos and Parsees upon juries. The difficulty of this in connection with the "Caste" system may well be imagined. This was the last work he did. In August, 1828, he was suddenly seized with a malady not recognized by his physicians, from which, after an illness of a few days, he died. An added touch of sadness was the death of Lady West two weeks later, in giving birth to a son who did not survive. The striking feature of this brief and tragic story of West's life and work lies in the almost superhuman difficulties over come by the King's Judges in India. Sir Edward West, in the face of these difficulties, upheld the best traditions of the English Judiciary. He was a fearless, high-minded Judge — an honor to the profession of. the law, a friend to the people of India. BOSTON, MASS., June, 1908.