Page:The Indian Civil Service as a profession.djvu/10

 of law, and a miscellaneous collection of revenue, police, and treasury regulations of very unattractive character.

Having got over the Higher Standard fence, and having been gazetted to the exercise of full powers as a magistrate and revenue official, the young officer, at the age of five- or six-and-twenty, becomes a personage with extensive powers and grave responsibilities. In his magisterial capacity, he is empowered and required to try, sitting by himself, all offences except those of the most heinous kinds, and may sentence an offender to two years' hard labour and a fine of a thousand rupees. He investigates the more heinous cases which he is not empowered to try, and, if necessary, commits the accused persons to a higher Court. As a revenue officer, he deals with many intricate matters concerning the land, such as boundary disputes, the determination of fair rents, and so forth, as may be required by the law prevailing in the province where he serves. As an executive officer, he soon discovers that nihil humani a