Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/100

94 the Muhammadan Code; but means were at once taken to mitigate its harshness and to correct its absurdities. Barbarous punishments, such as mutilation, were not allowed. The rules of Muhammadan evidence were modified and brought into harmony with those of English courts. In civil cases between Hindus the Judge was assisted by a native Pandit, who advised on matters of inheritance, marriage, caste, and the like. The Muhammadan law similarly was applied in cases where both parties were Musalmáns. When the litigants were of different creeds, the English Judge was to follow the dictates of equity and good conscience. Of his native coadjutors, the Pandit was the first to be abolished, though he lasted till 1821. But the office of Kází or Maulaví remained in some districts down to the introduction of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure in 1860.

While attempts had been made by Warren Hastings and by Cornwallis himself to improve the civil and criminal administration of the province, and though a few changes and improvements had been introduced all tending to vest authority more and more in the hands of Englishmen, the system in its fulness dates from 1793, the last year of the Cornwallis administration. Every civil servant from the beginning of this century has looked on this date as the commencement of a new era. He may have heard of other 'General Regulations,' but they were never printed or circulated for his use and guidance.