Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/103

Rh and to provide against the recurrence of inundation and drought.

In addition to his revenue and judicial Code, Lord Cornwallis laid it down as a rule that the official acts of the Collectors might be challenged in the Civil Courts of the country; that Government might be sued, like any private individual, for exactions or infringements of the rights of landholders; and that such suits could only be cognizable by Judges who had no direct or personal interest in enforcing the financial claims of Government. Practically the Governor-General did away with any idea that a Collector was a sort of pro-consul whose irregularities were exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals, and who was accountable only to the Executive which he served. Many important subjects, political and military, were of course exempted from the cognizance of the law courts. But from 1793, in all that related to landed and personal property, the Government, in the language of one of the Regulations, 'divested itself of the power of infringing in its executive capacity on the rights and privileges' which, in its legislative capacity, it had conferred on the landholders.

Divers other important questions continued to occupy the attention of Cornwallis. There was considerable jealousy between the English officers of the King's troops or Royals, as they were termed, and the officers of native infantry. The sovereign of England was