Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/99

Rh acted as a sort of referee, which might prevent unjust sentences in capital cases, but could not interfere to any valid purpose in the earlier stages of an assize, were evidently not the agencies fitted to deal with a population which, however unwarlike and generally tractable, contained in towns and villages many of the elements of crime and disorder. Cornwallis, after some tentative measures, proceeded to map out the whole of the country into districts presided over by English Judges and Magistrates. In some twenty-five of these districts or zillahs he appointed a Civil and Sessions Judge. In four of the principal cities — that is, in Calcutta, Patná, Dacca, and Murshidábád — he established Provincial Courts of Appeal, or courts intermediate between the Court of the Zillah and the Sadr Court, or highest and ultimate tribunal. Another law extended and defined the jurisdiction of the last-mentioned court. Distinct and, in some instances, minute rules of procedure were incorporated in these laws.

Magistrates with judicial powers of reasonable extent were appointed to each district, and Darogahs or heads of police were placed under them for the prevention and detection of crime. In civil suits the English Judge was empowered to hear and decide all suits regarding real and personal property, land rents, debts, accounts, partnerships, marriage, caste, inheritance, damages, and, in short, all cases of a civil nature. In criminal trials the Code to be followed was