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similar reasons decline to say anything myself of the utility of the office choosing to leave it to the attestations of others less biassed, and to the known effects of the appointment; for whether my having regulated the office and discharged the duties of it, have or have not been attended with labour to myself and good to the country, your Hon'ble Board have now full experience to determine, and to your candour I refer it for an impartial representation at home.

If by compromise with the Governor-General is meant any agreement express or implied of any kind whatsoever that I should at all relax in any matter which had or was likely to be contested between the Governor-General or Council and the Supreme Court, which is the only sense I can put on the word, I do most positively and solemnly deny the charge, and beg leave to refer to the recollection of the Governor-General whether I did not in the course of conversations when he talked of the expedience of the office being placed in my hands, explain to him that it was not to be expected that my holding the office should in the least vary my conduct with regard to the differences of opinion entertained by the Governor-General and Council and the Court, and whether he did not declare that no such thing was expected, and expressed some dissatisfaction that I had thought it necessary to use a caution of that nature. And to the judges I appeal, whether in every case wherein such differences of opinion were involved, I have not since the appointment persisted in the same uniform language and conduct which I held before the appointment. I had indeed both before and after the appointment, as soon as the subjects of the differences had been referred to England, as far as I could consistent with what I thought the duties of my office of Chief Justice, to the utmost of my power endeavoured to prevent all questions which might either revive the old or furnish new matter of contention between the Governor-General and Council and the Court, from coming to a public decision, that everything might remain in quiet and with as little ferment as possible till a remedy from home should be applied to the evil. But as this was the rule of my conduct as well before as since the appointment

this I can hardly think is intended to be referred to by the pretended compromise.

It would ill become me after the trust and confidence with which you have honoured me, on account of any obloquy or personal attack which it may have submitted me to, by abandoning the office before you have taken order about it to replunge the administration of justice into that confusion from which I flatter myself I have in some small degree been the means of rescuing it, I have, therefore, to this time carried on the civil business of the office, which I think I might lawfully do, as the new Act of Parliament which confirms the Court authorises it to be held by the Governor-General and Council, or some committee thereof, or appointed thereby. But as it is now by that Act erected into a Court of Record and an appeal is given from it to His Majesty and it is made a Court of Criminal Jurisdiction for the purpose of hearing, trying, determining and punishing offences committed in the collection of the revenues, I must submit to your Hon'ble Board whether it is not become necessary to take into consideration by whom and in what manner that justice which is now of a criminal as well as a civil nature should be administered, and this leads me to remind you more particularly that the rules and regulations already formed by you, relate only to none which will apply to the given to the Court.

civil suits, and that there are new criminal jurisdiction now

I have before mentioned that I have hitherto carried on the business of the Court in the usual manner; but as some time has now elapsed since the arrival of the new Act of Parliament, I thought it my duty to inform you of what relates to myself, as it is connected as well with your public acts as my own, and to remind you of the necessity of making provisions with regard to the Court.

I shall for the same reasons which have prevailed on me to the present time, still continue to go on with the civil department of the Court, but must decline hearing, trying and determining on any complaints of a criminal nature, should any such be preferred to the Court, both because there are no rules laid down for proceedings in such cases

and because I do not know it was your intention that I should. The holding such jurisdiction being totally different in its nature and consequences from that which you have commissioned me to execute.

I must request that the consideration of these matters may be brought before your Hon'ble Board on as early a day as your Proceedings will with convenience admit.

I have the honor to be,
Hon'ble Sir and Sirs,
obedient humble servant,
E. IMPEY.

Your

very

CALCUTTA, 8th August 1782.

I have been obliged to delay the sending in this letter as Mr. Bayne desired to consult his papers at Baugnan before he swore to his Affidavit.

The Chief Justice having appealed to me for the truth of his relation of a conversation which passed between him and myself at the time in which it was proposed to establish the new office of Sudder Dewanny Adalaut to place him at the head of it, I reply I do not remember the particulars of any of the conversations which passed between us upon that subject, and cannot, therefore, confirm by any direct testimony the truth of what he has asserted. But I can affirm what probably will be deemed equivalent to it, that such is the respect which I have ever held for the character of the Chief Justice and so delicate has my conduct towards him ever been, even at the time when I thought his acts and those of his brethren most dangerous to this Government and personally hostile to its Members, that I am certain that if he had submitted to explain himself to me in the terms which he has quoted, I should have replied in the manner which he has mentioned, and that I should have felt and expressed the greatest repugnance to receive such an explanation, as it implied but the possibility of my entertaining a base suspicion of his character. My real motives, and all my motives, for recommending that this office might be conferred on him were contained in the public reasons on which I supported the recommendation.

I had myself had a principal share in framing a Judicial Constitution, for which I had promised myself credit; but this, from an unhappy defect in the act of Parliament of the 13th of his present Majesty, having thrown doubts on the legality of the Constitution and impressed the minds of those to whom the Executive charge of it was committed with fear for their personal responsibility in the discharge of it, was thereby rendered ineffectual. The offices appointed for the administra tion of Justice existed only in the salaries annexed to them; none of the Judges (these called Superintendents) daring to act, except in a very few instances of too public a notoriety.

I know it to be the decided opinion of the Chief Justice that these Judges might legally exercise the functions assigned them and his opinion was generally known, but as it was qualified with distinctions which still left room for the opera tions of their personal fears, the effect was not altered by it. To remove those fears, to discourage appeals and carry suits to the Supreme Court; and to preclude the causes of it by a more regular conduct of the Judges of the Dewanny Courts I advised the Board to place them all under the control, instruction and the protection of the Head of that Court, the dread of which had hitherto proved the impediment to their acting. This was my first and leading motive, I had others which I enumerated in my minute. I ventured to foretell the great effects of this institution, and I have not only seen my promise verified in the event, but I have had the satisfaction of hearing many who had laboured to dissuade me from proposing it, and who had dreaded the worst evils from it, avow their error, and attest the public benefit derived from it to the inhabitants of the provinces, and credit to the Government.

When I have said that my minute in which I recommended the present judicial system, contains many motives, perhaps I may have deceived myself. It is not easy for a man to ascertain in the movements of his own affections the precise lien at which his zeal to discharge a public obligation ceases and unites with that which private interest or private friendship may describe. I verily believe that I had no motive but that which I have assigned, and these all spring from public

and laudable considerations. Yet when these had produced their effect, I will not deny that I was pleased with an oppor. tunity of being the instrument of placing in a conspicuous and creditable position of this service, and I may add profitable a man for whom I entertained a sincere friendship, grounded on a knowledge of his personal virtues, and an acquaintance of more than thirty years.

I do not expect that my general declaration of the benefits attained from the appointment shall be taken as evidence of them. The fact will best appear from the extracts of our correspondence with the Sudder Dewanny Court since its last establishment and the copy of the Regulations which the Chief Justice has with equal labour and ability framed for the guidance and process of the inferior courts.

(N. D.)

(Cons. 19, dated 19th August 1782.)

W. HASTINGS.

The affidavit of Archibald Fraser, Esqr., sworn before the Honourable Mr. Justice Hyde on the sixteenth day of August one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two.

Archibald Fraser of Calcutta Gentleman maketh oath and says that some time in the end of the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six when John Mills Gentleman was appointed to the office of Superintendent of the Police of the town of Calcutta vacant by the death of Alexander Macraby, Esqr., Brother-in-Law as this Deponeat has heard and believes of Philip Francis, Esqr,, late a Counsellor of this settlement, it being rumoured that the said John Mills would not long reside in Bengal, he this Deponent by the mediation of Sir Elijah Impey applied to the Governor-General for his interest to succeed to the office when it should become vacant and was informed by the said Sir Elijah Impey that the Governor had promised his interest when the vacancy should happen and desired that this Deponent would in the mean time employ himself in such manner as would instruct him to execute the Duties of the office; that the said John Mills having in consequence as this Deponent has heard and believes of complaints preferred against him for offences in his office

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