A Hundred Years Ago
THE SPECTATOR, NOVEMBER 15TH, 1828.
INDIAN GOVERNMENT—THE ENGLISH THE FIRST CIVILIZERS OF ASIA WE had the other day a gratifying instance of the progress of English institutions in the East, in the actual introduction of Native Juries into the judicial system there. The answer of the natives to the invitation of the Supreme Court showed a just appreciation of the purposes of the institution ; particularly in that part where they desire that the practice of associating Europeans with them in this duty may be discontinued, as soon as they are qualified to sit alone- Whatever in a well-regulated commonwealth may be the value of the institution of juries as compared with that of sole, responsible judges, there can be no doubt that, in the case of India, as in that of every country which wants to be civilized, the first is much to be preferred. It diffuses a knowledge of the principles of justice, and accustoms the people to interest themselves in the administra- tion of it, and to look upon themselves in some measure as its guardians. The purposes of justice might have been secured perhaps as well by judges without juries ; but the purposes of civiliza- tion would not have been so well answered. Should any convulsion hereafter overthrow the English domination, the natives will have gained light enough under it to maintain at least a better order of things than has usually prevailed in the East.
ADVERTISEMENT.
PROTECTOR INSTITUTION, for supplying the Nobility and Gentry with RESPECTABLE SERVANTS, No. 59, Great Russell -Street, Bloomsbury, opposite the British Museum.
The difficulty of obtaining good and efficient servants is a subject of common and almost universal complaint with families ; in the meanwhile the causes which conduce to that difficulty are too apparent to be misunderstood.
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