SULTANISM IN INDIA. L ORD LYTTON'S order in the Leeds Case,
upon which the Times dwells on Wednesday, would not be a very im- portant one, did not it seem, with some other circumstances, to indicate that the new Viceroy—who, it must not be for- committed the same assault would have been,—namely, £3. Lord Lytton has fallen, we greatly fear,- into the tempta- The Viceroy, filled with the idea that Europeans in India tion which besets every Viceroy, and almost every official, need special restraint—which is true enough, though the unless unusually experienced, under his authority,—the temp- need may easily be exaggerated—thought the sentence tation to believe that India cannot be well administered scandalously light, took up the matter himself, and ordered through the law, that the best or only guarantee for her an official inquiry. The Lieutenant-Governor, who must good government is the will of a thoroughly well-intentioned have been either Sir John Strachey or Sir George Couper, man. He saw what he conceived to be an injustice, and and was in either case a most competent administrator, re- resolved, like a good Sultan, to right it off-hand by mere ferred the matter to the High Court, which after inquiry volition, by extra-judicial action, which was in fact, however acquitted Mr. Leeds of anything beyond the infliction of a well-intentioned, nothing but an exercise of arbitrary power. sentence " perhaps" too light ; whereupon the Viceroy issued He might just as well have published an order, stating a strong order, condemning the Lieutenant-Governor for negli- that in his judgment a piece of land given by a Court of gence, censuring the High Court for non-performance of its Appeal to Rama Gopal, ought to have been given to Krishna duties, and punishing Mr. Leeds by prohibiting his employ- Sen, and have condemned the Judges in costs for so ment in an independent post for at least one year, a sentence erroneously interpreting the law. There would be just as which will cost him about £500, interfere seriously with much excuse for his interference in the one case as in the his future promotion, and perhaps leave a stigma on his other,—that is to say, there was none at all in either, unless
name. he believed the Judges to be corrupt. No doubt Judges in As far as Mr. Leeds was concerned, we think Lord Lytton India are not appointed quanulin se bene gesserint, but can be was in the right, though rather harsh ; and as far as the Lieuten- dismissed by order of the Viceroy ; but it has always been ant-Governor was concerned, we are not much disposed to blame understood that he exercises this power only within the limits the Viceroy. A joint Magistrate, or Deputy-Commissioner, as Parliament would affix to its own action, and never in any he ought to be called—the present ridiculous name giving no case which does not justify either the trial or the dismissal hint of his real position—is not a Judge, but rather an officer of a superior judge. If it were not so, justice in India of the Executive Admistration, and therefore fairly responsible could not be administered at all, for every defeated for his conduct to its head. If Lord Lytton thought him suitor would appeal to the Viceroy, and the ultimate decision seriously wrong, his natural and proper course was to ask the would depend, not upon the law of the land, but upon the Lieutenant-Governor to inquire and report upon the case; and law which a Viceroy changed every five years might, upon the if he were not coth.nted with the result, to punish both the whole, think equitable,—a system which, however pleasing in delinquent and his negligent ber.vior in the regular official theory, would in a few ir ...icier business transactions way. Mr. Cross would do exactly the same in the case or a ana the orainary conduct of life all but impossible. The careless Deputy-Inspector, and the only question for discussion Viceroy interferes every day with the action of his would be the justice of the ultimate decision. We cannot say executive subordinates, even when their action is of the it was unjust, though rather hard, for Mr. Leeds had given quasi-judicial kind, but except in cases which would justify too light a sentence, and the Lieutenant-Governor may an address in Parliament, he leaves the superior Judges to have made rather light of the affair, though there is no evi- administer the law. That is the rule which has grown up, and dente of that ; and the Viceroy, in pulling both up to the in departing from it Lord Lytton has, we fear, disturbed the collar, only forgot a little the true laws which govern the administration of justice, with no better result than the grati- perspective of official delinquencies. It is quite right not to fication of posing before the native population not as their overlook negligences, and in considering the negligence in this defender from injustice, but as their defender from the case a very grave one, Lord Lytton at worst only committed decisions of the highest Courts of law. an error of judgment of the most natural and even commend- But, we may be asked, suppose Mr. Leeds had inflicted a fine
able kind. But the aspect of the affair is entirely altered by of one rupee, or no fine at all, is the son of a native groom to introduction ntroduction into it of the High Court. The Lieutenant- have no redress for his father's injury ? He has exactly as J.nyernor, it appears, instead of considering Mr. Leeds' de- much redress in India as he has here, or indeed rather more.
mum the error of an Executive officer, as he might have He can proceed for compensation in the Civil Court. pecan done, regarded it as the mistake, venial or serious, of a minor memorialise the Lieutenant-Governor to order an inquiry into Judge, and referred the whole matter to the High Court, a the conduct of the Magistrate, and if his appeal is neglected tribunal at least as important and as independent of the he can complain of the Lieutenant-Governor to the Viceroy. Executive as the Court of Queen's Bench is here. It is coin- It is quite true all these authorities may neglect him, just as posed of picked barristers, most experienced civilians, and the the Home Secretary and the House of Commons may neglect
gotten, is his father's son and a poet—has in him something of best specimens of the native judicial Bench. This course may Lord Ellenborough, that he enjoys Sultanism, that he rejoices have been, we think was, a mistake on the part of the Lieu- to pose as the good Haroun Alraschid, righting all wrongs, even tenant-Governor ; but it was taken, and having been taken, the humblest, before an admiring and slightly slavish world. nothing remained for the Viceroy except to " wig " the Lieutenant- He has already on two or three occasions shown a taste for Governor, if he chose, for taking it, but to abide by the award Alroy demonstrations, has talked a good deal about subject- of the potent tribunal whose aid had been invoked. To declare Princes, has issued orders on ladies' costume of the regal the members of that tribunal wrong by mere decree after they had rather than the vice-regal kind,—orders which he has been been asked for their decision, is to bring the whole administra- compelled to cancel, prosaic officials not liking a fine of tion of justice into contempt, and to substitute Executive orders £100 a year to increase the picturesqueness of receptions for the law. If the Judges of the High Court, the picked men in Government House,—and has either written or signed of three services—the civilians, the barristers, and the native a proclamation which recalls in style Lord Ellenborough's judiciary—are not competent or not willing to give a just prose ode to the gates of Somnath. All these little ebal- decision in so perfectly simple a case as that of Mr. Fuller, they litions of what his father would have styled " The Grandiose," are not competent to act as a Court of Revision at all, and had are trifles, indicating nothing but a tinge of pomposity or better be dismissed in favour of abler or more impartial men. Orientalism, which may be traced in men as great as the If, on the other hand, Lord Lytton has the right publicly to hold Marquis Wellesley, and which is quite consistent with sound them up to the opprobrium of the whole world for their decision judgment in the serious affairs of life ; but the present one is in a case like this, he has a right to do it in any case whatever more important. Up to a certain point, the Viceroy was, as in which he differs with the Judges, and virtually constitutes we think we can show, clearly in the right ; but after that he himself the Supreme Judge and unlearned Judge of all India, seems to have been led away by the genius loci, to have be- —the Sultan, in fact, to whom a private suitor may as right- come intoxicated with his position, and to have lost his head fully appeal as the Prince with a political claim. He affects in a style which suggests to experienced men the possibility to " sit in the gate " at Simla like Solomon or Haroun. We of his one day committing some grave error. The facts of do not wonder that, under such circumstances, the High Court the case are simple, and are undisputed. Mr. Fuller, a lawyer should protest, or that the High Courts of the other Presi- of Agra, was kept waiting by his groom, and on the man's dencies should intimate an intention of demanding a full ex- appearance, instead of censuring, fining, or discharging him, planation of the prerogative claimed by the Viceroy. If he is boxed his ears. The man retired in a rage or fright, ran in the right, they are not Judges at all, still less judges in some distance, lay down, and as was shown by the medical appeal, but merely officers entrusted with certain duties which evidence, being in a very diseased condition, died. Mr. Fuller they are to perform, not according to law, but according to was prosecuted for common assault, was convicted, and was the shifting instructions of the Head of the State for the time fined about three times as much as a head-groom who had being.
committed the same assault would have been,—namely, £3. Lord Lytton has fallen, we greatly fear,- into the tempta- The Viceroy, filled with the idea that Europeans in India tion which besets every Viceroy, and almost every official, need special restraint—which is true enough, though the unless unusually experienced, under his authority,—the temp- need may easily be exaggerated—thought the sentence tation to believe that India cannot be well administered scandalously light, took up the matter himself, and ordered through the law, that the best or only guarantee for her an official inquiry. The Lieutenant-Governor, who must good government is the will of a thoroughly well-intentioned have been either Sir John Strachey or Sir George Couper, man. He saw what he conceived to be an injustice, and and was in either case a most competent administrator, re- resolved, like a good Sultan, to right it off-hand by mere ferred the matter to the High Court, which after inquiry volition, by extra-judicial action, which was in fact, however acquitted Mr. Leeds of anything beyond the infliction of a well-intentioned, nothing but an exercise of arbitrary power. sentence " perhaps" too light ; whereupon the Viceroy issued He might just as well have published an order, stating a strong order, condemning the Lieutenant-Governor for negli- that in his judgment a piece of land given by a Court of gence, censuring the High Court for non-performance of its Appeal to Rama Gopal, ought to have been given to Krishna duties, and punishing Mr. Leeds by prohibiting his employ- Sen, and have condemned the Judges in costs for so ment in an independent post for at least one year, a sentence erroneously interpreting the law. There would be just as which will cost him about £500, interfere seriously with much excuse for his interference in the one case as in the his future promotion, and perhaps leave a stigma on his other,—that is to say, there was none at all in either, unless
name. he believed the Judges to be corrupt. No doubt Judges in As far as Mr. Leeds was concerned, we think Lord Lytton India are not appointed quanulin se bene gesserint, but can be was in the right, though rather harsh ; and as far as the Lieuten- dismissed by order of the Viceroy ; but it has always been ant-Governor was concerned, we are not much disposed to blame understood that he exercises this power only within the limits the Viceroy. A joint Magistrate, or Deputy-Commissioner, as Parliament would affix to its own action, and never in any he ought to be called—the present ridiculous name giving no case which does not justify either the trial or the dismissal hint of his real position—is not a Judge, but rather an officer of a superior judge. If it were not so, justice in India of the Executive Admistration, and therefore fairly responsible could not be administered at all, for every defeated for his conduct to its head. If Lord Lytton thought him suitor would appeal to the Viceroy, and the ultimate decision seriously wrong, his natural and proper course was to ask the would depend, not upon the law of the land, but upon the Lieutenant-Governor to inquire and report upon the case; and law which a Viceroy changed every five years might, upon the if he were not coth.nted with the result, to punish both the whole, think equitable,—a system which, however pleasing in delinquent and his negligent ber.vior in the regular official theory, would in a few ir ...icier business transactions way. Mr. Cross would do exactly the same in the case or a ana the orainary conduct of life all but impossible. The careless Deputy-Inspector, and the only question for discussion Viceroy interferes every day with the action of his would be the justice of the ultimate decision. We cannot say executive subordinates, even when their action is of the it was unjust, though rather hard, for Mr. Leeds had given quasi-judicial kind, but except in cases which would justify too light a sentence, and the Lieutenant-Governor may an address in Parliament, he leaves the superior Judges to have made rather light of the affair, though there is no evi- administer the law. That is the rule which has grown up, and dente of that ; and the Viceroy, in pulling both up to the in departing from it Lord Lytton has, we fear, disturbed the collar, only forgot a little the true laws which govern the administration of justice, with no better result than the grati- perspective of official delinquencies. It is quite right not to fication of posing before the native population not as their overlook negligences, and in considering the negligence in this defender from injustice, but as their defender from the case a very grave one, Lord Lytton at worst only committed decisions of the highest Courts of law. an error of judgment of the most natural and even commend- But, we may be asked, suppose Mr. Leeds had inflicted a fine
able kind. But the aspect of the affair is entirely altered by of one rupee, or no fine at all, is the son of a native groom to introduction ntroduction into it of the High Court. The Lieutenant- have no redress for his father's injury ? He has exactly as J.nyernor, it appears, instead of considering Mr. Leeds' de- much redress in India as he has here, or indeed rather more.
mum the error of an Executive officer, as he might have He can proceed for compensation in the Civil Court. pecan an applicant for justice in England ; but what possible security can man frame against the occurrence of such a case ? We must trust somebody with the right of supervision ; and if everybody is negligent or corrupt, there can be no remedy but revolution. The only additional precaution possible would be to give a direct appeal to prosecutors when they are displeased by an acquittal, a law which would place every poor man at the mercy of every rich one who happened also to be vindictive, and which, moreover, would be entirely useless. The appeal could be granted only to the High Court ; and Lord Lytton has decided that when a native's ears are boxed by a Euro- pean, the High Court is so untrustworthy that the reserved power of the Viceroy in Council must be publicly exerted in order to reverse its decisions.
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