complicated for a people like the Hindoos. 'Justice within the gate'
is what they want. It is quite enough admission of the reality of our
rule--that we are the paramount power--that they submit a case to us
at all; and all impediments in the way of their getting cheap and
speedy justice should be done away with. A codification of existing
laws, a sweeping away of one half the forms and technicalities that at
present bewilder the applicant for justice, and altogether a less
legal and more equitable procedure, having a due regard to efficiency
and the conservation of Imperial interests, should be the aim of our
Indian rulers. More especially should this be the case in rural
districts where large interests are concerned, where cases involve
delicate points of law. Our present courts, divested of their hungry
crowd of middlemen and retainers, are right enough; but I would like
to see rural courts for petty cases established, presided over by
leading natives, planters, merchants, and men of probity, which would
in a measure supplement the _punchayiet_ system, which would be easy
of access, cheap in their procedure, and with all the impress of
authority. It is a question I merely glance at, as it does not come
within the scope of a book like this; but it is well known to every
planter and European who has come much in contact with the rural
classes of Hindostan, that there is a vast amount of smouldering
disaffection, of deep-rooted dislike to, and contempt of, our present
cumbrous costly machinery of law and justice.

If a villager wishes to level a withering sarcasm at the head of a
plausible, talkative fellow, all promise and no performance, ready
with tongue but not with purse or service, he calls him a _vakeel_,
that is, a lawyer. If he has to cool his heels in your office, or
round the factory to get some little business done, to neglect his
work, to get his rent or produce account investigated, wherever there