DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9551#0111
APPENDIX
i.
Since the foregoing evidence has been circulated, a
gentleman of high literary repute, connected with India,
has expressed doubts regarding the policy or expediency
of the suggestions I made in reply to Queries 71, 72, on
the Judicial System, in the following words :
" No civil servant should be sent to India under twenty-
four or at least twenty-two years of age, and no candidate
among them should be admitted into the judicial line of
the service, unless he can produce a certificate from a
professor of English law to prove that he possesses a
competent knowledge of it." ( Vide p. 47. supra.)
In addition to the reasons there advanced in support
of this position, and also in reply to Query 77, {vide p. 52)
I beg here to quote (with deference to that gentleman's
extensive oriental acquirements), the authority of Sir
William Blackstone, given in his introduction to the
celebrated " Commentaries on the Laws of England,''
an authority which stands very high in the estimation of
the British public.
" Should a judge in the most subordinate jurisdiction
be deficient in the knowledge of the law, it will reflect
infinite contempt on himself and disgrace upon those who
employ him. And yet the consequence of his ignorance
is comparatively very trifling and small : his judgment
may be examined and his errors rectified by other courts.
But how much more serious and affecting is the case of
a superior judge, if without any skill in the laws he will
i.
Since the foregoing evidence has been circulated, a
gentleman of high literary repute, connected with India,
has expressed doubts regarding the policy or expediency
of the suggestions I made in reply to Queries 71, 72, on
the Judicial System, in the following words :
" No civil servant should be sent to India under twenty-
four or at least twenty-two years of age, and no candidate
among them should be admitted into the judicial line of
the service, unless he can produce a certificate from a
professor of English law to prove that he possesses a
competent knowledge of it." ( Vide p. 47. supra.)
In addition to the reasons there advanced in support
of this position, and also in reply to Query 77, {vide p. 52)
I beg here to quote (with deference to that gentleman's
extensive oriental acquirements), the authority of Sir
William Blackstone, given in his introduction to the
celebrated " Commentaries on the Laws of England,''
an authority which stands very high in the estimation of
the British public.
" Should a judge in the most subordinate jurisdiction
be deficient in the knowledge of the law, it will reflect
infinite contempt on himself and disgrace upon those who
employ him. And yet the consequence of his ignorance
is comparatively very trifling and small : his judgment
may be examined and his errors rectified by other courts.
But how much more serious and affecting is the case of
a superior judge, if without any skill in the laws he will