The old Court-house, from which Mr. Wheler and his Council walked to lay the foundation of St. John's Church, occupied the site on which St. Andrew's Kirk is now erected. It was originally a charity school-house built by subscription. A portion was held by the Mayor's Court for their records, and when it ceased to be used as a school the portion not occupied by the Corporation was let for assemblies, lotteries, and balls. " Asiaticus " informs us that Anglo-Indian ladies were as fond of dancing in the beginning of the eighteenth century as they are at the present time, but he did not con sider it a pastime suited to a hot climate, He writes ; " For my own part I already begin to think the dazzling bright ness of a copper-coloured face infinitely preferable to the pallid and sickly hue which banishes the roses from the cheeks of the European fair, and reminds me of the death-struck countenance of Lazarus risen from the grave. The English ladies are im moderately fond of dancing, an exercise ill calculated for the burning climate of Bengal ; and, in my opinion, however ad missible in cooler latitudes, not a little indelicate in a country where the inhabitants are covered with no more clothes than what decency absolutely requires. Imagine to yourself the lovely object of your affections ready to expire with heat, every limb trembling, and every feature distorted with fatigue, and her partner with a muslin handkerchief in each hand employed in the delightful office of wiping down her face, while the tiny drops stand impearled on her forehead ! " In 1792 the old Court-house, being in a ruinous condition, was pulled down by order of Government : and, as it had been used as a town hall, a public meeting was held to raise a building worthy of the city and its Corporation, which had a quarter of a century previously—August 26, been founded by Royal Charter. It consisted of a Mayor and nine Aldermen, with power of holding a Court whose jurisdiction extended to all causes—civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical—in which an Englishman might be concerned —high treason excepted. All purely native suits, however, continued to be tried by an official called the Jemindar, who was also responsible for collecting the local revenues from fees, farms and ground rents. We find from a volume of re cords, which was one of those thrown into the boats when the English abandoned Fort William, and which alone has escaped the ravages of time and the white ants, that in 1748 Mr. Cruttenden was Jemindar. The following list of officers enables us to realize the small beginning from which the Indian Empire had arisen and its mercantile origin : The Jemindar has become the Home Minister of a vast empire, and the Buxey holds the portfolio of Finance. The Mayor and nine Aldermen have long since vanished and their place is taken by a Chairman appointed by Government, and seventy-five Commissioners, the larger portion of whom are elected by the ratepayers. They hold their meetings in a substantial building of their own, and the Town Hall is now chiefly used for concerts, balls, and public meetings, held to further some noble work of charity like the Dufferin Fund, or to criticise some act of Government which has aroused public attention. The non-official European, to whose pluck and enterprise India owes her tea gardens, her jute industry, her coal mines, is not given to politics. Occu pied much with his business, he is the most conservative and least revolutionary of the Queen's subjects ; but he is tena cious of his birthright. The Ilbert Bill or the Jury Question brings out the English character true to its old traditions, and at the Town Hall, with no uncertain voice, the English man his resolution to maintain his own.
In the old Court-house the Supreme Court, when it was first established by Royal Charter, held its sittings ; but when the buildings became unsafe, and had to be pulled down, another more substantial and handsome edifice was erected on the site of the present High Court. In the Supreme Court Nuncomar was tried for forgery, not by Sir Elijah Impey, as Macaulay states, but by the Chief Jus tice, two of his colleagues and a jury, and after a long and patient trial was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. A full report of the trial was published at the time, and Macau lay might have ascertained the facts if he had referred to the Bar Library, where a copy exists. But lie preferred rhetoric to accurate research.
When Impey's son, in an ill-constructed book full of in teresting and instructive matter, pointed out how cruelly his father had been libelled, Macaulay refused to retract the slander. Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, in a book which is a model of sound workmanship and research, has cleared the character of Impey with regard to the foul charge of judicial murder brought against him by the Whig historian ; but sufficient credit has not been given to the first Chief Justice of Bengal for the independence he showed in main taining the dignity and liberty of the Court over which he presided. Mrs. Fay mentions how her able but worthless
husband was under an apprehension that, having come to India without the permission of the Honourable East India Company, obstacles might be raised as to his admission to the Local Bar. On expressing his doubts to the Chief Justice, Impey indignantly exclaimed, " No, sir ; had you dropped from the clouds with such documents we would admit you. The Supreme Court is independent, and will never endure to be dictated to by any body of men whose claims are not enforced by supreme authority. It is noth ing to us whether you had or had not permission from the Court of Directors to proceed to this settlement. You came to us as an authenticated English barrister, and as such we shall on the first day of the next term admit you to our Bar." Thus was dealt the first great blow to the most valuable patronage which the East India Company possessed—the right of appointing its own lawyers, who were limited to twelve in number. A golden harvest must the twelve have reaped, for Calcutta has always been an El Dorado for lawyers and doctors. Mrs. Fay writes :—" A man of abili ties and good address in this line, if he has the firmness to resist the fashionable contagion—gambling—need only pass one seven years of his life at Calcutta, to return home in affluent circumstances ; but the very nature of their pro fession leads them into gay connections, and, having for a time complied with the humour of their company from prudential motives, may become tainted and prosecute their bane from the impulses of inclination." The writer of Hartley Hall—a novel which under the thin guise of fiction describes the persons and social life of the day—states :— " Physic, as well as law, is a gold mine to its professors, to work it at will. The medical gentlemen at Calcutta make their visits in palanquins, and receive a gold mohur from each patient for every ordinary attendance—extras are enormous." The doctors, however, seem to have been con siderate in not interfering with the profits of the undertakers, for a member of that fraternity about to sail for Europe asked twenty thousand rupees for the good-will of his busi ness for the months of August and September.
When the Supreme Court of the East India Company (known as the Sudder Dewani Adalat) was amalgamated with the High CoUrt, it was considered necessary that both should have a common habitation, and the present building was erected on the site of the old Supreme Court. It is designed after the model of the Town Hall at Ypres, but the architecture has suffered from transplantation. In the centre is a tower which the guide books call " massive," but which has cracked and begun to sink on account of the muddy foundation. From the top of the tower can be had a splendid birds'-eye view of the " City of Palaces." Below is a broad stretch of green sward covered with stately trees, and beyond are the lawn and walks of the Eden Gardens, winding among trees and shrubs of endless variety. In the far distance are the gleaming white barracks of Fort William, and the broad river with vessels of all sizes and descriptions gliding over its waters. Stately ships lie at anchor by the river bank, and their lofty spars tower up black into the air. On the left is the Town Hall ; beyond is a vast ugly square pile of buildings—the Imperial Secretariat —where the administration of the Empire is conducted during the winter months. At the end of the road is a lofty gateway which leads into the spacious gardens of Govern ment House. The great Marquis, who first attempted to carry out the Imperial policy which the daring genius of Hastings commenced, pulled down the old small house in which the Governors used to reside, and erected the present building. He told his mercantile masters that " India should be governed from a palace, not from a counting house ; with the ideas of a prince, riot with those of a retail dealer in muslin and indigo." The palace cost a hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and the furniture fifty thousand pounds ; and the merchants of the East India Company. ex pressed their strong disapproval—but the place was built. It was opened with considerable state and pomp to celebrate the Peace of Amiens. Lord Valentia, who was present, has given an interesting and graphic description of the cere mony.