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LAW REFORM.
whose decisions are without appeal—irreversible, unless by act of Parliament—is the supreme tribunal which dispenses the law to eighty millions of people, and disposes of all their property. I cannot pass from this subject without relating a fact which illustrates the consequences of the delays necessarily incident to such a jurisdiction. The Ranee, or Queen of Ramnad, having died, a question arose among the members of her family respecting the succession to the vacant Musnud (or throne), and to the personal property of the deceased sovereign, as well as the territorial revenue. The situation of the country, as well as its population and wealth, render it a province of some note. It reckons four hundred thousand inhabitants, and it lies in the direct road which the pilgrims from the south of India take to the sanctuary in the island of Remisseram, frequented by them as much as the Juggernaut is by those of the north. On the death of Her Highness in 1809, proceedings commenced in the Courts below upon the disputed succession. An appeal to the King in Council was lodged in 1814 ; it is still pending. And what has been the consequence of this delay of justice ? Why, that the kingdom of Ramnad has been all this time in the keeping of sheriffs’ officers, excepting the Honourable Company’s peshcush, or share of the revenues, which, I have no manner of doubt, has been faithfully exacted to the last rupee. It is strictly in what amounts to the same thing as the custody of sheriffs’ officers, having been taken, as I may say, in execution, or rather by a kind of mesne process, such as we have not in our law. As the papers on the table, to which I have referred, show so much fewer appeals from the Plantations than might have been expected, it is fit now to re-