Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/164

more openings for distinction in the administrative line. The latter has always been the more popular. There is greater freedom of action about it. Its duties are more varied. Life is spent much on tour among the people. Sport can be freely indulged in. The prizes are more considerable. When Mr. Colvin took his seat on the Calcutta Bench he brought with him little experience of law beyond what he had gained at Maulmain. Before he left it, less than five years later, he had become, said Sir Charles Trevelyan in his Memoir of his friend, 'facile princeps; so much so that it was commonly said that the pleaders had to be sometimes reminded that they ought to address the Court and not Mr. Colvin.' The Calcutta Sadr when he joined it had a questionable reputation. Barristers who ventured across the Maidán from the Supreme Court came back with strange tales of the quality of justice administered at Alípur; of antiquated procedure; of misuse of evidence; of arguments misapprehended. Throughout his term of office, Mr. Colvin laboured successfully, not only to raise the Court to the level which a Chief Court of Appeal should occupy, but to improve the quality of all Courts subordinate to it. He especially aimed at raising the character of the native bar; and, it is to be noted that in 1857, after his death, a meeting held at Calcutta to do his memory honour was first convened by a native pleader, Rámapersad Ráo. The value of a judge's work is to be found in his judgments rather than in any record of administration.