Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/96

of a Dárogha or superintendent, subject to the control of the President of the Council, who revised the sentences of the Criminal Courts in capital cases. The above arrangements continued in force, without any considerable alteration, until 18th October, 1775, when the entire control over the department of criminal justice was committed to the Náib Názim. The Nizámat Adálat was in consequence re-established at Murshidábád, and the Náib Názim appointed native officers, denominated Faujdárs, assisted by persons versed in the Muhammadan law, to superintend the Criminal Courts in the several districts, and to apprehend and bring to trial offenders against the public peace. This system was adhered to, without any material variation, until 6th April, 1781, when the institution of Faujdárs not having answered the intended purposes, the general establishment both of Faujdárs, and the Thánádárs or police officers acting under them, were abolished. Faujdárí Courts, however, were continued in the several divisions, subject as before to the control of the Náib Názim or superintendent of the Nizámat Adálat, and the English judges of the Courts of Diwání Adálat were appointed magistrates, with a power to apprehend dakáitis and persons charged with crimes or misdemeanors within their respective jurisdictions and commit them to the nearest Faujdári Court for trial. With a view to enable Government to superintend, in some degree, the administration of justice in criminal cases, a separate department was at the same time established at the Presidency, under the control of the Governor-General, to receive monthly returns of the sentences passed in the Faujdári Courts: and for the assistance of the Governor-General in this duty, a Covenanted Civil servant of the Company was appointed with the official appellation of Remembrancer to the Criminal Courts.

'From the inefficiency, however, of the authority of the