6

By a charter of 1677 the Company were empowered to Charter of 1677 coin money at Bombay to be called by the name of rupees, granting pices, and budjrooks,' or such other names as the Company powers of coinage. might think fit. These coins were to be current in the East Indies, but not in England. A mint for the coinage of pagodas had been established at Madras some years before.

tration of

in seven

The commissioners sent from Surat1 to take possession of AdminisBombay on behalf of the Company made a report in which justice at they requested that a judge-advocate might be appointed, Bombay as the people were accustomed to civil law. Apparently, as teenth century. a temporary measure, two courts of judicature were formed, the inferior court consisting of a Company's civil officer assisted by two native officers, and having limited jurisdiction, and the supreme court consisting of the deputy governor and council, whose decisions were to be final and without appeal, except in cases of the greatest necessity.

giving

raise

exercise

establish

By a charter of 1683, the Company were given full power Charter to declare and make peace and war with any of the heathen of 1683 nations' being natives of the parts of Asia and America power to mentioned in the charter, and to raise, arm, train, and forces and muster such military forces as to them shall seem requisite martial and necessary; and to execute and use, within the said law, and plantations, forts, and places, the law called the martial law, ing Court for the defence of the said forts, places, and plantations miralty. against any foreign invasion or domestic insurrection or rebellion.' But this power was subject to a proviso reserving to the Crown the sovereign right, powers, and dominion over all the forts and places of habitation,' and 'power of making peace and war, when we shall be pleased to interpose our royal authority thereon.'

By the same charter the king established a court of judicature, to be held at such place or places as the Company might direct, and to consist of one person learned in the

1

Bombay was then subordinate to Surat, where a factory had been established as early as 1612, and where there was a president with a council of eight members.

of Ad

Company's ships within the limits of their charter, with power for their naval officers to raise naval forces, and to exercise and use 'within their ships on the other side of the Cape of Good Hope, in the time of open hostility with some other nation, the law called the law martial for defence of their ships against the enemy.' By the same charter the Company were empowered to coin in their forts any species of money usually coined by native princes, and it was declared that these coins were to be current within the bounds of the charter.

The provisions of the charter of 1683 with respect to the Company's admiralty court were repeated with some modifications, and under these provisions Sir John Biggs, who had been recorder of Portsmouth, was appointed judge-advocate at Madras.

ment of

Madras

Among the prerogatives of the Crown one of the most Establishimportant is the power of constituting municipal corporations munici by royal charter. Therefore it was a signal mark of royal pality at favour when James II, in 1687, delegated to the East India Company the power of establishing by charter a municipality at Madras. The question whether this charter should be passed under the great seal or under the Company's seal was discussed at a cabinet council. The latter course was eventually adopted at the instance of the governor and deputy governor of the Company, and the reasons urged for its adoption are curious and characteristic. characteristic. The governor expressed his opinion that no persons in India should be employed under immediate commission from His Majesty, 'because the wind of extraordinary honour in their heads would probably render them so haughty and overbearing that the Company would be forced to remove them.' He was evidently thinking of the recent differences between Sir John Child and Dr. St. John, and was alive to the dangers arising from an independent judiciary which in the next century were to bring about the conflicts between Warren Hastings and the Calcutta supreme court.

1687.

Charter of Accordingly the charter of 1687, which established a municipality and mayor's court at Madras, proceeds from the Company, and not from the Crown. It recites the approbation of the king, declared in His Majesty's Cabinet Council the eleventh day of this instant December,' and then goes on to constitute a municipality according to the approved English type. The municipal corporation is to consist of a mayor, twelve aldermen, and sixty or more burgesses. The mayor and aldermen are to have power to levy taxes for the building of a convenient town house or guild hall, of a public gaol, and of a school-house for the teaching of the Gentues or native children to speak, read, and write the English tongue, and to understand arethmetick and merchants' accompts, and for such further ornaments and edifices as shall be thought convenient for the honour, interest, ornament, security, and defence' of the corporation, and of the inhabitants of Madras, and for the payment of the salaries of the necessary municipal officers, including a schoolmaster. The mayor and aldermen are to be a court of record, with power to try civil and criminal causes, and the mayor and three of the aldermen are to be justices of the peace. There is to be an appeal in civil and criminal cases from the mayor's court to our supreme court of judicature, commonly called our court of admiralty.' There is to be a recorder, who must be a discreet person, skilful in the laws and constitutions of the place, and who is to assist the mayor in trying, judging, and sentencing causes of any considerable value or intricacy. And there is to be a town clerk and clerk of the peace, an able and discreet person, who must always be an Englishman born, but well skilled in the language of East India, and who is to be esteemed a notary public.

Nor are the ornamental parts of municipal life forgotten. 'For the greater solemnity and to attract respect and rever

This formal recognition of the existence of a cabinet council is of constitutional interest. But of course the cabinet council of 1687 was a very different thing from the cabinet council of the present day.

ence from the common people,' the mayor is to 'always have carried before him when he goes to the guild hall or other place of assembly, two silver maces gilt, not exceeding three feet and a half in length,' and the mayor and aldermen may 'always upon such solemn occasions wear scarlet serge gowns, all made after one form or fashion, such as shall be thought most convenient for that hot country.' The burgesses are, on these occasions, to wear white' pelong,' or other silk gowns. Moreover, the mayor and aldermen are 'to have and for ever enjoy the honour and privilege of having rundelloes and kattysols born over them when they walk or ride abroad on these necessary occasions within the limits of the said corporation, and, when they go to the guild hall or upon any other solemn occasion, they may ride on horseback in the same order as is used by the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, having their horses decently furnished with saddles, bridles, and other trimmings after one form and manner as shall be devised and directed by our President and Council of Fort St. George.'

of 1689.

The charter of 1687 was the last of the Stuart charters Company's affecting the East India Company. The constitutional resolution history of the Company after the Revolution of 1688 may be appropriately ushered in by a reference to the resolution which was passed by them in that year.

'The increase of our revenue is the subject of our care as much as our trade; 'tis that must maintain our force when twenty accidents may interrupt our trade; 'tis that must make us a nation in India; without that we are but a great number of interlopers, united by His Majesty's royal charter, fit only to trade where nobody of power thinks it their interest to prevent us; and upon this account it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general advices that we have seen, write ten paragraphs concerning their government, their civil and military policy, warfare, and the increase of their revenue, for one paragraph they write concerning trade.'

1 Umbrellas and parasols.