" Here you see, my
Lords, that possession shall by prescription stand good against the
claims of all persons who are not disqualified from making their claims.
I might, if necessary, show your Lordships that the highest magistrate
is subject to the law; that there is a case in which he is finable; that
they have established rules of evidence and of pleading, and, in short,
all the rules which have been formed in other countries to prevent this
very arbitrary power. Notwithstanding all this, the prisoner at the bar,
and his counsel, have dared to assert, in this sacred temple of justice,
in the presence of this great assembly, of all the bishops, of all the
peers, and of all the judges of this land, that the people of India have
no laws whatever.
I do not mean to trouble your Lordships with more extracts from this
book. I recommend it to your Lordships' reading,--when you will find,
that, so far from the magistrate having any power either to imprison
arbitrarily or to fine arbitrarily, the rules of fines are laid down
with ten thousand times more exactness than with us. If you here find
that the magistrate has any power to punish the people with arbitrary
punishment, to seize their property, or to disfranchise them of any
rights or privileges, I will readily admit that Mr.
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