or that Englishmen in India have a title to something more than justice.  If we give our own countrymen an appeal to the King’s Courts, in cases in which all others are forced to be contented with the Company’s Courts, we do in fact cry down the Company’s Courts.  We proclaim to the Indian people that there are two sorts of justice—­a coarse one, which we think good enough for then, and another of superior quality, which we keep for ourselves.  If we take pains to show that we distrust our highest courts, how can we expect that the natives of the country will place confidence in them?

“The draft of the Act was published, and was, as I fully expected, not unfavourably received by the British in the Mofussil. [The term “Mofussil” is used to denote the provinces of the Bengal Presidency, as opposed to the Capital.] Seven weeks have elapsed since the notification took place.  Time has been allowed for petitions from the furthest corners of the territories subject to this Presidency.  But I have heard of only one attempt in the Mofussil to get up a remonstrance; and the Mofussil newspapers which I have seen, though generally disposed to cavil at all the acts of the Government, have spoken favourably of this measure.

“In Calcutta the case has been somewhat different; and this is a remarkable fact.  The British inhabitants of Calcutta are the only British-born subjects in Bengal who will not be affected by the proposed Act; and they are the only British subjects in Bengal who have expressed the smallest objection to it.  The clamour, indeed, has proceeded from a very small portion of the society of Calcutta.  The objectors have not ventured to call a public meeting, and their memorial has obtained very few signatures.  But they have attempted to make up by noise and virulence for what has been wanting in strength.  It may at first sight appear strange that a law, which is not unwelcome to those who are to live under it, should excite such acrimonious feelings among people who are wholly exempted from its operation.  But the explanation is simple.  Though nobody who resides at Calcutta will be sued in the Mofussil courts, many people who reside at Calcutta have, or wish to have, practice in the Supreme Court.  Great exertions have accordingly been made, though with little success, to excite a feeling against this measure among the English inhabitants of Calcutta.

“The political phraseology of the English in India is the same with the political phraseology of our countrymen at home; but it is never to be forgotten that the same words stand for very different things at London and at Calcutta.  We hear much about public opinion, the love of liberty, the influence of the Press.  But we must remember that public opinion means the opinion of five hundred persons who have no interest, feeling, or taste in common with the fifty millions among whom they live; that the love of liberty means the strong objection which the five hundred feel to every measure which can prevent them from acting as they choose towards the fifty millions, that the Press is altogether supported by the five hundred, and has no motive to plead the cause of the fifty millions.