Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846Humbley, W. W. W. (William Wellington Waterloo)
History
Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846
Humbley, W. W. W. (William Wellington Waterloo)
India -- Description and travel; Sikh War, 1845-1846
Mr. George Thompson, alias "Grievance Thompson," on his arrival from
England with the late Dwarkanath Tagore, used to make speeches in the
Town Hall, recommending to the natives of India "steam navigation." He
was considered an eloquent and amusing speaker.
The upper part of the Hall, on ascending the long staircases, is
ornamented with large pictures, of Lord Lake and his son, Lord
Metcalfe, Mr. W.W. Bird, and Dwarkanath Tagore. In the room to the
south, are the portraits of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and of her
Royal Consort, the Prince Albert. In the Hall below, is a very fine
marble statue of the late Marquis Cornwallis, and in the vestibule, a
marble statue of Warren Hastings; on a raised pedestal, facing Warren
Hastings, within the distance of about 100 feet, is a bronze statue of
Lord William C. Bentinck.
Fancy Fairs are also frequently held in the Town Hall, on which
occasions ladies occupy stalls, for the sale of articles made by
themselves and other kind persons, for the benefit of different
charities and schools.
The Town Hall is certainly a very handsome building; but it is of the
Doric order, which looks too heavy a style for the purposes for which
it is intended.
The long building called the Supreme Court is in a line with the Town
Hall, and about 150 yards from it, in the direction of the river. The
Court was established in 1773, with judges appointed by the Crown. It
is a dark and dreary-looking building, in which much money is lost and
gained. Originally, there was a chief judge and three puisne judges;
but now there is only a chief judge and two puisnes, from which it is
to be inferred, that litigation was more prevalent in those days than
it is at present. The celebrated Sir Elijah Impey was the first Chief
Justice. He was also, in 1781, appointed by Warren Hastings judge of
the "Sudder Dewanny Adawlut," or the Company's Chief Native Court of
Appeal, with a salary of £6,000 per annum; a step which put an end to
the disputes between the Supreme Court and the East India Company. Sir
Elijah, however, was recalled by the House of Commons in the following
year. At present, there are nineteen barristers admitted to the Supreme
Court.
When the Company had merely a factory at Calcutta, and lived under the
sufferance of the Nawab, this Court was called "the Mayor's Court";
for in the year 1726 a charter was granted, enabling the Company to
establish a Mayor's Court in each of the three Presidencies, Calcutta,
Madras, and Bombay; also to hold Courts of Quarter Session, to
determine all penal causes, save those of high treason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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