had laid down the principles which, were to guide the Government in assessing and collecting the revenue, there was really no department to overhaul or inspect. Personal inspection of the records at Murshidábád, Patná, and Dacca, would have given him nothing that he could not equally well obtain at the Presidency; and except once, there was no necessity for those visits to the frontier and to large centres of civilisation, which have become a part of the regular duty of Viceroys and Governors, and by which the whole machinery of administration is examined, tested, and improved.
It has been shown that the Governor-General, besides being President of the Board of Revenue, was also ex officio a member of the Sadr Court, or Highest Civil and Criminal Court of Appeal. In one of the old reports of the decisions of that tribunal, it is expressly mentioned that the Governor-General was present as a member of the Court. But in all probability he took no active part in any discussion or argument, and merely went on a solitary occasion as a matter of form. More remarkable is it that in his letters there is no mention of the practice of duelling, which from contemporary records and newspapers was then very prevalent in India. Perhaps to a military officer such events appeared matters of course, required by the prevailing code of honour. But he thought much of the condition and treatment of the natives, and when the officers of a court-martial acquitted one of their comrades charged with the
