man he knew for the task of regulating the whole machinery of the Provincial Courts, which had thus far proved, 'from ignorance and corruption,' as Impey said, more of a curse than a blessing to the people; and which, under Impey's guidance, might be brought into systematic working harmony with the Supreme Court. The right to further salary for a separate office had not been questioned in the case of Clavering, nor was it questioned when Impey's colleague. Sir Robert Chambers, afterwards held an important judgeship under the Company[1].
There is no room for doubt that the new arrangement was a well-timed stroke of policy on Hastings' part. It was indeed, as Sir James Stephen allows, 'the only practicable way out of the unhappy quarrel into which the Court and the Council had been drawn by rash and ignorant English legislation.' A trained lawyer, and an upright painstaking judge, Impey drew up a plain and serviceable code of rules for the guidance of the courts thus placed under his charge. The young English district judges soon learned to mend their ignorant or careless ways, and tried to shape their judgments in accordance with the principles laid down by their new teacher. The old disgraceful broils between rival authorities disappeared under the new reign of fairly settled law, and the revenue began once more to flow freely into the Company's treasury. Impey, in the words of Sir J. Stephen, 'was the first of Indian codifiers,' and the Regulations of 1781 laid
- ↑ Gleig, Impey, Stephen.
