due to them for good work done or attempted in the face of heavy drawbacks. If, in the next five years, the defaulting Zamíndárs might be counted by hundreds and the arrears of land revenue exceeded two millions, if the country still suffered from many forms of wrong-doing, it must be remembered that the Committee of Circuit were like explorers in unknown regions, who had no trustworthy guides to show them the right track; that they had to decide in haste on questions new to their experience; and that gentleman who might, in Kaye's words, be 'dead hands at investments,' would certainly take some wrong turns in their first attempts at practical statesmanship on a large scale.
The reforms thus set on foot involved others. English collectors replaced native Amils in the civil management of many districts, each as large as an average English shire. Over each group of districts or collectorates a commissioner was to act as general overseer. The Revenue Boards at Patná and Murshidábád were transferred as one board to Calcutta. The magisterial and judicial powers, hitherto wielded by native Diwáns, Faujdárs, and Zamíndárs, were largely curtailed by the creation in each district of a civil and a criminal court, over which the collector ruled supreme. In Calcutta itself, thenceforth the capital of Bengal, were established two Courts of Appeal for civil and criminal cases. Over the Sadr Diwání Adálat, or chief civil court, the Governor himself with two members of Council presided. The
