The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

others, "of assisting the Nabob Vizier in forming such regulations as may be necessary for
the peace and good order of his government and the improvement of his revenue." And in
consequence of the said powers, the said Warren Hastings did, in the treaty of Chunar,
obtain an article from the Nabob by which the said Nabob did promise to attend to his
advice in the reformation of his civil administration; and he did give certain instructions to
the Resident, Middleton, to which he did require him to yield the most implicit obedience,
and did in one article thereof direct him to urge the Nabob to endeavor gradually, if it could
not be done at once, to establish courts of adawlut [justice], and that the darogahs [chief
criminal magistrates], moulavies [consulting or assistant lawyers], and other officers,
should be selected by the ministers, with his, the Resident's, concurrence; and afterwards, in
his instructions to the Resident Bristow, desiring him to pursue the same object, he declared
his opinion, "that the want of such courts, and the extreme licentiousness occasioned
thereby, is one of the most disreputable defects in his Highness the Nabob's government,
and that, while they do not exist, every man knows the hazard which he incurs in lending
his money "; but he did give him, the said Resident, no positive instruction concerning the
same, supposing the establishment of such courts a matter of difficulty, and did therefore
leave him a latitude in his proceedings therein.

XLI. That the said Resident Bristow did, however, in conformity to the said instructions, at
last given with such latitude, endeavor to prevail on the said minister gradually to introduce
courts of justice for the cognizance of crimes, by beginning to establish a criminal court
under a native judge, to judge according to the Mahomedan law in the city of Lucknow. But
Hyder Beg Khân, a minister of the said Warren Hastings's nomination, and solely
dependent upon him, did elude and obstruct, and in the end totally defeat, the establishment
of the same.

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