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India.] THE LEADER. 765
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INDIA, AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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under the criminal jurisdiction of the n...
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press their insubordination ;.and it see...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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India.] The Leader. 765
India . ] THE LEADER . 765
India, And Indian Progress.
INDIA , AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
Under The Criminal Jurisdiction Of The N...
under the criminal jurisdiction of the native courts , and thereby under the native officials . When this bill was brought forward in 1857 it was met with the just indignation of the English settlers and a resolute opposition ; but since then events have occurred which render such a . measure more dangerous and less justifiable . First of all we place the mutiny , showing the hostility of large classes of the population to ^ Europeans ; second , the indisputable determination of the practice of torture by native officials ; third , the well-grounded conviction of the deep-rooted perjury of the natives in legal proceedings ; fourth , the hostility to Euro-.
. . - - ? — INDIAN NOTES . S INCE our last , Sir Chas . Wood has been reappointed , to the India Office , and we sincerely trust his administration may prove beneficial to t-Indian interests . There is one subject he may at once take in hand ; for the Criminal Code Procedure Bill , best known as the Black Act , and which had been suspended during the mutiny , is being proceeded with in the Leg islative Council , and the . last mail brings the alarming intelligence that it is being pushed as rapidly as possible through all its stages . This bill is for the purpose of depriving English citizens of the protection they enjoy of living under English laAV , with the benefit of judge and jury , and placing them , in common with the natives ,
peans of the Mahomedans , who afford so large a portion of the amlah ; and fifth , that since then the country has Lech really thrown open to English settlers . Tims at the time when protection is most wanted for the settler , when it is requisite for the encouragement of settlers that they should have the same privileges as in our other colonies , they are to be depi-ived of their birthrig ht as citizens of England , and subjected to the enmity of an inferior race , under debased institutions . Nowhere in our colonies has a course of this kind been adopted , for
where , as in Lower Canada , French law has been guaranteed . by treaty—or , as in the Cape of Good Hope , Dutch law—the population were treated as Europeans and as citizens , and their institutions have been raised to the English level ; but neither in Canada -were Englishmen placed under the dominion of the Huron *" , nor at the Cape under the Kaffirs or Hottentots , or in New Zealand under Maori law and magistrates . The native has been raised in time to English privileges , but he has not been allowed to administer a local code to English
Citizens . The Indian code is objectionable , because it is not the law of England , which is the inheritance ol our citizens , and which they have the right to enjoy wherever their jurisdiction extends . The civil administration of the law varies in Scotland , the Channel Islands , and Man , from that of England and Ii'eland , hut the criminal administration , which is that which aflects the rights of persons , and which is dealt with by the new bill , is of like origin and constitution throughout , founded on the safeguard of a jury . For tins , Avhicli has been recognised in the empirou ami states we have founded or
protected—which iri as sacred in the United btates as in those countries which aro yet colonies—which has been extender ! even to Hawaii * Mosquitia , and Liberia , newest in the family of nations—for this law of guamnteo and protection , is substituted a now system , lc > aving no security for our citizens , but giving to a native the power of sentencing one of them to two years' imprisonment in a common jail—a sentence which in India is in its effects on a European equivalent to death .
. petit jury panel ? We say that it is monstrous that the settlers should be so subjected , or that the Whole of the indigo planters in tlie . ir several districts should thus be at the mercy of a man over whom they have no control , who is not responsible to their parliament , nor can be impeached in their legislative assembly . What , however , is the condition of the indigo planter , the coffee grower , the tea planter , the merchant , or the clergyman who may be travelling in some remote district , and who may have a false charge trumped up against him before a Mahomedan iudge , and supported by perjury ? What
wovld be the fate of the railway workman or the soldier'swife in a bye town , brought before such a man on a charge of drunkenness , or-aay other that may be framed , ignorant of the court language , ignorant of the foreign law and procedure , having a court full of enemies and no protector ? We shudder when we think of the oppression which maybe exercised by remands even , when the magistrate fears to impose a sentence . There Will be no solicitor to whom the accused can apply ; no one perhaps knowing his or her language except the judge and his amlah ; and the evidence will be given in ^ all kinds of languages , and recorded in a technical jargon . It has not been unreasonably urged that such a system is well calculated to provoke a war of races ; for the first Englishwoman , truly or falsely
accused , who shall be dealt with by its administrators , will bring down on the perpetrator the unrelenting vengeance of our countrymen . Such a system is what we have never been called upon to endure , and one from which our feelings teach us to revolt . If this Act passes the Legislative Council it will be the bounden duty of P arliament to reject it , and to impeach its authors for high crimes and misdemeanours , and we trust it will receive the strenuous opposition , not only of every one interested in India , but of all classes in this country . The step , too , is so illtimed and so illadvised , coming at the very moment when the opportunity offered for i-aising the native ^ in the political and social scale , by giving commissions of the peace to various districts , and associating the native gentlemen in the administration of the law ; they , too ,
are to be made the serfs of the amlah . Proni the hills but little news has been received by the last mail . , In consequence of the disaffection produced among the Company ' s European soldiery , by the illiberal conduct of the Government , Lord Clyde has been obliged to leave' Simla to save the country from the disgrace of a revolt by Englishmen . This necessity causes a considerable loss to Simla and the neighbourhood . Captain W . C . Greei )/ 60 th B . N . I ., has leave to Simla , and Assistant-Surgeon Knipe to the 88 th Eoot . _ .
Leave for the Deyrali hills lias been given to Lieut .-Col . J . Laughton of the Engineers ; Lieut .-Col . W . O . Campbell , 80 th B . N . T . ; Liout .-Col . P . Abbott , 72 nd B . N . L ; Lieut .-Col . II . E . S . Abbott , 74 th B . N . I . ; Lieutenants S . Mortimer , II . M . 60 th Poot , F . Austin , II . M . 60 th Foot , and C . Ashburn-Lcim , H . M . 60 th Foot . Lieut .-Col . A . S . Campbell , 3 rd European L . C ., lins leave to reside permanently at Mussoorie . Lieut . C . Campbell , H . M . 48 th Foot , has leave for Landour and Mussoorie . For Chirmpoonjee , Major G . R Jennings , II . M . 19 th Foot , has lenvo . It has been seldom of late that leave has been given to Chirrnpoonjco or
Sylhot . . _ For Nynee Tal , leave lias been given to Gapfc . It . C . Leo , Il . M . 35 th Foot , Ct > pt . F . C . Scott , II . M . 42 nd Foot , and to Onpt , K . Siuyih , 13 th B . N . I . For Murreo , leave has been given to Lieut . W . L . Lowes , II . M . 98 th Foot . . For Dhnrmsaln , leave has been given to Ensign S . L . Pidsley , H . M . fi 2 nd Foot . Leave for Bangalore hiis been given to Major J . Fowler , 8 th Madras L . C .
We object % o such powers being given to English offioialH as unnecessary , because now in most stations in tho hills or plains , ' whore there aro European * , there are enough to ailbrd justices of tho peace inul jurors for quurter sousions , and there is no venaon why nssiac courts should not bo hold in tho cl » l © f towns . Why are English men , women , and children in Simla , Landour , jMuHsoone , a « d DeyraU to bo subject to an English stipendiary magistrate , or his native o / Hcial , when there are man enough qualified to fill the commission of the peace , to iUruish a grand jury , and to supply the
Press Their Insubordination ;.And It See...
press their insubordination ; . and it seems that at Meerut the Queen ' s 75 th . so much sympathised with the grievances of the Company ' s troops as to intimate that they Would not act against them . Lord Clyde came down from the hills at once , and issued a general order which shows that the danger must be met in the spirit of concession . The Government at Calcutta also felt it their duty to publish an ac-r count of the state of things , so . that the European communities in India might be apprised of what really had occurred . Both documents afford evidence of much danger , and allude to a court of inquiry which has been set up at Meerut , so that all the grievances of the soldiers may be fully-
investigated . The soldiers chiefly complain that they have been transferred from the Company ' s to the Queen '* service without being presented with the newbounty to . which they deemed , themselves entitled . The men demand that they shall be reenlisted . The Bombay Gazette , however , says that hitherto no violence has been attempted by the malcontents , nor has it become necessary to employforce for their coercion ; and from the example of Meerut and of Lahore , where the failure of discipline was but momentary , it was believed that these dissatisfied men would give way to reason , and return to their duty . By a telegram from Aden , dated the 10 th , we are happy to learn that the discontent is arrested . In Oude operation * are continued in the district to the north-west , of Lueknow , lying between the Gogra and . the Raptee . The
process of driving the broken detachments of rebels out of the jungles and hills is proceeding without a check . The aggregate number of rebels which our forces have yet to deal with or disperse is variously stated at 8 , 000 , 10 , 000 , and 15 , 000 men ; but most of them are said to have already retired beyond the Raptee , and all of them have hitherto been prevented from penetrating into Lower Oude . Bala Rao was reported in a Government bulletin to have passed with a body of men into the district of Toolseypore on the 3 rd of May , and by the last intelligence , of the 10 th of that month , he was . reported to be in the neighbourhood of Bulrampore with six guns . Sir Hope Grant is at the latter place watching his movements . This chieftain istlie brother of Nana Sahib * and is supposed to have been even more fiendish in his barbarities at
Cawnpore than the Nana himself . In ah officer ' s letter from Nepaul , dated the 30 th of April , it was announced , as a piece of news that might be almost implicitly relied on , that the Nana and his family , with the Begum , and about 300 personal followers , were prisoners in the hands of two Nepaulese regiments , in tlie fort of Niakote , or Niskilla , a little to the north of Bootwul ; but the news has never been confirmed , and there is now a counterreport abroad that tlie Nana is wandering about tlie country in disguise , having shaved his bead , painted his face , and adopted a European dress .
The outbreak in the Nugger l * urkur districts , m Seinde , has been quelled witli great promptitude . Lieutenant-Colonel Evans telegraphed on tho 12 th of May ' that "the district was quite quiot , " and the fugitive population returning to their hoines .. A strict inquiry is being instituted into the causea of the outbreak . One rumour attributes it to an insult offered to a Rajpoot woman . But the designs of the rebellious Thukoors pointed rather to the attainment of some permanent political object . The Nuggur Parkur rebels destroyed about twenty-four miles of the electric telegraph connecting Bombay , and Kurrneheo . It ia already partially restored , and the electric communication between tho two places will soon be entirely renewed .
. „ There lias been uneasiness in tho Nizam ' s dominions for some time past . Tho British Government has been compelled to demand the expulsion from the Court and capital of somo of his leading courtiers . It b » s been discovered that otliers of thorn have corresponded with one of tho Nnnu ' s emissaries , ine latest rumour is , that a great c onspiracy has been detected in Hyderabad to mnswwro all tho J ' . uropeims . Her Majesty ' s 31 st Regimcixt aro lenvjng Poonali , probably to join the Deccan VinUl Jb ' orco , and tho Oth EnniskjUen Drngoons , who aro at Kirkoe , » ire saxl to bo under orders to take the field in tho * " « £ »*¦ territories . Tho Nawab of Ifurniekubiiu had been , sentenced to bo hanged , but it curno out on tho trml letter hud boon written
ha boforo bis surVcndoV a to him by Major Barrow , tho . special commissioner witli tho camp of his Excellency the ( Jommurtder-m-Chiff in which ho was invited to surrender $ and that in this letter he was told that pardon had been extended to all who had not personally committed tho murder of British fcuhjutita , and that it liu had not personally eonwiuted tho murder ot British subjoets , ho might surrender without apprehension . On tho receipt of this letter be immediately surrendered . Ho now claims tho fulfilment or tho promise of pardon , being found cuiliy , not of having personally committed the tmmiurof British subjects , but of having boon nn aoeossory before tho fact . The Governor-uenonii
LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE . Tub Bombay letters and papers of tho 23 rd ult . bring accounts of tho discontent which has arluen among tlio European troops of tho Into East India Company at being transferred without rc-enllstment into tho Queen ' s service . The despatches spoak as if mutiny lind already broken out , and Moorut is named us the plaoo where it wna first soen . It Ims alao been exliijited at Gwnllor , Borhumporc , AHahabau , and J ^ vhore . At Allahabad the Jiuropean cavalry > ad gono no fur as to flro In tho air , bo that thoy might ex-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 25, 1859, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25061859/page/9/
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