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a&8ft THE LEADEB. [Ko. 188. July 30, 185...
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statements and evidence ; and to investi...
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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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Inevitable. We Look Forward With The Gre...
to believe , to about , oneanda-lifilf millions sterling , and decision npon these claims ought no longer to be delayed . " We do trust that further reference to India will be unnecessary . Amongst the claimffipts are men who did good service to the Governinent of India in . its hour of sore strait and difficulty , and who are now absolutely povertystricken- ^ -hoping against hope , waiting from day to day for a recognition of their claims . "We know of one instance of a man who , from possessing property worth 20 , 000 / ., escaped witb the clothes only on his back ,. who fought as a volunteer against the rebels throughout the whole war , suffering the greatest hardships , Hviner in the saddle , and existing for months
on " chupatties" and water . The moral effect on the natives of India of these nohle examples of indivickial heroism was largely instrumental in . saying India to the British Crown , and surely the House of Commons , when these ^ claims for compensation come before it , will deal liberally with them . We believe there are amp le funds in possession of the Indian Government , on account of forfeiture of lands and pensions of those who had been leaders of the insurrection , to meet these claims for indemnity . Why , the pension to the King of Delhi and his heirs , alone , amounted to 320 , 000 / . per annum , now absolutely forfeited to the State ; and tins represents , a capital sum more than sufficient to pay off all the claimants at once . In dlreetino- attention to the Petition of the
Calcutta Compensation Committee , published in another column , and which has been presented to JParlianient , we have only to add , that so far as the Punjaub is concerned . Sir John Lawrence long ago secured compensation to the sufferers in that district . With characteristic promptitude and energy , and without waiting to communicate with tne authorities , either in Calcutta or Ijeadenhallstreet , the Governor of the Punjaub levied penal fines on the mutinous villages and districts In his division restored churches , houses , and factories destroyed by therebels , and actually squared the acccrants before he quitted the coTintry .
A&8ft The Leadeb. [Ko. 188. July 30, 185...
a & 8 ft THE LEADEB . [ Ko . 188 . July 30 , 1859 .
Statements And Evidence ; And To Investi...
statements and evidence ; and to investigate the same ; and by a recent communication from the Government of India to the said committee , yoiir petitioners are informed that the said investigation is concluded in the Punjaub , Oude and the North Western Provinces and ( it is believed also ) in Lower Bengal ; and that the Government of India is about to send to the Government at home reports on the nature and extent of the said losses as ascertained by the said investigation . That the Honourable the Court of Directors in the despatch above referred to reserved for its own decision the question whether compensation should be given or not ; and the Government of India remains without any power to decide the said question . The said investigation therefore remains resultless , and your petitioners now respectfully submit to your Honourable House the consideration 01 their case in the hope that your Honourable House will deem their claim to compensation just and reasonable ; and will promote it as may seem to your Honourable House expedient .
That throughout the rebellion no distinction was ever inade by the insurgents in favour of the capitalist , mercantile and industrial section of the British and East Indian people , nor in favour of any individuals of that section . As being British and Christian , of a different creed and race from the rebels , they were everywhere attacked with indiscriminate fury pan jjossu with those of the same classes in the service of the Government , and their extirpation was among the objects , as also it was essential , to the success of the rebellion . Gawnpore affords an apt illustration of the manner in which the rebellion was carried on . There , there was an indiscriminate massacre of all British and East Indian people . The station of Cawnpore comprises a large wealthy and populous native town , a large military cantonment and a mercantile settlement of Europeans
and East Indians , with : shops , warehouses , countinghouses , and houses where they resided and their business was carried " on . The native town became a receptacle of the plunder from the premises of the Europeans , and it sustained injury ( as it were ) only by accident ; on the other hand , by design , there was as total a destruction as the rebels could effect of every kind of property which could not be carried off as plunder : and in all other parts they carried out the same plan of indiscriminate and universal destruction against the persons and property of British and Christian people . And your petitioners submit that it would be contrary to natural justice that persons so situated , without power of any kind , and . solely dependent on their industry and capital , and thus singled . out by rebels for destruction , in consequence solely of their birth , origin , and religion , and the Government for
then- indissoluble [ connection with the time being , should be abandoned by that Government to the ruin designed , and in many instances accomplished for them . Your petitioners while fully relying on the intrinsic merit of their claim would beg your Honourable House to take into consideration in connection with it the course followed in cases somewhat analogous where compensation was granted to the sufferers on grounds less strong than those nbw urged . For instance in the case of the American loyalists ( some of whom remained in theStates , and some fled to : England ) , large indemnities were granted to them b y the Crown ; in the case of the Irish loyalists after the last Irish , rebellion , several large grants were made by the Parliament for their reward and indemnification ; and in the
case of the rebellion in Canada , the sufferers on the side of the Crown received compensation . The weight of precedents therefore your petitioners submit is on the side of their claim . Municipal law ' also sanctions the principle . Your Honourable House knows that by the law of England , from the earliest times , the hundred has been liable for the destruction of property by mobs : -which liability , as your petitioners believe , has been enforced within living memory , and might be enforced in the present day . In India also the principle of compensation for public robbery existed under Mahometan rule . The East India Company ' s Civil Courts also give redress in damages for injuries to property through note punishable as crimes . The difference in the present case is in the magnitude and number of the claims ; which would undorthe most
The following petition , as concentrating the arguments on the part of those claiming compensation , and relating to a matter most important to the Anglo-Indian community , we insert entire : — TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND , IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED . THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED MERCHANTS AND AGENTS OP CALCUTTA ON 3 JEHAI . 3 ? OP TITEaiSEI / VES AMD OTHERS IN RESPECT OP THE LOSSES SUSTAINED THROUGH THE DESTRUCTION OP PROPERTY DURING THE REBELLION , AND PRATING POR COMPENSATION . Humbly Sheweth—That comparatively few of the sufferers by the late rebellion are resident in Calcutta ; that generally they are separated by such great distances , and have been so much dispersed through the consequences of tho rebellion , that it would bo impossible for any considerable number of them to unite in a petition on their common case without a very great and inconvenient loss of time ; but your petitioners are either sufferers themselves , or are connected in interest with sufferers , ns capitalists and agents , and are the- members of a committee which was appointed at a very numerous meeting of British and East Indian sufferers for the purpose of representing their case and advancing their claims to compensation . For the information of your Honourable House , your Setitloners beg to state that tho said committee kept a ook for tho registration of claims to compensation , and that tho registered claims ( which wore afterwards sent in to Government ) amount to about eighty lakhs of rupees ( 800 , 000 / . sterling ) frojna about 200 firms or persons ; and your petitioners believe that one crore and a half of rupees ( ono and a half million pounds sterling ) , would cover the whole amount of claims ( including those not registered with the sold committee ) of British and East Indian people , J ? or mo lnibrmntionofyour Honorable House your petitioners bog further to state that tho sufferers whose claims aro now submitted are of various conditions , but tho greater part in number and whoso claims mako up the greater part of tho amount , aro merchants and traders , landed proprietors and plantors and persons In business , ancf thoir losses are of evory variety of kind , , That In May 1858 ( prior to which ' date most of the losses w © ro incurred ) it was notiflod by the Governor Gonornl in a Gazette Extraordinary that tho Honorable tne Court of Directors had desired tlie Government of -India !< to investigate the nature and oxtent of loss of property occasioned toy tho late mutinies and disturbances )> ' su * Forors woro Invited to send in statements of losses ; and , under instructions from tho Governor faenornh the Government of the North Western Provinces ana oiXowor Bengal appointed officers to recoive such
favourablo state ^ of municipal law bo beyond tlic scope and reach of municipal arrangements ; but the principle applies , and to moot the practical difficulty is , as Sour petitioners submit , the 'proper duty of the k > vernmoni > Your petitioners also beg your Honourable House to observe in connection with their claims , tho course of policy which has boon pursued towards tho rebels and insurgent part of tho population , from tho time when their reduction by forco or arms appeared certain . JFirst a general confiscation to tho state of all the property of rebels was ordained and proclaimed . This would liave placed in the power of the State ample moans of rewarding the loyal and giving compensation , as was
Jncominenced proceedings civil and criminal , both in the regular courts and in courts sitting :, under laws- made for the occasion . Through those proceedings they would have brought home a responsibility to both communities and wealthy individuals and have laid a legal-ground for compensation . But magistrates and courts ( whether acting under the direction of government or of their own discretion your petitioners know not ) have ( as your petitioners have been informed ) stopped the proceedings , and justice can no longer be obtained at the suit ; oi individuals against persons charged with offences against property during the rebellion . Generally therefore the rebels have wholly escaped except where they have fallen in the field . That British and East Indian sufferers should , under such circumstances be so long
left withoiit any recognition of their claims to compensation has given great dissatisfaction . And the hardship is inci'eased by what , in many instances , has since happened . Some of the British sufferers are zemindars , and have been required to pay the Go vernment revenue or rent for ^ periods when their districts were in the power of the rebels , and at a time when they were out of possession of their estates . Many > vere lease holders under -native zemindars , and they have been required to pay their rents to those zemindars for the period when the zemindars themselves were engaged passively or actively in the rebellion j so that to the sufferers the consequences of the rebellion are aggravated both by the non recognition of their claims and by the want of an appropriate or just policy on the part of the Government towards them . ¦ . . . '
Your petitioners beg to submit a few remarks in regard to resources for compensation . The Government has been relieved of heavy charges , and large properties have lapsed to it through the rebellion . There is , lor instance , the reduction of the pension list of the late native army amounting to a very large sum , and the extinction of pension in the Delhi family , of the descendants of the Peshwa and of other royal pensions . Another large item of account is Government securities co 2 isisting of promissory notes of the various loans of the Indian Government destroyed , forfeited or legally cancelled ; another item is jaglieers and lands forfeited or resumed . The Government securities so situated are probably alone ( as your petitioners are informed ) of nearly the amount of the compensation claimed by British and East Indian sufferers ; and Jaglieers and lands lapsed to Government might \ e applied in compensation , and would be acceptable to many sufferers who are engaged in agriculture and planting 1 .
Your petitioners moreover submit , with respect to forfeited lands , that in many instances they ought in equity and good conscience to be regarded as charged with a liability to make compensation . The lands of Kooar Singh , situate in Shahabad , for example ,. It was bv Kooar Singh and his followers that the property of tfie Europeans in that district was destroyed , and themselves were expelled ; and his forfeited estates would afford , or be ample security for , a full compensation . If the reported rental of that rebel ' s estate be correct , two or three years' rental would give a full indemnity for the damage done to Europeans in that district ; and the same is probably the case as respects the property of rebels in other districts . Your petitioners cannot conclude without remarking and of till inte
that the expectation of the sufferers , - rested in , then- claims , lias been raised by tho reference of the claims to Government officers for investigation . That reference was understood to be an admission that pr Una faerie the claimants were entitled to compensation , if was supposed that the decision was reserved on account of an apprehension of the magnitude ot the amount . The expectation thus raised has been confirmed by the munificence , of the Government of India and of the Governments of the disturbed provinces in tho distribution of rewards , honours and compensation , where those governments had an unfettered discretion . They had been fettered as respects the present claimants by the order of the Honourable Court that the question should be resei'ved for the decision oi itsolf .
On the following grounds , tlion , ns above briefly explained , your petitioners submit thnt the suil ' erera nre entitled to compensation , viz . ( to revorse the order of the above , statement ) on tho grounds of ( 1 ) the munificence already displayed by tho Indian Government in the grant of honors , rewards and compensations m other oases ; ( 2 ) of the gains made by the Governments and the burdens of which it has been relieved by the rebellion j ( 3 ) of tho lien for compensation , which in equity anil good conscience tho sufferers have on many ot tho estates of which tho Government has taken possession ; ( 4 ) of the remedies of which tho sufferers lmvo boon deprived consequent on the policy of Government j (&) ol sanction
that policy itself as respects tho rebels ; ( 0 ) of the which the principle of municipal law gives to the claim ; ( 7 ) of general policy as evidenced by tho practice ol tho British Government after former rebellions ; ( fcS ) oi tjio peculiar position of British and East Indian people in India , as British and Christian , And your petitioners submit that tho ease is eminently deserving of , the consideration of your Honorable House on account ( 1 ) of its importance ; ( 8 ) of its having boon taken by the IlonomWo Court of Directors from tlu > Jurisdiction of tho Governor General in Council , to yjulett legally and constitutionally it would othorwiso belong , and being reserved for tho decision of tho Homo Government . Your petitioners tlioroforo humbly pray your Honourable House to take this potltion fnto ybur high consideration , and to affirm by resolution or in such otliei way as may to your Honourable House appear expedient , that tho said sufferers ought , to
deed intimated in tho proclamation . 1 'his proclamation was superseded by a general amnesty emanating directly from tho Crown ; in tho net of amnesty time was given to all olasscs of rebels to reflect ' , to calculate , to declare thoir allegiance and lay down thoir amis . X . nrgo masses came in under tho amnesty . Tho Courts sitting hy special commission for tho trial of rebels and the ¦ adjudication of forfeitures and confiscations generally suspended and have not since resumed their operations ; and shortly after tho original torm of amnesty hod expired , tho rebellion wns declared by the Government to be at an ond , the country is again placed under tho normal system of rule , nnd tho amnesty Is practically interpreted by Government officials as an act under which all tho past offences of rebels against persons and property are to bo buried in oblivion . But many British sufferers had
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1859, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30071859/page/10/
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