The Sun.
London, England, 1825-06-23 00:00:00

INTEREST IN INDIA.

rine Marquis of HASTINGS rose to move the second read-
. ing of the Bill be had introduced to explain the clause of the
Act of the 13th of Geo. 111., relating to interest payable in the
Eat Indies. The Noble Marquis was not sufficiently audible
to bidistinctly understood, and we could only collect sortie
fragments of his speech. Ile observed, that as the Learned
Judges were now present, as well as several Noble Lords who
were not in their places when he introduced the Bill, he should
• Ir:capitulate the arguments which he had addressed to the
Howe on that occasion. His Bill was intended to define the
true scope and meaning of the limitation of interest contained
In the clause. The opinion which the law officers of the
Crown had given was now before their Lordships, and they
would find that that opinion was contrary to the understood
meaning of the clause .in India, and to the practice which
had always been followed theme. The Bill he introduced,
therefore, declared in express terms, that the clause in the
.13th of George 111. slid not extend to persons within the
territories of an independent Sovereign. The law officers of
the Crown, whose opinions were asked on this clausei had
been under the necessity of extracting some meaning or other
from- it, but they had fallen into an error in cenceiving that
it extended beyond the British dominions in India. Had they
looked into former statutes, they would have found that in the
greater part of those !statutes the words " East Indies" were
exclusively- applied to the
.posaessions of the East India Coin.
pany. The Noble Marquis then reiterated what•he had before
stated respecting the practice of the „Indian Government, and
repeated his argument that offences committed in an Indepen-
dent State could not be prosecuted in any of the three Presi-
dencies, since the Courts of those Presidencies did not even take
cognizance of offences committed within the jurisdiction of each
. other. In the paper on the table, their Lordships would find
a reference to the Act of the 37th of the late King, but that
A.ct threw no light on the clause in question, and it would in-
deed have been very extraordinary if 20 years had been suffered
to elarle,without this clause being understood. The clause
was framed to meet a substantive evil. It was supposed that
public funtionaries lent money to native Princes at exorbitant
interest. and the object was to prohibit such persons from en-
gaging in pecuniary transactions of that kind. After some
further observations, the Noble Marquis said he would move
the second reading. and then put a question to- the Learned
Judges, whether the .bili he had introduced did truly set forth
:he intent and meaning of the clause in the 13th Geo. 111.
The Bill was read a second time. _

The Marquis of i4ANSDOWN, who had not observed (we
suppose) that the bill was read, 'stated that the proper course
would be to refer the question to the judges first, and receive
their answer, before the House recognised the principle of the
Lai by a second reading.
The I,ORD CHANCELLOR acknowledged that the mode
of proceeding which the Noble Marquis had pointed out would
Lwre been the more regular course, but as the bill had been
adopted, it could not now be followed.
'Lie Judges withdrew, and soon after the House adjourned.