The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-22 00:00:00

OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Mr. Ward is, we observe, to call the atterdien 'of the
IT-louse this day to the petition Ines's:wed 1);y bine from Ma
Ins andeCalcetta against the Act of the past India Legis-
.atiee Council, No. 11 of 18:36. The Act in ;restive
eas occasioned considerable dissatisfaction end excitement
:n Bengal and Madras, more especially in Bennie in the
:ntcrior of which presileneyelie greatcet number of reeidint
Europeans are to be fettnii. The signatures to the peti-
iien are not however exclw.ively European, for about one-
leurth of them are those of natives, tneny of them, we ere
as,eired, amongst the most opulent, respectable, and influ-
ential of that hotly in India, It is no easy matter to Ob-
tain a heareig iii this country for Indian questions. `Many
causes hare contribuLd to this reluctance n'e the part of the public to ewer en Indiae subjects. ; but into thee:,
c3,es we (10 tot prop( ee at present to enter.
Ai: we have to ebserve is, that Mr. Ward will 1.,e
l?rt, :gat., he obtain front the HOUFC thee 'del-
sl.leri..tten ef the case (A. the %eetitioncrs to wljeln from its
nisportance, it weuld seem to be eatitled, The csse, as we
father it from the Parliamentery papers, and some remarks
" the shave of a pamphlet by Mr. Turton, the ag,ent of the
Petitioners in this country, appears to be this :—On the re-
newal of the charter of the East India Co:npany in 1813, it
ores provided by. the Act 53 Geo. 111., c. 15,5, sec. 107,
Met at any place in the pros ince mere than ten miles from
the presidencies, British-burn subje,ts should be amenable
in civil cases at the suit of a native to the jurisdiction of the
civil judge in the district where such British subjects re-
sided, with an appeal to the King's Supreme Court of the
Presidencies, wherever an appeal would have been allowed
by the regulations, if the parties had been natives, to the
chief Court of the Company, called the Sadder Dewany
Adaulut. This, the petitioners say, was all that was neces-
sary, and all that was desired by the natives. But by
an act of the local Legislature, called No. 11. of 1836, this
clause is repealed, and jurisdiction is given over all persons
whatever to the Company's Courts, which only allow of an
appeal to the Sadder Dewany Adaultit, from whence there
is no appeal to the Privy Council unless the matter is of
the value of about 3,0001., whereas from the Supreme
Court an appeal lies to the Privy Council in all cases of
the value of 4001. It is contended that this is contrary to
the Act of Wm. IV., c. 85, sec. 43, as affecting a prero-
gative of the Crown, with which the Local Government
were, by the last-mentioned clause, prohibited from med-
dling. The British-born petitioners contend that they are
only subject to English law in cases between themselves
and where they are defendants. That this is only the ad-
vantage which the Hindoos and Mahomedans enjoy, and
they ask no exclusive privileges to themselves, being per-
fectly
be amenable, to submit to that which is for the common
benefit of all; but they contend that this advantage is
taken from them by the Local Act in question, and that
nothing has thereby been in reality obtained by na-
tives. They contend further, that under this Act there
, is no case either between natives and Englishmen, or
amongst Englishmen themselves, however intricate, which
could come before the Courts of Chancery, Queen's Bench,
Common Pleas, Exchequer, or the Courts in Doctors'
Commons, in England, that might not come before the
judges, whether native or European, of the provincial
coarts in India. They say, moreover, that the native
judges have no knowledge of the English language, man-
ners, or laws, and that the Company's judges have no legal
education ; but, as we gather from a letter amongst the
Parliamentary papers from the Secretary to the Indian
Government to the petitioners in Calcutta, that Govern-
ment "leans to rest its justification of this act on the asser-
tion, that under the clause of the 53d Geo. 111., repealed
by this local Act, British-born subjects were liable to the
law of the Indian local regulations, and this Act makes
no difference in the law, and merely changes the ap-
pellate jurisdiction from the Queen's Supreme Courts
to the Company's. This is directly denied by the
petitioners, and they say, moreover, that even if it were so,
the Supreme Courts have no arrears of business, and the
Company's Courts heavy arrears ; and that even if the
assertion were correct, the alteration in the appeal was
needless and. uncalled for, and that there are no laws or
rules in the regulations relating to matters in which Bri-
tish subjects are concerned ; and consequently in the ab-
sence of such laws and rules there will be no guide but that
which is directed to be pursued where none are prescribed
by the regulations, namely, the mule of equity and good
conscience—so that a case between two Pritisk subjects,
relating to marriage, divorce, wills, or succession to pro-
perty, map under this law be determined according to the
equity aed good-conscience notions of the Hindoo or Maho-
niedan Judge who is ignorant of English manners, habits, and,
unaees, and cannot speak or decipher one word in the Eng-
lish language. Such are the statements of the petitioners,
itd in Mr. Ward they will have an able advocate:
e ourselves are not sufficiently masters of the questio.
be able to speak confidently on it. Nay, we will sa ,
further, that from our experience of the great ability 04
those entrusted by the East India Company with the su
i ej
perintendence of administrative and judicial matters
nii
India, to say nothing of the check of the Board of Con-
trol, we are slow to believe the Company in the wrong.
There may he good reasons for giving the Local Courts
cognizance of all causes, either between Englishmen and
natives, or between Englishmen and Englishmen, and making
the appeal to the Sudder Dewany Adaulut from these Local
Courts final in ail cases under 5,0001. The expense of an
appeal to the Privy Council for cases of 4001. (allowed
in the Supreme Court) may enable the rich to oppress
the man in less affluent circumstances. On the other hand
we can well believe the petitioners when they say that the
cases in India in which there is an appeal to the Privy
Council, are tried with a very different degree of care and
ability from those in which the Courts know that there
is no eye on them. All we wish is that the question may
obtain the attention to which it is entitled. The right of
the Imperial Legislature to legislate for India, and to
control the Acts of the Local Government, is expressly
reserved by Act W. 4, c. 85, sec. 51 ; and it remains to
be seen, after hearing the case of the petitioners, and the
way in which .it may be met by Ministers, whether the
House deem this a proper occasion for exercising their
power of controlling the Indian Government.—Morning
Chronicle.

The Ministerial print which so lately undertook the ad-
vocacy' of Mr. O'Connell for that 'cross attack upon the
gentry of Great Britain, for which, notwithstanding the
various attempts of Ministers to save him, he was repri-
manded by the Speaker, has now taken upon itself the
equally hopeless task of defending the bad law of election
Committees, three instances of which, in the Reading and
the Walsall, we on Tuesday brought under public notice.
The defence is a curious one, or we should not have no-
teed it. Of one case, that in which the Reading Committee
decided that a man who had moved from one house toanother
since the registration still retained his qualification, no
notice whatever is taken, probably out of respect. for
Lord Denman, who in her Majesty's Court of Queen's
Bench has decided the contrary of that proposition to be the
.le w. Upon a second case, where the same Committee held
hat the proof of the birth of a man in a forei:in countrn,
the child of French parents, the proof being given by the
iron's brother, who was actually in the house when he was ____
irn-n, was insufficient evidence that the man was an alien' A REMARKABLE CHARACTER.—PhiIip Davis
the following observation is made ;----'°lt were easy to show
was born at Plymouth about 1797. When six years old he
that the decision of the Committee was right in law and in ' lost his sight, and at twelve was taken into the Blind Asylum
face of it carries
equity; but it is n not worth our while to refute what on the
in Bristol wher he fiears.' H now foy-one. Oa
its olvn answer." What does this pas- his return, to hise nativewas towve nhy ee
set up inis the tradert of basket-
sage meen ? Are we to infer from it, as was indeed , m :king, which he had learned in the Asylum, and being an
argued by Counsel, that a search should have been made ' expert workman maintainea himself respectably, and was era-
at the Home-office into the registry of aliens? Suppose I ployed by the contractor to supply the dockyard with bas-
such a search had been made, in sp:te of impediments heti. It was the custom of his fellow-workmen for one of them
thrown in the way of it at that office similar to those op- occasionally to read aloud one of the journals or magazines.
posed to the search by the agent of the G'onservalive peti- This, with their conversations, gave him an ardent desire to
tioners in the London ease, it would have furnished the in- visit objects and places with which he had thus been made cc-
quaihted ; and at the age of twenty-eight he travelled on foot
lormation already jlsteined from the examination of the and
byalone to Exleter, a distance of forty-two miles, and this
witness. Such searele therefore, was unnecessary ; indeed, nmootr‘ be
sequestered.o sua
ii highway,rnbta.t across s s Dartmoor,l
ever since the Middlesex case, it has been an established
localities,
ancdeter about tenh.nyls, to
mile that where a person has been proved to have been horn obialu alnowledge of °the
re-
abroad, the ones lies upon him to prove himself naturalised, lations of the streets, which he still' raentaintsheasgeZrlapasicoat the
otherwise the person objecting to the vote would have to va"ious roads between that city and Plymouth. Whenever
prove a negative. Upon the Walsall decision, by far the most any discovery was made in the neighbouring quarries,
objectionable in point of law of any which has been given or any singular 'occurrence took place, he rarely failed
this Session by a Committee sitting on an English elect to become acquainted, by personal observation, with the
various localities connected pith the circumstances. He
tion, ant.), which prevents the removal from the poll of those
"W 11() nave lost their qualifications, unless they have answered teast ino the
cci constantdeot
ever
hhearb(!itio,ifm.n walkingorthough
s s
obligedthe f l oteo tos bathe,
h l
a question which the Reform Act enables, but does not amongyer'athe rocks, did he miss his way, or fail to returnrtaomthee
require, candidates or persons on their behalf to have put spot '.here he had left his clothes. With his augmented pow_
to voters before polling, we are asked, " What is there ors, and the confidence inspired by these exertions his desire of
trange in this decision ?" and are informed that "at the exploring increased, and he obtained a passage to Liverpool by
very same hour Sir Robert Peel ruled the very same point her Majesty's frigate Lavine, in July, 1835. He proceeded
ha the Evesham Committee, and accompanied his decision from thence to Dublin, soon returned to Liverpool, and after_
with the remark, ' that it was very desirable that every wards travelled mostly on foot to York, Hull, and through the
m
uppertunity should be taken at the poll to inquire into the midland counties to his home, having been absent 12 months,
rights of parties to vote, and that the third question and travelled nearly 600 miles. He came to London by a steamer
a few weeks ago, and has since been busy inlearnifinogdthhei vari.
ought therefore always to be put.' " We will assume that
this opinion of Sir Robert Peel has been correctly re- ousalodeaflitiesd?f the metropolis. He
anli ealcanost alreadyioeredible facility.
ported. It is the opinion of one whose judgment and ex-
of the
weirto. wded streetsm disturb him, andly.
1;1:no irseeman and distant points,
perience upon matters of home or foreign policy are most he therefore prefers walking at night. Like most persons in
valuable. But we have here aq y
uestion of law, which we a strange place he asks his wa, p
it advisabl and if an accurate descrition
have reason for knowing was not argued, some eircum- be given to him he rarely fails to find it readily. His sense
stance probably rendering e not further to press of tench, both in the feet and hands, is singularly acute, so
the matter ; and we feel well assured that Sir Robert that the different impressions conveyed by the ground enable
Peel's decision, if preceded by such an argument as that
him to ascertain places of safety or danger; even on a paved
'
addressed afterwards by Mr. 'fliesslger to the Shaftesbury footway_ he ean easily determine his approach to the curb.
Large and elevated buildings, gate.ways, openings of streets and
Committee, would have been founded upon a sound inter-
of
pa. squares, are all appreciable by him ;
?rotation of the Reform Act, and not upon grounds 1
places and his recollection of
such enables him to find his way afterwards without in-
liey which it is for the Legislator, and not for the Commit-
quiry. —Bristol Journal.
ITALIAN SIIEPIIERDS.—The shepherds who at-
tee-man, to act upon.—Timer.
Our readers will find elsewhere a more detailed report
tend the flocks are allowed a rotolo (two pounds) and a half
of bread every day, with a due proportion of salt and oil
of the meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates on Tuesday,
as seasoning ; they receive, moreover, two ducats every month,
than it was in our power to have afforded them in proper i
a sheepskin cloak every year, and a daily bowl of fresh milk
season. We frankly own that it adds but little to the in-
formation we had previously received. With two exeep- during the two first spring months..Cracen's Excursions in
tioes the Middlesex Magistrates seem to have been utterly 1 the Abruzzi.

THE SUN, LONDON, irnUBSDAY, MARCH 22, 18:18.

i,j2TiON COMMITTEES.
(YESTERDAY.)

(From our Second Edition of last night.)
SHAFTESBURY.

erp,t'Fnertti of sounsel occupied the greater Fart if
t he
The Committee remained in deiihorati,n with closed deers
for Upwards of an hour, and then drcidcd that the cotykl for
petinnrr.; ilo pr;;Ceed with their objections, which they ac-
cordinBly (ltd.

HULL ELECTION.
The Committee re-assembled at two o'clock, when
Flit& tlnnovng,.ll that the parties had been unable to
come to any arrzngettlCht.
he scrutiny was then proceeded with, siiel hid Co/lowing
ranics were struck off the poll of the sitting Member :--.John
/I"'!ig3^ll, %lion Jacks,:n, Samuel Walton, William Bailey-,
and John Newnvirch.
The ease of Robert "soon; was under consideration when
•he Committee adjourned at a quarter pest four.