The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-23 00:00:00

SALE OF GIRLS IN INDIA.

Lord Brougham lately resisted the enlistment of
Kroornen for service in India as a deviation from
the anti-slaverypolicy of Great Britain. Enlistment,
he argued, among an African race wouli speedily
degenerate into kidnapping. What will his
lordship say when he hears of officers, paid
and appointed by the British Government, re-
' gistteing in the Judge's Court formally and legally
lon stamped paper, the sale of girls of seven for the
;purpose of presdtution, suchofficers, moreover,
being fully aware of the object and character of the
sale. Yet that, it would appear,.is a general if not
universal practice among the respectable Mahome-
clans of Bhaugulpere.
It is barely six weeks since Mr. Toogoad, Magias
irate of Moeghyr, discovered that the Cazee or
Malsotuedan Registrar appointed by Government
to each Zillah, was is the habit of attesting deeds
of this infamous description, and depositing them
as legal documents in the Judge's Court. The
practise, it seemed, had baen going on for 20 years,
with the full knowledge of everybody except the
Government which p, ides its if on the abolition
of slavery. Ie one case tie deed, which bears date
the 16th August,lBl3, sets feral that a Mahomedan,
named, agrees to farm out his daughter by name
Chund, age,l covets years, to Maisumut Ausecrun,
brothel keeper, for 93 years, in considwation of R's.
12.8 received iu cash. Ti.e said keeper is em-
power, d to "exact any kind of service" from the
girl, for s!ie eneages to 1:...ep the child in clothes
and food. In the event of any child' en being torn
to the girl, whethe • male or female, the purchaser
)riescitooushdaovoeu
iiipee ste, s-swi ohui
ho fi
nthem
above mentioned
for ever. This i
European country would bring the contracting
parties in danger of Ly nch law, is writ-
en on stamped paper, signed and sealed
by the Cazee, and entered in las book No. 1,419,
pages 82 awl 83. In a sic 'rid case registered
on 15th Julie, 1847, a Hindoo child of seven,
daughter of a Rajpoot, was soil to a Mussuluntu
with like intent, and further investigation proved
that the system was all but universal. Mr. Toogood
took up the case with the eager wrath natural to as
English gentleman. The guilty pasties were ar-
rested, and Anwar um quietly deposed that it was all
true, that she always did buy children, that she had
ten such in her house, and four of their children who
were equally her slaves. Everybody did it and
why not she ? In•lleed the evidence is much in the
tone of injured innecence- an Euglish--lady might
adopt if arrested for obstructing the pathway by
undue crinoline. It might be a foible, Ameerun
admitted, but as for an offence, everybody did it.
The CaZOP, a most respectable Mussulman, a
brother of the Principal Sadder Arneen of the
same station, also frankly edaritted his offence.
He had always registered such deeds. He knew
perfectly well what they mlaot, and what they.
were for, and he believed them sanctioned by
Government. As to his own conscience, it was
tiue that the Koran forbade the sale of free-
born children somewhat peremptorily, but thus
were nut deeds of sale. They were deeds of
lease fur 90 years, riot sal-s by any means. Obvi-
ously he was horribly ill used by the inquiry.
All three, Ameerun, the Mussulman who bought
the Rajpoot girl, and the Cazee were committed to
take their trial, the Cazee as en accessory to the
crime. It is, however, very doubtful whether the
law will touch any of them in the end. The crime
is doubtless slavery in its most atrocious form.
There.is nothing in " Uncle Tom's Cabin" more
horrible in all true circumstances of horror than in
this plain story of Behar. We feel more perhaps
when men are cut to pieces under the lash, but it
is only because we do not realise the indefinite
degradation involved in Amcerun's purchases on
stamped paper. But by law the crime is still
doubtful. Ti.e old regulations, taking the largest
interpretation, only prohibited the hawking of
slaves for sale. Indeed sale within our own domi-
nions is tacitly allowed by the prohibition to ex-
port. Act V. of 1843 indeed orders that slavery
be ignored, that it be no plea in a court of justice,
but it does not render the act of enslaving a penal
offence. We are thrown back, therefore, on the
' common or Mahoniedan law, which undoubtedly
prohibits the sale of freeborn children. In the only
case, however, on the books the Judges of the Sud-
der were divided, one-half holding that suchsalesfor
prostitution were sanctioned by preset iption. They
therefore referred the whole question to their law
officer, and at thissnoment the only positive law on
the subjectis the ipse dixit of a MussultnanMoulavie.
He held the seller criminal, and the Court sen-
tenced him in conformity with that opinion to five
years' imprisonment. It remains to be seen if the
Sadder will not admit the Cazee's quibble, and re-
cognize a lease for 90 years made of an unconscious
girl for a purpose forbidden to respectable castes by
even the foul Indian creeds, as a fair and rightful
contract. Whether they do or not the sale of
a human being ought at once to be made a felony,
punishable with the same punishment as Muni-
cide, and to be prosecuted by the State.
It is not however to secure an alteration in the
law that we have published this extraordinary
case. Ten words in Parliament, accusing the Court
of Directors of sanctioning such sales will soon pro-
duce a reform in our legislation. We have related
it as an illustration of the manners of the people
among whom we live. Here is a man high in
office, of good family, of excellent social position, a
man to be considered altogether respectable, who
quietly assists in a crime forbidden even by his
own law. He knew well that the stamped paper,
and the Cazee's seal, and the funnal registra-
tion were all weapons to be used against the un-
fortunate girls if they resisted cruelty or attempted
to escape. And he strokes his beard, and talks
about a lease of a human being for ninety years,
as a custom, objectionable perhaps, but still very
general indeed. And his brother, chief native
justice of the district, says he knew it all along.
Aud the procuress who pays the fees which fill
the pockets of the Caz e, looks oa the affair as oue
sanctioned by Government. And the English
judge does not know of the practice, though the
deeds have been file 1 for twenty yews in his
own emir+. And the Court of Directors congra-
tulates itself on the extinction of • slavery in
Bengal.—Friend of _lndia.