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Leader (1850-1860), 20th August 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 799

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      which do not concern them , nor do that which is not lawful but each must look to his own affairs . " This present arrangement , proclamation , and order ( tembi ) has been prepared in the presence of the Sheik-il-Islam and a ll the learned of the empire , of the Seraskier , and all the officers of the army and viziers who were at the Council of the Grand Vizier . Finally ^ this proclamation has be sanctioned by . his . Majesty the Sultan ; and" all those who are not pleased with the arrangement , and shall act contrary to it , 'shall be considered as insubordinate , and severely punished . " I Here follow the signatures of all the principal officials of the empire , civil , military , and religious . " ]

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      AUSTRALIA . New Sottth Wales is busy concocting a . constitution ; Victoria is " counting all its money ; " while South Australia- —a pastoral land like the Canaan of the Bible . produces and , consumes the primitive repast of " bread , milk , and honey . " The Upper Chamber in New South Wales is to be composed of Crown nominees holding office for life . The Legislative , then wholly elective , will give a truer reflex of public feeling . At present great concessions have to be made to official influence to secure the

      passing a measure , or the adoption of a report ; and some of the elected members will , perhaps , not be sorry to see the representatives of the Crown fairly " in another place / ' where they may be " bombarded with good measures , " and left to incur the undivided unpopularity of rejecting them . But the public are more intent on getting gold than in marking these changes . A new bill is being carried amending the too stringent provisions of the gold regulation act , the operation , of which has thinned the New South Wales and crowded the Victoria diggings . The new bill will allow persons to " prospect "

      or try the ground without licenses . in places that have not been proclaimed as goldfields . The prohibition of the issue of licenses to runaway servants and apprentices is repealed , jnerely because it is impossible to carry it out with effect ; but a conviction of haying absconded from hired service cancels a license if it has been obtained . Servants , persons in Government employ , and clergymen , are not to pay license fees for residing on the fields , and foreigners are to be dealt with precisely as British

      subjects . With these amended regulations , if a few dazzling nuggets are turned up during the winter , the Sydney diggings may again be tenanted . Without some greater finds than have lately been made , much effect cannot be expected of them . House rent at Sydney is still rising , building being slow and scanty , and provisions—though far below Melbourne prices—are very high . Wages have probably reached their highest point . Government officials are sorely embarrassed ; an increase in their limited salaries

      is at length about to be made . Tho Australian Anti-Convict League is to be dissolved , a happy ending to an unpleasant agitation . The Adelaide steamer had arrived at Sydney . She was much damaged by accidents on the voyage out . She must bo sent to India for repairs . The great feature of life in Victoria is tho unceasing and increasing yield of gold . In tho first four monthu of 1853 , 4 d 9 , 066 ounces more gold was produced than in tlio first four months of 1852 . Tho richest gold

      field is Mount Alexander . At Ballaret also some very largo lumps have been found . The weight of gold shi pped to London from Victoria in tho present year alread y amounts to over thirty-seven tons (!) value over three million threo hundred thousand pounds Rtorling . Tho gold companies show signs of failure . Unless formed on tho principle of directors and workers alluring tlio profits , they are sure to fail , as tho men ¦ must got wages equal to their best chances when working for themselves . Kenfcs , wagee , and market prices at Melbourne nro monstrous . " Rents are asked for

      jncro hovels that would not bo demanded for mansions m Europe , " and still tho population id rapidly on tho increase . Tho new emigrants Buffer . severely from want of shelter . Men unversed in manual skill , and un used to hard physical labour , arc entirely unfitted <> r tlio kl > olu . market of Victoria . One of tho Mol-I'ounio journals has published a solemn exhortation to this gonorully useless class , imploring thorn to descend cheerfull y and " like Christians , " to tho monial occupations ( or which tlioro w a field ; at tho nuno timo Ice-1 _ - _— ..- __ „_ ... » j « »> tiiiw tJ \ % lMM \ J V ^ lllu JlivVj ™

      turnijr employers on tlio folly of entertaining n proju-< noo against talcing gonttanion and Indies for household wervjui ts—nn additional difficulty with which the edu-«» wl destitute hnvo to contend . There iH , it Booms , "OMiotlHiijr embarrassing to u . master in having a gra-«»« lo of Cambridge to black his boot * or groom his j » w ««; and ovon if a gontloinan offorod to undertake ™ o « o duties ho would bo rejected for ono who could <>•• Do accused of mathematics or manners . Yet if wio u , lv , . o of tho writer nbovo cited could bo followed , " would bo u benefit on both sides ; that it should bo «> earnestl y given is on « of tho indications of tho nnomiuous stato of uocioty .

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      HISTORY OF THE WINDS AND WAVES . Lieutknant Matjry , an officer of the United States navy , has planned a scheme for recording tho varieties of winds and currents in the ocean . Ho explained it to tlio " merchant princes" at Lloyd ' s on Thursday ; and tlio history of his observations is interesting . Ifo recalled tho satisfaction it afforded him when ho was charged with tho navigation of a ship , to find laid down on tho chart the track of a vessel bound at the

      same season of tho year for the wimo port to which his own tship was bound . By observing the distances of that A CH . sel from day to day , ho was enabled to judgo of tho kind of winds that she hnd . In carrying out and entering thin principle , it occurred to him to nininiago all tho old log-books ho could obtain , in order to find out something more with regard to tho winds and currents—tho cauBua anil agents which controlled tho length of voyages—and to reduce tho whole . system to a more practical shape . Taking a chart of tho North Atlantic Ocean , he collected together all the men-ofwar tracks that ho could ' got ' hold of , and projected them on tho chart in hucIi a way as to show the method , direction , and force of tho winds daily encountered by each vessel . Having dono that , ho wa « surprised to find that there was in tho middle of tho Atlantic what

      might bo termed a blank tspwe -: i work of terra incognita ; a spaeo in the ocean lying between tho route of outward-bound vessels going to the Southern hemisphere , and that of lionioWurd-bound vowels returning from it . Ou examining tho mailer further , ho found it to bo tho impression of many navigations that , in order to get to tbo Equator from America , they hnd firm ; to crows tho Atlantic Ocoan and get into Cook's track , thon to go to tho Cnpo do Vordo Islands , then

      Untitled Article

      August 20 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , _ 799 I

      Untitled Article

      INDIAN WARS AND INDIAN " JUSTICE . " The late mail brings news from our Indian possessions , new and old . In our new territories there is a , truce to hostilities . The British force and the outposts of the Burmese army face one another ; but both are resolved to act on the defensive . A famine is impending ' . in Burtnati : it results from the scanty sowing in the war time . In our older possessions noisy intrigue and strange malpractices still prevail . Mr . Luard , the Accuser-General of the Bombay Bench , continues to " blacken" the character of the Sudder judges , and to recall attention to the Surat case . The facts

      of the case , however , have now been fully made out ; and the papers that were formerly most violent against Mr . Luard ( though they still strongly condemn the course he has taken to bring about an inquiry ) admit that it would certainly appear that a widow had been deprived of her inheritance contrary to explicit law , and is still kept out of it , because Government and the Court of Directors are unwilling that their administration of justice and highest officials should incur the scandals that would be occasioned by a public inquiry into the case .

      The injudicious distinction between European barristers and native vakeels is still kept up in the Supreme Court . Manockpee Cursetje , one of the vakeels ( native pleaders ) , has shown a proper spirit of resistance to the unjust distinctions made by the judges . He presented a petition to the Court , which . placed'it in a very awkward dilemma . He bowed to the Court ' s decision , that a distinction ought to be made between European and native pleaders ( although both practised under the same act ) ; but he begged , for the convenience of all parties concerned , that the Court would define explicitly what those distinctions and privileges were to

      be . The Court was surprised by this into an exceedingly weak and illogical answer . They said , " We will not entertain your petition , because when we called on a case of yours the other day you wese not prepared with it ; and also , on one occasion , you addressed us without the expression of respect usually used by native vakeels in addressing the Mofussil Courts . " A few days after this , Manockpee presented a petition in rejoinder . He pointed out that the rights of the Bar , of which he was a member , could not possibly be

      affected by any accidental act of carelessness or disrespect of which he had been individually guilty ; but he explained that European barristers wero often unprepared with a case when it was called on , and had applied for and obtained postponement in consequence ; and he stated , that the expressions of respect used by vakeels in tho Mofussil Courts , in addressing tho Company's judges ( your Omniscience , &c ) , were blasphemous to apply to any but the Deity , and were dictated only by the abject servility which rendered the native Mofussil Bar useless for the ends

      of justice . The Court thereon threatened to fine Manockpee , and reminded him that it had recently fined two other vakeels . Manockpee protested against their right of fining vakeels , saying that if others had submitted to it ho would not , and that such a practice was utterly fatal to tho independence of tho native Bar . In its last issue tho London Mail gives a very striking and confident statement accounting for tho dismissals of the Indian judges , Mr . Grant and Mr . Lo Gcyt . We extract tho following passages : — "A groat deal has been said in tho lafco debates , and moro will bo said in tho House of Lords , on tho

      mal-administration of justice in India . Mr . Grant ' s caao throws groafc light on this subject ; Tho spirit of that administration towards tho natives is so bad , that wo do not hositnto to aflirm , that it is impossible for natives to obtain strict justico at tho hands of tho Mofussil Judges . In tho first place , wo havo Lord Campbell's authority for tho assertion that thoy aro ignorant and inexperienced ; in tlio noxt place , wo havo tho bosfc evidence that thoy aro animal ed with feelings of contempt , if not of hafcrod , towards tho natives . Impartiality , strict and equitable administration of tlio law , is unknown . Tho thing is patont , in India , and all tho statistics , and all tho readings of tlio statistics in

      tho world cannot overturn thaso facts . But tlioro woro two Judges , Mr . Grant and Mr . Lo Goy t , who endeavoured to rectify this , and as Judgos in tho Sudder , thoy had an opportunity of doing so . Moro onlightoned and moro able than tho majority of thoir colleagues and subordinates , thoy woro unceasing in their eiforts to correct that maladministration of justico . which obtainod throughout tho land . . W . hnt was moro natural than that Mr . Q rant should havo incurred tho hatred of tho officials , whoso judgments ho was instrumental in reversing , and tho respect of tho natives , whoso persons and property ho protected V What

      was moro natural than that Hucrot ropmsontatioiiM should bo inado by tho gontlomon thwarted and corrected , to tho Government which not only connived at , but oncouragod that spirit of antagonism to tho natives , which , in its oH ' octs , will sooner or lator , if not oradieutod , undormino our powor ? Tho liomfiai / Cictzatta itsolf gavo tho duo to this in . February last , and showed tho animus and tho inspiration of its tiliiiuloi'fl , whon it roforrod its rondors , for tho reputation of tho Suddor , not to tho poor nor to tho rich , but to tho civil sorvico—to ' thoFroros ! tho Stuarts ! tho Manflfioldn '—to ' anyone who haslivod for Homo timo in tho Mofusail and thon in Bombay . ' Sir Charloa Wood

      said that the Judges could not be restored because their conduct caused a scandal . IVlio wero scandalized ? That is an important question . Was it the officials whose judgments were reversed ; the Government who were annoyed at the proved inefficiency of their servants , or the natives , who obtained some justice fr om the Sudder ? We havo shown that , at all events , it was not the latter who wero scandalized by the conduct of Mr . Le Geyt and Mr . Grant . Was thefccandal felt in the virtuous bosoms of the editor of the Bombay Gazette , the Governor of Bombay , and ' the flower of the Civil [ Service '—the scandal felt by the culprits and the instrument of their vengeance—sufficient reason for removing from the bench two of tho J udges who were foremost in the enjoyment of the confidence of tho population for whose behoof there is such a thing as justice administered in India at all ?

      " For our own parts we are in a position to assert and maintain , that Mr . Grant and Mr . Le Geyt were removed , because they corrected the administration of justice , and enjoyed the confidence of the natives , and . not on account of the alleged immorality of one judge , which , has never been proved , nor the indebtedness of another , which was no crime . These were the pretexts only . " For many years numbers of our officials , encouraged by Government , have been carrying on a crusade against their native subordinates and village officers . They have felt and gloried in feeling no kind of sympathy whatever

      for the natives , and avowed openly their distrust of them So far has this been carried , that accusations have been invited , sometimes—incredible as it seems to English ears —by proclamations against particular persons , and under these circumstances , accusations of course poured in to meet the pleasure of the Government and its officers . The best men fall victims to this system ; for the successful pursuer of crime , the man not accessible to corruption , has always many enemies , and is but too often selected as an offering on the altar of official suspicion ; while nine cases out of ten are commenced with a strong bias against the accused . When the Sudder annulled convictions and

      decisions that were unsupported by evidence on the record , prisoners , honourably acquitted , were , on the representation of the subordinates whose self-love * was wounded by the reversal of their decisions— -representations often made privately and illegally—actually dismissed from their situtions , as if their guilfc had been established ! It is true that this system has been much shaken by the abolition of secrecy , but the man mainly instrumental in abolishing secret courts , the man who induced English barristers to practise there—English reporters to report—and tho press to give publicity to the proceedings—this man has fallen a victim to his own public spirit ; for the Government havo dismissed him from the Bench on the false charge that ho lacked the confidence of those to serve whom ho had

      sacrificed himself ! This is so monstrous , that we aro sure Sir Charles Wood only waits for correct information to reniovo the impression that the judges were dismissed because tho natives had no confidence in thorn . " The mal-administration of justico is the real key to Indian misgovernment . The system pursued by inferior men , directly tho contrary of that recommended by all tho great minds who have set foot in India , must bo totally upset , and the spirit in which they act totally changed bcforo English rule in India will be other than that of a

      garrison on ono hand , and an Irish rackrenting landlord on the other . Were one-third of the timo devoted by magistrates and assistants to hunting down native subordinates , given to improving tho resources of tho country , making themselves acquainted with tho people , and sincerely endeavouring , not only to remedy their defects of character , but to supplying their littlo wants and superintending their concerns in a paternal spirit , India would soon become rich , prosporous , and civilized ; and tho most would bo made of tho naturally fine temper of . tho nativo population . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1853, page 799, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2000/page/7/