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Leader (1850-1860), 13th August 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 934

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    • IIDIA, AST) INDIAN PROOEESS. — . '—<*—
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      Untitled Article

      THE UNCERTAINTY OF CONVICTION IN THE MOFtTSSIL , COURTS . The report of the trial of four persons , for being concerned in an attempt to murder a Mr . Rainey , an indigo planter in Furreedpore , is possessed of much interest . The case is remarkable , as showing that it is possible even in peaceful Bengal for an English gentleman , while taking his morning walk , to be stabbed from beliind by a dastardly assassin , who runs off , and cannot afterwards be discovered or traced in any way . It is also remarkable , as an instance of the absolute uncertainty as to the result

      ¦ which attends all criminal proceedings in the Mofussil courts , and which makes it wholy impossible to say , however weak or however strong the evidence my be , whether the prisoner will in the end be convicted or acquitted . And the case is further worthy of observation on account of the . criticisms upon the conduct of the Ix > wer Court which are contained in the judgment of the Sudder , and which show in how unsparing a manner the Court of Appeal at times considers it necessary to condemn the acts of subordinate judicial officers .

      Mr . Rainey , in the end of January last , went out for a walk about seven o ' clock in the morning ; and , when about a mile and a half from home , in passing through a village , he stopped to look at some images in a Kalleebaree . He had proceeded a few paces on his walk when he was struck from behind . He turned round , and saw a man running down a bye lane into the -village . Putting his hand to his side , lie discovered lie had been stabbed , of which he was mot at first aware . He then became faint from loss © f blood , took refuge in a boat-building yard which was at hand , and sent for the police , who came immediately . He was put into a palkee , and haying shown the Darogah the spot where the occurrence

      where . If the Lower Court was right , the Sudder Court has gone very far wrong . If the Sudder Court is right , the Sessions Judge has . gone about as far wrong as it was possible for a man to go . We must not be understood as saying that the conclusion arrived at by the Sudder is wrong . We have no doubt that is is perfectly right , so far as the materials before it went . It is impossible , after seeing the case for the prosecution disposed of as it has been in the very able judgment of the Court , to say that the conviction could have been allowed to stand . At the same time , it is within the bounds of possibility that the Sessions Judge may have been right , practically , although the case was not tried or put on paper by

      him with such care as to enable it to bear the searching scrutiny to which it has been exposed . Let us hope that this is so , for if it is hot it is impossible to calculate the amount of injustice which may be done in the game court in eases where there is no appeal , and no remedy of any kind . The truth of the remarks with which the judgment of the Sudder Court concludes is undeniable . The evidence of the witnesses was most imperfectly tested , and this is unfortunately by no means a rare occurrence in cases which come before the Sudder Court . And it is quite right that this should be brought to the notice of the subordinate judicial officers , and that they should be reprimanded for manifest negligence , and be kept to their duty by all reasonable means . * * * * # # * * In the meanwhile , Mr , Rainey ' s assailant remains undiscovered , which is by no means a pleasant state of affairs for him . If the right men were not brought to trial ; it shows that a very strong sympathy must exist betwen the intended assassins and the villagers . It is . a great misfortune that the villain has not been found out and punished . — Hurkaru .

      took place , and the direction taken by the would-be assassin in his flightj he proceeded into Furreedpore for medical assistance . The police instituted inquiries , which resulted in their arresting the four . prisoners . Mr . Rainey could not identify any of them as being the man who struck him , although he said he thought from his general appearance that one of the prisoners whom he pointed out was the man , The case for the prosecution was , that one of the prisoners , Dwarkanath Shah , who had had quarrels and lawsuits with Mr . Rainey about some lands , had got the other prisoners to join in a conspiracy to murder him , that they had all lain in wait for him , behind a clump of trees that morning , and

      that as he passed , one ran out and stabbed him from behind with a short spear . The sessions judge , Mr . Abercrombie , believed the evidence for the prosecution , convicted all the prisoners , and sentenced Dwarkanath Shall , who was taken to bo the originator of the scheme and Ramcoomar , who was supposed to have struck the blow , each to transportation ibr life beyond seas , and the other two . who were present aiding and abetting , to ten years' imprisonment with labour in irons . The case then came before the Sudder Court , which disbelieved the evidence for the prosecution , acquitted all the prisoners and ordered two of the principal witnesses for the prosecutions to be committed to take their trial for could not be wonder

      perjury . There aurely a more - ful piece oif good luck for the prisoners than this , For , oven supposing their case was a good one , what possible ^ reason had they to know { except the fact of their having been convicted by the ZiUah Court ) that their appeal would be successful , and that the truth would be got at better by the Sudder than by the Lower Court . In the Sessions Court 3 Vfrf Abercrombie—who for aught we can say may by the service be looked upon as a first-rate judge , and may be the next for promotion to the Sndder—upon certain evidence comes to the conclusion that the accused are guilty , and hesitates not accordingly to impose the severest punishment upon them . In the Suddor Court , Mr .

      ¦ Samuells , upon the very same evidence , comes to the conclusion that the accused are not guilty , and orders their immediate release ; and not only that , but he orders certain witnesses whom Mr . Aborcroioble had examined personally and believed , to bo tried for perjury . It is not a little extraordinary that two persona , who looking at the matter a priori fcavo equal opportunities of forming a correct judgment , should upon the same facts arrive at such very different results . Onq conclusion the public must draw from such a difference—a necessary and inevitable conclusion— -that in the trial of these four prisoners there has been a gross failure of justice some-

      Untitled Article

      In consideration of the distinguished services of H . M . ' s 61 st regiment at the siege of Delhi , the Right Honourable the Governor directed a salute of twenty-one guns to be fired from the saluting battery on the embarkation of that corps . A letter from Alexandria , of the 26 th ult ., says —? ' The Viceroy has just had a narrow escape . At Tantah , in the middle of the night ; he was seized by the whim of taking a ride on the railway , As the railway officials had not been informed of his excursion , they sent off a goods train from Alexandria at the usual hour . This train after a while overtook that of the Princeand ran into it . All the suite

      , received contusions , but the Prince escaped uninjured . " The people of Kurrachee have built an ice house , but Mr , Frederic Tudor , of Boston , cannot afford to send them-a cargo of ice , owing to the late revulsion in the India trade , Ho sends ice only to places whore ships go in ballast for return cargoes , because the freight is low . Ho has recently lost 2 , 000 * . in supplying Colombo with ice , but is ajx > ut to attempt to introduce it into Point do Galie and Singapore . In a pathetic reply , the secretary of the Kurracheo Ice Committoo entreats the inoxorable Tudor to reconsider the

      proposition . We see from the Pombay papers that tho Parseo youths there havo taken to cricket . Tho " Zoroastrian" club was beaten by tho " Juvenile , " » beginning has boon made . It itf well when Cowasjee can make nineteen ero he is " stumped by Ireland . Tho Bombay Standard notices the increasing intorost of the Parsee community there In * o *® education . Ourmotjeo Cowasjce Ashburnor . *» e proprietor of tho JBandhoop distillery , has founded a school for Parsoo girls and women . " JTropi tnoir intercourse with Europeans , and their general » - tolUgenco gained iq business , tho Parseos bogm to fool keenly the Inferiority in education of their females .

      Untitled Article

      to come in speaking of discharges by the hundre d . We shall , in fact , lose the whole substance of th e Company ' s European army . The men calculate on a pleasant voyage to England without work , three months holyday at home , and re-enlistment on fresh bounty . " Dude is pacific ; it is itself free from rebels , and never sees the face of one , unless when pressed by hunger a band rushes through the passes from Nepaulto find , by plunder , wherewithal to eke out existence upon . The visits of these marauders are , however , few ard of the shortest duration . They dash in like hungry hawks , seize cows if they can get them , grain , and whatever else is edible , or likely to purchase food , and are back again to their mountain and jungle haunts before the small ponce force which would be sufficient to punish them can reach the scene of depredation .

      The same annoyances are felt in Goruckpore by the peaceably disposed . Here , too , the rebels dash in from Nepaul , plunder houses , carry off herds , &c , all oh a small scale , and sometimes , it is said , carry off Zemindars and wealthy landholders , retaining them to extort ranrsom . It were well that this could be prevented , and perhaps a corps of police on the principle of the Oude police should be immediately organised for the protection of the Goruckpore frontier . In Central India , Feroze Shah seems to have disappeared altogether from public view . Nobody appears to know anything of his whereabouts , and he is probably biding somewhere in Rajpootana , if not further to the westward . „

      The country south of the Jumna and eastward of Gwalior appears also quiet . There were a few bands of rebels in the neighbourhood of Saugoir , and in the adjoining country , but we now hear nothing of them . Sir 0 . Trevelyan ( says the Madras Athenceuni ) has finally disposed of the Tinnevelly affair . It will doubtless be in the recollection of our readers that in the month of December last there was a riot in that town , in consequence of the dead body of a native Christian being carried through a certain street . The missionaries alleged that there was no other way to the bury ing-ground ; the natives alleged that there were several other ways ,

      LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE . The overland mail has arrived , with news from Calcutta to July 2 . The news is of little interest , if we except the mutiny of the 5 th Europeans at Berhamporei , who deposed their officers and elected a colonel and a major from among themselves . This caused the despatch from Calcutta of a strong force of H . M . 99 th , 3 rd Buffs , and two guns , to bring the mutineers to their senses . The troops landed at Berhampore from the river steamers ; and the men of the 5 th being allowed twenty-four hours to consider , returned to then ? duty under a promise that their

      grievances would be inquired into . Some thirteen or fourteen , however , remained refractory , and were as a consequence made prisoners . The day before the troops marched for Berhamporej an order of government was published , which should have been issued long previously , as it must have been known that there was no prospect of the men abandoning what they considered their just rights , and any attempt at coercive measures could not have failed to prove most disastrous . All danger , however , is over now , and it is to be hoped that no question of the kind will ever again arise in this country .

      The correspondent of the Times gives some interesting particulars with regard to the 5 th Europeans . He says : — " The regiment was about 600 strong , and had expressed its opinion in the matter of the transfer with offensive clearness . It continued , however , to do duty until the arrival of some deserters from Allahabad , who taunted the men with doing unnecessary duty . Nearly 500 of the men hereupon refused to do any duty whatever , upon which tho commanding officer , Major Maitland , ordered the officers to withdraw . This step exaspe . rated the men , and they elected officers of their own , one Marshall being chosen colonel , and assisted by a major , two captains , and four sergeants . Major

      Maitland now withdrew all servants , punkah coolies , rum , and , in fact , everything except rations , which it was . impossible to stop without an explosion . Fortunately for all parties , Marshall turned out a man of some capacity and resolution . He threatened to flog the first man caught looting , carried and his menace into execution . Another man , guilty of disrespect , received fifty lashes , and tho regiment was brought into a state of discipline to whichlit was entirelyjunaccustomed . On tho 80 th of June , Colonel Kenneth Mackenzie , Deputy-Adjutant-Genoral , not Colonel Colin Mackenzie , who only wont up to protect

      Moorshedabad jarrived with 1 , 000 men of her Majesty ' s 99 th and tho Buffs , and four guns . He placed his men and offered the mutineers twenty-four nours to consider . If at tho expiration of that timo they returned to duty , a court of inquiry would bo hold into their griovancos ; if not , ho should employ force . The men , thirty-nine oxceptod , submitted , and tho recusants wore arrested . The court of Inquiry is now sitting , but it scorns perfectly understood that tho men will bo simply discharged . I feel very doubtful whether oven tho ringleaders will bo punished . , The disohargo will apparently be nearly universal . The 5 th , it is known , will go en masse , and letters begin

      and that the street in question could not be used for the purpose of carrying a low caste manor Christian down it without infringing on their customs . The military were called in , and a lamentable loss of life was the result . The Sessions Court has been occupied in trying the rioters , and seven persons were sentenced by the Sessions Court to five years' imprisonment with hard labour in irons , which , on appeal , was reduced by the Foujdaree Adawlut to two years . Two were sentenced to three years' imprisonment , and their sentence has hot been mitigated . Twentyeight persons were required to furnish bail to keep the peace for one or two years .

      Iidia, Ast) Indian Prooeess. — . '—≪*—

      IIDIA , AST ) INDIAN PROOEESS . — . '—<*—

      Untitled Article

      934 THE LEADER . [ No . 4 QQ , & . v £ t . 15 , 135 &

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 13, 1859, page 934, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2307/page/10/