against the high authorities by whom sentence was pronounced. Defeated on all sides, and goaded by defeat into desperation, it only remained to give utterance to their despair, in ridiculous and absurd attacks upon all parties, all authorities, all proceedings, and all law, directly or indirectly bearing upon their case.

To such persons, if any of those whom we have described have found their way to this country, do we attribute the first agitation of a question, which we have lately heard discussed by some from whom we had hoped better things, whether the celebrated ordinance for licensing the periodical press in India, was or was not legal, as being opposed to, or conformable with the laws of this realm.

If we enter at all into this discussion, it is not because we consider the question doubtful, and still less from any respect that we entertain for those whom we believe to be its authors: but we regard it as a part of our duty to assist in clearing away the mists of doubt, in which artful or vindictive men are constantly endeavouring to involve the proceedings of those who are invested with authority in India.

We have a great dislike to vague and uncertain phrases in legislative enactments, and we freely admit the words in question to be of this character; though we by no means consider it of importance what their precise meaning is with reference to the ordinance licensing the periodical press. Whatever doubt may exist on the question, "what may be repugnant to the laws of this realm," we are confident, and will shortly prove, that this ordinance was beyond all question, in perfect accordance with them.

In our remarks upon the free press, in our number for October last, we accidentally adopted an expression, without reference to any question like the present, which conveys, as we conceive, the full force and definite meaning of the words. We there casually explained the Act of 13 Geo.

III. c. 63, "to confer a power on the Indian Government, of enacting such laws as may be essential, provided they are not inconsistent with the principles of the laws of England." This is surely the obvious meaning of the phrase; and though we are not perfectly satisfied even with the expression "the principles of the laws of England," without any definition of those principles, still we think, in a general way, that no doubt can exist what those principles are. For instance, the supreme power of Parliament is an undoubted and prominent principle of British law. The perfect enjoyment of personal liberty, to any extent not inconsistent with the right and safety of a fellow-subject, is another undoubted and prominent principle of British law. Again, the trial by jury on all questions of fact is (and we scruple not to say it, though we anticipate the inference that will falsely be deduced from it) an undoubted principle of British law. Once more, the inadmissibility of secondary evidence where direct evidence can be obtained, and the exclusion of all attempts to extort self-condemnation, are principles of British law understood by the most ignorant of the community.

When principles so broad, so clear, so intelligible as these are established and universally adopted in the creation of our laws, and many more might be instanced of a character not less decided, surely it is unnecessary to torture ingenuity to discover possible difficulties, in reconciling our oriental laws with the laws of this realm. It never was meant, and obviously never could be meant, that no discretion must be exercised in adjusting the legislation of India to the circumstances and peculiarities of our Indian fellow-subjects. It was sufficient to declare that British jurisprudence should form the model, and British equity (we do not use the term in its technical sense) the basis on which the infant state should found its proceed

ings; more than this was never intended, for more than this could never have been effected. It would, indeed, have been absurd to transport the British Statute-Book to India, and to have mended the roads in that country by the turnpike acts of this. In a word then, if we were asked what was meant by that accordance to the laws of this realm, which is required to pervade all the ordinances of India, we should have no difficulty in saying, that it simply intended that those ordinances should be founded upon such fundamental principles as we have described, subject to such variations in form and expression, as the wisdom of the Governor General in Council and the Supreme Court should consider

38 GEO. III. c. 78.

necessary

For preventing the mischiefs arising from the printing and publishing newspapers, and papers of the like nature, by persons not known; and for regulating the printing and publication of such papers in other respects.

I. No person shall print or publish, or cause to be printed, &c. any newspaper or other paper containing public news or intelligence, or serving the purpose of a newspaper, until an affidavit or affirmation is made, and being signed as hereinafter mentioned, is delivered to the commissioners of stamps at their head office, or to some of their officers in towns; and at the offices by them appointed (but which shall not be on stamped paper), containing the matters hereinafter specified.

II. Such affidavit or affirmation shall specify the real names, additions, descriptions, and places of abode of all persons who are, or who are intended to be printers and publishers of the newspaper or other paper mentioned therein, and of all the proprietors of the same, if their number, exclusive of the printer and publisher, does not exceed two; and if it does, then of two of such proprietors, exclusive of the printer and publisher, and also the proportional shares of such proprietors in the property of the newspaper or other paper, and the true description of the house where such paper is to be printed, and also the title of

such paper.

III. Every such affidavit, &c. shall be in writing and signed by the person making the same, and shall be taken by one of such commissioners, or by one officer specially appointed by them to receive such affidavits, &c., and such commissioners and officers may take such affidavits on the

oath

necessary to adapt them to the inhabitants of India. So much for the general question; and whether our views are right or wrong as respects the general question, we undertake to shew that in the case which gave rise to the discussion, there was not a shadow of "repugnance to the laws of this realm."

On this point, argument is unnecessary, and illustration is much better. Let our readers compare the extracts we have made from the ordinance of the Indian Government, and from the Act of Parliament of the 38th of Geo. III. c. 78, which, for the facility of comparison, we have printed opposite to each other in adjoining columns.

38 GEO.

ORDINANCE OF THE 14th MARCH 1823.

Whereas matters tending to bring the government of this country, as by law established, into hatred and contempt, and to disturb the peace, harmony, and good order of society, have of late been frequently printed and circulated in the news. papers and other papers published in Calcutta for the prevention whereof it is deemed expedient to regulate by law the printing and publication within the settlement of Fort William, in Bengal, of newspapers, and of all magazines, registers, pamphlets, and other printed books and papers, in any language or character, published periodically, containing or purporting to contain public news or intelligence, or strictures on the acts, measures, and proceedings of government or any political events or transactions whatsoever :

I. Be it therefore ordained, by the authority of the Governor General in Council of and for the presidency of Fort William, in Bengal, &c. that fourteen days after the due registry and publication of this rule, ordinance and regulation in the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, in Bengal, with the consent and approbation of the said Supreme Court, if the said Supreme Court shall in its discre. tion approve of and consent to the registry and publication of the same; no person or persons shall within the said settlement of Fort William print or publish, or cause to be printed or published, any newspaper or magazine, register, pamphlet, or other printed book or paper whatsoever, in any language or character whatsoever, published periodically, containing or purporting to contain public news and intelligence, or strictures on the acts, measures and proceedings of government, or any political events or transactions whatso.ver, without 2 G 2 having

upon them the necessity of the proposed law. Thus then here at least a strict analogy is to be found, both countries deprecating alike evils of the same class, and proceeding from the same source. The means, it is true, in some degree vary, as would the materials used for the repair of a road, according to the nature of the soil in the different stages of that road, although such repairs were required and provided for by one Act of Parliament; the one country considers a previous license requisite, the other deems an affidavit verifying the proprietors, &c. sufficient; but both concur as to the evil to be remedied, and both correspond in the nature of the penalty to be inflicted for the offence. We have extracted several of the clauses in both, for the sake of shewing how nearly they agree, even in verbal expression, so great was the anxiety of the Oriental Government to act literally, where it was possible, up to the Act of Parliament from which their authority emanates. But it is worthy of remark, that the Act of Parliament is in one respect far more severe, and far more repugnant to the general principles of English law, than any opponent of the ordinance has ventured to describe that enactment to be; for, in opposition to that rule of evidence to which we have before adverted, the Act of Parliament declares that the affidavit which it requires shall be received as conclusive evidence, not only against the parties making it, but even against all parties named in it, throwing upon the accused the onus of rebutting that evidence by other testimony. In the

"Ail such affidavits, &c. shall be filed by the Commissioners of Stamps; and the same, or co

pies thereof certified to be true, as herein after

mentioned, shall, in all proceedings civil and criminal, touching any newspaper or other such paper mentioned in such affidavits, &c., or any publication or thing contained therein, be received as conclusive evidence of the truth of all

matters therein set forth, as are hereby required to be therein set forth against every person who signed, swore, or affirmed, such affidavits, &c.; and again, all persons who have not signed, &c. the same, but who are mentioned therein as pro prietors, printers, or publishers, of such newspaper, &c., unless the contrary is proved."

ordinance, as if the framers of it had been governed by scrupulous anxiety to avoid all deviation from fundamental principles of British law, no such proviso is to be found, and they have preferred abandoning their model, to following it in a point of doubtful propriety.

We might, if it were necessary, prosecute the illustration further, and shew in the same manner the strict and liberal accordance between the regulation for licensing printing-presses given in our number for November, page 471, and the Act of Parliament for regulating the printing of books and papers, of the 39th Geo. III. c. 79; but to avoid this article proceeding to an unusual length, we content ourselves with referring our readers to the originals.

We

We consider the distinction which will of course be taken, between the operation of the license and the affidavits as more nominal than real, for in both cases it amounts to this, that permission must be obtained to do a certain act, by a compliance with certain forms, and that permission is only continued upon the due observance of certain conditions. The principle of interference, on the part of the Govern ment with the printer and the publisher, in the discharge of their business, is precisely the same in both cases, and it is this strict analogy of principle for which we are contending. consider this so obvious, and the supposed distinction so puerile, that we do not think it necessary to refer very particularly to the thousand instances in which a license eo nomine is required by the law of this country to be obtained from some authority or other, by almost every professional man. The divine, the lawyer, the physician, the shopkeeper, nay the very scavenger, must get his license ere he can practise the duties of his calling, and in all these cases it is, strictly and properly speaking, a license or permission, and the delinquent who acts without it is liable to penalties and the loss of business for his offence. It is true

that, in these cases, the object of requiring such license is different, but only because the evil against which the precaution is adopted is of a different character. The mischief produced by the unlicensed publisher is political, but will it be said that such mischief bears a less dangerous character than the unskilfulness of the physician or the ignorance of the solicitor: and why is it not to be prevented by similar means?

It surely must then be conceded, that the interference of the laws of this realm with the private and personal affairs of its subjects is universal, and almost vexatiously particular, and fully bears out the legality of the ordinance, so far as it depends on its consistency with them.

We here close our argument: but ere we take leave of the subject, we would

suggest to some gentlemen at home who have incautiously lent themselves to support the special-pleading to which certain bold offenders resort, for the purpose of protecting themselves in their criminal career, that it would be doing but common justice to themselves to fathom the motives of the assailants of our Oriental Administration ere they countenance their attacks, or adopt their arguments. An irritated democrat, wincing under the chastisement which his folly and his offences have brought upon him, is certainly an object of commiseration, but a bad preceptor in the school of law, more especially in matters relating, however remotely, to the source of his personal complaints. It is not without reason that we throw out this hint; we hope that it will be as well received as it is amicably intended.

LETTER I.

Sir It is with much satisfaction I resume my pen, for the purpose of communicating to you the few remarks I made on Jypore, and the adjacent country, during a hasty journey through it a short time since. I have copied verbatim from my journal written on the spot, because I conceived I should thereby best explain to you my feelings, in viewing the objects I attempt to describe.

My route on this journey was via Nusseerabad, which place I formerly alluded to as a considerable outpost station on the western frontier, situated close to Ajmere; and as I at that place first came to a resolution of keeping a diary, I cannot do it such injustice as to pass it over unnoticed; but as I believe I have been anticipated on that subject, I shall not trouble you with a very copious description of it.

Nusseerabad, then, I am led to understand, derives its name from the title of "the Nuwab Nusseer Ud Dowleh," bestowed by the court of Delhi on Major General Sir David Ochterlony, Bart., by whom, on its formation, the station was considerably benefited.

It is situated on

one of those boundless plains peculiar to Rajpootana, intersected by small ranges of barren rocky hills, and covered with innumerable pieces, great and small, of loose rocky flint, as well as huge masses sprouting out of the earth, which may justly be termed the only production of the soil (which, so abundant are they, they very nearly hide), for not a particle of cultivation, and, except in the rains, not a blade of grass is there to be seen. To the rear (S. E.), and left of cantonment, scarce a solitary hillock presents itself to bound the view, which is only terminated by the horizon; but in the front (N. W.), and on the right, at the distance of from three to four miles, successive ranges of these same uninteresting hills, of the real appearance of which language is unable to give you a correct idea, form an effec tual barrier to the survey. Notwithstanding the levelness of the plain, advantage had been taken of a slightly (scarcely perceptible) rising ground, on which the cantonment is situated, and to give you some idea of the extreme fertility of the country, I must inform you, that from the most elevated spot, but one stunted dwarf tree, which by some fortuitous chance