LAW INTELLIGENCE. GRAND JURY. [Continued.] TO THE HONORABLE SIR ANTHONY Knight, Senior Justice of the Su- MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP, Having concluded our inquest into the several indictments brought before us, we beg now to offer our sentiments on the other matters to which your Lordship in your charge was pleased to direct our attention. In obedience to your Lordship's suggestion, we have visited the several Jails including the Khatra; respecting the latter, we regret to have still to confirm the remarks of the last Grand Jury; besides being filthy, ill ventilated and otherwise il calculated for a place of confinement, it continues liable to the serious objection, that it affords no convenient means of separating those placed there on trivial charges, from the abandoned and profligate, who must frequently be its inmates. We are happy to hear testimony on the other hand to the cleanliness and good order exhibited in the prison, called the Town Guard, the Jail of the Court of Commissioners also we found clear, airy and commodious, and have only with res pect to its establishment to animadvert on the fact that the native Doctor attached to it under the superintendance of an European Surgeon, does not reside within its Walls. The Great Jail and the House of correction are also found in a state highly creditable to their respecting superintendants in point of cleanliness and general management, a signal proof of the good effects of which may be instanced in the fact of their uncommon healthiness, even at periods when sickness and mortality have prevailed in their immediate neighbourhood, we would however suggest, that means should be taken for the better ventilation of the strong room in the Jail by another aperture that might admit of a current of air. In the house of correction a wall across the compound for the purpose of separating those who are confined for misdemeanours from the Felons, is, we understand, about to be erected. The task for those sentenced to hard labor according to the report of the keeper appears to us to be much too light as a punishment for able bodied prisoners, though sufficient or even too hard for the infirm or less robust, but this is a matter which cannot be well regulated by any general prescription, and must, we are aware, be left in a great measure, to the discretion of the keeper under the advice of the Surgeon and superintendance of the magistrates. We were informed, that though Europeans are often committed to the house of correction, there is no labor of any kind exacted from them, nor are we prepared to recommend any confinement without employment being perhaps sufficiently irksome to the class to which these prisoners generally belong, namely run away Sailors from Ships in the Harbour. With respect to the crime of per. jury, a predecessor of your Lordship's who was an ornament to this Bench and an honour to his country, in addressing a Grand Jury of his time, expressed himself in the following memorable language. "The last offence which I shall mention to you is so general, that it may affect every part of our proceedings in this court, and so atrocious, that human nature, in which a sense of religion seems inherent starts at the name of it; I mean the wilful violation of solemn oaths, without the sanction of which neither our fame, our property, our freedom, or our lives can be long secure. "Nevertheless I have many reasons to believe and none to doubt that affidavits of every imaginable fact may as easily be procured in the streets and markets of Calcutta, especially from the Natives as any other articles of trafic." Forty years have elapsed since this disgraceful state of society was thus pourtrayed by Sir William Jones, and we grieve to say that the picture continues to be an equally faithful representation of the metropolis of India to the present hour, to the reproach of our legal institutions, and the perversion in a great measure of the purposes for which they were introduced. From that time to the present the Judges who have in succession sat on your Lordship's Bench, have been compelled "to receive the most express evidence on oath with distrust when rendered by a native, and have been driven to take a greater latitude in judging by probability and a comparison of circumstances, than the strictness of English judicature in general allows." The direct contradiction with respect to facts exhibited by almost every answer and cross Bill filed in Equity, and every issue tried where natives are parties must have been the frequent source of pain and disgust to your Lordship during your experience and observation while sitting in this court. Numerous cases occur in every term where creditors are defrauded of their property, by the perjuries of persons who boldly come forward to justify Bail though notoriously known to gain their livelihood principally or solely by the prostitution of their oaths. On these and similar occasions, the process of the Court is frequently abused to serve the purposes of the basest miscreants against the ignorant and the timid, who in vain seek to obtain redress, their oppressors being too well practised in the acts they profess, to be at a loss for the means of evading the punishment due to their misdeeds. Such in a word is the state of Society not only in Calcutta, but as far as our observation and information extend, generally over these provinces, that the well disposed are forced to resort to the use of the same instrument by which the security of their person or property is often endangeredconspiracies are often formed in support of charges of assault or robbery, of arson and even of murder, and these are resisted by counter-charges founded on evidence so that adduced by the original proprecisely of the same stamp with secutor that the magistrate or the Judge finds it impossible to satisfy himself of the merits of either side of the case. It will be readily conceived that in this way also, impunity is often attained, for the most atrocious acts, and want of principle is thus hardened by the example of successful crime. We need not detain your Lordship by entering into a detail of facts to shew that this picture, frightful as it is, is free from exaggeration. To us indeed it appears, that if we consider the almost total absence amongst Hindoos, of these restraints which in christian countries set some bounds to the proneness of human nature to falsehood, or cheek its career in the pursuit of criminal objects, the actual State of Society, we have attempted to delineate, is precisely such as might naturally be antici pated.* It is scarcely necessary to rehearse the often quoted texts of Munoo. To shew the laxity of the Chief Religious Authority in denouncing the sinful nature of falsehood, because however heinous his offence, the Hindoo has such easy access to absolution that the sinfulness of an action, to whatever degree it may according to his own actual faith, be deserving of divine wrath, is a matter of little concern, books prescribing the forms of penance for cach particular sin are in constant use, and priests are easily found ready to expound and assist in the performance of the ordained ceremonies. Bathing in the Ganges is sufficient in most cases, but if under extraordinary circumstances further rites of purification be required these may be accomplished at the expense of a few cahoons of couries. Su "In some cases, a giver of false evidence from a pious motive, even though he know the truth, shall not lose a seat in heaven, such evidence wise men call the speech of the Gods." "Whenever the death of a man either of the servile, the commercial, the military, or sacerdotol class would be occasioned by true evidence, falsehood may be spoken, it is even pre ferable to truth. perstitious dread of temporal calamity either to person or property, or to some dear relation has amongst the vulgar and illiterate of India, as well as amongst the poor and ignorant of many parts of Europe, an influence on the conduct more powerful than the terrors of a future state. What the general diffusion of knowledge has effected amongst ourselves in the removal of such apprehensions of the immediate manifestation of the divine displeasure,experience, more powerful than precept, has in a great measure succeeded in bringing about in the minds of the natives of this country. The frequency of Oaths on every trifling occasion, the absolute want of solemnity in the mode of administering them, the perpetual instances of their violation with impunity, as by the Native Officers in every court of Justice, and the worldly prosperity even of those who make perjury a trade, have gone far to dispel an illusion beneficial in its effects, without the substitution of more enlightened moral principles to serve the same purpose. The reluctance of the respectable Natives to come forward as a wited nature. ness arises from feelings of a mix. It is discreditable to be instrumen tal in depriving another man even justly of property, liberty, or life; painful to have his own character exposed to further dishonorable suspicion by the counter evidence of others, and to appear as a witness at all is like infringing on a profession reputed infamous, however frequently resorted to for aid. He dreads disgrace rather from taking an Oath at all, than from its violation when taken; and the odium of having rashly appealed to and thus virtually abused the sacred object by which the Oath is administered, forms by far the principal consideration in the objoction of an unpractised or res pectable Hindoo to swear in the present form. Powerless and inert to check evil as we have described the religious, the superstitious and the moral or social principle of the Hindoos of the present day, we shall in vain look to find in the practical terrors of the law, as hitherto administered, an effectual substitute. Though the frequency of the crime under consideration has been unanimously testified by every Judge who has sat on an Indian Bench-although scarcely a judicial proceeding passes that does not exhibit an instance of its commission; yet on the criminal records of this Court for the last thirty-three years the Clerk of the Crown has been able to discover only thirty six (36) instances of conviction and punishment, a rarity that compared with the vast mass of impunity continually before their eyes can have had at best but a slight and occasioned effect in deterring offenders by dread of punishment. We should be happy if the foregoing review should serve to suggest to your Lordship or to the legislature the adoption of any measures that would tend to obviate the mischiefs which we have at tempted to describe. Religious reform, however desirable in every respect, is, we fear, too distant in its prospect to be relied on; and the maxims that may be inculcated in the course of duration even under the superintendance of the most virtuous and exemplary Christian instructions, can have but a limited and transient influence in opposing good principles to general corruption. We are greatly apprehensive, therefore, that the most rational hope of improvement must be founded in such means as will, by augmenting the chances of detection, deprive the perpetrators of crime of all reasonable prospect of advantage from its practice; and by rendering punishment an almost inevitable consequence of guilt, give truth a decided advantage in point of safety over falsehood. We trust we have said enough to satisfy your Lordship, that the legislature in prescribing to this court that testimony received from Hindoos shall invariably be taken on Oath, were guided by a mistaken notion of the nature and force of the religious sanction amongst the natives of this country, which they erroneously supposed to be analogous to that existing in a very different state of society."The punishment of false evidence according to the Hindoo Law" as remarked by Sir William Jones "extends rigorously to all, whether an oath be administered or not, and many Brahmins as well as other Hindoos of rank would rather perish than submit to the ceremony of touching the leaf of the Toolsee and the water of the Ganges." "The Charter" says he on another occasion, "requires the most binding form and we know from our Brahmun that the present form is not the most binding; so that a doubt might be raised even on the legality of an indictment for violating an oath so taken. But such after all is the corrupt state even of their erroneous religion, that if the most binding form on the consciences of good men could be known and established, there would be few consciences to be bound by."-The best information we have been able to procure on the subject confirms in every respect the foregoing remarks of Sir William Jones. Besides the consecrated fire suggested by him and which it would at the present day be difficult, perhaps impossible, to procure in Bengal; the Salgram or sacred stone is by some more revered than even the Ganges and Toolsee-but many who would treat lightly all those forms of swearing would shrink from a falsc oath taken on the head of their child. It is impossible then to prescribe any form that will be the most binding in every case: we know that oaths on whatever form administered, seldom bind at all, and that we must rather rely on the respectability of the individual witness than on the solemnity of the oath administered. It has been all along notorious that in forcing a Hindoo of any of the superior classes to swear, we inflict on him a disgrace in his own opinion and in the eyes of his fellow citizens which the legislature never contemplated, and that this dread has afforded to evil designing persons a powerful encouragement to fraud and extortion. We therefore most cordially concur in uniting our voice with your Lordship's in representing not merely the uselessness but the oppressive cruelty that has been the unforeseen result of the enactment of the Charter on this head; and to pray that the same privilege which has been long enjoyed by the Moofussel or Country Courts, and now by Courts, Martial may be extended to His Majesty's Courts of Justice at the three Presidencies, that they may be vested with a discretionary power to substitute a solemn declaration, adjuration, or warning to Hindoos, required to give their testimony, instead of any form of oath whatever. * Several of the present Grand Jury can testify from their own experience the beneficial effects of this practice in the Country Courts not only as diminishing the temptation to subor nation, but as bringing within reach Muanoo prescribes the following words to be addressed to witnesses before they are examined. "What you know to have been transacted in the matter before us between the parties reciprocally, declare at large, and with truth, for your evidence in this cause is required. of the Judge evidence on which he can place reliance, but from which he would otherwise be effectually excluded. With respect to suitable punishhave little to suggest. ment for the crime of Perjury we The records of the Court shew that it has been already held competent to inflict Fine, Imprisonment, with or without labor, the Pillory, Flog. ging, and Transportation for seven the cases prosecuted to conviction years, and that in a majority of the extreme measure of punishment allowed by the law has been deservedly dealt out to the offenders. In the mofussil courts there is a further punishment reserved, we believe, for cases of peculiar attrocity or of repeated offence. We mean branding or rather tattooing the forehead by means of gunpower, with the letters which form the name of the offence in the current character and language, Such a perpetual mark of infamy is regarded as may be imagined with the greatest horror even by the most depraved and hardened offenders, some of whom have been known to solicit the Judge to commute in mercy this sentence for death itself as less dreadful than the perpetual moral torture to which they would be subjected by this ignominious punishment. We should hesitate in recommending that a power such as this implies of sending a human creature to wander like Cain the accursed of God, expelled almost from the pale of Society: and thus adding desperation to original want of principle, should be intrusted to the discretion of any fellow man. We are satisfied on the other hand, that the least severe of the pains and penalties already in use, if invariably inforced as often as the crime is committed, would soon render its occurrence very rare; we conceive rigorous enquiry is want |