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Leader (1850-1860), 30th July 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 886, Untitled Article

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      to believe , taaixmt one and a-half millions sterling , and decision upon these claims ought no . longer to W delayed . VTe do trust that further reference to India will be unnecessary . Amongst the claimants are men who did good service to the Government of India , in its hour of sore strait and difficulty , and who are now absolutely povertystricken—hoping against hope , waiting from day to day for a recognition of their claims . We inow of one instance of a man who , frbnx possessing property , worth 20 , 000 / ., escaped with ihe clothes only on his b « iclc , who fought as a Volunteer sigainst the rebels throughout the ¦ whole war , suffering the greatest hardships , living in the saddle , and existing for months on " chupatties" and water . The moral effect < m . the natives of India of these noble

      examples of individual heroism was largely instrumental in saving India to the British Crown , and surely the House of Comnions , when these claims ibr compensation come before it , will deal liberally "with them . W ! e believe there are ample funds in possession of the Indian Government , on account of forfeiture of lands and pensions of those who had been leaders of the insurrection , to meet these claims for indemnity . Why , the pension to the King of Delhi and his heirs , alone , amounted to 120 , 000 ^ . per annum , now absolutely forfeited to the State ; and this represents a capital sum more than sufficient to pay off all the claimants at once .

      In directing attention to the Petition of the Calcutta Compensation Committee , published in another column ; and which has been presented to Parliament , we have only to add , that so far as the Punjaub is concerned , Sir ^ Tohn Lawrence long ago secured compensation to the sufferers in that district . With characteristic promptitude and energy , and without waiting to communicate with the authorities , either in Calcutta or Lieadenhallstreet , the Governor of the Punjaub levied . penal fines on the mutinous villages and districts in lis division ; restored churches , houses , and factories destroyed by therebels , and actually squared the accounts tefore he quitted the country .

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      The following petition , as concentrating the arguanents on the part of those claiming compensation , and relating to a matter most important to the Anglo-Indian community , we insert entire : — ^ TO THE HOSTOUKABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GEEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND , IN rARLIAMEtfT ASSEMBLED . THE HTJMBI . B PETITION OP THE . UNDERSIGNED MERCHANTS AND AGENTS OP CALCUTTA ON jBEHAJ-JP OP THEMSELVES AND OTHERS IN ItESFECTOF THE LOSSES SUSTAINED THROUGH THE DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTT DURING THE REBELLION , AND PRAYING TOB . COMPENSATION . Humbl y Sfaeweth—That comparatively few of the sufferers by the late rebellion arc resident in Calcutta ; that generally they are separated by such great distances , and have been so much dispersed through the consequences of the rebellion , that it would be impossible for any considerable number of them to unite in a petition on their common case without a very great and

      inconvenient loss of time ; bat your petitioners arc either sufferers themselves , or are connected in interest with sufferers , as capitalists find agents , and are the members of a committee which was appointed at n very numerous meeting of British and East Indian sufferers for the purpose of representing their case and advancing their . claims to compensation . For the information . of your Honourable House , your petitioners bog to state that the said committee kept ft nook for the registration of claims to compensation , and that the registered claims ( whjcli were afterwards sent in

      -to Government ) amount to about eighty laklis of rupees ( 800 , 0002 . sterling ) from about 200 firms or persons ; And your petitioners believe that one crpre and a half of rupees ( one nnd a half million pounds sterling ) , would cover the whole amount of claims ( including those not xegistored with the said committee ) of British and East . Indian people . For the information of your Honorable House your petitioners bog further to state that the sufferers whoso claims are now submitted nro of various conditions , but the greater part In number nnd whose claims make up the greater part of the amount , arc merchants and traders , londott proprietors and planters and persons in busineBSj ana tHoir losses are of evory -variety of

      kind . ' That in , May 1658 ( prior to which date most of the losses were Incurred ) ft wns notified by the Governor General in a Gazette Extraordinary that the Honorable tiMvCourt of Directors had desired the Government of Jnaia "to Investigate the nature and extent of Joss of property occasioned by the late mutinies nnd disturbances ; " sufferera were invited to send In statomonts of JOBflcs ; and , under instructions from the , Governor raeMraL the Government pf the Worth WeBtern Provinces jana q * . Lower . Bengal appointed officers to receive such

      ; g same ; and by a recent communication from the Government of India to the said committee , your petitioners are informed that the said investigation is concluded in the Punjaub , Oude and the North Western Provinces and " ( it is believed also ) in Lower Bengal ; and that tJie Government of India is al ) out to send to the Government at "home reports on the nature and extent of the said losses as ascertained by the said investigation . That the Honourable the Court of Directors in the despatch above referred to reserved for its own decision the question whether compensation should be . given or not ; and the Government of India remains without any power to decide the said question . The said investigation therefore remains resultless , and your petitioners now respectfully submit to your Honourable House the consideration or their case in the hope that your Honourable House will deem their claim to compensation just and reasonable ; and will promote it as may seem to your Honourable House expedient . That throughout the rebellion no distinction wa 3 ever made by the insurgents in favour of the capitalist , mercantile and industrial section of the British : and East Indian people , nor in favour of any individuals of that section . As being British and Christian , of a different creed and race from the rebels , they were everywhere attacked with indiscriminate fury part j > assu with those of the same classes in the service of the Government , and their extirpation was among the objects , as also it was essential , to the suceess of the rebellion . Cawnpore affords an apt illustration of the manner in which the rebellion was carried on . There , there , was nu indiscriminate massacre of all ' British- and East Indian people ; The station of Cawnpore comprises a large wealthy and populous native town , a large military cantonment and a mercantile settlement of Europeans and East Indians , with ¦'¦ shops * warehouses , countinghouses , and houses where tliey resided and their business was carried on . The native town became a receptacle of the plunder from the premises of the Europeans , and it sustained , injury ( as it were ) only by accident ^ on the other hand , by design , there was as total a destruction as the rebels could effect of every kind of property which could not be carried off as plunder : and in all . other parts they carried out the same plan of indiscriminate and universal destruction against the persons-and property of British and Christian people . And your petitioners submit that it would be contrary to natural justice that persons so situated , without power of any kind , and solely dependent on their industry and capital , and thus singled out by rebels for destruction , in consequence solely of their birth , origin , and ; religion , and their indissoluble [ connection with the Government for the tirne being , should be abandoned by that Government to the ruin designed , and in many instances accomplished for them . Your petitioners while fully relying on the intrinsic merit of their claim would beg your Honourable House to take into consideration in connection , with it the course followed in cases somewhat analogous where compensation was granted to the sufferers on grounds less strong than those now urged . . For instance in the case of the American loyalists ( some of whom remained in the States , and some fled to England ) , large indemnities were granted to them by the Crown ; in the case of the Irish loyalists after the last Irish rebellion , several large grants were made by the Parliament lor their reward and indemnification ; and in the case of the rebellion in Canada , the sufferers on the side of the Crown received compensation . The weight of precedents therefore your petitioners submit ia on the side of their claim . Municipal law also sanctions the principle . Your Honourable House knows that by the law of England , from the earliest times , the hundred lias been liable for the destruction of property by mobs ; which liability , as your petitioners believe , has been enforced within living memory , and might bo enforced in the present day . In India also- the principle of compensation for public robboxy existed under Mahometan rule ; The East India Company ' s Civil Courts also give redress in damages for injuries to property through acts punishable as crimes . The difference in the present case ia in the magnitude and number of the claims ; which would under the most favourable state of municipal law bo beyond the scope and reach of municipal arrangements ; but the principle applies , and to meet the practical difficulty is , as your petitioners submit , the proper duty of tho Government . Your petitioners also beg your Honourable House to observe in connection with their claims , the course of policy which has been pursued towards tho rebels and insurgent part of the population , from tho time when their reduction by force of arms appeared certain . Tlrst a general confiscation to tho state of all the property of rebels was ordained and proclaimed . This would have placed in the power of the State ample means of rewarding the loyal and giving compensation , as was indeed intimated in the proclamation . This proclamation was superseded by a general amnesty emanating directly from tiie Crown ; in the not of amnesty time was given to nil classes of rebels to reflect , to calculate , to declare their aUegianco and lay down their arias . Large mosses came in under the amnesty . The Courts sitting t > y special commission for tho trial of rebels and the adjudication of forfeitures and confiscations generally suspended and have not since resumed their operations ; nnd ahortly after the original term of amnesty had expired , tho rebellion wne declared by the Government to bo at an end , tho country is again placed under the normal system of rulo , nnd tho amnesty is praptlcally Interpreted by Government officials as an act under which all the past offencos of robols against persons and property are to bo buriod in oblivion . But many British uulFororu had

      commenceu , reg-ular courts and in courts sitting under laws made for the occasion . Through those proceedings they Would have brought home a responsibility to both communities and wealthy individuals and have laid a legal ground for Compensation . . But magistrates arid-courts ( whether acting under the direction of government or of their own discretion your petitioners know not ) have ( as your petitioners have been informed ) stopped the proceedings , and justice can no longer he obtained at the suit of individuals against persons charged with offences against property during the rebellion . Generally therefore the rebels have wholly escaped except where they have fallen in the field . That British and East Indian sufferers should , under such circumstances bo so longleft without any recognition of their claims to compensation has given great dissatisfaction . And the hardship is . increased by what , in many instances , has since happened . Some of the British sufferers are zemindars , and have been required to . pay the Government revenue or rent for ^ peripds when their districts were in the power of the rebels , and at a time when they were out of possession of their estates . Many [ were leaseholders undernative zemindars , and they have been required to pay their rents to those zemindars for the period when the zemindars themselves were engaged passively or actively in the rebellion : so that to the sufferers the consequences of the rebellion are aggravated both by the non recognition of their claims and by the want of an appropriate or just policy on , the part of the Government towards them . . Your petitioners beg to submit a few remarks in regard to resources for compensation . The Government has been relieved of heavy charges , and large properties have lapsed to it through the rebellion . There is , for instance , the reduction of the pension list of the late native army , amounting to a very large sum , and tho extinction of pension in the Delhi family , of the descendants of the Peshwa and of other royal pensions . Another large item of account is Government securities consisting of promissory notes of the various loans of the Indian Government destroyed , forfeited or legally cancelled ; another item is jagheers and lands forfeited or resumed . The Government securities so situated are probably alone ( as your petitioners are informed ) of nearly the amount of the compensation Claimed by British and East Indian sufferers ; and Jagheers and lands lapsed to Government might te applied in compensation , and would be acceptable to many sufferers who are engaged in agriculture and planting . Your petitioners moreover submit , with respect to forfeited lands , that in many instances they ought in equity arid good conscience to be regarded as cnarged with a liability to make compensation . The lands of Kooar Singh , situate in Shahabad , for example . It was bv Kooar Singh and his followers that the property of the Europeans in that district was destroyed , nnd themselves were expelled ; and his forfeited estates would afford , or be ample security for , a full compensation . If the reported rental of that rebel's estate be correct , two or three years' rental would give a full indemnity for the damage done to Europeans in that district ; and the same is probably the case as respects the property of rebels in other districts . Your petitioners cannot conclude without remarking that the expectation of the sufterers , and of all interested in their claims , has been raised by the reference of the claims to Government officers for investigation . That reference was understood to bp an admission that prima facie the claimants were entitled to compensation . It wns supposed that the decision was reserved on account of an apprehension of the magnitude ot the amount . The expectation thus raised hasl been confirmed by the munificence of the Government of India and pf the Governments of the disturbed provinces in the distribution of rewards , Honours and compensation , where those governments had an unfettered discretion . They had been fettered as respects the present claimants by the order of tl > e Honourable Court that the question should be . reserved for the decision of itself . On the following grounds ,, then , as abovo briefly explained , your petitioners submit thnt the sufferers are entitled to compensation , viz . ( to reverse the order of the abovo statement ) on the grounds of ( 1 ) the munificence already displayed by tho Indian Government in the grant of honors , rewards and compensations in other cases j ( 2 ) of the gains made by the Governments and the burdens of which It lias been relieved Vy the rebellion ; ( 3 ) of the lien for compensation , which In equity and good conscience tho sufferers have on many ot the estates of which tho Government lias taken possession ; ( 4 ) of the remedies of which the sufferers have been deprived consequent on the policy of Government ; ( £ >) of that poliey itself as respects tlio robols ; ( 0 ) of the sanction which the principle of municipal law gives to tho claim ; i 7 ) of general poliey . as evidenced by the practice of the Jritlsh Government after former rebellion ; ( 8 ) of tho peculiar position of British nnd East Indian people in India , as British and Christian . And your petitioners submit that the case is eminently deserving of . tho consideration of your Honorable House on account ( 1 ) of Its importance ; ( 3 ) of Its having been taken by the Honorable Court of Directors from the jurisdiction of the Governor General In Council , to which legally and constitutionally It would otherwise bolong , and ooing reserved for tho decision of tho Homo Government . Your petitioners thoreforo humbly pray your Honourable House to take this petition into your high consideration , and to affirm by resolution or in suoli other way as may to your Honourable House appear expedient , that the saJUl sufferora ought to

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      statements and evidence and to investiate the ¦ ^ roceedinga civi l an . d criminalboth in the 386 a THE LEADER . o [ No . 488 . Jtjly 30 , 1859 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1859, page 886, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2305/page/10/