The quarterly session of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery commenced on Saturday last, before sir James Mackintosh, knight, recorder, and his associates Simon Halliday and Patrick Hadow, esquires, aldermen, when the recorder made the following eloquent charge to the grand jury.

Gentlemen of the grand jury. The most common and the most necessary duty of a judge in addressing a grand jury, may, on this occasion, be very easily and shortly performed. The calendar which I hold in my hand, contains no charge of any crime with respect to which you can need any legal instruction from me. There is indeed one case of the deepest guilt, but not likely to present any legal difficulties to your minds. You perfectly know, that wherever there is intentional killing without any of those circumstances which the law allows either to justify or to mitigate such an act, there, the crime of murder is complete.

The legal difficulty of such cases, therefore, generally arises in the enquiry whether any of those circumstances are present, which either justify the act altogether, or at least reduce it to a much lower degree of guilt, and I am not aware that any such enquiry will now be necessary.

But there is another offence, of which indeed I see no example in

the calendar, that is likely to be prevalent in a port of such extensive trade as Bombay, and, as I am informed, has on former occasions, prevailed to a most alarming extent, rendered still more alarming by the doubts which were entertained, whether it were legally punishable. I mean the crime of attempting to set fire to ships, where the attempt has been unsuccessful, where it has been defeated either by fortunate accident, or by the timely interposition of the well disposed.

In an offence so atrocious and dangerous, so malignant in its own nature, and so extensively mischievous, in all its direct and indirect consequences, I deem it my duty to put an end to these doubts, and to make the law on this subject publicly known.

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By the stat. 33 G. III. chap. 67. sec. 3. (made perpetual by 41 G. III. chap. 19) any person or persons, "who shall wilfully and malici"ously burn or set fire to any ship, "keel, or any vessel-shall be

however small, of the house was actually burnt.-In the same manner, I now inform you, that whereever any part, however small, of the ship is actually burnt, the capital felony of "setting fire to a ship" is complete. And even if the incendiaries be stopt before the actual consumption of any part of the vessel, which is not often probable, the law is not, in that case, without the means of punishment for those who, as far as depended on them, have consummated their guilt. For since the case of the king against Higgins, which is reported in the second volume of Mr. East's Term Reports, and which I myself heard argued on the part of the prisoner, with extraordinary ability, by my most ingenious friend Mr. Scarlett, it can no longer be doubted, that every attempt to commit a felony is a misdemeanour. Now as the burning a ship is made a felony by the statutes which I have quoted, it necessarily follows, that every attempt to burn ship is by the law of England, indictable as a misde

meanour.

And here, gentlemen, I might close my address. But on this first occasion of speaking to you, I cannot forbear from making some observations on other subjects, which, though not immediately connected with any single law, or any single crime, are nevertheless of the utmost importance to the general administration of justice. English judges have at all times spoken to grand juries, and through them to the public, in that tone of friendly, (allow me to say) of paternal admonition, which is not unbecoming the judicial character. On my arrival here, I conceived it to be my first duty to collect some information about the character and

morality of the people, the degree and kind of vice prevalent in the little community entrusted to my care. And just as a physician would first examine the books of an hospital, so I first looked into the records of this court, which though narrow and liable to some exceptions that I shall afterwards mention, have at least the advantage of being, as far as they go, authentic.

Since the institution of this court in the year 1798, I observe that 64 persons have been tried for various felonies; of whom 33 have been convicted, 31 acquitted, and 9 have suffered capital punishment. If I were to estimate the morality of this community from our records alone, I should not form a very unfavourable opinion of it. For in that part of the British dominions in Europe where capital punishment is much the least fre quent, I mean in Scotland, we know, from the authority of Mr. Hume, professor of law at Edinburgh, that on an average of thirty years, six had annually suffered death out of a population which is probably not far from eighteen hundred thousand. If this state of things be compared with the situation of Bombay, where there have been three capital punishments every two years, out of a population of 150,000, the result is, no doubt, considerably against this island. But the comparison between a large sea-port town, as this island may be called, and an extensive country, is not fair. A more equitable comparison furnishes a more favourable result. The same author (Mr. Hume) tells us, that the city of Edinburgh, which with its ports and suburbs cannot contain a population much above 100,000, has, on an average

of

opinion, almost always useless, as examples, you will not wonder that I do not consider the records of the criminal court as a measure of the guilt of the community. Indeed the universal testimony of Euro

tants of Edinburgh. But I fear we cannot make so favourable an inference from our criminal records. Here they are not so exact a criterion of the prevailing moral diseases, as they would be in most countries.

The difference of manners and language, and perhaps the hostile prejudices of many of the natives, render difficult the detection of crimes, and increase the chances of total concealment, in a proportion which we cannot exactly calculate, but which we know to be very great Much of what passes among the lowest natives must be involved in a darkness impenetrable to the eyes of the most vigilant police; after the existence of a crime is ascertained, the same obstacles stand in the way of identifying the criminal, and even after he is perfectly known, our local situation, which is that of a large town in a small territory, is that which an experienced offender would select for the opportunity of concealment and the facility of escape; and such is the unfortunate prevalence of the crime of perjury, that the hope of impunity is not extinguished by the apprehension of the delinquent. If to this you add the supine acquiescence of many English inhabitants in the peculations of their domestic servants, which, from an opinion of the rooted depravity of the natives, we seem to look upon as if their vices were immutable and inflexible, like the laws of nature, and if you add also those summary chastisements, which are, in my

pect occasional and partial exaggeration, is an authority too strong for me to struggle with, and I observe that the accomplished and justly celebrated person (Sir W. Jones) who carried with him to this country a prejudice in favor of the natives, which he naturally imbibed in the course of his studies, and which in him, though not perfectly rational, was neither unamiable nor ungraceful, I observe that even he, after long judicial experience, reluctantly confesses their general depravity. The prevalence of perjury which he strongly states, and which I have myself already observed, is perhaps a more certain sign of the general dissolu tion of moral principle than other more daring and ferocious crimes much more horrible to the imagi nation, and of which the immediate consequences are more destructive to society.

These are questions which all wise men acknowledge to be of infinite difficulty, even when we are content with those probable results which are sufficient for mere speculation. And their difficulty, it must be owned, is mightily increased, when we require that certainty on which alone prudence could act in matters which so nearly concern the happiness of multitudes of human beings. Difficult however as they are, it is a difficulty with which it is, in my humble opinion, the bounden duty of every law-giver and inagistrate (however humble his station, and however weak his means of usefulness, or * a 3

obscure

feelings would have entirely accorded with mine; convinced that both as jurors and as private gentlemen, you will always consider yourselves as entrusted, in this remote region of the earth, with the honour of that beloved country, which I trust becomes more dear to you, as I am sure it does to me, during every new momeut of absence; that in your intercourse with each other, as well as with the natives of India, you will keep unspotted the ancient character of the British nation, renowned in every age, and in no age more than in the present, for valour, for justice, for humanity and generosity; for every virtue which supports, as well as for every talent and accomplishment which adorns, human society."

The court having adjourned and re-assembled on Monday morning, Sheikjee, a mussulman, and Buchee, a woman, were put to the bar, and arraigned upon an indictment, charging them with the wilful murder of Parbutty, woman, the melancholy detail of which has been already announced in our courier of the 20th of May. After a long and patient investigation, the evidence was summed up, and commented upon, by the learned judge, in a manner the most perspicuous and impressive, and which clearly evinced that the unfortunate prisoners had in him a very able advocate; for he most strenuously urged every point to the consideration of the jury which bore at all in favour of the accused, or which could tend to alleviate the degree of guilt with which they were charged. The jury, having withdrawn for above an hour, returned with a verdict which found the female prisoner, Buchee, guilty, and acquitted the man, Sheikjee. In

consequence however of some suspicion and prevarication in the testimony which had been adduced, the woman was recommended to the mercy of the court, which was accordingly extended to her, and she was sentenced to be transported for the term of fourteen years; after which the court adjourned till Tuesday..

The court having met again on Tuesday, proceeded to the trial of a young European for an assault upon a native. The facts were clearly proved, and the recorder informed the jury, that it was their duty, by their verdict, to make known to the world, that men of every colour and race, and nation and religion, in India, were, under the British laws, equally protected; that they equally enjoyed the national rights of men, and the civil privilege of British subjects; that the law was no respecter of persons, but would protect with as strong an arm the poorest wretch in the most despised cast of India, as the proudest peer in the British empire. The jury found the defendant guilty, and the recorder, in giving judgment, observed, that though a conviction and a judgment were absolutely necessary to the character and honour of public justice, yet it was a case full of alleviating circumstances, and in which there was more to lament than to blame. For this reason, we do not mention the name of the young gentleman who was convicted of the assault). The offending party was condemned to pay a fine of 600 rupees, 300 instantly, and the remainder in twelve months.

The court intimated an intention of suggesting to the honorable the governor in council, whether it might not be proper to bestow this