§ MR. DALRYMPLEasked the Under Secretary of State for India, If he would state who are the eminent authorities, unconnected with the present Government of India, by whom the principle of the Procedure Bill, which confers increased jurisdiction over Europeans on certain classes of Native magistrates, is supported; and, where any record, accessible to Members of the House of Commons, is to be found, which shows that the subject has been under consideration for many years?
§ MR. J. K. CROSSIn reply to the hon. Member for Buteshire, whose Question arises ont of an answer which I 849 gave on Friday last to the hon. Member for Lambeth, I have to say that the eminent authorities -whoso names were in my mind were Lord Napier of Murchistoun, Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir Richard Temple, the late Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, now Member for Kirkcaldy (Sir George Campbell), and Sir Barrow Ellis, now a member of the Secretary of State's Council. These opinions may be found in the Supplement to The Gazette of India of the 4th of May, 1872. So long ago as 1854 the question of equal jurisdiction was under consideration, and the Indian Law Commission, appointed by the Crown and presided over by Lord Romilly, based its recommendations on the same principle. In the Papers presented to Parliament in 1856 the following passage may be found:—
We assume that the special privileges now enjoyed by British subjects are to be abolished; and we, therefore, make no provision for such exceptional cases. In the system which we propose, all classes of the community will be equally amenable to the Criminal Courts of the country.Papers on the subject have been promised by Lord Kimberley, and will shortly be presented.