§ MR. KINNAIRDsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for India whether orders have been sent out to the Government of India for the introduction of a Bill making it penal for any European to enter or reside in any of the new territories, Nagpore, Oude, Pegu, and others, without a licence, or to remain after the licence is withdrawn? And if such orders have been sent out, Copy thereof.
LORD STANLEYsaid, that no order to the effect stated had been sent out to the Government of India, nor was it intended to instruct the Government of India to introduce a Bill making it penal to enter without a licence into any of the new territories alluded to. But in fairness to the hon. Gentleman, he (Lord Stanley) ought to explain the circumstances which have probably given rise to the question. By the Act of 1833 it was declared illegal for any European to enter into or to reside in, without a licence, any of the territories acquired by the East India Company since the 1st of January, 1800. It was left to the Governor General of India to frame laws to enforce that Act, and 693 accordingly a penalty on its infringement was inserted into all the drafts of the code which had been so long under consideration by the Legislative Council at Calcutta. But that code had never become law. The Government of India had recently exercised a power of preventing the entrance into or the residence in the lately acquired states, without the proper sanction. That power had been exercised in Nagpore against Major Ouseley, who subsequently brought an action in the Supreme Court of Calcutta, which resulted in a verdict, with damages against the Government. The state of India, therefore, presented this anomaly; there was an Act of Parliament by which the Legislature of this country declared expressly that the presence of Europeans in certain of the territories of India was an offence against the law, but for this act, confessedly a violation of law, no penalty was provided, and the authorities were unable to enforce it. They had been directed to take into consideration the state of the law, and to decide what steps should be taken to amend it; but more recently instructions had been sent out to postpone definitive action until they should hear again from the Government in this country. But whatever step might be taken with regard to preventing Europeans entering the Native states, it certainly never was intended to enforce that part of the Act of 1833 which limited the right of Europeans to reside in the British territories.