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CHAPTER XX.

JUDICIAL MEASURES-POLICE-FINANCE-THE LOAN.

THE reader has been carried on from one station to another—from a scene of peaceful disarming to a bloodstained outbreak, from a brush on the frontier to struggles in the camp before Delhi-wherever rebellion attempted to lift its hydra head, and the arm of Government was needed to crush it; and this, that the thread which ran through the whole coil of administration might be preserved unbroken, and the sequence of events as far as possible maintained. But it must not be supposed that in all these efforts to prevent and punish mutiny-this marching of troops and raising of levies—this disarming of corps that were suspected, or destroying those that broke out that in this whirl all the other wheels of administration had come to a dead lock-that justice was suspended for war-that ordinary collection of revenue gave way to emergent and summary exaction of supplies. Here was a happy refutation of the old principle inter arma silent leges. "Despite a thousand distractions, despite dangers

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EFFECTS OF THE OUTBREAK

without and within, the judiciary remained unmoved, and the people persisted in litigation," and the law was still open to them.

The first shock of the outbreak did perhaps everywhere, more or less, for a few days, throw the machinery out of track: but it was only for the instant. A few days sufficed to set all in order again; and from Peshawur to Kurnal, amid all the excitement and anxiety-in spite of distracting duties on every side-the courts were still at work. The zeal of the magistrate for the safety of the country in the crisis did not override the quieter duties of his own office. As in times of peace, he might be seen in his wonted chair in kutcheree, or perhaps more often in his tent, or under a tope of trees, administering "baradurree "+ justice, with little to mark the change of times, beyond a revolver slung at his side or lying on the table ready at his hand, and a few extra armed guards standing round. At one time he might be seen, with as little appearance of anxiety as might be, chatting over the momentous tidings of the day with some influential native; at another time listening to his omlah or moonshee drawling through a tedious misl of some trifling lawsuit, striving to curb in his thoughts to the dry details, while his mind would range far away in wild anxious conjecture as to

* Fourth Punjab Report, p. 1. To this most valuable contribution to the history of the Punjab Government the author is indebted for much important information contained in this chapter.

This word literally means a house having twelve doors, three on each side. This was the general form of the offices of native authorities, as if offering access to all comers from whatever quarter.

ON THE LOCAL LAW COURTS.

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the present of some distant scene of action, or the future of this struggle for life or death,

While the fate of the country seemed to be tottering in the scale, and calling upon every one to be "up and doing," what did it not cost many an Englishman to forego the excitement of daring enterprise, or perhaps, in the midst of such excitement, to calm down his mind to investigate some trifling suit about a few yards of ground, or a charge for some petty theft? Yet it was in this never-failing steady work of our kutcherries that men of peace were fighting the fight -shall we say for empire?—rather for our existence.

The energy which was almost ubiquitous, combined with the self-possessed confidence which characterised so many during those weeks of danger, from the Judicial Commissioner himself at Lahore, who set so bright an example, to the isolated Assistant in some remote district, was incalculable in its effects. It kept the machine of government rolling on; and in its steady onward roll over difficulties and dangers, the natives saw proofs of strength and safety, and learned to look hopefully to the result.

The amount of crime throughout the whole Punjab, notwithstanding so many incentives and opportunities, rather lessened than increased on the average of former years. During times of political excitement, such is generally the case with petty crimes, while violent and heinous offences become more common. In the Peshawur district, the land of marauders and thieves, it had remarkably diminished. The new levies had drained off

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CRIME ACTUALLY DIMINISHED.

the scum of the population; the more turbulent spirits were diverted from their raids into service in our ranks; and crime lacked its votaries. Not so, however, with litigation: notwithstanding the agitation on the whole frontier, and the doubtful tenure of our hold on Peshawur, suitors crowded into our courts in unusual numbers;* and it is more remarkable still that, with all the press of more momentous duties, more suits were decided than in previous years. In Mooltan, too, the district which ranked second for turbulence and theft, it was the same: 66 Business went on quite as well as usual, the only difference being, that during the year of trouble there were more suits decided than in any previous year." In the other districts of the Punjab there was, in this particular, little difference between this year of blood and former years of peace.

But in the Cis-Sutlej States, especially in the more southern districts, it fared otherwise. They were too near the immediate seat of the rebellion not to suffer from the contagion; the population, too, had so much of the Hindostanee element as to be predisposed to the infection. Here, at the outset, crime tried to throw off the restraint of the law with the excitement of the outbreak, the road became unsafe, and outrages were committed, without disguise or fear, in open day; but the

* One cause for the unusual number of suits was the issuing a new statute of limitation, reducing the term for recovery of debts from twelve years to six, and thus forcing into court before April 30, 1857, all cases over six years; which flooded the courts with suits. + Punjab Report.

SUMMARY PUNISHMENTS ADOPTED.

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Commissioner, Mr Barnes, at once provided against such a contingency: his effective Assistants were pushed down into the disaffected districts, with absolute powers of life and death in cases of daring and violent crime, which the times called for. Punishment followed rapidly on each crime. Imprisonment would only have increased the difficulty: the lash for petty offences, and the halter for grave ones, were used promptly and freely; and after the first ebullition of feeling thus summarily checked, even these districts settled down into something like their normal state of quietude. And while the ordinary work of the courts went on with so little interruption during those months of danger, the mutiny was, as might be expected, bringing in its train an increase of work peculiar to itself. Martial law, sometimes in all the more dignified and solemn form of a court, but more frequently at a drumhead, dealt summarily with the majority of the rebels; yet there were cases which still found their way into the ordinary criminal courts, and thus swelled the amount of work to be there disposed of.

Moreover, the mutiny led to the introduction of measures bearing on them in no ordinary degree the stamp of bold originality.

Foremost among them must ever stand an order which emanated from Mr Montgomery in his capacity of Judicial Commissioner, one which, for its manly outspoken avowal of Christian sympathy and real toleration, is perhaps without parallel in the archives of India. Striking at the very root of that traditionary

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