The Governor-General in Council was expressly empowered to make laws and regulations

(a) for repealing, amending, or altering any laws or regulations whatever, for the time being in force in the Indian territories;

(b) for all persons, whether British or native, foreigners or

others, and for all courts of justice, whether established by charter or otherwise, and the jurisdiction thereof; (c) for all places and things whatsoever within and throughout the whole and every part of the said territories. (d) for all servants of the Company within the dominions of princes and States in alliance with the Company; and (e) as articles of war for the government of the native officers and soldiers in the military service of the Company, and for the administration of justice by courts-martial to be holden on such officers and soldiers.

But this power was not to extend to the making of any laws and regulations—

(i) which should repeal, vary, or suspend any of the pro

visions of the Act of 1833, or of the Acts for punishing mutiny and desertion of officers and soldiers in the service of the Crown or of the Company; or

(ii) which should affect any prerogative of the Crown, or the authority of Parliament, or the constitution or rights of the Company, or any part of the unwritten laws or constitutions of the United Kingdom, whereon may depend the allegiance of any person to the Crown, or the sovereignty or dominion of the Crown over the Indian territories; or

(iii) without the previous sanction of the Court of Directors,

which should empower any court other than a chartered court to sentence to death any of His Majesty's natural-born subjects born in Europe, or their children, or abolish any of the chartered courts 1.

1 See Digest, s. 63.

There was also an express saving of the right of Parliament to legislate for India and to repeal Indian Acts, and, the better to enable Parliament to exercise this power, all Indian laws were to be laid before Parlia

ment.

Laws made under the powers given by the Act were to be subject to disallowance by the Court of Directors, acting under the Board of Control, but, when made, were to have effect as Acts of Parliament, and were not to require registration or publication in any court of justice.

The laws made under the Act of 1833 were known as Acts, and took the place of the 'regulations' made under previous Acts of Parliament.

A comprehensive consolidation and codification of Indian laws was contemplated. Section 53 of the Act recited that it was 'expedient that, subject to such special arrangements as local circumstances may require, a general system of judicial establishments and police, to which all persons whatsoever, as well Europeans as natives, may be subject, should be established in the said territories at an early period; and that such laws as may be applicable in common to all classes of the inhabitants of the said territories, due regard being had to the rights, feelings, and peculiar usages of the people, should be enacted; and that all laws and customs having the force of law within the same territories should be ascertained and consolidated, and, as occasion may require, amended.'

The Act then went on to direct the Governor-General in Council to issue a commission, to be known as the Indian Law Commission,' which was to inquire into the jurisdiction, powers, and rules of the existing courts of justice and police establishments in the Indian territories, and all existing forms of judicial procedure, and into the nature and operation of all laws, whether civil or criminal, written or customary, prevailing and in force in any part of the Indian territories, to which any inhabitants of those territories were then sub

ject. The commissioners were to report to the GovernorGeneral in Council, setting forth the results of their inquiries, and suggesting alterations, and these reports were to be laid before Parliament.

This was the first Indian Law Commission, of which Macaulay was the most prominent member1. Its labours resulted directly in the preparation of the Indian Penal Code, which however did not become law until 1860, and, indirectly and after a long interval of time, in the preparation of the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure and other codes of substantive and adjective law which now form part of the Indian Statute Book.

Important provisions were made by the Act of 1833 for enlarging the rights of European settlers, and for protecting the natives of the country, and ameliorating their condition.

It was declared to be lawful for any natural-born subject of His Majesty to proceed by sea to any port or place having a custom-house establishment within the Indian territories, and to reside thereat, or to proceed to and reside in or pass through any part of the territories which were under the Company's government on January 1, 1800, or any part of the countries ceded by the Nabob of the Carnatic, of the province of Cuttack, or of the settlements of Singapore and Malacca. These rights might be exercised without the requirement of any licence. But every subject of His Majesty not being a native was, on his arrival in India from abroad, to signify on entry, to an officer of customs, his name, place of destination, and objects of pursuit in India. A licence was still required for residence in any part of India other than those above mentioned, but power was reserved to the Governor-General in Council, with the previous approbation

1 His colleagues were another English barrister, Mr. Cameron, afterwards law member of council, and two civil servants of the Company, Mr. Macleod of the Madras Service, and Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Anderson of the Bombay Service. Sir William Macnaghten of the Bengal Service was also appointed, but did not accept the appointment.

of the Court of Directors, to declare any such part open, and remove the obligation of a licence.

Another section expressly enabled any natural-born subject of the Crown to acquire and hold lands in India.

The regulations as to licences have long since been abolished or fallen into desuetude. But by s. 84 of the Act of 1833 the Governor-General in Council was required, as soon as conveniently might be, to make laws or regulations providing for the prevention or punishment of the illicit entrance into or residence in British India of persons not authorized to enter or reside therein. Effect has been given to this requirement by Act III of 1864, under which the Government of India and local Governments can order foreigners to remove themselves from British India, and apprehend and detain them if they refuse to obey the order. Under the same Act the Governor-General in Council can apply to British India, or any part thereof, special provisions as to the reporting and licensing of foreigners 1.

An echo of the fears expressed in 1813 as to the dangers likely to arise from the free settlement of interlopers is to be found in the section which, after reciting that the removal of restrictions on the intercourse of Europeans with the said territories will render it necessary to provide for any mischief or dangers that may arise therefrom,' requires the GovernorGeneral in Council, by laws and regulations, to provide, with all convenient speed, for the protection of the natives of the said territories from insult and outrage in their persons, religions, and opinions 2.

6

Section 87 of the Act declared that no native of the said territories, nor any natural-born subject of His Majesty resident therein, shall, by reason only of his religion, place

1 See Alter Caufman v. Government of Bombay, [1894] I. L. R. 18 Bombay, 636. As to the general powers of excluding aliens from British territory, see Musgrove v. Chun Teeong Toy, [1891] L. R. A. C. 272 (exclusion of Chinese from Australia), and an article in the Law Quarterly Review for 1897 on Alien Legislation and the Prerogative of the Crown.'

2 See ss. 295-298 of the Indian Penal Code.

of birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office, or employment under the Company.' The policy of freely admitting natives of India to a share in the administration of the country has never been more broadly or emphatically enunciated.

And finally, the Governor-General in Council was required forthwith to take into consideration the means of mitigating the state of slavery, and of ameliorating the condition of slaves, and of extinguishing slavery throughout the Indian territories so soon as such extinction should be practicable and safe, and to prepare and submit to the Court of Directors drafts of laws on the subject 1. In preparing these drafts due regard was to be had to the laws of marriage and the rights and authorities of fathers and heads of families.

The sections of the Act which follow these broad declarations of policy are concerned mainly with regulations relating to the ecclesiastical establishments in India and increasing the number of bishoprics to three, and with regulations for the college of Haileybury.

The Act of 1833, as sent out to India, was accompanied by an explanatory dispatch from the Court of Directors, which, according to a tradition in the India Office, was drafted by James Mill 2.

tion

During the twenty years' interval between the Charter Act Legislaof 1833 and that of 1853 there was very little Parliamentary between legislation on India.

An Act of 1835 (5 & 6 Will. IV, c. 52) suspended the provisions of the Act of 1833 as to the division of the Presidency of Bengal into two presidencies 3, and authorized the appoint

3

1 See Act V of 1843 and ss. 370, 371 of the Indian Penal Code. See also Mr. Cameron's evidence before the select committee of the House of Lords in 1852, and Minutes by Sir H. S. Maine, No. 92.

2

Kaye, Administration of the East India Company, p. 137.

3 By s. 15 of the Charter Act of 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 95) this suspension was continued until the Court of Directors and Board of Control should otherwise direct.

1833 and

1853.