amended in four respects. Where the witness resides in a Native State, power has been given (sec. 503) to issue the commission to the Political Agent or other local officer representing the British Government. Section 505 requires that the interrogatories shall be thought relevant by the Magistrate or Court directing the commission. Where a subordinate Magistrate wishes for a commission, he will (sec. 506) apply to the District Magistrate, and not (as formerly) to the Sessions Judge: this relieves the Court of Session of a duty which can be more conveniently performed by the District Magistrate. And power is expressly given (sec. 508) to stay the inquiry or trial for a specified time reasonably sufficient for the execution and return of the commission. rules of evidence. Chapter XLI contains some special rules as to evidence, supple- Special menting those in the Evidence Act. The report of any Chemical Examiner or Assistant Chemical Examiner to Government may now be used in evidence (sec. 510) in any proceeding under the Code, not merely, as under the Code of 1872, in any criminal trial. And in proving a previous conviction or acquittal, the new Code (sec. 511) requires evidence as to identity of the accused person with the person so convicted or acquitted. Chapter XLII contains some provisions generally applicable to Bonds. bonds executed under the Code. The procedure for recovering the penalty from the principal in the case of security to keep the peace provided by Act X of 1872, sec. 502, is now applicable to all such bonds. Chapter XLIII, Disposal of property. When an inquiry or Disposal of trial is concluded, the Court is empowered (sec. 517) to make such property. order as it thinks fit for the disposal of any document or other property produced before it regarding which an offence appears to have been committed, or which has been used to commit an offence. In partial accordance with a rule of the High Court at Bombay, section 517 declares that, when a High Court or Court of Session makes such an order, and cannot through its own officers conveniently deliver the property to the person entitled thereto, the Court may direct the order to be carried into effect by the District Magistrate, not the 'committing Magistrate,' who might have been transferred before the order was made. Orders under section 517 made in appealable cases will not (except where the property is live-stock, or is subject to speedy and natural decay) be carried out until the time allowed for appealing has expired, or, if an appeal is presented in due time, until the appeal is disposed of. Where an innocent purchaser buys stolen property and restores it to the lawful possessor, provision is made (sec. 519) for payment Transfer of criminal cases. Irregular proceedings. Miscellaneous. of the price out of money found on the convicted thief. This is in Section 521 provides, in case of a conviction under the Penal Code, sections 292, 293, 501 or 502, for the destruction of the obscene books and defamatory matter in respect of which the conviction was had. It also provides for the destruction of adulterated or noxious food, drink or drugs in respect of which a conviction was had under sections 272-275 of the same Code. Power to restore immoveable property to any one dispossessed of it by criminal force, is conferred by section 522. Chapter XLIV enables the High Court (sec. 526) and the Governor General in Council (sec. 527) to order any offence to be inquired into or tried by any court, otherwise competent, but not empowered under sections 177-184, and to transfer criminal cases from one Court to another. And section 528 empowers District and Subdivisional Magistrates to withdraw, recall, or refer such cases. Section 526 provides, in accordance with a minute of Sir B. Peacock, cited Calc. 223, that applications to the High Court for the transfer of cases shall be made by motion supported (except where the applicant is the Advocate General) by affidavit or affirmation. Chapter XLV contains provisions as to the cases in which irregularities shall, and in which they shall not, vitiate the proceeding in which they occur. Tender of pardon under Chapter XXVI, and sale of property under section 524 or section 525, have been added to the list of proceedings which will not be set aside merely on the ground of the Magistrate not being duly empowered. Chapter XLVI comprises some miscellaneous matters, of which the following were new. Power is given (sec. 541) to the Local Government to fix places of imprisonment or custody. Moneys (other than fines) payable by virtue of any order made under the Code will be recoverable as if they were fines (sec. 547). The power to compel restoration of abducted females, which formerly existed only in the Presidency-towns, has been extended (sec. 551) to District Magistrates. Power is given to the High Courts (sec. 553) to make rules for the inspection of the records of subordinate Courts. No Judge or Magistrate shall, except with permission of the Appellate Court, try or commit for trial any case to or in which he is a party or personally interested otherwise than as a municipal commissioner. Nor shall he hear an appeal from any judgment or order passed or made by himself (sec. 555). The Code contains no clause equivalent to Act I of 1868, sec. 5, as to the recovery of fines, although similar provisions were contained in each of the Codes now consolidated (X of 1872, sec. 309, X of 1875, sec. 107, IV of 1877, sec. 12). The matter is now provided for by the Penal Code, sec. 64, amended by Act VIII of 1882, sec. 2. SCHEDULES. Schedules II (Tabular Statement of Offences) and V (Forms), which correspond respectively with Schedules IV and II of Act X of 1872, have been altered so as to adapt them, not only to the provincial Courts, but to those of the Presidency Magistrates. The latter schedule now contains no less than 53 forms, which had, before their incorporation in the present Code, stood the test of practices in the Presidency of Madras and the Panjáb. The Code of 1872 contained only a set of forms of charges and nine forms of summonses, warrants, bonds, and the instruments improperly called recognisances. The offence of voluntarily causing hurt has been made one for which the police may not arrest without a warrant. A like change has been made as to voluntarily causing hurt on grave and sudden provocation, not intending to hurt any other than the person who gave it. The numerous investigations by the police into charges of 'hurt,' which the former law rendered necessary, distracted the attention of the police-force from more important duties, and resulted in little good to the public. The offence of adultery has been made triable by a Presidency Magistrate and a Magistrate of the first class. The paragraph relating to mischief by fire with intent to cause damage has been altered in accordance with the amendment of section 435 of the Penal Code by Act VIII of 1882, sec. 10. This alteration was made in order to check the offence, which was very common in some parts of the country, of setting fire to garnered crops. A cultivator might have the whole of his crop destroyed in this way, and yet if its value be less than Rs. 100 (as is often the case) he could not obtain the aid of the police to arrest the offender without a warrant from a Magistrate. The lists of powers contained in section 21 et seq. of Act X of 1872 have been thrown into Schedules III (Ordinary Powers of Provincial Magistrates) and IV (Additional Powers with which Provincial Magistrates may be invested). The Bill which afterwards became Act X of 1882 was published in the Gazette of India for the 5th, 12th and 19th April 1879, and circulated to the various Local Governments, with a request that Amend ments made by Select Com mittee. Examina tion of accused. Whipping. Enhance. ment of sentences it might be examined by selected local officers. This was done, and the result of the examination is contained in a thick folio volume. The Bill was then revised with reference to this mass of criticism, and to the cases reported since it was framed; and it might almost be said, in the form in which it was referred to a Select Committee, to be the work of the whole body of Indian Judges and Magistrates rather than of any individual or Department. The Select Committee, which consisted of Mr. (now Sir Rivers) Thompson, the late Mr. Gibbs, Mr. H. Reynolds, Jotíndra Mohan Tagore, Mr. Louis Forbes, Mr. C. T. Crosthwaite, and the writer, made eighty-five amendments of the substance of the law; but of these only three are sufficiently important to require special mention here. First, the Committee thought that the then law gave too great latitude to the Courts with regard to the examination of an accused person. The object of such examination is, or ought to be, to give the accused an opportunity of explaining any circumstances which may tend to criminate him, and thus to enable the Court, in cases where he is undefended, to examine the witnesses in his interest. It was never intended that the Court should examine the accused with a view to elicit from him some statement which would lead to his conviction. The Committee therefore limited the power of interrogating the accused by prefixing to the first paragraph of section 342 the words 'for the purpose of enabling the accused to explain any circumstances appearing in the evidence against him.' The accused should always have the opportunity of explaining, and the Code therefore requires the Court to question him generally for that purpose before he enters on his defence. Secondly, the Committee amended the law as to whipping. It provided in section 32 that no Magistrate of the second class should pass a sentence of whipping unless specially empowered in that behalf by the Local Government: that whipping should be inflicted with a light ratan not less than half-an-inch in diameter; and that it should never be inflicted on any person whom the Court considered to be more than forty-five years of age. Thirdly, the Committee abolished the power, which Appellate Courts had under the Code of 1872, to enhance sentences on on appeals. appeals presented by accused persons. The existence of such a power tended to deter convicted, but, possibly, innocent persons from presenting appeals, and thus to deprive the lower Courts of the control which could only be effectively exercised over them by means of an unhampered system of appeal. Number of substantial The Bill as introduced made a hundred and twelve amendments of the substance of the law. The eighty-five amendments just amendmentioned or referred to raised the number to 1971. ments made by The new Code became law on the 6th of March, 1882; but it did present Code. not come into force till 1st January, 1883,-ten years from the date on which the Code of 1872 began to operate. This was five years after the date on which, according to Sir Fitzjames Stephen, the Code should have been re-enacted. 'I should say,' he writes in his minute on the administration of justice in British India, that this process ought to be repeated at least once in every five years for every important Act.' Excluding the special provisions of the Acts relating respectively to Coroners, criminal tribes, inquiries into the behaviour of public servants, and the organisation of the police, the Code is now a complete body of criminal procedure. It combines the merits of the English, or accusatory, system, with some of the facilities for arriving at the truth afforded by the continental, or inquisitorial, systems. No pains have been spared to render its provisions plain and practical; and though it has been thought necessary to pass three amending Acts, the principal changes made thereby are due rather to politico-sentimental considerations than to any difficulty which the Courts have found in working the Code. called Of these Acts, the first (No. III of 1884) has already been noticed. Act III of The Bill as introduced (1) made the following persons, being Magis- 1884. trates of the first class, eligible for the office of justice of the peace, The soviz. covenanted civilians, members of the Native Civil Service consti- Ilbert tuted under 33 Vic. c. 3, Assistant Commissioners in non-regulation Bill. provinces and Cantonment Magistrates, (2) made Sessions Judges and District Magistrates ex officio justices of the peace, (3) repealed in sec. 443 of the Code the words 'and an European British subject,' (4) repealed the provision in sec. 444 that no Judge presiding in a Court of Session should exercise jurisdiction over an European British subject unless he himself was an European British subject, (5) repealed sec. 450 and the last sixteen words of sec. 459. But the only important changes made by the Act as passed were the repeal of the section (450) which provided for the case where the Judge of the Sessions division within which a European British 1 It is difficult, therefore, to understand how Sir Fitzjames Stephen could have written thus of the Code of 1882: 'It differs from the Act of 1872 principally in the circumstance that it does apply to the High Courts as well as the other criminal Courts in India, and that certain alterations have been made in the arrangement of the Act of 1872, besides some few 2 Act XXXVII of 1850. The New |