Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2183821

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CEYLON.  

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDING.---ABOLITION OF THE WRIT

OF HABEAS CORPUS IN THE ISLAND.

(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)

We are deeply sensible of the paramount interest of home politics, but we trust we shall not be accused by our nu- merous readers of a useless occupation of their time, or a needless waste of our ephemeral space, in thus calling their attention, and that of the British public, to a circumstance of     vast importance to a commercial nation.

We know that the subject will, in a short time, he brought   under the consideration of Parliament, but we feel it our duty, in the mean time, to state those facts which have come to our knowledge from the most credible authority. One of

the chief sources of England's wealth is her colonies--and   how has she preserved them ? How has she identified them   with herself, and made them, to the envy of other nations,   part and parcel of her physical and political frame. We an- swer, by the unqualified extension of the protection of her

laws, the engrafting-of her civil institutions, and, above all,    

by the assurance, of that jealous care of person and, property,   which even the throne cannot obstruct, and without which life would be of little value, and industry of §Ufb*iYj>Cfcc -.ijgWt. j The following are the facts:-      

In January last, and shortly previous ot the arrival of Sir Edward Barnes, the present Governor of Ceylon, the Lient. Governor, Sir John Campbell, for, what nft«tí';j£_atf)>Íp ssfUjfJJi

lo ascertain, sent an officer on borjl-H'"JbRj sj(ifl-i^<'eTli > _Jr.9Vi lying- in Colombo roads, the «lay bWdft;».ic.saiicdiWJï ''filM* , and arrested and brought on 'slior?7.'íHPai«v,/rofrf'-ífTr j "iWth .' I). Russie., who was returning- to l£iir.i[ie1öy,»MW.Ö'is. kiifatßöi count of his health. The ship saile(lt,j«iivÍH^gthp¡«n})(*-sur- j geon behind, who applied to the Supie.ne'vóur. ol'.Vy4_ÍJff.f- ' ture in Columbo for a Writ of Habeas Coïpus,'''W.ncn issued i in the usual course, commanding- the magistrate who bad

arrested him to bring him before the Court to explain the   cause of his detection. At the Judge's Chambers in the Fort, on Friday the 9th of January, appeared the sitting magistrate,     who returned that 'he had not the person in his custody, but       to all the questions of the Court he declined giving any infor-     mation of the custody in which the surgeon really was, fur- ther than he was be believed, in military custody. The Fort Constable, in whose house the prisoner was alleged to be, was then examined upon oath, and it was not until after many questions that the fact was extorted from him that the prisoner was really in the custody of the Fort-Adjutant. The

J ii «Ige, after Consulting the preceejeuh-, (jrftj pifiiicitillly con- sidering the enseof Ensign Douglas'«j|scT|ai|ypiL.lji^yifiil tury custody by Sir Ediu. Curri.ig ton aiiirlvtt. Lushington, A«, ided for issuing the writ. The AdvocaOjvftiseftl W'S'm'HrfjiVf time

to communicate with Government gp¡«J fJoprnpüVé %»íe. uwty the Court, upon that Gentleman ài|<lc.ï|ap'wf Wí)5Í.ílhap lílt. Gove.-muent that nothins- should ha anne,in titi' iittetifa" to change the slate of the case, allowee! TiiW'n'n.f^Wonday for the purpose. In the interval, notwithstanding the under- taking of the Advocate-Fiscal, it pleased Sir J. Campbell, the Lieutenant-Governor (who is the sole legislator of the Island), to enact the reg-ui-ation which we abstract from the Ceylon (¡azette, now before us. It is thereby declared and enacted, that " ft t_« ., is, and shall be lawful, to auy officer, civil or military, or oilier person in whose custody any person may be contine«! by the authority or order of the Governor or l.ieiiteiiaut-Governor, to certify a copy of such order, in return to any process issui.ig- out of any Court calling ^n such officer to produce such person beton» it, which co«y shall he u sufficient re'urn to suc'i proce'is without producing thu body of such person, and no further proceedings shall be had by any Court nu such process touching such person."

On the Monday succeeding this extraordinary and arbi- trary enactment, the case caine . on before Sir'II, Giffard, thd Chief Justice of the Island, who was of course,'con t rou I ed in his authority by. the law passed in the i a termed inte time. We subjoin some extracts from the eloquent judg- ment which lie pronounced on the occasion :- -

." After hi'iinug the regulation just read, tile» Court might be well excused in pausing before it proceeded in thisca.se. It is obvious that we tread upon ground which "craves wary walking," and that caution is our best security. It behove's me that my publie conduct,'criticised as it ought to be, should be most paiticularly guarded and circumspect, and f.ir this reason I have reduced to writing the judgement I am about

to pronounce, und that writing-shall be. bulged with the Re-' gistrnr, who is empowered to allow copies of it to any person who shall chase to apply."

The learned Judge then proceeds to detail the facts of the ense, und thus concludes :

By this regulation the Cnurt is deprived ofW}i\''i{.{. °^ enquiii.ig into the cause of any person belti^^feflfltte'il, vvlioiji the Governor, the Secretary, or Depnt«,._»(*> litt 'htntikifty , may have ordered to be imprisoned-if ftXCjifl^.M^odOBfli from even a sight of the person sn''*ppri»qi|e(!.t>wd,^tß(f>ge ration extends to every human bei*gtoi1iH»"slamL or evei on board a ship in its roads and Ijnr^ijr^iiIljnuuWil.li^üähi a Judge to make obsr-'!. - ic_ ._.:_> _.r ".__....____.

the Legislature-I mu

» «orest subject in this island, liable ft* its tfp^&tirn., ,T"«inajj feel that this regulntiin places C y loti; ift^e f jtUMiadttf <|qfti? the only part of tiis Mnp'sty's doiuiuiuiis in which any tliiig like such an enactment prevails; but 1 must nckuoYl.*dg«. the power of the. Governor to make such, or auy other reg ti

lntîon whatever. Yet homnn power may find limitation wheu it seeks, to operate upon the mind, and when Hie regulation

undertakes to declare that to have been the law of thU Island, which the Chief Justice representing the Supremo Court, which hi« Majesty's Advocate Fiscal, his own Law Oflicer, which the whole stream of piecedents, and which tlie uniform usage of ti .Supreme Court, declare not to have, been the law ; it is no ¡reeve, euee even of hi« high authority, to suppose that it may fail of convincing the understanding, It is not flint such a regulation impends over me, as tv el I na every other subject ¡ii the Island; it is not because in the possible case of à bad Governor a 1 remendóos use might bo nn.de of ¡is power, flint I abstain from making any observa- tions; I trust tiwi, if personal danger only were'to he. en- countered, I should ¡tot fail in my duty ; but it is because Ï bow to the authority of my Sovereign, thus, as I trust, tctn poralily exercised Gy, his delegate, that I say, this return \* supported hy the regulation, that this regulation is the Inty of Ceylon, that we Tuite no right to inquire why this Britisii subject is deprived of his liberty, nut! that the Court i* re~ duced to the heart-bi caking necessity of saying that his Majesty1 Writ of ¡Jabeas Corpus is of no effect.''''

-000000

Dour..-Wednesday morning, a meeting took place at the Chalk Farm, between'n Mr. J. v--, late of the i'¿th Royal Lancers, and a Mr. O'B--, of the Royal Navy; the former was attended by Mrl S-S -, the hitter by au Irish gentlemen whose name we could not leam. After the li ist lire, au effort was made to bring about a reconciliation, which was streun.msly opposed by Mr. V. and the gentlemen, being one.e mor« supplied with pistols, the seconds were pro- ceeding to give the signal'to tire, when a report of the up. proach of the police suspended hostilities; the entire pin ty precipitately took to their carriages and drove off, pledging themselves to conclude flic mat ter elsewhere. The appear- ance of the police was, however, a mistake. '

- Lately, as sume workmen tveic digging for a foundation near the residence of Mrs. Thornton, on the road leading- to Pegwell, near Ramsgate, they discovered, within four feet of the surface, a hiiiuuu skeleton, which is supposed to have

been buried in 1200.

(í*ih igWíiwíCTis. ^fl> (£*">> /S^i^h^siiwiWv'Wth^Wtsswik^sfciS^ifr's^

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