dor, at the principal mosque in the city of Hydrabad.

His late highness is succeeded by his eldest son, Mirza Secunder Jah. Minute guns were fired at all the principal stations, in testimony of the respect due to the memory of his late highness the Nizam.

Accession of his Highness Secundur

Jah, to the Musnud.

On the morning of the 7th inst. at the time appointed for the ceremony of his highness's accession, major Kirkpatrick, the British resident at Hydrabad, and all the principal officers and persons of distinction at the court of Hydrabad, proceeded to the palace of his highness Secunder Jah, where the British resident and his attendants were received by his highness with every mark of attachment, honour, and respect.

His highness then proceeded, accompanied by the resident, to the public hall of audience, where his highness, conducted by major Kirkpatrick, as the representative of the British government, and by rajah Ragotim Row as the deputy of the prince minister of the state, ascended the musnud.

The resident having publicly acknowledged his highness Secunder Jah as Souhbadar of the Deccan, the gentlemen of the resident's family, and the officer commanding the British troops at Hydrabad, made the usual presents of ceremony to bis highness. After which all the officers of state, and persons of distinction who were in attendance, also made their presents of ceremony to his highness. On the conclusion of this ceremony, his highness Secunder Jah delivered to the British resident, a written instrument under his highness's scal and signature, containing a

formal recognition of all the treaties and engagements which subsisted between his late highness the nizam, and the British government.

On the evening of the same day, royal salutes were fired from the fort of Golcondah, and from the walls of the city of Hydrabad, and at the residence of the British representative.

On the 8th inst. his highness's younger brothers, the princes Feredoon Jah, Jehandar Jah, and Akber Jah, waited on his highness, and made their presents of ceremony on the occasion of his highness's accession.

Letters were dispatched to the armies on the frontier, notifying the decease of his highiness the nizam, and the accession of his eldest son Secunder Jah to the musnud, and a proclamation to the same effect was published in the city of Hydrabad, and was ordered to be made public at the principal places within his highness's dominions.

The public rejoicings, usual on similar occasions, have been postponed until the expiration of the period of mourning for the decease of his late highness, Nizam Ali Khawn.

Royal salutes and three vollies of musquetry were fired from the ramparts of Fort William, and at all the principal military stations, in honour of the accession of his highness Secunder Jah, to the musnud of the Soubahdarry of the Deccan.

Sinking Fund.

Fort William, August 18. The public is hereby informed, that the sum expected to be applicable to the redemption of the public debt by the commissioners

of

cumstances are present which either justify the act altogether, or at least reduce it to a much lower degree of guilt, and I am not aware that any such enquiry will now be necessary.

But there is another offence, of which indeed I see no example in the calendar, that is likely to be prevalent in a port of such extensive trade as Bombay, and, as I am informed, has on former occasions, prevailed to a most alarming extent, rendered still more alarming by the doubts which were entertained whether it were legally punishable. I mean the crime of attempting to set fire to ships, where the attempt has been unsuccessful, where it has been defeated either by unfortunate accident or by the timely interposition of the well disposed. In an offence so atrocious and dangerous, so malignant in its own nature, and so extensively mischievous, in all its direct and indirect consequences, I deem it my duty to put an end to these doubts, and to make the law on this subject publicly known.

By the stat. 33 G. III. chap. 67. sec. 3. (made perpetual by 41 G. III. chap. 19)" any person or persons, "who shall wilfully and malici

ously burn or set fire to any ship, "keel, or any vessel---shall be "adjudged guilty of felony, with "out benefit of clergy." Now the words set fire to have not yet received any construction from a determination of the judges. But the same words in the description of the very similar offence of Arson (the burning of houses) have been repeatedly determined by all the judges of England, to be applicable to every case, where any part, however small, of the house was actually burnt---In the same manner, I now inform you, that where

ever any part, however small, of the ship, is actually burnt, the capital felony of "setting fire to a ship" is complete. And even if the incendiaries be stopt before the actual consumption of any part of the vessel which is not often probable, the law is not, in that case, without the means of punishment for those who as far as depended on them, have consummated their guilt. For since the case of the king against Higgins, which is reported in the second volume of Mr. East's Terms Reports, and which I myself heard argued on the part of the prisoner, with extraordinary ability, by my most ingenious friend Mr. Scarlett, it can no longer be doubted, that every attempt to commit a felony is a misdemeanour. Now as the burning a ship is made a felony by the statutes which I have quoted, it necessarily follows that every attempt to burn a ship is by the law of England, indictable as a misde

meanour.

And here, gentlemen, I might close my address. But on this first occasion of speaking to you, I cannot forbear from making some observations on other subjects, which though not immediately connected with any single law or any single crime, are nevertheless of the utmost importance to the general

administration of justice; English judges have at all times spoken to grand juries, and through them to the public, in that tone of friendly (allow me to say) of paternal admonition which is not unbecoming the judicial character. On my arrival here I conceived it to be my first duty to collect some information about the character and morality of the people, the degree and kind of vice prevalent in the little community entrusted to my

care.

criminal court as a measure of the guilt of the community, indeed the universal testimony of Europeans, however much I may suspect occasional and partial exaggeration, is an authority too strong for me to struggle with, and I observe that the accomplished and justly celebrated person (Sir W. Jones) who carried with him to this country a prejudice in favor of the natives, which he naturally imbibed in the course of his studies, and which in him, though not perfectly rational, was neither unamiable nor ungraceful, I observe that even he, after long judicial experience, reluctantly confesses their general depravity. The prevalence of perjury which he strongly states, and which I have myself already observed, is perhaps a more certain sign of the general dissolution of moral principle than other more daring and ferocious crimes much more horrible to the imagination, and of which the immediate consequences are more destructive to society.

These are questions which all wise men acknowledge to be of infinite difficulty, even when we are content with those probable results which are sufficient for mere speculation. And their difficulty, it must be owned, is mightily increased, when we require that certainty on which alone prudence could act in matters which so nearly concern the happiness of multitudes of human beings. Difficult how ever as they are, it is a difficulty with which it is, in my humble opinion, the bounden duty of every law-giver and magistrate (however humble his station, and however weak his means of usefulness, or obscure his sphere of action) constantly and resolutely to struggle, heither depressed by disappoint

ment, nor deterred by enmities, but considering that the main end of life is to make some at least of the human race happier, which is most effectually done by making them better, that many ineffectual attempts must be made in order that a few should succeed, and that if we fail increasing the happiness and virtue of others, the very attempt will constitute our own happiness and improve our own virtue.

For perjury indicates the absence of all the common restraints which withhold men from crimes. Perjury supposes the absence of all fear of human justice, and bids defiance to all human laws; it supposes also either a contempt for public opinion, or (what is worse) a state of society in which public opinion has ceased to brand with disgrace, actions that ought to be infamous. It is an attack upon religion and law in the very point of their union for the protection of human society. It is that crime which tends to secure the impunity of all other crimes, and it is the only crime which weakens the foundation of every right, by rendering the administration of justice, on which they all depend, difficult, and in many cases impossible.

But, gentlemen, though it be reasonable to examine the character of those over whom we have authority, and to calculate the mischievous consequences of crimes, and though it be useful to spread an abhorrence of these crimes by just representations of their nature and tendency, it is very useless, and very unreasonable, to indulge ourselves in childish anger and childish invective; when we are speaking of the moral diseases of great nations, the reasonable questions always are---How have they been produ

ced?