"363. Whoever, intending to take fraudulently any It was then moved by Baboo Bhobaneychurn Bonerjee, and seconded by Rajah K. Baha-thing which is property, and which is not attached to door, that the address read be adopted the earth, out of the possession of any person, without that person's consent, moves that thing in order to such taking, is said to commit theft.""

carried nem. con.

-

To this clause is attached certain.

earth.

"A thing which is attached to the earth becomes capable of being the subject of theft as soon as it is severed from the earth.

"A moving effected by the same act which effects the severance may be a theft.

A person who by any means induces an animal to move in a direction in which he intends to induce that animal to move, is said to move that animal, and to move every thing which in consequence of the motion so caused is moved by that animal.

Baboo R. S — now rose to address the chair,-Sir, it is with feelings of exceeding joy and gratification that I have watched the Explanations. All things fastened to any thing proceedings of this meeting from its commencement to the present period, and I assure you,attached to the earth, are said to be attached to the gentlemen, that the sentiments which have been uttered are worthy of being recorded in characters of gold. I fully approve of all that has been said, and of the resolutions to which you have come. Bat there is one point, a very essential one, which seeds yet to have been overlooked, I mean the provision of the ways and means whereby the law promulgated by "The words to move a thing' include the cases in Mr. Macaulay is to be kept in full day. This which a person causes a thing to move by removing an end cannot be accomplished without pecuniary obstacle which prevented it from moving or by separat aid. You will perhaps recollect, that in the ing it from any other thing. early period of the British Indian rule, there was a court called the Zat Mall Cutchery, which took coguizance of religious offences, of questions relating to caste, marriages, &c. and that in 1828, the late lamented President of this Shubha endeavoured to revive it by offer"The consent mentioned in the definition may be exing a wholesome sugggestion to the police] committee. I would wish to see such a court press, or implied, and may be given either by the person re-established, and its expenses defrayed by in possession, or by any person having for that purpose levying a tax similar to the haldary or the mar-authority, either express or implied, from the person in riage tax levied by Government, prior to 1772, possession. at the variable rates of three rupees eight annas, and four rupees. The revival of a tax like this would afford ample means to the Government to establish separate and distinct courts for the purpose of trying cases, likely to become cognizable under the provisions of Mr. Macaulay's code. I therefore move that the Government be solicited to establish such a court, and levy the tax I have alluded to. Seconded by Baboo B. C. Gangoly, and mitted theft." carried unanimously.

Moved by Rajah K. Bahadoor, and seconded by Rajah R. Bahadoor, that the honourable T. B. Macaulay be elected an honorary mem ber of the Dhurma Shubba, carried nem. con.

Thanks were then voted to the chairman for his able conduct, and meeting dissolved, the members exclaiming with great exultion ধর্ম্মএর হতো হন্তি ধর্ম্মোরক্ষতি রক্ষিতঃ

তস্মাব্ধম্মো নহন্তব্যঃ

মনঃ

"Virtue being destroyed, will destroy its destroyer, -being preserved, will preserve its preserver. It must never, therefore, be violated."-Munu.

[Bengal Herald, January 30.

We come now to the consideration of the chapter of the new code, which treats of theft. The Covert Act, it seems, which constitutes the "offence" of theft, consists in the "moving a thing"-we should have said removing a thing, but let that pass.

"A person may commit theft though he intends to restore the property after taking it."

And then follows a string of "illustrations," such as the following:

"(a) A cuts down a tree on Z's ground with the intention of fraudulently taking the tree out of Z's pos session without Z's consent, Here, as soon as A has severed the tree, in order to such taking, he has com

Now we say that he has not, even by the code; for what say the explanations?

"A thing which is attached to the earth becomes capable of being the subject of theft, as soon as it is severed from the earth."

Constantly, therefore, with this “explanation" the tree which was before attached to the earth, as soon as it is cut down by A "becomes capable of being the subject of theft," and no more; and until A proceed to remove such tree, it is impossible to tell whether A intends to steal it or no. He may have cut it down from spite and anger, in revenge for some injury done, or supposed by him to have been done against him by Z. "Oh" but, says the commissioner," he may have written to a friend that his intention was to cut down and steal A's tree." That is not the case put; but no matter, we say that even that would not help the matter. The code might as well say that a man as soon as he has broken into a house with a view to rob it, has robbed it ; and according to this reasoning, if A break into Z's house with intention to rob it, the moment he sets foot in it be has robbed the house; and since having as yet taken nothing,

embraces of the hoop-bound hogshead, and irrigate the
barren and the thankless floor? Again we say, that Z is
claims, he has robbed me of my beer.'
to be excused, if, in bewailing him of such a loss, he ex-
But we will

no particular object can be specified, there- sion, especially when lamenting him of so grievous a fore his robbery is general; that is to say, he loss. What mattered it to Z whether A had piliered ir, has robbed it of every thing that is in or caused it to begin and continue to move, out of the it; so that, because he has taken nothing at all, he has taken every article in the house, from the lady's jewels and wardrobe to the shirt, that is on the gentleman's back. According not allow such loose language to a legislator. Z has in to this kind of argument, if A snap a pistol a the case above committed no theft; he has committed an poor Z with intention to kill him, A has kill-offence it is true and ought to be punished; but he caned Z out-right, notwithstanding that Z is per-not be punished for theft, seeing that he has stolen no. fectly unhurt, and that the pistol was nothing. loaded!-We think that the commissione The next illustration savors of the ludicrous. who devised this method of taking the will "(c) A puts a bait for dogs in his pocket, and thus for the deed, may well call out εvonka; he induces Z's dog to follow A. Here it A's intention be has discovered that which has so long been fraudulently to take the dog out of A's possession, with sought for by the friend of humanity and the out Z's consent, A has committed theft as soon as Z's legislator, and sought for in vain. He has dog begins to follow A."

discovered a method by which the deadly The object of this illustration we suppose effects of duelling may be neutralized. Hence- is to fix the moment when theft is committed, forth instead of recording in our columus the which we should think not very possible, fatal result of an appeal to pistols, we shall without we could call in the evidence of have the far more gratifying task of penning Towzer himself. A has, in his great-coat such paragraphs as this, yesterday morning pocket, some savory viands which he artfully a duel took place between Captain A and Mr. places betwixt the wind and the canility of Z. The parties having taken their ground, Towzer. The nostrils of Tow zer being transCapt. A declared his intention to be to shoot ported with delight, he begins to move toMr. Z through the head, and Mr. Z having wards A, but we should think it very difficult made the same declaration, the signal was for any one to fix that moment. But let us given, the parties fired, and both being killed, suppose that whilst A is walking off, with the seconds declared themselves satisfied, and all four went home to a cheerful breakfast together." This we hope will be one of the happy results of the new code.

Let us take another "illustration."

66

Steal

Towzer nosing his great-coat pocket, Tow. zer's master appears upon the stage and calis his dog away from A's great-coat pocket. Now, according to the code, A has stolen Towzer; let us then suppose that Z charge him with" the offence" and accuses A under ' (b) A pulls a bung out of a hogshead of liquor in this clause, what will A say in his defence? Z's possession, with the intention of fraudulently taking We should imagine as follows: " some of the liquor without Z's consent. you call As soon as the this a bait for dogs. Why, it is my own dinliquor begins to flow, "A has committed theft." Here ner. It is not quite so good perhaps as your we must again dissent from the code A in this case dinner, or even the dinner you give to your has not committed theft, until he has actually received dogs; but it is the best I can afford. some of the liquor into his mouth, without the interven-your dog, indeed, why, it was your dog that tion of other recipient, jug, mug, or what not, usually wanted to steal my dinner; and most likely employed in the conveyance of liquor to the mouth; o has received some of it in some such vessel by him em to snap a bit out of the calf of my leg. I ployed for the purpose. Let us illustrate this illustra charge you, under the new code, with letting tion a little further, and we shall perceive the utter abo loose a furious dog" intending or knowsurdity of this minute doctrine of beginning to move.ing it to be likely to cause Z to believe that Let us suppose that at the moment, that A has pulle he (the dog) is about to assault Z." Here out' a bung from Z's hogshead of Hodgson's best ale, the tables are turned indeed so placed as that the moment the bung is taken out, the A becomes Z, and our old friend Z primus, Z becomes A, liquor will begin to move' or, in plain language, run instead of getting A punished for dog-stealout of the cask. Now, let us suppose that just as Aing, falls himself within the penalties of the has pulled out the bung, he sees or hears, or faucies clause, which provides against that he sees or hears Z coming with a big stick to de-thew of assault" by means of" a furious dog making fend his barrel, and therefore A scampers off, as fast as he can, without having had time to unmuzzled." Poor Z! somehow or other he secure a single drop of liquor. Well, A having run away, and the ale always comes off second best under the new having began to move' for want of a bung, which A in code. By advice of the code he charges A his hurry had forgotten to replace, the liquor continues to with dog-stealing, and is himself trounced in run and run-labitur et labetur, till the whole has escap consequence, by the very same code for ed, or at least till the liquor within the cask has found"shew of assault." All this is enough to the level of the bung-hole. Here according to the new break Z's heart. But the code itself, strange code, A has committed theft, and actually stolen the to say, takes upon itself the burden of definwhole hogshead of beer, although he never received a drop of it into his own possession. What cannot, cannot that the following is not theft: ing what is not theft, and nobody will deny exist consistently with truth, cannot be all. We say that it is not true, to say that A in the above case has "(k) A delivers his watch to Z, a jeweller, to be committed a theft. It is true that in common parlanceregulated, Z carries it to his shop. A, not owing to the and in poetical language, poor Z, when he comes to dis-jeweller any debt for which the jeweller might lawfully cover his loss, may be allowed to exclaim in the anguish letain the watch as a security, enters the shop openly, of his heart, he has robbed me of my beer.' We takes his watch by force out of Z's hand, and carries it

46

nal trespass and assault, has committed no theft, inas-out Z's express consent. Here, it is probable that A much as what he did was not done fraudulently." may have conceived that he had Z's implied consent to use Z's books. If this was A's impression, A has not committed theft."

THE

CALCUTTA MONTHLY JOURNAL.

ASIATIC NEWS.

1838.

VICTORIA BALL.

The long expected and much talked of VICTORIA But we must speak of the Town Hall. When we BALL, was at length consummated last night. It had first entered it, we found ourselves in a very bower of been for months in agitation, at one time laid on the roses, and we thought of Oberon and Titania, and the shelf and like to expire, at another revived and newly in- fairies of the "Midsummer's Night's Dream," though vigorated; once we almost feared that it was doomed to this, in truth, is mid-winter,-and we looked around for be one of those many anticipated events which never ad- little Puck and his frolics, and before very long we disvance further than the embryo; but now it has actually covered him in the shape of a two-penny Postman; and been perfected in the womb of time, has existed, and is we thought of the "bower of roses by Bendemeer's departed-gone, gone to the sepulchre of the past. All streams," and of the nightingale who last sang the pretty the bustle, and turmoil and excitement is now over, the song to us. When we arrived in the ball room, we vesture-makers will have a little breathing time, the were quite bewildered; we knew not whether we were curious nothing further to enquire about the mystery-in Greece, or Switzerland, or the Highlands of Scotlovers nothing to conceal, but the gossips plenty to talk land, or Fairy-land, or whether we were taking a part in about. A pageant of this elaborate nature has general-a tableau vivant, representing an apotheosis of Walter ly a fortnight's moral existence,-it exists a week in prospect and a week in retrospect. It has now become something to talk about.

Never in our recollection has the City-of-Palaces been more full of youthful beauty than it is at the present moment. Bright eyes and rosy cheeks, and pale ones too, which, to us, at least, are still more fascinating ("pale with high and passionate thoughts," as L. E. L. expresses it, in somewhat the same strain as that in which Shakespeare speaks of a cheek, "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought") and light forms full of grace and elegance, and sweet voices now abound every where. There was a time, when we eschewed society, and look ed upon a Fancy Ball as nothing better than a vanity fair;" but we honestly confess that we have been utterly

—, and a

Our so

unable to resist the fascinations of this season.
cial propensities have been called into action to a degree
altogether unprecedented in a life, which has not been
a very brief one.
Who can remain at home when a
and a, and * *, exercise
their irresistible witchery in the mazes of the graceful
dance? Not we-not we !-when we look a-
round upon the throng of graceful,
ing forms which fit about like young Sylphides,
the buoyance of our by-gone days, again invigorates our
frames, and we fancy ourselves in reality young again,
ever exclaiming in the words of a poet, whom we do not
very often cite as an authority,

There's not a joy the world can give
Like that it takes away.

undulat

Oh !indeed, when we look upon these fairy forms, we almost imagine that we have fallen into the hands of Medusa, who has cast us into her magic cauldron and made us young again. We have been before the public long enough to have been often cut up without the as

Scott, such a diversity of mimic garbs were there pre-
sent, so many costumes of different nations were making
up the motley throng. We wish we could do justice to
the assembled multitude, and give a correct account of
whose dicta, are gospel to us, he who does his best
the fancy dresses; but as we have been often told by one,

Does well, does nobly, angels could no more,
we herewith begin our attempt.

assies, are the first in order, to whom we must allude. Miss M. A. Ross and Mrs. Gordon, attired as Scotch Doctor Johnson said, that the only fine prospect which

"

to London; but the Lexicographer would not have said Scotchman ever sees is the high-road which takes him this, if he had seen such sweet Highland lassies in Scotland as we saw last night at the Town Hall, Towards the latter part of the evening a highland reel was danced Mr. Edwards, &c. The two gentlemen whom we have in excellent style by the two Misses Ross, Dr. Stewart, mentioned, were dressed in a corresponding costume, Avenel, looked the lovely high-born damsel to perfection; and admirably attired they were. Miss Erskine, as Mary but we should have thought from her grace and elegance ana," and not in the rustic neighbourhood of the Scottish that she had spent all her days fn the Court of Felicitumes, looked, as they ever do, very pretty and fascinatMonastery. The two Misses Godby, in Polish cosing. Mrs. Parker was splendidly attried as Anne of Austria, and Mr. Parker, in one of the finest dresses in the room, supported the part of the Duke of Buckingham. Miss Trower was a pretty little Swiss peasant. Mrs. Pierce Taylor, and Miss Shaw were tastefully attired, as we think, but we may be wrong, in the costumes of the Tyrol, and Mr. Taylor looked as though he had just stepped out of one of Lewis's pictures. Mr. Bayley was very correctly attired as the Master of Ravenswood; Mr. Henry Palmer as Sir Giles Overreach; Mr. William Palmer as Rienzi, and Mr.Stocqueler

dress, assumed the character of Charles the Se- The next is an Acrostic, and therefore it would be Mr Kaye, as Sir Piercie Shafton, dressed needless to say to whom it is addressed.

To Miss Erskine the following Acrostic was delivered; we particularly admire the bathos at the end, and if the poet's request was complied with, we are sure that he was better paid for his bardship than any Poet Laureate on record.