752 Report of a Trial for Rebellion, at Moulmein. [No. 166. 



1844. tries is understood to indicate a resolution to subvert 



July 19. 



the Government de facto. It is as proverbial in this 



PYA^nd^O sense nere as t0 indicate pirates among European na- 

 others. tions. 



The prisoner No. 10, Nga Han, being sick was not 

 tried; and No. 11, Nga Nyaik was acquitted. The pri- 

 soners No. 8, Nga Dairay, and No. 15, Nga Dok, were 

 convicted on the 1st count, and acquitted on the 2d, 

 and sentenced by the commissioner, Major Broadfoot 5 

 to be imprisoned for seven years from the 1st June 1844 ; 

 no mention was made of the 3d count. The commis- 

 sioner convicted all the other prisoners, and recorded 

 against them a sentence of death ; but, in his letter of 

 reference, he recommended the following remissions of 

 the extreme penalty of the law. 



To the prisoner No. 1, Nga Pyan, as the ringleader, 

 he said he had held out no hope of any commutation of 

 the sentence. Had no life been lost, he should have 

 recommended that even this person should be sentenced 

 merely to imprisonment for life ; but, as arms were re- 

 sorted to, he refrained from recommending any mitiga- 

 tion, leaving the matter entirely in the hands of the 

 Court. In the 17th* paragraph of his letter however, 

 he evidently leaned to the opinion, that justice would 

 be satisfied, and that policy required a commutation of 

 a sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life. 



The prisoners Nga Shoay Loo, No. 2, and Nga Shoay 

 Koo, No. 12, as influential and dangerous persons, not 



* 17th Para — " I beg further to recommend that the sentences 

 date from the 1st of July 1843, by which time all were apprehended 

 — and finally I subjoin the reasons referred to above for having, in 

 a case of offence so serious, and so nearly producing very calamit- 

 ous results, recommended punishment so lenient. 



" 1st. — The superstitious and national feelings of the people were 

 strongly appealed to; and leniency lessens the chance of the crimi- 

 nals being looked on as martyrs; indeed, in this case, will destroy 

 it. I believe if Nga Pyan be imprisoned for life, and the others 

 punished as above recommended, the general feeling will be that 

 mercy has been extreme, which is always the safer where the Go- 

 vernment is concerned. 



