253 



On Slavery iti Soufhern India. 



[July 



nion, unless the prohibition to sell slaves for arrears of revenue due to 

 them, contained in niy letter as Soerctary to the Board of Revenue of 

 the 23d December IS 19, be coiisulcreii of that desniption. The exis- 

 tence of British rule, the piincinles of whieh are hostile to all restraint 

 on lilDerty, and the maintenance of such principles in the local code of 

 laws passed since ISO'2, by the Government of Madras, for the internal 

 rule of their provinces, without any enactment on the subject of 

 slavery itself, have no doubt, tended to check mmy gross abuses, 

 previously practised under the native governments, by masters to- 

 wards their slaves. Tiie vi' inity of some of the Tamil slaves to 

 the Presidency itself, where the existence of the British code, ren- 

 ders slavery altogether unknown, and the facility with which seme 

 have taken refuge there, and entered '\\\Co the service of Europeans, 

 and even into the native army, combined with the circumstance of 

 most of the Tamil slaves belonging to a village conmiunity, rather 

 than to individuals, and with the ancient usage or common law 

 against their removal from their native village, have perhaps raised 

 them above their brethren on the other coast ; but much remains 

 still to be done, to improve the condition of both. 



In my replies to the foregoing queries, i have given all the infor- 

 mation I possess with respect to facts connected with slavery in 

 India. 



I have ever been of opinion that British policy ought to be direct- 

 ed, not only to the immediate practical amelioration of East India 

 slavery, but to its ultimate, though gradual abolition. 



In drawing up the Minute of the Board of Revenue of the 5th 

 January 1818, whilst I pointed out the injustice of interfering with 

 the private property which masters possess in their slaves, and the 

 danger of too suddenly disturbing the long-established relations in 

 lociety subsisting between these two orders, I induced the Board to 

 call for information, from the several provinces, for the purpose of 

 defining by a legislative enactment the power to be exercised by 

 masters over their slaves, and thus preventing abuse or oppression ; 

 and with respect to those on the western coast in particular, a le- 

 gislative enactment was suggested, to prevent their being removed 

 against their will from the place of their nativity, or being exposed 

 to sale by auction, in execution of decrees of court or in realization 

 of arrears of revenue. In my subsequent letter of the 23d Decem- 

 ber 1819, the practice of selling slaves for arrears of revenue was 

 directed, by the Board of Revenue, to be discontinued, in the only 

 district under the Madras Presidency where the practice had occur- 

 red ; and in laying before the Government, on the 13th December, 



