After the commencement of this Act, no European or American shall be liable to be sentenced or ordered, by any Court within the territories in the possession and under the Government of the East India Company, to be transported.

Any person who, but for the passing of this Act, would, by any Law now in force, or which may hereafter be in force, in any part of the said territories, be liable to be sentenced or ordered, by any such Court, to be transported, shall, if a European or American, be liable to be sentenced or ordered to be kept in penal servitude for such term as hereinafter mentioned.

The terms of penal servitude to be awarded by any sentence or order, instead of the term of transportation to which any such offender would, but for the passing of this Act, be liable, shall be as follows: (that is to say)

Instead of transportation for seven years, or for a term not exceeding-seven years, penal servitude for the term of four years.

Instead of any term of transportation exceeding seven years, and not exceeding ten years, penal servitude for any term not less than four and not exceeding six years.

Instead of any term of transportation exceeding ten years and not exceeding fifteen years, penal servitude for any term not less than six and not exceeding eight years.

Instead of any term of transportation exceeding fifteen years, penal servitude for any term not less than six and not exceeding ten years.

Instead of transportation for the term of life, penal servitude for the term of life. And in every case where, at the discretion of the Court, one of any two or more of the terms of transportation hereinbefore mentioned might have been awarded, the Court shall have the like discretion to award one of the two or more terms of penal servitude hereinbefore mentioned, in relation to such terms of transportation.

Provided always that nothing herein contained shall interfere with or affect the authority of discretion of any Court in respect of any punishment which such Court may now award or pass on any offender other than transportation; but where such other punishment may be awarded at the discretion of the Court instead of transportation or in addition thereto, the same may be awarded instead of, or (as the case may be) in addition to, the punishment substituted for transportation by this Act.

If any offender sentenced by any Court within the said territories to the punishment of death shall have mercy extended to him, upon condition of his being kept in penal servitude for life, or for any term of years, all the provisions of this Act shall be applicable to such offender in the same manner as if he had been lawfully sentenced under this Act to the term of penal servitude specified in the condition.

It shall be lawful for the Governor General of India in Council or for the person or persons for the time being administering the Executive Government of any Presidency or place in which a European or American has been lawfully sentenced by any Court to be transported, to order such person to be kept in penal servitude for the shortest term of penal servitude substituted by this Act for a term of transportation of the same extent as that to which the offender was sentenced, or that portion thereof which he shall not have undergone, provided that no person shall be kept in penal servitude under the provisions of this Section after the expiration of the term of transportation to which he was sentenced.

Every person who, under this Act, shall be sentenced or ordered to be kept in penal servitude, may, during the term of the sentence or order, be confined in any such prison or place of confinement within any part of the said territories as the Governor General of India in Council shall, by any General Order, from time to time direct; and may during such time, be kept to hard labour; and such person may, until he can conveniently be removed to such prison or place of confinement, be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, and dealt with in all other respects in the same manner as persons sentenced by the convicting Court to imprisonment with hard labour may, for the time being, by law be dealt with.

Proviso. Provided that the time of such intermediate imprisonment, and the time of removal from one prison to another, shall be taken and reckoned in discharge or part discharge of the term of the sentence.

All Acts and Regulations now in force within any part of the said territories, with respect to convicts under order or sentence of transportation, or under order or sentence of imprisonment with hard labour, shall, so far as may be consistent with the express provisions of this Act, be construed to extend and be applicable to persons under any order or sentence of penal servitude made or passed under this Act.

The person or persons for the time being administering the Executive Government of the Presidency or place in which any European or American convict is imprisoned, under a sentence or order of imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, whether with or without hard labour, may, with the consent of the Governor General of India in Council, order the removal of such prisoner from the prison or place in which he is confined to any other public prison or place of confinement within any part of the said territories; and such order shall be a sufficient authority for imprisoning the convict during the remainder of the term mentioned in the sentence, or any part of such term, in the Jail to which the prisoner is removed.

It shall be lawful for the Governor General of India in Council to grant to any convict who may hereafter be sentenced or ordered to be kept in penal servitude, a license to be at large within the said territories, or in such part thereof as in such license shall be expressed, during such portion of his term of servitude, and upon such conditions in all respects as to the Governor General of India in Council shall Seem fit; and it shall be lawful for the said Governor General in Council at any time to revoke or alter such license by a like order.

So long as such, license shall continue in force and unrevoked, such convict shall not he liable to imprisonment or penal servitude by reason of his sentence, but shall be allowed to go and remain at large according to the terms of such license.

In case of the revocation of any such license as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for one of the Secretaries to the Government of India by order in writing, to signify to any Justice of the Peace or Magistrate that such license has been revoked, and to require such Justice or Magistrate to issue a warrant for the apprehension of the convict to whom such license was granted, and such Justice or Magistrate shall issue his warrant accordingly; and such warrant may be executed by any officer to whom it may be directed or delivered for that purpose in any part of the said Territories, and shall have the same force and effect in any place within such Territories as if the same had been originally issued or subsequently endorsed by a Justice or Magistrate, or other lawful authority having jurisdiction in the place where the same shall be executed; and such convict, when apprehended under such warrant, shall be brought, as soon as he conveniently may be, before the Justice or Magistrate by whom the said warrant shall have been issued, or some other Justice or Magistrate of the same place, or before a Magistrate or Justice having jurisdiction in the zillah or district in which such convict shall be apprehended, and such Justice or Magistrate shall thereupon make out his warrant, under his hand and seal for the re-commitment of such convict to the prison or place of confinement from which he was released by virtue of the said license, and such convict shall be re-committed accordingly, and shall thereupon be liable to be kept in penal servitude for such further period as, with the time during which he may have been imprisoned under the original sentence or order, and the time during which he may have been at large under an unrevoked license, shall be equal to the period mentioned in the original sentence or order.

If a license be granted under Section IX of this Act upon any condition specified therein, and the convict to whom the license is granted violate any such condition, or shall go beyond the limits specified in the license, or, knowing of the revocation of such license, shall neglect forthwith to surrender himself, or shall conceal himself or endeavour to avoid being apprehended, he shall be liable, upon conviction, to be sentenced to penal servitude for a term not exceeding the full term of penal servitude mentioned in the original sentence or order.

Nothing in this Act is intended to alter or affect the provisions of the 12 and 13 Victoria Chapter 43, or any Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and I reland since the 28^th of August 1833, or which may hereafter be passed.

Any sentence, or order upon any person describing him as a European or American shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to be conclusive of the fact that such person is a European or American within the meaning of this Act.

The word European, as used in this Act, shall be understood to include any person usually designated a European British subject. Words in the singular number or the masculine gender shall be understood to include several persons as well as one person, and females as well as males, unless there be something in the context repugnant to such construction.

This Act shall commence from and after the first day of November 1855.