Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra23241891roya).pdf/211

 as are or may be enacted under the provisions of Regulation No. III of 1823, dated the 20th January last, with such others of a more general nature as may be directed by a higher Authority or which may necessarily accrue under the provisions of the Legislature and the political circumstances of the Settlement as a Dependence of Great Britain. Admitting these rights to exist, it follows that all acts by which they are invaded are wrongs, that is to say, crimes or injuries.

In the enactment of Laws for securing these rights, legal obligation must never supercede or take place of or be inconsistent with or more or less onerous than moral obligation. The English practice of teaching prisoners to plead not guilty, that they may thus have a chance of escaping from punishment, is inconsistent with this and consequently objectionable. It is indeed right and proper that the Court should inform itself of all the circumstances of a crime from witnesses as well as from the declaration of the prisoner himself. Denial is in fact an aggravation of a crime according to every idea of common sense. It disarins punishment of one of its most beneficial objects by casting a shade of doubt over its justice.

The sanctity of oaths should also be more upheld than in the English Courts. This may be done by never administering them except as a dernier resort. If they are not frequently administered, not only will their sanction be more regarded and in this way their breach be less proportionately frequent, but of necessity much more absolutely uncommon and consequently much more certainly visited with due punishment in all cases of evidence given before a Court of Justice.

The imprisonment of an unfortunate debtor at the pleasure of the creditor, by which the services of the individual are lost to all parties, seems objectionable in this Settlement, and it is considered that the rights of property may be sufficiently protected by giving to the creditor a right to the value of the debtor's services for a limited period in no case exceeding 5 years, and that the debtor should only be liable to imprisonment in case of fraud, and as far as may be necessary for the security of his person in the event of his not being able to find bail during the process of the Court and for the performance