Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/619

 18. BRYCE: THE EXTENSION OF LAW 605 where there is really no native law or custom that can be shown to exist, the judge will naturally apply the principles of English law, handling them, if he knows how, in an un- technical way. Thus beside the new stream of united law which has its source in the codifying Acts, the various older streams of law, each representing a religion, flow peacefully on. The question which follows — What has been the action on the other of each of these elements? resolves itself into three questions : — How far has English Law affected the Native Law which remains in force? How far has Native Law affected the English Law which is in force? How have the codifying Acts been framed — i. e. are they a compromise between the English and the native element, or has either predominated and given its colour to the whole mass ? The answer to the first question is that English influence has told but slightly upon those branches of native law which had been tolerably complete before the British conquest, and which are so interwoven with religion that one may almost call them parts of religion. The Hindu and Musulman cus- toms which regulate the family relations and rights of suc- cession have been precisely defined, especially those of the Hindus, which were more fluid than the Muslim customs, and were much less uniform over the whole country. Trusts have been formally legalized, and their obligation rendered stronger. Adoption has been regularized and stiffened, for its effects had been uncertain in their legal operation. Where several doctrines contended, one doctrine has been affirmed by the English Courts, especially by the Privy Council as ultimate Court of Appeal, and the others set aside. Moreover the Hindu law of Wills has been in some points supplemented by English legislation, and certain cus- toms repugnant to European ideas, such as the self-immola- tion of the widow on the husband's funeral pyre, have been abolished. And in those parts of law which, though regu- lated by local custom, were not religious, some improvements -^