operation, "except in a very few instances, where a section or clause, though rescinded or superseded, has been referred to in a subsequent Regulation, or where a provision in force during a certain period might occasionally require to be consulted in order to establish the admissibility of evidence."

Mr. Clarke has added a classified list of Titles, and a copious Index. This edition of the Madras Regulations, which is published by the authority of the Honourable Court of Directors, will be followed by new editions of the Regulations and Acts in force at the other Presidencies; and the entire work, when completed, will offer an uniform and compact edition of the whole body of the Laws enacted in India. The addition of the Indices, so generally wanting, or imperfect, in former editions, will render easy of access, in a commodious form, the contents of a number of bulky volumes, many of which are not easily to be procured. Mr. Clarke is entitled to the best thanks of the Indian community for his useful and important labours: the difficulties of the task, and the utility of the result, can only be appreciated by those whose duty or inclination has led them to study the Regulation Law of India.

In 1849 Mr. Fenwick published, at Calcutta, an Index to the Civil Law of the Presidency of Fort William, from 1793 to 1849 inclusive: it is formed on the plan of Dale's Index, already mentioned, which it may be said to have superseded.

The latest work on the Regulation Law is an Edition in 8vo. of the Code of Bombay Regulations, published in London in 1849, by Mr. Harrison of the Bombay Civil Service: the Editor has added Notes shewing the alterations made by the enactments subsequent to 1827, together with a number of valuable Interpretations, and an Epitome of the Acts of Government he has also given a very full Index. The arrangement of Mr. Harrison's work renders it peculiarly convenient of reference. He has retained the original division of the Code into five branches, and has entered the Supplements to each Regulation immediately after it; so that the

1 See Clarke's Madras Regulations-Prefatory Note.

whole Bombay Law on any given subject, as it now stands, is presented to the reader in a connected form.

The Acts of the Legislative Council of India are printed in India so soon as they are passed, and every publicity is given to them: they are also printed in England by order of the House of Commons.

Mr. Theobald has published at Calcutta a collection of the Acts of the Legislative Council of India, together with an Analytical Abstract prefixed to each Act, and copious Indices. This collection first appeared in 1844, and the learned Editor has since continued his work, which now comprises all the Acts from 1834 to the end of the year 1848.

Mr. Clarke's edition of the Regulations, as has already been stated, will contain the Acts in force in the respective Presidencies.

2. NATIVE LAWS.

The earliest trace which we find of the reservation to the natives resident in our territories in India of their own laws. and customs is in the Charter of George II., granted in 1753, in which there was introduced an express exception from the jurisdiction of the Mayors' Courts of all suits and actions between the Indian natives only, such suits and actions being directed to be determined among themselves, unless both parties should submit the same to the determination of the Mayors' Courts. This, however, was merely an exception to the jurisdiction; nor indeed does it appear that the native inhabitants of Bombay were ever actually exempted from the jurisdiction of the Mayors' Court, or that any peculiar Laws were administered to them in that Court.1

In Warren Hastings' celebrated plan for the administration of justice, proposed and adopted in 1772, when the East-India Company first took upon themselves the entire management of their territories in India, the 23d Rule especially reserved their own laws to the natives, and provided that "Moulavies

See Vol. II. of this work, p. 343.

or Brahmins" should respectively attend the Courts, to expound the law, and assist in passing the decree.

Subsequently, when the Governor-General and Council were invested by Parliament with the power of making Regulations, the provisions and exact words of the 23d Rule above mentioned were introduced into the first Regulation enacted by the Bengal Government for the administration of justice. This Regulation was passed on the 17th of April 1780.

By section 27 of this Regulation it was enacted, "That in all suits regarding inheritance, marriage, and caste, and other religious usages or institutions, the laws of the Koran with respect to Mahomedans, and those of the Shaster with respect to Gentoos, shall be invariably adhered to." This section was re-enacted in the following year, in the revised Code, with the addition of the word "succession."1

In the Statute Law relating to India no such express privilege was granted until the year 1781; the 13th Geo. III. c. 63, passed in 1773, which established the Supreme Court at Fort William, and the Charter of Justice of that Court, containing no clause specially denoting the law to be administered to the natives.

In the former year, however, the declaratory Act of the 21st Geo. III. c. 70, which was passed for explaining and defining the powers and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court at Fort William in Bengal, expressly enacted, by section 17, that, in disputes between the native inhabitants of Calcutta, "their inheritance and succession to lands, rents, and goods, and all matters of contract and dealing between party and party, shall be determined, in the case of Mahomedans by the laws and usages of Mahomedans, and in the case of Gentûs by the laws and usages of Gentûs; and where only one of the parties shall be a Mahomedan or Gentû, by the laws and usages of the defendant." Section 18 of the same Statute emphatically preserved to the natives their laws and customs, enacting that, "in order that regard should be had to the civil and religious usages of the said natives, the rights and

authorities of fathers of families and masters of families, according as the same might have been exercised by the Gentû or Mahomedan law, shall be preserved to them respectively within their said families; nor shall any acts done in consequence of the rule and law of caste, respecting the members of the said families only, be held and adjudged a crime, although the same may not be held justifiable by the laws of England." The next following section provided that the said Court might frame such process, and make such Rules and Orders for the execution thereof in suits Civil or Criminal against the natives of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, as might accommodate the same to the religion and manners of such natives, so far as the same might consist with the due execution of the laws and the attainment of justice.

This reservation of the native laws to Hindús and Muhammadans was extended to Madras and Bombay by sections 12 and 13 of the 37th Geo. III. c. 142, passed in 1797, under which Statute the Recorders' Courts at those Presidencies were established. Section 12 of this Statute re-enacted the 18th section of the 21st Geo. III. c. 70; and section 13 repeated verbatim the 17th section of the same Statute already quoted, with the addition, however, of " or by such laws and usages as the same would have been determined by if the suit had been brought and the action commenced in a native Court; and where one of the parties shall be a Mahomedan or Gentoo, by the laws and usages of the defendant: and in all suits so to be determined by the laws and usages of the natives, the said Courts shall make such rules and orders for the conduct of the same, and frame such process for the execution of their judgments, sentences, or decrees, as shall be most consonant to the religions and manners of the said natives, and to the said laws and usages respectively, and the easy attainment of the ends of justice; and such means shall be adopted for compelling the appearance of witnesses, and taking their examination, as shall be consistent with the said laws and usages, so that the suits shall be conducted with as much ease, and at as little expense, as is consistent with the attainment of substantial justice."

By the 39th & 40th Geo. III. c. 79, s. 5, and the 4th Geo.

IV. c. 71, s. 9, all powers and authorities granted to the said Recorders' Courts at Madras and Bombay were transferred to the Supreme Courts at those Presidencies to be established respectively under the said Statutes. The 22d section of the Charter of Justice of the Supreme Court at Madras, and the 29th section of the Charter of Justice of the Supreme Court at Bombay, contain the 13th section of the 37th Geo. III. c. 142, nearly word for word, and without any material addition or alteration.

Such is the Statute Law relating to this subject, and applying to the Supreme Courts of Judicature, and those natives within their jurisdiction. Of the Regulations passed for the direction of the Courts of the Honourable East-India Company, the first, as taking the lead in the enactment of this wise and just measure, has been already noticed. In 1793, section 15 of Regulation IV. of the Bengal Code enacted, that "in suits regarding succession, inheritance, marriage, and caste, and all religious usages and institutions, the Mahomedan laws with respect to Mahomedans, and the Hindoo laws with regard to Hindoos, are to be considered as the general rules by which the Judges are to form their decision." This section was extended to Benares and the Upper Provinces by section 3 of Regulation VIII. of 1795, and section 16 of Regulation III. of 1803 of the Bengal Code. The former of these last-mentioned Regulations by section 3, also enacted, in addition to the provisions of section 15 of Reg. IV. of 1793, that “in causes in which the plaintiff shall be of a different religious persuasion from the defendant, the decision is to be regulated by the law of the religion of the latter; excepting where Europeans, or other persons, not being either Mahomedans or Hindoos, shall be defendants, in which cases the law of the plaintiff is to be made the rule of decision in all plaints and actions of a civil nature."

In the year 1831 Moonsiffs generally throughout Bengal were directed to administer the Muhammadan laws with respect to Muhammadans, and the Hindú laws with regard to Hindús, in all cases of inheritance of, or succession to, landed property, and the law administered in such cases was to be the law of the defendant: where any doubts existed, they were