in the Scinde Saugor Doab, so far back as 1851, their failure to draw supporters demonstrated the important fact, that the submission first imposed by force of arms had ceased to be the badge of bondage, and that the rights and responsibilities of citizenship were not likely to be long misunderstood. During the rebellion of 1857 the Punjabees stood foremost among our subject allies; the zeal they evinced in the destruction of the enemies of Government cannot in fairness be wholly ascribed to the love of plunder, which, in certain cases, undoubtedly proved a valuable incentive. When streams of ill escorted convoys incessantly poured from the Punjab into the seats of war, the Government gratefully testified that not a waggon was plundered, not a beast of burden stolen, nor a rupee of treasure "lost.' Even in the worst days of our trial Government revenue was paid punctually throughout the Punjab, and wherever the emergency warranted a demand in advance, the money was forthcoming without a word of protest. The Punjab law courts are obeyed with an utter absence of recusancy or opposition of any sort. Resistance of process is unknown in the Punjab. A solitary policeman may execute a process against the proudest chief in the land, and the most powerful brotherhood would not venture to incur the serious consequences of resisting lawful authority. It is unfair to characterise the loyalty of the Punjabee as 'external,' best observed in profession,' or the 'result of " circumstances.' The heart of man is inscrutable; man's motives are not always certain. The maxims of the wise are, not to be credulous, not to sleep in security, nor, on the other hand, to be perpetually suspicious. Loyalty is of slow growth even when fostered by sympathy: if a conquered race appreciate our good will, regard our Government with gratitude, and shew a decided will to stand by us in time of danger, the blame should rest with us if a few designing and disappointed men can turn them away from the path of duty.* The few who regard our Government with no friendly eye, or with the indifference of unconcerned spectators, are the surviving members of the defunct polity. Brave men of mediocre ability, not unaccustomed to success in war, but strangers *It was false philosophy which tried to explain away Government incapacity by physical influence. Mr. Dorin, in his minute in council, which we quote at second hand, ascribed the evils of which the Missionary petition' complained to the physical structure of the people'; and asserted that 'nature and climate have at least as much to do with the evils, as any defect in the civil administration of the country.' to "the not less renowned" glories of peace; once the pride and terror of a warlike Government, they are now doomed to the. gloomy retirement of conscious incapacity. By turns the tools of unscrupulous factions, incapable of self-government, and restless in power, they were the men, who, with other kindred spirits, drew their swords to take part in the tragic events of September 15th, 1843; and who, later still, when the Seikh army resolved to indulge in piratical aggressions, were foremost in marshalling the proud battalions of the Khalsas for destruction in the battlefields of Moodkee, Ferozeshuhur and Sobraon. The bulk of the people have little in common with the advocates of anarchy, and wisely prefer the stern rules of property and law to the capricious generosity of princes and chieftains.* The most casual reference to a file of civil suits, in any ordinary tribunal in the Punjab, would convince us, that we have to deal with a people unused to intricacies of legal proceedings, that the transactions which form the subject matter of the disputes are themselves of a simple nature, and that for their judicial disposal, a simpler system than that which generally obtained in the older provinces was necessary. aver on the authority of experience, that not in one such case out of five hundred is the issue one of law; and that not in ten cases out of a hundred is the cause of action more involved than any ordinary matter of calculation may be. Mercantile We transactions of considerable value are carried on with mutual confidence and with a dread of legal complications which render their authoritative settlement, when circumstances entail such an unpleasant necessity, a matter of comparative ease. Το inflict on such a people laws and regulations, not only complicated and technical, but also obscure, incomplete and uncertain, would naturally deprive our Law Courts of popular confidence, fill the public mind with distrust, and render litigation a mere game of chance. To obviate the curse of such an anomaly, the late Board of Administration resolved that the Law Courts of the Punjab should also be Courts of Justice, and that instead of mystifying their procedure by a parade of useless legal formalities they should avoid all technicalities, circumlocution and obscurity, and simplify and abridge every rule, procedure and 'process.' Thus the first and the most important measure which has rendered the Punjab Government both popular and efficient * Or as M. Edmond About observes: the good pleasure of any man, however good it may be, is not so good as the code Napoléon.' Question Romaine, p. 4. was carried out in a spirit of honest earnestness, while its subsequent modifications, in accordance with rising exigencies, led still further to its appreciation by the people at large. Few indeed of the Board's Circular Orders have now been preserved in their verbal integrity; but every successive alteration has had for its object public good, and public approval has endorsed every successive reform. By rendering our judicial system comprehensible to the people, we had from the beginning secured such confidence in our administration of the public interests, that in our trial the people willingly acquiesced in the honesty of such 'moves' as were unintelligible to them. You have expended lacs,' said an old Seikh Chieftain, 'you have expended lacs in giving 'justice to the injured, you will not deceive us for the little we 'have.' Wherever else we may have failed to render our Judicial system acceptable, in the Punjab we have succeeded beyond all hopes. Not the least gratifying feature of our success is the cost at which it has been achieved. We have given to a simple people a system of law simple and effective, and which must fall into very degenerate hands indeed before it can be diverted from its original and righteous use. We have given them a civil code, which embodies the main provisions of the native laws in matters of social and commercial importance, while in the other branches of law it lays down such marked principles as are from their universality easily understood. We have also given them a penal code, not essentially different from that of the North West Provinces, but yet in certain important particulars deviating therefrom according to local experience and the idiosyncracy of the people. It has worked most satisfactorily; but it was evident, even to the late Board that the good results, to be expected from the effective and zealous aid hitherto afforded by the people to Government in the criminal department, would cease, when our system became unintelligible to them. The chief cause of the unpopularity of the law courts of Bengal and the Provinces is, the exaggerated elaboration of 'their routine and useless ramifications of their legal defences, as distasteful to those who had to administer as incompre'hensible to the people.' In our administration of the Punjab the fate of the sister provinces was to serve at once as a warning and a guide. As long as we allow a recourse to law to be a mere struggle with chance, it would be unfair to charge the natives with an inordinate love of litigation. Avarice is usually reckoned their ruling passion, but we seldom find that a love of money and a love of litigation are wedded to each other in lasting harmony. But let what was legal to-day be illegal tomorrow, let confused and contradictory regulations hold out to the guilty a chance of escape, let us substitute absurd crotchets for necessary technicalities, and uncertainty and laxity for certainty and severity of punishment, we can then realise the fact, that the most covetous people on earth would be tempted to take their chance in the legal lottery, till justice or injustice, as the case may be, deals out to the unfortunate litigant eventual ruin. Instead of superseding the lex loci by a muddle of acts and precedents, a Civil Law half English and half native,' the Punjab administrators evinced the greatest solicitude to enlist its invaluable support on the side of government. By adapting our laws to local customs and usages, to such systems of laws as have from time out of mind served as popular standards in matters relating to social economy, we have not only spread general content, but have successfully conciliated the most determined enemies of the new regime. In purely social matters the province of the lex loci is most extensive, and experience has proved beyond all doubt that in such matters foreign laws, when they have been opposed to the feelings of the people, have done the greatest amount of mischief. Prejudices not opposed to morality, public policy or positive law, which the lex loci has tolerated and of which society does not demand the immediate extinction, may be suffered to exist till they ripen, fall, and perish for ever. It is in our treatment of these social peculiarities that in the older provinces we have either been weak to indifference or recklessly severe, or have allowed abstract principles to alienate from us the sympathy of the great bulk of the people. As regards the rules of inheritance, marriage, caste, disposition of property and such like matters, the Punjab code is chiefly the exponent of the local laws. By acknowledging the use and complying with the precepts of ancient usages, which have a hold on the affection and veneration of the people, we have ourselves acquired an influence on their minds, which is calculated in course of time to identify the interests of the government with those of the people, while, on the other hand, wherever we have set aside the principle of discriminate assimilation, we have surrounded our path with difficulties against which our best efforts have proved abortive. Let it not be fancied however that the Punjab government has carried conciliation beyond its legitimate limits. Though in social transactions local customs have in most cases the force of law, no concession has been made in the treatment of even such crimes as an ignorant people had been accustomed to associate with spurious honour. The spirit of humanity, which so strongly characterizes our criminal jurisprudence, has been preserved in its integrity in the Penal code of the Punjab, but abstract principles have not been allowed wantonly to outrage the feelings of a people not slow in their resentments. Adultery, which is viewed in the Punjab with a vindictiveness which will not stop short of death, is punished with a severity which cannot be reconciled with the prevailing opinion on social injuries in more civilized countries, while Infanticide which the people had come to regard as almost a social necessity, was put down without the most distant thought of a compromise; it was clearly avowed that government trusted to the rulers of native society to devise the means of suppressing the evil, without allowing them any discretion in the matter. Thus crimes of great enormity, which were allied to popular favour, have been put down all over the province with a resolution that would brave a rebellion. To a great extent we are indebted for our success, to the spirit of self-government common to the village communities of the Punjab. The local government wisely cherished this valuable element in village societies, and, by investing them with a subordinate responsibility, it has succeeded in economising the labour, and in increasing the efficiency of the large body of government detectives. Village responsibility is regarded as an important trust; it has kept village-headmen on the alert, while their personal influence has put down certain classes of offence, to which police vigilance offered no effectual check. The excellent system of khoj, or tracking criminals to their homes and haunts, rests solely on the responsibility of village headmen for the good behaviour of their charge. The men who incur the responsibility also enjoy certain privileges; and the experience of the past affords sufficient security for the proper discharge of the duties, as well as the reasonable exercise of the privileges. Any abuse of the privilege or any incompetence in the discharge of the duty, is visited with certain and immediate retribution. Meanwhile it is clear that the local influence of the Lumberdars can be so employed in the cause of order, as to offer the most successful and the least obnoxious means of preserving peace and controlling the disaffected. To this spirit of self-government we ascribe the extensive use of arbitration in the settlement of disputes of a purely social character. It not only materially lessens the work of the Punjab law courts, but in certain classes of civil actions, where the cause of litigation is deeply imbedded in domestic secrecy, it is the only means of offering to the aggrieved parties what the Board of Administration called 'substantial justice.' To this popular tribunal matters connected with local usage |