Constitution of the Kandyan Kingdom. 237 
held to be culpable homicide, and punished by whipping through the street 
of Kandy, and imprisonment in a distant village. 
In such cases it does not appear that minute enquiry was made in order 
to ascertain the aggressor, or the degree of provocation given. In the 
majority of instances, which are numerous, the offender was punished in the 
manner above stated, but in no instance which I can learn with death. 
But if, after the termination of a quarrel and separation of the parties, one 
attacked and killed the other, it is considered wilful and deliberate homi- 
cide, and liable to a capital punishment. 
If two or more persons join in the commission of a robbery, and one of 
them commits homicide, the slayer is held guilty of wilful and deliberate 
homicide, the rest only guilty of the robbery. 
Ifa man kill another whois come to rob his house by night, the homicide 
is generally held to be not altogether free from blame, and liable to slight 
punishment. 
But two instances of such homicides which occurred in Kandy, and were 
brought under the King’s cognizance, passed without any animadversion 
whatever. 
If a man kill on the spot another found in the same room with his wife, 
under such circumstances that adultery is presumable, the homicide is held 
to be justifiable, and the perpetrator entirely innocent. 
If a man kill another by misadventure, the homicide is held to be ina 
slight degree culpable ; such accidents occur not unfrequently amongst the 
natives in hunting and shooting, and the offender is usually sentenced to a 
slight corporal punishment, or imprisonment and fine, as a warning to others 
against negligence. 
Maiming or depriving of an Organ or Member. 
Of this crime committed by an individual I can learn no instance, but it 
is held to be one of such magnitude, as can be competent only to the King’s 
jurisdiction. 
Robbery. 
The instances in which robberies have been punished with death are few, 
and all of which I have obtained information took place in the reign of the 
deposed King. 
In other cases they have been visited with corporal punishment, imprison- 
ment, and fine, in severity proportioned to their supposed atrocity. The 
