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kind referred to, in which any one of its inhabitants 

 was concerned. 



These judges would be fettered by no codes and no 

 forms of procedure, and they would hear both parties' 

 stories, coram populo, on the village platform of the 

 debtor's own village. It is needless to tell any one 

 who knows the country that while, when you get him 

 into court, no witness seems to be able to tell the 

 truth, on his own village platform, surrounded by his 

 neighbours, no villager in personal questions like 

 these seems able to tell an untruth. Everybody 

 knows everybody else's affairs; let the speaker deviate 

 perceptibly from the facts, and immediately out go 

 tongues all round, and jeers and cries of '' Wah," 

 " Wah," remind him that he is not in court, and that 

 that kind of thing will not go down at home. 



The decisions thus passed would be final. Very likely 

 some few of them would not be quite correct accord- 

 ing to our ideas, but that signifies little ; they would 

 embody simple justice according to native ideas, and 

 that is all we want ; and even though a fraction did 

 not do full justice according to even native ideas, we 

 must accept some drawbacks in every arrangement, 

 and, as every native says, better half justice at once 

 than full justice after long delay and expensive liti- 

 gation. Above all, even if in a few cases a partial 

 failure of justice resulted, they would be absolutely 

 insignificant in number as compared with those in 

 which, under our present system, the failure is total. 



Common sense would be the judge's sole guide. 

 He would consider the merits of the case, the sum 

 originally advanced, the payments made on account, 



