190 Timehri. 



usages of the people," the President of the Courts of Criminal and 

 Civil Justice of Demerara and Essequibo expressly declaring that he 

 "admired the principles of the civil law." The Eoman-Dutch common 

 law, the " highly organized and flexible " legal system, accordingly con- 

 tinued in force, and proved, for the time being, quite adequate to the 

 demands made upon it 



Gradually, however, the conditions of the Colony underwent a 

 material change. The English population increased ; the resident Dutch 

 dwindled away. "We have no resident Dutch population," says the 

 Report of the Common Law Commission of 1914, i " and few even of the 

 Dutch names survive." The population, moreover, though small (some 

 312,000), became very mixed in race. Besides a native Indian popula- 

 tion, there was a considerable influx of Indians from British India. " East 

 Indians and Portuguese make up some 50 per cent." And at the same 

 time, trade, especially with the West Indies and Great Britain, expanded. 

 Thus new economic conditions came into being, and it became necessary 

 to adapt the local law to their requirements. How could this be most 

 satisfactorily accomplished ? 



Two methods seemed available. The first was to stand by the 

 Eoman-Dutch law as the common law ; to adhere, as far as possible, to 

 its principles (its " simple " principles) ; to endeavour to develop it grad- 

 ually from within, and, by patent piecework, to fit those principles to the 

 ' novel conditions as they arose. It might doubtless be found convenient 

 from time to time to supplement from outside, i.e., from English sources, 

 but the system to be evolved by this method would be, in the main, an 

 independent, a home-grown legal system. 



What were the prospects of success for such a method ? Were the 

 " special conditions " of the Colony favourable to its satisfactory opera- 

 tion? On the facts as stated in the Report of the Common Law Com- 

 mission, the answer to this question must, we think, be in the negative. 



The Interpretation of the Law. — The fruitful working of the 

 method in question requires that the law shall be handled with sympathy 

 and with understanding ; those charged with the administration of the 

 law must be in full accord with its characteristic spirit. Such was the 

 case with our own common law. Such, again, was the case — in a different 

 way — with the Roman-Dutch-common law in South Africa. - In British 

 Guiana the position was different. There the administration of the law 

 was in the hands of English-trained lawyers. The atmosphere of the 



1 See Supra, p. 62 



2 Accordingly when the British Guiana Qorermnent iii 1912 consulted tin- South African 

 Government as to whether it was proposed to make any change in the Soulh African common 

 law. the reply was "emphatic'' to the effect that the Roman-Dutch law was "eminently 

 suitable." and that " the necessity for the substitution of English law had never been seriously 

 entertained." 



