192 Timehn. 



natural development and to prevent it from putting forth its full strength ; 

 was there any other method of adopting the law of the CoIodv to chang- 

 ing circumstances more in harmony with its special needs ? This was the 

 problem that confronted the colonial authorities, and the method that 

 commended itself to them as an alternative was to substitute English 

 statute and common law for the Roman-Dutch law. If the latter could 

 not be mended, it might perhaps be ended. 



The actual course of events was briefly as follows. Until about 1S90 

 the two methods of development operated concurrently, not indeed as set- 

 tled policies, but as streams of tendency. In the ' nineties however, the 

 second method definitely gained the upper hand, and the policy of 

 "ending" the Roman-Dutch law became the "accepted policy" of all 

 parties. 



The Displacement of Roman-Dutch Law. — Thus, while the general 

 effect of the Legislation between 1830 and 1890— the Report of 1914 

 enumerates some ten Ordinances that altered the law and practice of the 

 Colony between those dates — was to assimilate British Guiana law more 

 closely to English law, the ruling principles of the Roman-Dutch law 

 were not seriously affected, except in the important case of the Ordinance 

 No. 6 of 1864, which introduced English mercantile law wholesale, and 

 constituted the first conspicuous example of the second method of 

 development.! After 1890 the " accepted policy " gathered momentum. 

 In 1891 the English Interpretation Act was introduced. Ordinances of 

 1891 and 1900 largely displaced the common law as to bills of exchange 

 insolvency and partnership in favour of the English law on those subjects. 

 In 1904 the old Roman-Dutch (not Roman) principle of community of 

 goods between married persons was swept away. In 1906 the Wills 

 Ordinance introduced the English law as to the execution and attestation 

 of wills. In 1909 the heir was deprived of the character of ''universal 

 successor " which the old Roman law had assigned to him, and in the 

 same year the English common and statute law of tire and Life 

 insurance was introduced en bloc. In 1914 the Sale of Goods Act, 1893, 

 came into force in the Colony. 2 



1 ''From ami after the commencement of this Ordinance, all questions arising within 

 this Colony relating to the following matters, namely— ships and the property therein 

 and the owners thereof, and the behaviour of the master and mariners, and their 

 respective rights, duties, and liabilities as regards the carriage of passengers and goods 

 by ships ; stoppage in transitu j freight; demurrage { insurance; salvage j average; colli- 

 sion between ships ; bills of lading : and all rights, liabilities, claims, contracts, and matters 

 arising in respect of any ship, or any such question as aforesaid, shall be adjudged, deter- 

 mined, construed, and enforced according to the law of England applicable to such or the like 

 case.'' English Company law was introduced from time to time shortly after the cnactmen 

 of the English legislation on the subject. 



2 The i ' ■ weep away (as far as tin sale of movables was concerned) whole group 

 of.'principles of the Roman-Dutch law. As the Report (p. 19) points out, the Roman-Dutch law 

 recognised no vendor's lien (since property did not, without more, pass From the unpaid ven- 

 dor till payment . There was no stoppage in transitu ; no doctrine of " caveat enptor " ; the 

 vendor te nol hound in pass ownership, but only to guarantee undisturbed p issession ; the risk 



- independently of delivery lor payment, even where property has not 

 passed., (All these rules were swept aside. 



