196 Timehri. 



It adapted some seventeen English Acts in whole or in part, and 

 included by reference four others. " Its consequences," says the Report 

 (p. 9), " ate meant to be very far-reaching." 



This " fundamental law " formed the groundwork of the reform 

 recommended by the Common Law Commission. In addition the Com- 

 mittee submitted ten supplementary bills dealing with various subjects to 

 which the Commission had called attention, viz. 1. infants ; 2. divorce ; 

 3. carriers ; 4. pledges of movables (bills of sale) ; 5. documents of titles 

 to goods (Factors Act); 6. arbitration; 7. deeds of arrangement; 8. 

 accidental deaths and workmen's injuries ; 9. registration of title ; and 10. 

 deceased persons' estates. "The whole scheme," says the Eeport, "is 

 therefore complete in eleven bills." 



It should be added that s. 3 sub-s. 1 of the fundamental Ordinance 

 abolished the Eoman-Dutch common law, as such, in very sweeping terms i, 

 but that sub-s. 4 (a) expressly preserved the (Roman-Dutch principle of 

 absolute private ownership in land, and 4 (b) similarly preserved the 

 Roman-Dutch law as to mortgages of land and real servitudes. 



Such was the singular legislative experiment recommended by the 

 Commissioners. In view of the intrinsic merits of the Roman-Dutch 

 common law — which were frankly acknowledged — it might, perhaps, 

 appear to some, at a distance, that the slower and more cautious 

 method of development from within, or, it may be, the patient elabora- 

 tion of a comprehensive Civil Code — the neighbouring island of St. Lucia 

 suggests a precedent — would offer greater prospects of a successful solu- 

 tion of the problem. That the proposals were unprecedented was freely 

 admitted by the Common Law Commissioners themselves who indeed 

 showed some signs of trepidation on that score. Their appeal to the 

 maxim, " Communis error facit ins," was not very encouraging, and it 

 may be open to some doubt whether the Commissioners in the perform- 

 ance of their difficult task acted altogether in the spirit of the passage 

 from Kenan cited by them, " The real men of progress are those whose 

 starting-point is a profound respect for the past." 



However this may be, the practical administrators on the spot — 

 who must, after all, have the last word in such a matter — appear to have 

 been virtually unanimous in favour of the proposals. The changes, 

 revolutionary as they were, excited neither discussion nor controversy. 

 On the contrary, the publication of the Committee's Report in January 

 1916, was promptly followed (in September of the same year) by the 

 passing of the Civil Law of British Guiana Ordinance, 1916, which is 



1 " The law of the Colony relating 1 to wills, fide, committa, trusts, suretyship . . . 

 hiring and lease, landlord and tenant, negotiable instruments, bailments, carriers . . .every 

 description whatever of contract and obligat ions . . . all questions relating to husband and 

 wife, marriage, separation, divorce . . . and the law of the Colony relating to all other 

 matters whatsoever, whether eiutdem grncris with the foregoing or not, shrll cease to be 

 Roman-Dutch law, and an regards all matters arising ami all rights acquired or accruing 

 after the date hereof, the Roman-Dutch law shall cease to apply to the Colony." 



