104 Timehri. 
colony under the common law, on the theory that the practical effect 
of the resolution of 1661 was to alter the South Holland law of 
Berbice so as to make it the same as the North Holland law of 
Demerara and Essequebo on this point, we have to remember that 
relations by blood ousting the right of the surviving spouse to a single 
cent mean any cognates of the deceased within the sixth degree under 
the Praetor’s edict Unde vir et uxor. The position in a prosperous or populous 
community would not last a month. In our backwater it is merely humorous, 
at least until an influx of new citizens is confronted with the muddle and un- 
certainty to which the long-suffering older residents have become more or less 
resigned. The colony believes itself to be on the eve of development. It is 
holding out its arms for fresh population and capital. It should not cling to 
a dead legal system merely because a similar system has survived in the 
friendlier atmosphere and conditions of South Africa. 
I have no doubt a long process of careful legislation conducted by Crown 
lawyers of wide practice under the Roman-Dutch law. and procedure in our 
Courts, and of sound acquaintance with English law and procedure, might suc- 
ceed inremoving many anomalies, and at least in accommodating the commer- 
cial law of the colony to the English law merchant, while still preserving the 
name and the empty shell of what was once the Roman-Dutch law. A drafting 
Committee of the Court of Policy might be of use. But these are counsels of 
perfection. The Attorney General, in our colony, has no private practice 
and except on rare occasions deals directly only with the Criminal Law, which 
is English. The Solicitor General has no legislatorial functions, and such func- 
tions are hardly reconcilable with his existing duties and conditions of service. 
My own contention is that any heroic project of this kind is impossible, un- 
necessary, and uncalled for by any local sentiment or other demand. Nobody 
cherishes the Roman-Dutch law in this colony. It is merely a tolerated nuisance, 
a chartered libertine whose eccentricities have hitherto been regarded as 
full of quiet fun, but which are incompatible with progress, The laborious 
and confusing process should be simplified by a single legislative act accom- 
panied by two provisions preserving the simplicity of our law of immovable 
property, and codifying the local requirements as to succession. As to the 
law of divorce, while as Christians, we admit the equality of the sin, the laws of 
nature ordain in the physical difference of the sexes, more disastrous results 
to the family and the race from the guilt of the woman than from that of the 
man. The law of England is a sufficient protection to society. That is only 
a detail in any case. Protection for illegitimate children, however, is a part 
of the law of succession which should be retained. The right of legitimation 
by subsequent marriage might also be preserved. It may be urged that its 
general effect is towards the construction of ordered family life, even if it 
is open to the charge of serving as an excuse for licence by limiting its dis- 
astrous results. It still exists in Scotland. 
Mr. Dalton’s reference to the difficulties of creating a West Indian Appeal 
Court are less well-informed. There is no longer airy Spanish law in Trinidad. 
A series of Ordinances from 1844 to 1907 has removed its last traces. In St. 
Lucia the old Coutume de Paris has been superseded by the Code Civil of 1879 
