320 



which is (or rather was) universally established in the south as 

 the common law of the land, an admirable instrument of practical 

 decision." 



To the last paragraph its intelligent author adds this note: " The 

 " panchaiet, or Indian jury, is an institution so enliiely neglected, 

 " or misunderstood, that I believe its existence is now, for the first 

 " time, presented to the notice of the English reader." I am happy 

 to find this excellent judge passing so favourable an opinion on 

 the only mode of administering justice I adopted during my resi- 

 dence at Dhuboy; as will appear in the chapter set apart for that 

 subject, under the name of panchaut, or the " decision of five." I 

 was delighted with so simple and effectual a mode of satisfying all 

 parties, and in confirmation of the colonel's remark, I must ob- 

 serve, that it was an institution perfectly new to me, and appeared 

 to be so to all my European visitors. 



I will now conclude this quotation. " The Hindoo character, 

 like all others, is of a mixed nature; but it is composed of strange 

 and contradictory elements. The man who may be safely trusted 

 for uniformly unfolding the whole truth to an European in whom 

 he reposes confidence, may be expected to equivocate, and even 

 to contradict every word he has said, if called on to repeat it in 

 the presence of a third person, whom he either fears or suspects; 

 and in one of these descriptions he usually includes all strangers. 

 The same description of man, sometimes the same individual, who 

 from pique, and often without any intelligible motive, will perjure 

 himself without shame or compunction at a public trial, is 

 faithful, kind, and respectable in the intercourse of society ; and 

 the single but notorious fact of habitual lending and borrowing 



