AN OLD MINUTE BY SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES. g 



as are or may be enacted under the provisions of Regulation 

 No. Ill of 1823, dated the 20th January last, with such others 

 of a more general nature as may be directed by a higher 

 Authority or which may necessarily accrue under the provi- 

 sions of the Legislature and the political circumstances of the 

 Settlement as a Dependence of Great Britain. Admitting these 

 rights to exist, it follows that all acts by which they are in- 

 vaded are wrongs, that is to say, crimes or injuries. 



In the enactment of Laws for securing these rights, legal 

 obligation must never supercede or take place of or be incon- 

 sistent with or more or less onerous than moral obligation. 

 The English practice of teaching prisoners to plead not guilty, 

 that they may thus have a chance of escaping from punishment, 

 is inconsistent with this and consequently objectionable. It 

 is indeed right and proper that the Court should inform itself 

 of all the circumstances of a crime from witnesses as well as 

 from the declaration of the prisoner himself. Denial is in fact 

 an aggravation of a crime according to every idea of common 

 sense. It disarms punishment of one of its most beneficial 

 objects by casting a shade of doubt over its justice. 



The sanctity of oaths should also be more upheld than in 

 the English Courts. This may be done by never administering 

 them except as a dernier resort. If they are not frequently 

 administered," not only will their sanction be more regarded 

 and in this way their breach be less proportionately frequent, 

 but of necessity much more absolutely uncommon and conse- 

 quently much more certainly visited with due punishment in 

 all cases of evidence given before a Court of Justice. 



The imprisonment of an unfortunate debtor at the pleasure 

 of the creditor, by which the services of the individual are lost 

 to all parties, seems objectionable in this Settlement, and it is 

 considered that the rights of property may be sufficiently pro- 

 tected by giving to the creditor a right to the value of the 

 debtor's services for a limited period in no case exceeding 5 

 years, and that the debtor should only be liable to imprison- 

 ment in case of fraud, and as far as may be necessary for the 

 security of his person in the event of his not being able to find 

 bail during the process of the Court and for the performance 



