AN OLD MINUTE BY SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES. II 



interferes with justice in behalf of a murderer, let this crime 

 be punished by death, and no other. Banishment is the next 

 in order. Solitary confinement proportioned to the degree of 

 the offence or pertinacity of the offender in his criminal 

 course seems the least objectionable of all sorts of punish- 

 ment. Disgrace may also be a form of punishment, but much 

 caution is required in this respect lest a too frequent enforce- 

 ment of the punishment destroy the feeling which can alone 

 make it a punishment. Personal chastisement is only for the 

 lower orders who are incapable of feeling the shame of dis- 

 grace and may probably be had recourse to in cases of wilful 

 perjury where the falsehood of the witness is palpable and his 

 object particularly mischievous. In all cases let it be consi- 

 dered as no less an object of the Law to afford redress to the 

 party injured than to punish the offender. Compensation 

 should in all cases, where it is possible, be made to the injured 

 party to the extent of the means of the offender, as in the 

 case of the Malay Bangoon where when the father is murder- 

 ed the family are entitled to pecuniary compensation for his 

 Joss. 



(Signed) T. S. RAFFLES. 



With these views and principles the Lieutenant-Governor 

 has this day transmitted to the Acting Magistrates such a 

 graduated Scale of Crimes and Punishments as appears to 

 him sufficient to meet the existing circumstances of the 

 Settlement and to answer the end of substantial justice, with 

 instructions that they will duly deliberate on the subject and 

 after such revision as their local knowledge and experience 

 may suggest, submit the same to the Chief Local Authority 

 with their opinion, and in the form of a Code of Laws to be 

 established for the Settlement and to be in force after publica- 

 tion by the Resident until rescinded by a higher Authority, or 

 altered under the provisions laid down for the enactment of 

 local Laws and Regulations. 



