ON THE MALA'YU NATION. 107 



The Maldca code stated to have been compiled during the reign of Sul- 

 tan Mu hammed Shah, of which I have three copies, treats principally of 

 commercial and maritime usages, and in these branches may form the 

 text of a Digest of the Malay Laws; whilst the institutions of Joho'r, from 

 the mtimate connection which appears always to have existed between 

 Maldca and the southern part of the peninsula, may be useful as a sup- 

 plement on these points ; at the same time that it will branch out into civil 

 and criminal law generally, and the general principles of communication 

 between the different states. 



The Kedeh code may in like manner form the text for such parts of 

 the Institutions as may be most applicable to the intercourse of Eu- 

 ropeans, and tend best to a general understanding of the character and 

 usages of the Malay countries in the immediate vicinity of the British 

 settlements, This state, until the establishment of the English at Pulau 

 Pe'nang, possessed a respectable commerce, and still retains its Malayan 

 government and institutions applicable to internal affairs ; though reduced 

 in external importance. 



The institutions of the smaller states, as of Salingdr, Pirak and others s 

 may only require notice as far as they differ from the general code of the 

 superior states. 



With respect to the internal regulations of government, police, pro- 

 perty, and what in all Malay codes occupies so large a share, slavery; 

 the Malay states on the peninsula have been selected, as well on account 

 of their connection with the English government at Penang and Maldca, 

 as for the still more important reason, in a philosophical point of view, of 

 the Malays, being according to the theory I have laid down, to be found 



