MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN LIGHT. 9 



He ends with the following characteristic paragraph : — '* A 

 " regular form for administering justice is necessary, both for 

 " the peace and welfare of the society and for the honour 

 " of the nation who have granted them protection ; it is 

 ''likewise improper the Superintendent should have it in 

 ''his power to exercise an arbitrary judgment upon persons 

 "and things; whether this judgment is iniquitous or not 

 "the mode is still arbitrary and disagreable to society." 



Under date August ist, 1794, the Governor-General, Lord 

 TeignmoUTH, replied that " he did not at present think him- 

 self authorised to establish formal and regular Courts," but 

 passed, and transmitted to Captain LiGHT, certain Regula- 

 tions for preserving the peace of the island. These long 

 remained effective; and Mr Justice DiCKENS, on 22nd October, 

 1805, eleven years after, declared them to be the only laws 

 even then in force. These Regulations must have reached 

 Captain LiGHT just before his death, and the establishment 

 of Mr. Mannington as Magistrate with the first approach to 

 regular law in his infant Settlement appropriately closes the 

 public career of such a man. His chronicler — Colonel Low — - 

 thus sums up his character and work : — 



" Although the rather implicit credence which he gave at 

 "first to the Rajah of Kedah's assertion of his independence 

 " of Siam, might have led to more serious consequences 

 " than it did, still it would appear that he was a man of 

 "sound sense, probity and judgment — active, practical, and 

 "moderate. That certainly reprehensible credence, how- 

 " ever, secured to the British merchant and to the world the 

 "port of Pinang, the most eligible one at this extremity of 

 "the Straits. (Vol. HI of Logan's Journal, 1848). 



This seems to be a just and friendly reference as regards him 

 personally. But in estimating the political criticism it must be 

 remembered who it is that writes. Colonel Low was an avow- 

 ed partisan in the curious political controversy of his time re- 

 garding the status of Kedah. This matter bears so closely on 

 Captain Light's principal works, and on his judgment and sin- 

 cerity in carrying it out, that it must not be passed over in any 

 account of his action as the Founder of the Settlement. 



