JUSTICE IN NEPAL. 97 



regarded, when we desire to judge of the good faith with which a 

 statement is made. 



In other particulars the Nepalese system appears to partake of 

 the excellencies and defects of our own. Thus the prisoner in criminal 

 cases has always the privilege of confronting his accusers, and of cross- 

 examining them ; while on the other hand, in civil suits they have (consi- 

 dering the poverty of the country) as excellently graduated a scale of pick- 

 ing the pockets of both plaintiff and defendant, as is to be found in the 

 practice of our own " reason-made-perfect" system.* 



There are other valuable peculiarities of the Nepalese system which 

 deserve to be particularly noticed. Thus, it will be remarked, that the 

 Courts seek in the first instance to reconcile parties, or to refer matters in 

 dispute to arbitration. This natural and highly advantageous system, only 

 recently made the practice of the English Courts, has prevailed in Nepal 

 for ages. Again, there are no rules of exclusion in regard to evidence. All 

 is taken and rated only for what it is worth. Neither is there any restriction 

 against parties becoming witnesses in their own causes, — speaking under 

 similar penalties for false evidence as ordinary or external witnesses. 



Oaths are very sparingly used, and in general rather as substitutes for 

 evidence than as a means of validating it. This indeed is the most ancient 

 and almost the universal acceptation of testimony on oath. It prevents as 

 a consequence, in regard to witnesses, the adventitious crime of perjury or 

 oath-breaking, leaving the more simple crime of false- witness in its place. 

 But one of the chief practical benefits of the system lies in the sparing 

 employment of records, which are never used for trivial objects. .This is a 

 chief cause of the quick dispatch of business which signalizes the Nepal 

 Courts, and efiectually prevents arrears of business : — a. marked contrast 

 to our own Indian system wherein an over- weaning attachment to record 

 is the source of dreadful expence and delay of j ustice. 



* Law is the perfection of reason. 

 2 A 



