2/8 OATHS PRIESTS— CLASSES OF PEOPLE. 



Adjurations, on solemn occasions, amount the Ma- 

 layan, Mahometans and Hie Buoddhist nations to the 

 eastward, are generally managed under tlie superin- 

 tendence of the priests. But it would l>e impractica- 

 ble for the presiding judge of an English Court of 

 law, whether civil or criminal, to seeMhis done, be- 

 cause the swearing must he in a temple, and die 

 firms are often tedious. 



The influence of the priesthood would, however, 

 amongst the several classes above alluded to, seem on 

 the decline. Its origin has been explained. The 

 riders of the remotest periods to which history 

 reaches, engrossed the offices of high priest & king, and 

 many modern eastern native rulers would gladly retain 

 the double power thus conferred. Mahomet was 

 both king and prophet. The emperors of Ava and 

 Siam often take the holy yellow manlle for a few 

 years before they ascend die throne, mid live in a 

 monastery ; and as a proof that, in Siam, the sacer- 

 dotal once took temporal precedence of the civil cha- 

 racter, it may be observed that the high priest is of 

 superior rank to the king, which the latter can aflord 

 to permit, since the former has no temporal autho- 

 rity now. 



In the Straits, the test of an oath may, in ciyjj and cri- 

 minal cases, be required from the following classes: — - 

 - 1st. — Britons of various Christian sects, indepen- 

 dent of those who are of the Established Churches of 

 England and Scotland — «dso a few British and foreign 

 Roman Catholics, being Europeans ; other Euro- 

 peans and Americans. 



2nd. — Descendants of Europeans, born in this 

 country, and professing either Protestantism, or the 

 Roman Catholic faith. 



3rd . — Occasionally, native Christians from the 

 Churche3 of India; chiefly Nestorian-, 



