278 Civil and Military Establishments 
management. The native Candians, both from want of dextc" 
rity and activity, are bad servants in any point of view ; and 
in the management of horses, an animal to which they are so 
little accustomed, they are particularly deficient. Nor is all 
the prospect of royal bounty and favour sufficient to procure 
his Majesty the services of Malabar grooms in a country and 
climate so different from their own. 
Where the government is a pure despotism, and every thing 
depends on the immediate will of the sovereign, there can be 
no fixed and established laws. The Candians, indeed, boast of 
an ancient code of written laws, but these remain in the hands 
of the monarch who is their sole interpreter. Certain ancient 
customs and rules, however, are supposed to have the autho- 
rity of fundamental laws ; but when we hear of the king him- 
self being amenable to them, it means nothing more than that 
the breach of them excites such general indignation, as more 
than once to have given rise to a successful rebellion. His 
authority supersedes every other decision, and every sentence 
of death is subject to his revisal. 
With regard to courts of law, or regular forms of adminis- 
tering justice, the Candians appear to have scarcely formed 
any conceptions. Their trials are summary ; and their punish- 
ments, unless where the king interposes, immediate. Their 
capital punishments are always attended with some aggravating 
cruelty ; having the criminal dashed to pieces by elephants, 
pounding him in a large mortar, or impaling him on a stake, 
are the common modes practised. Where the offence is not 
adjudging worthy of death, the culprit is condemned to pay a 
heavy fine, to have his property confiscated, to perform severe 
tasks of various sorts, such as carrying heavy weights on his 
