The Colony of Surinam. 33 
tice of the Supreme Court ; W. E. RUHMANN, Member 
of the Court of Policy ; and H. M. VAN Andel, LL.D., 
(the late Royal Commissioner's Secretary), as Secretary. 
The authority of this Royal Commission was, however, 
confined solely to the framing of the codes, not their 
provisional introduction. The drafts of the Commission 
had to be sent home, for sanction and approbation, pre- 
vious to their introduction into the colony. 
The Commission thus appointed held her first meet- 
ing on the 10th of March, 1861, and the 8th ot February 
1867, witnessed her last, the 239th meeting. 
The State Commission of 1852, in submitting to the 
Government its (first) draft (Ordinance regulating the 
judicial organisation) had stated that it considered the 
intention of the Government to be that the Home legis- 
lation should be the model for the new legislation 
intended for the Dutch W. Indies, and further that the 
Commission should only advise departure and deviation 
from the national codes, where required by local exigen- 
cies, and (f only such deviations as, without infringing on 
" their system, were, in the opinion of competent 
" authorities desirable ameliorations of the existing 
" codes of the Mother Country/' 
It appeared, however, to the Royal Commissioner and 
his (then) advising Commission, on commencing their 
labours, that the State-Commission had only partly suc- 
ceeded in realising its intentions. Many local exigen- 
cies and requirements had been overlooked. 
But the Royal Commissioner, and later the Royal 
Commission of December i860, which succeeded him, 
fully coincided with the intention of the Home Govern- 
E 
