THE 
JO VRML 
OF 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
AND 
EASTERN ASIA. 
< 
THE LAWS OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO AND 
EASTERN ASIA. 
In laying before our readers the first of a series of papers on the 
Laws of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, we shall con¬ 
fine our preliminary remarks to the more immediately practical bear¬ 
ing of the subject in connection with the British Settlements. This 
we do because the great general importance, and interest of the Laws 
of the different Races with which this J ournal is concerned, must be 
obvious to every one who has any relish for ethnographic studies, and 
because the different systems that prevail are so intimately connected 
with the history, and the peculiar character and habits, of the people 
who possess them, that any comment on their origin, spirit, and in¬ 
fluence will be most conveniently introduced as a preface to the se¬ 
parate papers of the series. The importance and even necessity of 
ascertaining the laws of the large proportion of those Races who con-' 
tribute to furnish a population to our own Settlements may be less 
obvious to many *, and as we believe that much inconvenience, and 
occasional injustice, have arisen from the neglect of the subject, we 
shall take this opportunity of inviting attention to it. 
We have not space to do more^than advert to a few of those con- 
vot-,. r vo. vr. R % 
TOE. I. NO. VI* 
