and eastern asia. 
323 
there are no works in Which the usages are fully and faithfully des¬ 
cribed, and, with the exception of the pure Hindu and Mahoraedan 
systems, no readily accessible authorities on the laws, to which they 
could have referred, it would have been unreasonable to expect from 
English judges, in addition to the ordinary labours of their office, and 
during their generally brief tenure of it, the learning and original re ¬ 
search of a Sir William Jones. It is true that, as neither these law's 
nor usages, whatever weight may be given to them, could enter into the 
substantive jurisprudence which the Court administers, and in every 
case in any degree involving them, must, in so far as they were ah 
lowed to influence the decision, have been proved amongst the facts 
of the case, the Court, in every such case, had an opportunity of ex ¬ 
amining certain branches of the subject, and ascertaining the exact 
degree in which their recognition could be reconciled with the faith¬ 
ful administration of English law. But to this the answer is, that in 
dispensing justice to races with many of which dissimulation and 
craft, so far from being discountenanced* are reckoned necessary so¬ 
cial arts, it is often impossible for a judge to entertain a conviction 
that the laws and usages expounded by the witnesses in a particular 
case, are anything more than a clever adaptation of them to the inter¬ 
ests of the party on whose behalf they testify. Cross examination, 
however valuable as an instrument in exposing falsehood, does not 
always succeed in extracting the truth. Besides, a judge who desired 
to commend the wisdom of any general principle to the respect of 
his successors, or to lay it up for his own guidance in future cases, 
would not be willing to adopt it until he had tested its range of ap¬ 
plicability, by considering the general scope and spirit of the usages 
of the Asiatic race or races on which it was to operate, relatively to 
those which have subsisted in England incorporated or in union with 
the law. He would not even feel satisfied of his competence to deal 
skilfully with the evidence offered in the particular ease, without a 
previous general acquaintance with the system to be explained, in one 
of its applications, by the witnesses. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that the Court should have been somewhat averse to entertain ques¬ 
tions which it had not the means of satisfactorily determining- The 
