204 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the increasing experience of the people will pro- 
bably enable them to remove. 
In 1826, the regulations regarding the local 
magistrates was improved, and two were appointed 
to preserve the peace in each district, from whose 
decision any one could appeal, even in petty cases, 
to the judges of the island. At the same time, 
the salaries of the magistrates, as well as those of 
the judges, which are paid by the king, were defi¬ 
nitely fixed. 
The law which declared that, “ No man should 
be tried for any great offence (viz. one which 
affected his person, liberty, or possessions) without 
a jury/’ we have always regarded as the basis of 
their public justice. The liberty granted to the 
prisoner, of objecting to any members of the jury, 
is a valuable security for the proper and impartial 
investigation of the case. 
In 1826, this enactment was also amended, and 
it was then enjoined, not only that a chief or raatira 
should be tried by his equals, but that if a peasant 
or mechanic were brought to trial, the jury also 
should be peasants or mechanics. Every friend of 
liberty, of the natural rights of man, and to the 
order and good government of society, must re¬ 
joice that these infant nations should have enjoyed, 
so early in their civil existence, the security which 
the trial of a subject by his peers is adapted to 
insure. At the same time it was also enacted, 
that, in all cases, the jury should be unanimous in 
their verdict. 
Besides these regulations, which were included 
in the first legislative code, established in 1823, 
and improved in 1826; at this latter period, 
several important articles were added, and the 
Huahinean code now contains fifty-laws. The first 
