اللمعان من كنا الفنان

AN

ANALYTICAL DIGEST

OF ALL

THE REPORTED CASES

DECIDED IN THE

SUPREME COURTS OF JUDICATURE IN INDIA,

IN THE

COURTS OF THE HON. EAST-INDIA COMPANY,

AND ON APPEAL FROM INDIA,

BY HER MAJESTY IN COUNCIL.

TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTION,

NOTES, ILLUSTRATIVE AND EXPLANATORY, AND AN APPENDIX.

WILLIAM H. MORLEY,

OF THE MIDDle temple, ESQUIRE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW,

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, AND OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF PARIS.

IF IT BE ASKED HOW THE LAW SHALL BE ASCERTAINED WHEN PARTICULAR CASES ARE
NOT COMPRISED UNDER ANY OF THE GENERAL RULES, THE ANSWER IS THIS: THAT
WHICH WELL-INSTRUCTED BRAHMANS PROPOUND SHALL BE HELD INCONTESTABLE LAW."
MENU, B. xii. v. 108.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

CONTAINING THE INTRODUCTION AND THE DIGEST.

LONDON:

WM. H. ALLEN AND Co., LEADENHALL STREET;

V. AND R. STEVENS AND G. S. NORTON, 26 BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN,
AND 194 FLEET STREET;

OSTELL AND LEPAGE, CALCUTTA.

M DCCC L.

1850°

THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAW THEN IS THIS: THAT PRECEDENTS AND RULES MUST BE FOLLOWED, UNLESS FLATLY ABSURD AND UNJUST FOR THOUGH THEIR REASON BE NOT OBVIOUS AT FIRST VIEW, YET WE OWE SUCH A DEFERENCE TO FORMER TIMES AS NOT TO SUPPOSE THAT THEY ACTED WHOLLY WITHOUT CONSIDERATION. UPON THE WHOLE, WE MAY TAKE IT AS A GENERAL RULE, THAT THE DECISIONS OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICE ARE THE EVIDENCE OF WHAT IS COMMON LAW:' IN THE SAME MANNER AS, IN THE CIVIL LAW, WHAT THE EMPEROR HAD ONCE DETER MINED WAS TO SERVE FOR A GUIDE FOR THE FUTURE."

Blackstone's Commentaries, Introd. Sec. 3.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

AND REGISTERED IN INDIA ACCORDING TO ACT XX. OF 18

ཇ་ཞཱཇ བ ་འཇམ༥ ན

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM WATTS,

CROWN COURT, TEMPLE BAR.

ΤΟ

SIR JAMES WEIR HOGG, BARONET,

M.P., F.R.A.S.,

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE

HONOURABLE COURT OF DIRECTORS

OF THE

EAST-INDIA COMPANY,

&c. &c. &c.

SIR,

To no one could the following pages be so appropriately dedicated as to yourself. Your long experience as a Member of the Bar of Calcutta, and the prominent position you have more recently occupied in the direction of the affairs of India, render you peculiarly qualified to form an opinion of a work which necessarily embraces the different systems for the administration of justice in our Eastern Empire.

I submit this Digest of Cases to your criticism, with the assurance that your intimate knowledge of the various subjects it comprehends, enabling you of all others most fully to appreciate the numerous difficulties which have attended its compilation, will induce you to look with a favourable eye upon its many imperfections.