JB/010/162/001

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To,
The Right Honorable
C W. Williams Wynn
President of the Board of Control

26th May 1825

Dear Sir,

I have the pleasure, at
your request, to give you an account of
the plan I adopted, while Chief Justice and
1st: Member of H.M. Council on Ceylon, for
introducing trial by Jury into that Island,
and for extending the right of sitting upon
Juries to every half-cast Native, as well
as to every other Native of the Country,
to whatever Caste or religious persuasion he
might belong. I shall explain to you the
reasons which induced me to propose this
plan, the mode in which it was carried
into effect, and the consequences with which
its adoption has been attended. The
complaints against the former system for
administering justice on Ceylon, were, that
it was dilatory, expensive, and unpopular.
The defects of that system arose from the
little value which the Natives of the Country
attach to a character for veracity, from
the total want of interest which they manifested
for a system, in the administration of
which they themselves had no share, from the difficulty
which European Judges, who were not only
Judges of Law, but also Judges of fact, experienced

Identifier: | JB/010/162/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 10.
Date_1	1825-05-26	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	010	Main Headings
Folio number	162	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	sir alexander johnston	Watermarks	[[watermarks::j whatman [motif] 1825 balston & co]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	jonathan blenman
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1825
Notes public		ID Number	3598
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