The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-09-06
BOOK NOTICE.
VILLAGE COMMUNITIES N TIE EAST M WET.-
BE- Henry StanHer Mann.


VILLAGE COMMUNITIES N THE Fast AND WEr.-
BIZ Henry S,anHer Mann.
Il Is some years since Mr.. Names valuable
work on Ancient Law was published. That book
IS often referred TO as showing that there is no
necessity of relaxed mental effort in q tropical
climate, since it was written while the author
was a Law Member 90 the Supreme Government
of India. Sir William Jones elegant Treatise
on Bailment, also written in that country, is 4
further proof that intellectual yiger may be re-
tanned, under certain conditions, in a climate
which is not usually regarded as favorable for its
exercise.
1t seems that Mr.. Names earlier production
has brought him deserved renown, for his second
book with the above title Is a course Of lectures
delivered by him a. Corpus Professor OF Juris-
prudence at the University of Oxford. These
lectures are an Intellectual treat to any student of
history or political economy, as well as 10 the
mere lawyer. We give the book 4 passing notice,
in the hope that it may receive more attention
than is usually given to a law book.
Mr.. Maine seeks to establish no fanciful theory
like that of Bentham or Austin, nor does he try
to interpret Indian customs in the light of tech
meal rules of English law, " as if they naturally
commended themselves TO the reason of mankind -
He takes up the subject of the customs of village
communities in India as well as in England and
on the continent, with the main object of showing
that proprietary law concerning land is not the
result of feudalism, rs has been supposed. II is
well known that the influence is immense which
has been exercised on English law and legislative
policy by the feudal theory that the soil originally
belonged to the Sovereign, and that private prop
erty in land existed by his suferance. If the
views here presented had been earlier understood,
it is easy to imagine that English history would
read far differently, and that the condition of the
English poor to-day would be far better than it is.
The author treats his subject mainly in the his
torical mode, showing how the primitive patriar-
chal law of family existed before the arbitrary
customs of the village. The village customs and
family law were followed by the 8 customs of the
MANOR but not lost in them. Then came the
unequal division of conquered lands, and society
was ready to be moulded by the feudal principles
in which lands were given as benefices by the tribes
that Overran the Roman Empire. The family law
dealt with few subjects, and possessed the SIM
plicity of despotism, but the number of its
minute rules was singularly large. The customary
law of the early village community was not law
as understood in advanced stages of human
thought, with its medicines of command, obliga-
ton, sanction and right. The village elders
adjusted civil disputes, making rules for new
cases, and criminal offences were summarily dealt
with by the military. British rule in India
sought to enforce Indian customary law, of which
effort there seems to have been very unsatisfac-
tory results. The customs were flexible and
varying, but when placed on record and governed
by written rules, they assumed n ~rigidity never
intended before. The English rules of law were
adapted to an entirely different state of things
than existed in India, and the result of borrowing
them to fill up gaps in the customary law was not
a we'll amalgamated system. Under the early
collective holding of land in common, it is doubt
full how far there was any testamentary power of
devislng lands. English technical rules of con-
STRUNG wills have aimed to destroy an undue
amount of private law in regard to land, and
have gone far in causing the accumulation of
large estates in England. To apply these rules to
Indian wills must often work injustice. Our
author thinks the cure can only consist in the en-
actment of uniform, simple, codifed law, formed
for the most part upon the best European models.
a resident in the Hawaiian Islands cannot fail
to be impressed with the difference between the
Jurisprudence of lndia and of this country, in
regard to early customs. Mr.. Maine would find
here an interesting field of enquiry concerning
the effect, on the native race, of grating in a
partially complete system of foreign written law.
Gy- We learn from Hawaii. that on the 3lst of
49,. IT. c----1 ~ Xr.t4-a al II NJ. H..
kua. He was Il native of New York, and aged
about So years. He has been a resident of Hawaii
for the last 10 years, and was Government Survey
or and Tax Collector at the time OF his death.
Es- Several interesting communication are