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in which those under $100 are disposed of, much benefit would ensue, and the plan would go far to obviate and remedy objections made by the inhabitants to the present system.
7.
The only objection that I have heard made to this Ordinance is that it abolishes trial by jury. To this objection I personally pay little attention, for I confess I have a greater respect for the opinion of an upright, educated, and professional Judge than I have for that of half a dozen individuals who may frequently have an interest in cases from a collateral issue, and all of whom in a small Colony are likely to know something of the case before it comes into Court, and to a certain extent to have made up their minds on its merits. In fact, had I been here when the Supreme Court was established, I should have objected to any Jury in Civil cases at all.
In the Supreme Courts in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and in the Straits, no jury in Civil cases is allowed. At the former place, the Grand Jury list alone contains a larger number of names than all the inhabitants of this place together, who could be possibly put on a Jury; and if the population of that city be still considered too limited to have juries in Civil cases, the application of the same principle to this Colony need not be insisted on. At Singapore, the principle also works well, and I say that if your Lordship be pleased to recommend the confirmation of this Ordinance, a boon will be conferred on the inhabitants generally, and more especially on the Chinese, who form the majority of their disputes, or will then be enabled either by themselves or by their friends to have them settled.