Under this system the affairs of Native life went on with scarcely a perceptible change upon the previous footing; unless a man had dealings with our revenue officers, or came into our courts. In his customs of inheritance, and in all the affairs of his household, he could perceive no alteration. His usages of trade, his old system of contracts and of mercantile transactions, were undisturbed. His religious faith and even his religious prejudices were absolutely respected, so long as they did not involve a breach of the peace with rival religionists. But if he committed a crime, he found himself dealt with by a stricter judicial procedure, and fined or sent to prison, instead of having his hand or foot chopped off. The criminal classes soon discovered that they had a worse time under British rule, and many of them settled down to peaceful industry, aided by grants of land at low rent from the British Government.
In matters of civil justice the annexed populations had the benefit of fairer and more upright judges, together with a system which permitted of the decision being generally given according to their ancient native notions of right and wrong. The procedure was a little more exact and effective than that which they had been accustomed to, but at first only a little. The main difference between the judicial system under which they had grown up and the new one amounted to this — that the
