ADOPTION OF ROMAN-DUTCH LAW

Whereas it is His Majesty’s gracious command that for the present and during His Majesty’s will and pleasure the temporary administration of justice and police in the settlements of the Island of Ceylon, now in His Majesty’s dominion, and in the territories and dependencies thereof, should, as nearly as circumstances will permit, be exercised by us in conformity to the laws and institutions that subsisted under the ancient government of the United Provinces, subject to such deviations in consequence of sudden and unforeseen emergencies, or to such expedients and useful alterations as may render a departure therefrom either absolutely necessary and unavoidable or evidently beneficial and desirable.

2. We therefore, in obedience to His Majesty’s commands, do hereby publish and declare, that the administration of justice and police in the said settlements and territories in the Island of Ceylon, with their dependencies, shall be henceforth and during His Majesty’s pleasure exercised by all courts of judicature, civil and criminal, magistrates, and ministerial officers, according to the laws and institutions that subsisted under the ancient government of the United Provinces, subject to such deviations and alterations by any of the respective powers and authorities herein before mentioned, and to such other deviations and alterations as we shall by these presents, or by any future proclamation, and in pursuance of the authorities confided to us, deem it proper and beneficial for the purposes of justice to ordain and publish, or which shall or may hereafter be by lawful authority ordained and published.

3. And whereas it having been represented to His Majesty that the practice of proceeding by torture against persons suspected of crimes, and of punishment after conviction in many capital cases by breaking upon the wheel and other barbarous modes of execution, had prevailed in the said settlements on the Island of Ceylon, it was His Majesty’s will and pleasure that we should wholly abolish those forms of trial and punishment, which humanity condemns and experience has shown to be less efficacious in the prevention of crimes than more lenient and equitable proceedings.

4. We therefore do hereby abolish throughout all and every the said settlements and territories and their dependencies within our government the practice of proceeding by torture against any person or persons suspected of any crime or crimes, and we do hereby also abolish the practice of inflicting punishment on any person or persons convicted or who shall or may be convicted of any crime or crimes, by breaking on the wheel, mutilation, or other barbarous modes of punishment and execution; and the same are hereby abolished accordingly. And we do ordain and appoint that all capital punishment shall be inflicted by hanging the offender by the neck until he be dead, and not in any other manner whatsoever.

5. And whereas, by the criminal law as administered under the Government of the United States, no sentence of death could be legally pronounced against any offender, however conclusive the evidence given against him might be, unless he confessed his guilt, for the purpose of obtaining which confession it was the practice to pronounce a sentence of torture against the prisoner, and as on the one hand neither the influence of promises nor the dread or menace of torture will hereafter be employed to obtain from offenders a confession of their guilt, so on the other hand public justice requires that the laws shall be duly maintained and carried into execution without being impeded by want of the confession of the offender, and it is therefore expedient that the necessity of obtaining such confession should be removed: we do therefore direct and ordain that in all criminal cases the court shall in future proceed to pronounce sentence according to law and in the evidence given, and in manner and form prescribed by these presents, without requiring the confession of the prisoner, any law of the United States, provincial or other statute, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

6. And we do hereby allow liberty of conscience and the free exercise of religious worship to all persons who inhabit and frequent the said settlements of the Island of Ceylon, provided always that they quietly and peaceably enjoy the same without offence or scandal to Government.