1 ( 7)
2 portion 6f the cases relate to bonded debts for small sums. Money
3 lending, of petty amounts, prevails extensively among the lower orders.
4 The next largest section of the suits relates to marriages and betrothal
5 contracts; these arise from the mercenary and demoralized customs of
6 the people, in regard to their social matters. A portion has reference
7 to questions of inheritance, to mortgages, to commercial affairs. The
8 suits relating to other matters are not numerous, It is to be remem-
9 bered that most of the litigation respecting land is still disposed of in
10 the Revenue Courts.
11 9. In respect of speed, the average duration of a suit in 1854 was
12 Promptitude of deci-- twenty-eight days, and in 1855 twenty-three days,
13 sion, This average has been becoming laudably lower
14 year after year ; it is now nearly as low as it can be, consistently with
15 due inquiry and deliberation; and as the above average includes all
16 those cases, which for any special eause may be protracted, it is evident
17 that the trial of most suits can only extend over a very few days. In
18 respect to cheapness, the cost averaged only —
19 5-0-1 per cent. on value of suits during 1854, and
20 4-13-3 per cent, during 1855. These averages are unusually low ;-but
21 the scale of the stamps is light; there are usually no charges for pro-
22 fessional advice, there being as yet no Native Bar; and the expense of
23 summoning witnesses and others is strictly regulated by the Court. As
24 Absence of technicali. ® proof of the entire absence of technicalities, it
25 ass . is to be observed that only 5°19 per cent. of the
26 suits were nonsuited during 1854 and 5:42 per cent. during 1855.
27 The small number of nonsuits which are ordered are probably real and
28 honest ones. Arbitration is resorted to, with the sanction of the Court,
29 in about one-third of the cases; the attachment
30 of the people to their own rude Jury system is.
31 unabated ; but the awards of the arbitrators are carefully scrutinized ;
32 out of the cases arbitrated in, about one-third the award is modified by
33 the Courts. In 1854 there were 28,917 executions of decrees to 59,848:
34 suits, and in 1855, 33,866 executions to 61,829 suits.
35 10. During'1854 and 1855, 8 per cent. of the decrees were appealed
36 against, and of the appeals 20 per cent. were modi-
37 fied or revised. The prevalence of appeals fluc:
38 tuates in different parts of the country, according to the variation of
39 Cheapness of costs,
40 Arbitrators.
41 Appeals,
42 ~