British subjects of good repute to sit with him as assessors at the hearing of any suit, dispute, difference, or cause of litigation whatever of a civil nature brought before him for decision, and in case the sum sought to be recovered shall exceed 500 dollars, such suit shall not be heard by the Consul without assessors, if within a reasonable time such assessors can be procured; but the assessors aforesaid shall have no authority to decide on the merits of such suits, but in the event of such assessors, or any of them dissenting from the decision of the Consul, the Consul shall enter the fact of such dissent and the grounds thereof in the minutes of the proceedings, and in case of appeal shall transmit the same to the High Court of Bombay, together with the documents relating to the suit.

8. And it is further ordered, that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to enforce his decision in favour of or against a British subject in a civil suit, dispute, difference, or cause of litigation by distress and sale or imprisonment, in like manner as a decision of the High Court of Bombay in a civil suit is enforced within the same.

9. And it is further ordered, that in case of an appeal to the High Court of Bombay from the decision of Her Majesty's Consul, it shall be lawful for the said High Court upon such forms as to costs and otherwise as it shall think proper to admit any further legal evidence, besides that adduced before the Consul on its being established to the satisfaction of the said High Court by oath or affidavit, that the party desiring to produce such further evidence was ignorant of the existence of such evidence, or was taken by surprise at the hearing before the Consul, or was unable to produce it before the Consul after due and reasonable diligence and exertion on his part, or where, under the circumstances of the case, it shall appear to the said High Court that further evidence ought to be received.

10. And it is further ordered, that Her Majesty's Consul shall have power in any civil suit, dispute, difference, or cause of litigation to examine on oath, or in such form and with such ceremonies as the witness may declare to be binding on his conscience any witness who may appear before him and shall have power, on the application of any party in such suit, to issue a compulsory order for the attendance of any person being a British subject who may be competent to give evidence in such suit; and any British subject who shall have been duly served with any such compulsory order, and with a reasonable notice of the day of hearing of such suit, and upon his expenses of appearing as a witness having been paid, or tendered to him by the party at whose application he shall have been ordered to attend shall, on his wilful default to appear as a witness at the hearing of such suit, be punished with a fine not exceeding 100 dollars, or with imprisonment for a period not exceeding thirty days at the discretion of the said Consul.

11. Every witness, being a British subject, so examined on oath, whether before the Consul, or before a Kadi, or other officer of the Muscat Government duly authorised to act judicially, who shall in any such examination give wilfully false testimony, may be convicted of and punished for the crime of wilful and corrupt perjury.

12. And it is further ordered, that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to promote the settlement of any civil suit, dispute, difference, or cause of litigation by amicable agreement between the parties, and with the consent of the several parties, to refer the decision of a suit or contention to one or more arbitrators, and to take security from the parties that they will be bound by the result of such arbitration, and the award of such arbitrator or arbitrators shall be, to all intents and purposes, deemed and taken to be a judgment or sentence of Her Majesty's Consul in such civil suit, dispute, difference, or cause of litigation, and shall be entered and recorded as such, and shall have the like effect and operation, and shall be enforced accordingly, and shall be final and conclusive to all intents and purposes, and shall not be open to appeal, unless the same shall, within a reasonable time, have been ordered by the Consul to be set aside, on the ground that it is not final, or is defective, or that the arbitrator or arbitrators have exceeded their authority, or have been guilty of misconduct in the matter.

13. And it is further ordered, that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to cause to be apprehended and brought before him any British subject who may be charged with having committed any crime or offence within the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat, and such Consul shall thereupon proceed with all convenient speed to inquire of the same, and for such purpose shall have power to examine on oath, or in such form and with such ceremony as the witness shall declare to be binding on his conscience any witness who may appear before him to prove the charge; and also shall have power to compel any person being a British subject, who may be competent to give evidence as to the guilt or innocence of the party so charged to appear and give evidence, and to punish the wilful default of any such person to appear and give evidence, after reasonable notice of the day of the hearing of such charge, by fine or imprisonment in like manner as is provided in Article 10 of this Order, and shall examine every such witness in the presence and hearing of the party accused, and shall afford the party accused all reasonable facility for cross-examining such witness, and shall cause the deposition of every such witness to be reduced to writing, and the same to be read over, and, if necessary, explained to the party accused, together with any other evidence that may have been urged against him during the course of the inquiry, and shall require such accused party to defend himself against the charge brought against him, and, if necessary, advise him of the legal effect of any voluntary confession, and shall take the evidence of any witness, whom the accused party may tender to be examined in his defence; and every witness, being a British subject so examined as aforesaid, who shall upon any such occasion give wilfully false testimony, may be convicted of and punished for the crime of wilful and corrupt perjury; and when the case has been fully inquired into, and the innocence or guilt of the person accused has been established to the satisfaction of the Consul, the Consul, as the case may be, shall either discharge the party accused from custody if satisfied of his innocence, or proceed to pass sentence on him if satisfied of his guilt; and it shall be lawful for the Consul having inquired of, tried, and determined, in the manner aforesaid any charge which may be brought before him, to award for the

party convicted any amount of punishment not exceeding imprisonment for one calender month, or a fine of 200 dollars.

14. And it is further ordered, that if the crime or offence whereof any person being a British subject may be accused before Her Majesty's Consul as aforesaid shall appear to such Consul to be of such a nature as, if proved, would not be adequately punished by the infliction of such punishment as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for such Consul to summon not less than two, or not more than four, disinterested British subjects of good repute to sit with him as assessors for inquiring of, trying, and determining the charges against such person; and the Consul when he shall try any such charge with the assistance of assessors as aforesaid shall, if he is himself convinced of the guilt of the party accused, have power to award any amount of punishment not exceeding imprisonment for twelve calender months, or a fine of 1,000 dollars; and the assessors aforesaid shall have no authority to decide on the innocence or guilt of the party accused, or on the amount of punishment to be awarded to him on conviction, but in the event of the said assessors, or any of them dissenting from the conviction of, or from the amount of punishment awarded to, the accused party, the assessors or assessor so dissenting shall be authorised to record in the minutes of the proceedings the grounds on which they and he may so dissent, and the Consul shall forthwith report to the High Court at Bombay the fact of such dissent, and of its having been so recorded in the minutes of the proceedings, and shall, as soon possible, lay before the said Court copies of the whole of the depositions and proceedings with the dissent of the assessor or assessors recorded therein, and it shall be lawful thereupon for the Court, by warrant under seal addressed to the Consul, to confirm or vary, or remit altogether, as to the Court may seem fit, the sentence and punishment awarded to the party accused, and such Consul shall give immediate effect to the injunction of any such warrant : Provided always, that in any case in which the assessor or assessors shall dissent from the conviction of, or from the amount of punishment awarded to the accused party, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to take good and sufficient bail from the accused party to appear and undergo the punishment awarded to him, provided the same or any portion thereof be confirmed by the Court, which punishment so confirmed shall commence and take effect from the day on which the decision of the Court shall be notified to the party accused.

15. And in order more effectually to repress crimes and offences on the part of British subjects within the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat, it is further ordered that it shall and may be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to cause any British subject, who shall have been twice convicted before him of any crime or offence and punished for the same, and who, after execution of the sentence of the Consul, on any second conviction shall not be able to find good and sufficient security to the satisfaction of the Consul for his future good behaviour, or who having been deported under any sentence shall during such sentence return, to be sent out of the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat; and to this end the Consul shall have power and authority, as soon as may be practicable after execution of the sentence on such second

conviction, to send any such twice convicted party or any person so returning as aforesaid to Bombay, and in the meantime to detain such party in custody until a suitable opportunity for sending him out of the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat shall present itself; and any person so to be sent out of the said dominions as aforesaid shall be embarked in custody on board of one of Her Majesty's vessels of war, or if there shall be no such vessel available for such purpose, then on board any British vessel bound to Bombay; and it shall be lawful for the Commander of any of Her Majesty's ships of war, or of any British vessel bound to Bombay, to receive any such person as aforesaid under a warrant from the Consul to him addressed, and thereupon to convey such person in custody to Bombay as aforesaid, in the same manner as if he were a distressed British subject, unless he shall be willing and able himself to defray the expenses of his passage.

16. And it is further ordered that in any case in which any British subject shall be accused before Her Majesty's Consul of the crime of arson or housebreaking, or cutting and maiming, or stabbing or wounding, or of any assault endangering life, or of wilfully causing any bodily injury dangerous to life, or of wilful or corrupt perjury, or of engaging in or being accessory to the purchase or sale of slaves or of having slaves illegally in his po-session, the proceedings before the Consul shall be carried on with the aid of assessors convened in the manner aforesaid; and it shall be lawful for the Consul, if to him it shall seem fit, to cause any person convicted before him of any of the crimes aforesaid, over and above any fine or imprisonment which may be awarded to such person, to be sent out of the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat for such time as to him shall seem meet, in the manner pointed out in the next preceding Article of this Order, notwithstanding the crime laid to the charge of such person may be the first of which he has been convicted before the Consul.

17. And it is further ordered that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul, within the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat, upon information laid before him by one or more credible witnesses, that there is reasonable ground to apprehend that any British subject is about to commit a breach of the public peace, to cause such British subject to be brought before him, and to require such British subject to give sufficient security to keep the peace, and, in the event of any British subject being convicted of and punished for a breach of the peace, to cause such British subject, after he shall have undergone the punishment which may have been awarded to him by the Consul, to find security for his good behaviour; and in the event of any British subject who may be required as aforesaid to give sufficient security to keep the peace, or to find security for the good behaviour, being unable or wilfully omitting to do so, then and in any such case it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to send such British subject out of the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat in the manner pointed out in Article 15 of this Order.

18. And it is further ordered that in all cases in which a British subject shall have been sent out of the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat, as provided in the three next preceding Articles of this Order, the Consul sending him out

shall forthwith report such act of deportation, with the grounds of his decision thereon, to the High Court of Bombay.

19. And it is further ordered that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Consul to cause to be apprehended and brought before him any British subject, who may be charged with smuggling or importing into the dominions of the said Sultan any goods whereon any duty shall be charged or payable to the said Sultan, with the intent to evade the payment of such duty, or any goods the importation whereof shall be prohibited; and such Consul shall thereupon proceed with all convenient speed to inquire into the same on oath or solemn affirmation, and to hear the witnesses on both sides with like powers and in like manner in all respects as is provided by Article 10 of this Order. And it shall be lawful for the Consul, having inquired into and heard the said charge, to determine the same, and if he shall find the party guilty, if the charge against him shall be of importance into the said dominions prohibited goods, then to award him to pay a fine not exceeding treble the value of the said goods at the current price of the day; and if the charge shall be of smuggling or importing goods with intent to evade the payment of duty as aforesaid, then to award him to pay a fine not exceeding treble the amount of the duties leviable thereon, and in case of non-payment of any such fine or fines to award him to be imprisoned for a period not exceeding three months; or it shall be lawful for such Consul, without awarding the payment of any fine, to award that such party shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months in such place as he shall appoint: Provided always that no British subject charged only with importing prohibited goods shall be apprehended, unless and until he shall have had one week's notice to appear and answer the charge, and shall have refused, failed, or omitted so to appear.

20. And it is further ordered that in case of common assault, it shall be lawful for the Consul before whom the complaint is made to promote reconciliation between the parties, and to suffer compensation and amends to be made, and the proceedings thereby to be finally stayed.

21. And it is further ordered that a minute of the proceedings in every case heard and determined before the Consul, in pursuance of this order, shall be carefully drawn up and be signed by the Consul, and shall, in cases where the assessors are present, be open for the inspection of such assessors and for their signature if they therein shall concur; and every such minute, together with the depositions of the witnesses, shall be preserved in the public office of the said Consul.

22. And it is further ordered that, save and except as regards offences committed by British subjects against the stipulations of any Treaty between Her Majesty and the Sultan of Muscat, or against any Rules or Regulations for the observance of the stipulations of any such Treaty or Convention, duly affixed and exhibited according to the provisions of Article 2 of this Order, or against any Rules and Regulations for the peace, order, and good government of Her Majesty's subjects being within the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat, no act done by a British subject within the dominions of the said Sultan shall, by Her Majesty's Consul, be deemed and taken to be a crime of misdemeanour or offence rendering the person committing it amen