Nuisances generally speaking may be safely left to the complaint of individuals in each particular instance where the cause of nuisance is not obvious to all, or directly injurious to particular individuals, as crowding the river with vessels, &c., when it may be made subject of special regulation.
All house-holders should be registered and all houses numbered; auctioneers and pawnbrokers should be placed under specific regulations, and none allowed to act as such without giving security for complying with the same and taking out a license for the purpose.
With respect to the employment of informers, it may be observed that Magistrates must have information, but no bad passion should be elicited in the procuring of it. No temptation to lead others to vice for the sake of reward for informing, no inducement to betray confidence, and the act of giving information should be treated as a public and honourable duty.
Precautionary measures being taken on the above principles for preserving the peace and good order of society and removing as far as practicable the immediate temptations to crime and violence, it next becomes necessary to define what shall be considered Crimes, what lawful punishments and how injuries shall be redressed.
By the constitution of England, the absolute rights of the subject are defined as follows:-
1st. "The right of personal security; which consists in a person's legal uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health and his reputation."
2nd. "The right of personal liberty; which consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation or removing one's person to whatever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of Law."
3rdly. "The right of property; which consists in the use, enjoyment and disposal of all acquisitions without any control or diminution save only by the Laws of the Land." There seems no reason for denying corresponding rights to all classes of people residing under the protection of the British Flag at Singapore, the Laws of the Land being such
