Judgement

APPEAL from a decree of the Recorder of Rangoon (June 21, 1881), on the hearing of a suit by a wife against her husband for maintenance, whereby the latter, the Appellant, was ordered to pay to the former Rs. 10,000 and costs.

The facts are stated in the judgment of their Lordships, and the questions raised in the appeal related to the status and incidents of marriage amongst Burmese Buddhists.

The material passages in the Recorders judgment are as follows—

" Having found as a fact that the Plaintiff is the wife of the Defendant by a validly constituted marriage, then comes the question whether she is entitled to maintenance.

" There are many passages in the Manoo Wonnanna and Manoo Thara Shwe Myeen Dammathats, both recognised as of high authority, which shew that a husband is bound to maintain his wife ; and in the Manoo Kyay Dammathat translated by the late Dr. Richardson, which is the Dammathat hitherto most generally used as a guide in questions of Burmese law, probably from the fact of its being the only one translated into English, in the chapter on the different kinds of wives, par. 14, page 14, the liability is clearly indicated. There it is laid down in the case