It was conceived, that considering the civil law only as a supplement to the positive law, continued in force on Java under the proclamation of the Earl of Minto of 11th September 1811, the code respecting slavery might, together with the other parts of legislation, be amended and established, on principles more consistent with humanity and good sense, by a declaration, that slaves in future should not be considered as objects of real property, but as objects possessing personal rights, and bound only to unlimited service; and that, in consequence thereof, slaves should never be transferred from one master to another, without their own consent given before witnesses or a notary. That a master should possess no other power over his slave, than to exact service in an equitable manner; that he should inflict no corporal chastisement on him after he had attained a certain age, nor beyond such a degree as would be given to his children or common apprentices; that all personal wrongs done to a slave, either by his master or by others, should be estimated by the common rules of personal injuries, and not by the principle of a proprietor abusing his own property; that the punishment for murder committed by a master on his slave, should be the same as that of murder committed on a free person; that every slave should have a right to acquire property of his own, by his private industry or labour, or by the bounty of others; that this property should never be removeable at the discretion of the master; that by this property the slave should always have a right to redeem his liberty, after having continued with his master for the term of seven years, and on paying the sum which, on estimation, subject to the approval of the magistrate, should at the time be thought an adequate equivalent for his personal services. These fundamental alterations in the code were submitted by the local government to a higher authority, at a period when the principal proprietors evinced a concurrence in the measure; but the provisional tenure of the government, and the expectation of the early transfer of the island to the crown, induced a delay, until the re-establishment of Holland as a kingdom precluded the adoption of so essential a change.