Chapter IV
PERSONAL LIBERTY, JUSTICE, SLAVERY, AND CHECKS ON VICE
A moment's attention may be called to a notable feature of the Tokugawa system, already briefly alluded to; namely, the responsibility imposed on the people themselves for the preservation of order. Specially serviceable for that purpose was the "five-man group" (go-nin-gumi), originally an instrument for securing the payment of taxes by holding all the numbers jointly liable for the debts of any one of their number. Many duties devolved upon the "group" and its units. No householder might give lodging to travellers without notifying the "group" to which he belonged; nor might he himself move temporarily to another village before similar notice had been given. In the case of certain offences against good order or public morality, the whole group was penalised in common with an offending member, and sometimes this method of vicarious punishment received wider application, as when any one attempted to charge more than
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