compelled to undergo this kind of inconven
ience, and undergo it they will not. Ordi
narily, therefore, the only assistance a pris
oner can obtain is that of some rascal who
has no knowledge of law, no character, no
courage to withstand injustice or irregular
conduct on the part of the magistrate. In
other words, as there is no publicity in most
criminal inquiries and trials, so also there is
no legal assistance on which an accused per
son can rely.
The native magistrates are almost all of
them Brahmans, and, as I have said above,
ignorant Brahmans, who for the most part
have not realized in the very slightest degree
the idea of moral responsibility. That they
are and must be utterly ignorant of the ways
of the world, and of the manners and customs
of their despised fellow-countrymen, follows
as of course from their bringing up and mode
of life. Born a pauper in a mud hut in some
Agrahàra, or Brahman quarter the official in
posse is taught from his earliest infancy that
he is a Brahman, and as such superior to the
Gods themselves, whilst the wretched traders,
farmers, and artisans of whom he occasion
ally catches sight are barely worthy to per
form menial offices for his benefit. At a
neighboring government or mission school
he is taught by Brahmans, and his Brahman
schoolfellows, and his prejudices grow apace.
After picking up, at a cost of fifty or seventyfive cents a month, obtained not infrequently
by begging in the streets, some mathematics
and a smattering of English, which he con
temptuously calls the " belly language," be
cause to know a few words of it often enables
a pauper to feed himself, the esurient lad of
eighteen or nineteen begins to exert himself
to get employment in a government office;
and with the help of his relatives, connections,
and friends, who probably fill every subor
dinate post in the district, he generally suc
ceeds within the space of a few months in
getting some petty clerkship of the value of
five or eight dollars a month, which will en
able him comfortably to support his wife and
children — these Brahmans all marry as chil dren — and to prepare himself for the exam inations that must be passed by all aspirants to posts carrying with them salaries of more than ten dollars a month. Occupied for many hours a day in copying and drafting corre spondence and keeping accounts, and devot ing his spare time to " cramming " for his examinations, the young Brahman official gets through a few years of very repulsive drudg ery, and at last if he has played his cards tolerably well, .he suddenly finds himself in vested with the power of a magistrate, to be exercised in some lonely village far from the eyes of Europeans, and whither no reporter has ever yet gone. If he was puffed up with pride as a child, and if he was swelled out with self-conceit as a youth, what will he not be when he takes his seat on the bench, pos sessed of really tremendous powers, including that of issuing a warrant for the apprehen sion of a rajah, or even of a European gentle man, and with the consciousness that within a few years' time he may amass a fortune? Such a one should be indeed vain and igno rant; and since his course at school carefully excluded all religious and moral instruction, and his parents never taught him anything but to hold up his head as a Brahman, he must be utterly devoid of religion and moral ity, a man steadied by no moral ballast. Moreover, he can know no patriotism, because he belongs to no nation, and ignores as mere barbarians the Indians in whose midst he dwells and by whose labors he grows fat. Such is the average Brahman magistrate. Of course there are numerous exceptions to the rule. Some native magistrates are the sons of well-to-do parents. Some, no doubt, have studied the teachings of Brahmanism, and are thoroughly orthodox and moral ac cording to their lights; and a few, a very few, may have faintly endeavored by reading English books and newspapers to get some knowledge of the great world beyond the limits of their native villages. But what specially marks the character of the ordinary
