of
the monarch that causes most suffering among his subjects. It is rather
that of the inferior officers of government whose rapacity and
extortion renders property, liberty, and life itself insecure. Deceit,
fraud and lying are the natural, if not necessary consequences of a
system which leaves the people entirely at the mercy of those who bear
rule over them.

The religion is Buddhism, one of the most ancient and wide-spread
superstitions existing on the face of the earth. Its sacred Divinity, or
Buddh, is Gaudama, who has passed into a state of eternal and
unconscious repose, which they consider the summit of felicity; but
which seems to us to differ little from annihilation. Images of this god
are the chief objects of worship. These are found in every house, and
are enshrined in pagodas and temples, and in sacred caves which appear
to have been used from time immemorial for religious purposes. The
wealth and labor bestowed on the latter show how great the population
must have been in former ages. Dr. Malcom describes one cave on the
Salwen, which is wholly filled with images of every size, while the
whole face of the mountain for ninety feet above the cave is incrusted
with them. "On every jutting crag stands some marble image covered with
gold, and spreading its uncouth proportions to the setting sun. Every
recess is converted into shrines for others. But imposing as is this
spectacle, it shrinks into insignificance compared with the scene
presented on entering the cavern itself. It is of vast size, and needs
no human art to render it sublime. The eye is confused and the heart
appalled at the prodigious exhibition of infatuation and folly.
Everywhere--on the floor, over head and on every jutting point, are
crowded together images of Gaudama--the offerings of successive ages. A
ship of five hundred tons could not carry away the half of them."

Pagodas are innumerable. In the inhabited parts there is scarcely a
peak, bank, or swelling hill, uncrowned by one of these structures. In
general, they are almost solid, without door or window, and contain some
supposed relic of Gaudama.

The religious system of the Burmans contains many excellent moral
precepts and maxims, which, however being without sanction or example,
are utterly powerless to mould the character of the people to wisdom or
virtue.

A curious feature of Buddhism is, that one of the highest motives it
presents to its followers is the "obtaining of mer