But it must never be forgotten that, if this faith does not assist the
believer in defence, neither does it in offence. What is so terrible as
a war of religion? There can never be a war of Buddhism.

No ravished country has ever borne witness to the prowess of the
followers of the Buddha; no murdered men have poured out their blood on
their hearthstones, killed in his name; no ruined women have cursed his
name to high Heaven. He and his faith are clean of the stain of blood.
He was the preacher of the Great Peace, of love, of charity, of
compassion, and so clear is his teaching that it can never be
misunderstood. Wars of invasion the Burmese have waged, that is true, in
Siam, in Assam, and in Pegu. They are but men, and men will fight. If
they were perfect in their faith, the race would have died out long ago.
They have fought, but they have never fought in the name of their faith.
They have never been able to prostitute its teachings to their own
wants. Whatever the Burmans have done, they have kept their faith pure.
When they have offended against the laws of the Buddha they have done so
openly. Their souls are guiltless of hypocrisy--for whatever that may
avail them. They have known the difference between good and evil, even
if they have not always followed the good.

CHAPTER VII

GOVERNMENT

'Fire, water, storms, robbers, rulers--these are the five great
evils.'--_Burmese saying._

It would be difficult, I think, to imagine anything worse than the
government of Upper Burma in its later days. I mean by 'government' the
king and his counsellors and the greater officials of the empire. The
management of foreign affairs, of the army, the suppression of greater
crimes, the care of the means of communication, all those duties which
fall to the central government, were badly done, if done at all. It must
be remembered that there was one difficulty in the way--the absence of
any noble or leisured class to be entrusted with the greater offices. As
I have shown in another chapter, there was no one between the king and
the villager--no noble, no landowner, no wealthy or educated class at
all. The king had to seek for his ministers among the ordinary people,
consequently the men who were called upon to fill great offices of state
were as often as not men who had no experience beyond the narrow limits
of a village.

The breadth of view, the knowledge of other countries, of other
thoughts, that comes