ever been able to hear of
a single instance in which they even expressed an opinion either as a
body or as individuals on any state matter.

It is true that, if a governor oppressed his people, the monks would
remonstrate with him, or even, in the last extremity, with the king;
they would plead with the king for clemency to conquered peoples, to
rebels, to criminals; their voice was always on the side of mercy. As
far as urging the greatest of all virtues upon governors and rulers
alike, they may be said to have interfered with politics; but this is
not what is usually understood by religion interfering in things of
state. It seems to me we usually mean the reverse of this, for we are of
late beginning to regard it with horror. The Burmese have always done
so. They would think it a denial of all religion.

And so the only things worth noting about the government of the Burmese
were its exceeding badness, and its disconnection with religion. That it
would have been a much stronger government had it been able to enlist on
its side all the power of the monkhood, none can doubt. It might even
have been a better government; of that I am not sure. But that such a
union would have meant the utter destruction of the religion, the
debasing of the very soul of the people, no one who has tried to
understand that soul can doubt. And a soul is worth very many
governments.

But when you left the central government, and came down to the
management of local affairs, there was a great change. You came straight
down from the king and governor to the village and its headman. There
were no lords, no squires, nor ecclesiastical power wielding authority
over the people.

Each village was to a very great extent a self-governing community
composed of men free in every way. The whole country was divided into
villages, sometimes containing one or two hamlets at a little distance
from each other--offshoots from the parent stem. The towns, too, were
divided into quarters, and each quarter had its headman. These men held
their appointment-orders from the king as a matter of form, but they
were chosen by their fellow-villagers as a matter of fact. Partly this
headship was hereditary, not from father to son, but it might be from
brother to brother, and so on. It was not usually a very coveted
appointment, for the responsibility and trouble were considerable, and
the pay small. It was 10 per cent. on the tax collections. And with this
official as