anted him.
He said that he thought all that was over, as he was released; but I
explained to him that the release only applied to the theft case. And
then we walked over half a mile to court, I in front and he behind,
across the wide plain, and he surrendered to the guard. He was tried
and acquitted on this charge also. Not, as the sessions judge said
later, that he had any doubt that my friend and the others were the
right men, but because he considered some of the evidence
unsatisfactory, and because the original confession was withdrawn. So he
was released again, and went hence a free man.

But think of him surrendering himself! He knew he had committed the
dacoity with which he was charged: he himself had admitted it to begin
with, and again admitted it freely when he knew he was safe from further
trial. He knew he was liable to very heavy punishment, and yet he
surrendered because he understood that I wanted him. I confess that I do
not understand it at all, for this is no solitary instance. The
circumstances, truly, were curious, but the spirit in which the man
acted was usual enough. I have had dacoit leaders with prices on their
heads walk into my camp. It was a common experience with many officers.

The Burmans often act as children do. Their crimes are the violent,
thoughtless crimes of children; they are as little depraved by crime as
children are. Who are more criminal than English boys? and yet they grow
up decent, law-abiding men. Almost the only confirmed criminals have
been made so by punishment, by that punishment which some consider is
intended to uplift them, but which never does aught but degrade them.
Instead of cleansing the garment, it tears it, and renders it useless
for this life.

It is a very difficult question, this of crime and punishment. I have
not written all this because I have any suggestion to make to improve
it. I have not written it because I think that the laws of Manu, which
obtained under the Burmese kings, and their methods of punishment, were
any improvement on ours. On the contrary, I think they were much worse.
Their laws and their methods of enforcing the law were those of a very
young people. But, notwithstanding this, there was a spirit in their
laws different from and superior to ours.

I have been trying to see into the soul of this people whom I love so
well, and nothing has struck me more than the way they regard crime and
punishment; nothing has seemed to me more w