CHAPTER XXVI. JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION. BUDDHIST law as at present administered in Upper Burma dates from the beginning of the now existing world. The first crime was theft; the first punishment was a scolding, speedily followed by a thrashing; and the first judge was Mahah Thamada, elected by vote of the people to be ruler over them. No doubt there were written laws then, but they have not come down to us. The written code now in use was given to the world by Manoo, originally a cow-herd, but afterwards a minister. He found them written in large characters on the walls of another world, to which he was transported when in an ecstasy. These laws formed the first code. There have been since compiled from them eight other codes in the kingdom of Prome and other ancient states in Burma. The last, called Mahah Menoo Tha-yah Shway Myeen, was drawn up on the foundation of the sixth kingdom of Ava, in the year 1137 B.E. (1775 A.D.), by Min-hkoung Gyee, who, with the aid of a learned monk, went through and carefully revised all the codes. These laws in their integrity are those which govern Burma Proper to the present day and British Burma in so far as they regulate social relations. The codes were written in Sanskrit and Magadha, a VOL. II. R The language usually called Pali through an error. name Pali signifies really not a language, but a doctrinal text, handed down to Buddhists, as composed by pious disciples from the teachings of Shin Gautama. The Magadha or Pali code accepted is called Menoo Woon-nanah, from its writer and compiler, a minister of state in Ava. It is looked upon as a commentary on, or a key to, the codes, and contains the whole of the laws. Besides the codes there exist also twenty standard collections of decisions, leading cases in which judgment was delivered by kings, queens, princesses, and ministers. These are by some regarded as obsolete, by many loo-gyees, however, considered to have still the force of law. The best known of these are: The decisions of Mahawthata, the embryo Budh. Weedooyah, one of the ten great avatars. Kootha. Dwotta Boung, first king of Prome. The laws given by Manoo to the ruler Mahah Thamada numbered altogether eighteen. From these all others have been framed. The eighteen original laws had regard to:-1. Borrowing money. 2. Deposits of money. 3. Stealing and altering the appearance of property and selling it. 4. When a gift may be had back on demanding it, and when not, there being six kinds of gifts. 5. Deciding the wages of carpenters. 6. Deciding the wages of labourers. 7. Breach of promise. 8. Deciding disputes between the owners of cattle and neat-herds. 9. Settling disputed boundaries. 10. Deciding whether property purchased may be returned. 11. Accusations. 12. Theft or concealment. 13. Assault. 14. Murder. 15. Deciding the proper conduct of husband and wife. 16. The question of slavery. 17. Deciding if cock-fighting, betting, or gambling debts shall be paid. 18. Partition of inherited property. Manoo also laid down, that persons appointed to administer the laws should not only have a competent knowledge of the code but should also possess fourteen qualifications, as follows:-1. To decide in strict accordance with the law. 2. To be respectable. 3. To be of moral character. 4. To inspire awe. 5. To command love. 6. To be of good birth. 7. To be religious. 8. To be virtuous. 9. To be truthful. 10. To be talented. 11. To be devoted to the study of the law. 12. To possess honesty of purpose and intention. 13. Knowledge of the principal parties and pleaders in a suit. 14. Fearlessness in deciding cases, or being lion-hearted. The supreme court in Burma is the Hloht-daw, constituted of four woon-gyees, the chief ministers of state, who hold their meetings in a hall within the palace, which takes its name from the court. Each woon-gyee (great burden) has his woon-douk (prop of the burden) as an assistant to sit with him in court. These woon-douks form the third rank of ministers, under the four atwinwoons (inner burdens), who are a kind of household ministers, or privy councillors, and sit in a special court, called the Bya-deht, also in the palace. The latter have nominally principally to deal with the monopolies which Theebaw Min has recently re-established in such abundance. But as any man, no matter what special education or preparation he may have had, is considered eligible for any post, political, military, civil, or judicial, so both the Hloht and the Bya-deht conduct all manner of business, from the external relations of the country to ordinary criminal or civil appeal cases sent up from the yohn-daw, the criminal court, where the myo-woons (city burdens), usually two in number, sit daily; or from the tayah-yohn, the civil court, where two tayah-thoo-gyees (great men of the law) preside. In either of these inferior courts it is not at all uncommon for a woon-douk, or even a woongyee, to attend and investigate important cases. But original suits are also frequently heard before the Hloht, and many cases are decided by the woon-gyees or any of the subordinate officials in their private houses. Formerly indeed this was the chief source of their salaries, for costs to the amount of ten per cent. on the property under dispute went of right to the judge. The late king instituted the custom of fixed salaries, and Theebaw Min retains it, but neglects to pay the money. It will thus be seen that law matters, even in the capital, are carried on in a very casual, hap-hazard sort of a way. There is no attempt at a distribution of public business into departments, and each individual woon-gyee takes his part in deliberations on all kinds of subjects with as much confidence as if he were an expert. If the capital displays a lack of system, there is certainly little to be expected from the provinces. The same general system prevails in the separate districts. Each one is ruled by a governor, or myo-woon, appointed by the Hloht-daw or by the king, and armed with full powers, military, judicial, civil, and fiscal. Appeals may be sent from his decisions to the Hloht, but otherwise he is entirely irresponsible, as long as he is regular in forwarding the prescribed revenue to the myo-sah, the prince or princess, or other great personage who "eats" the province. The "town-eater almost never goes to his district, so that it is entirely at the mercy of the myo-woon, and may be squeezed by him as much as he thinks proper and judicious. The subordinate officials vary in different provinces according to their requirements. All, however, have myo-sayays, secretaries, or town-clerks, nah-khandaws, "receivers of the royal orders," and sikkès, chiefs in war, military officers, who form a provincial council or court holding daily sittings and making reports to the myo-woon. In some districts, according to the duties, there are in addition to these, an akohn-woon, or revenue superintendent, an akouk-woon, or collector of customs, as also in riparian districts a yay-woon, or myit-sin-woon, who has a jurisdiction over the entire river. This authority, however, very often vests in one of the governors. Thus the present Woon of Minhla has power of life and death, as high sheriff of the Irrawaddy, from his own town, close on the British frontier, right up to Sagaing, not far below Mandalay. Other officials are the htoung-hmoo, or gaoler, the tagah-hmoo, governors of the gates, called win-do-hmoo in the capital, where they are very important officers, and the ayat-goung, heads of quarters, in all the larger towns. Under each governor of a province are a number of governors of the separate towns under his jurisdiction. These are called myo-oke when the appointment is temporary, or only for life, and myo-thoo-gyee when it is hereditary, as is most frequently the case. Besides these, in some of the provinces there are taikthoo-gyees, governors of circles or groups of villages, each of which has its own yua-thoo-gyee, who in turn has under him sundry goungs to look after each his specially allotted number of houses. As each of these subordinates has to send in regularly to his immediate superior a certain fixed sum, determined without regard to favourable seasons, health of the population, or anything of that kind, and as each man is judge over the people in his charge, it may naturally be supposed that the general population do not lead a very happy life. Complaints may be made against |