The lower classes, therefore, have but little opportunity for individual advancement ; more, however, through the monastery than in any other way. Pride of family is strong, marriages beneath one's inherited rank are rare. As in all lands, the possession of exceptional wealth may put a young man or woman into a class above that of one's birth—but the opportunities for fortune-making are very few, for reasons already outlined. In this respect, therefore, Tibet offers less hope (or fear?) of social revolution than might have been held in Europe even in her darkest hours. There, Nature invited, or did not severely punish, the timid efforts of art and commerce. Here, it almost prohibits.
Besides the ownership of their inherited lands, a noble family may enjoy the control of certain State lands, given instead of salary, for the exercise of administrative function. Whenever this system of irregular compensation is found, we may confidently look for an equally irregular administration of justice. Western civilisation is now outgrowing this evil. The wide corruption in American legislative bodies arises from a neglect of the sound rule of fair and stated compensation for all public service.
A somewhat intimate knowledge of this evil has been forced upon me in various affairs, and I do not hesitate to affirm that many American municipalities are conducted, in their legislative and police departments, with as much systematic corruption as has been reported by European travellers and residents in any Asiatic community. Our State legislatures are bad also—not quite as bad as the municipal councils. Our city judiciary is bad occasionally,
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