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0258 Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 / Page 258 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000231
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The lower classes, therefore, have but little oppor-
tunity 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 posses-
sion 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, there-
fore, Tibet offers less hope (or fear?) of social revo-
lution 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 just-
ice. 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 depart-
ments, 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,