The next case was that of a youth barely arrived at man’s estate, who was charged with having been swindled out of large property during his minority by his guardian, who was also one of his nearest relations.  His father had been long dead, and it was for this reason that his offence came on for trial in the Personal Bereavement Court.  The lad, who was undefended, pleaded that he was young, inexperienced, greatly in awe of his guardian, and without independent professional advice.  “Young man,” said the judge sternly, “do not talk nonsense.  People have no right to be young, inexperienced, greatly in awe of their guardians, and without independent professional advice.  If by such indiscretions they outrage the moral sense of their friends, they must expect to suffer accordingly.”  He then ordered the prisoner to apologise to his guardian, and to receive twelve strokes with a cat-of-nine-tails.

But I shall perhaps best convey to the reader an idea of the entire perversion of thought which exists among this extraordinary people, by describing the public trial of a man who was accused of pulmonary consumption—­an offence which was punished with death until quite recently.  It did not occur till I had been some months in the country, and I am deviating from chronological order in giving it here; but I had perhaps better do so in order that I may exhaust this subject before proceeding to others.  Moreover I should never come to an end were I to keep to a strictly narrative form, and detail the infinite absurdities with which I daily came in contact.

The prisoner was placed in the dock, and the jury were sworn much as in Europe; almost all our own modes of procedure were reproduced, even to the requiring the prisoner to plead guilty or not guilty.  He pleaded not guilty, and the case proceeded.  The evidence for the prosecution was very strong; but I must do the court the justice to observe that the trial was absolutely impartial.  Counsel for the prisoner was allowed to urge everything that could be said in his defence:  the line taken was that the prisoner was simulating consumption in order to defraud an insurance company, from which he was about to buy an annuity, and that he hoped thus to obtain it on more advantageous terms.  If this could have been shown to be the case he would have escaped a criminal prosecution, and been sent to a hospital as for a moral ailment.  The view, however, was one which could not be reasonably sustained, in spite of all the ingenuity and eloquence of one of the most celebrated advocates of the country.  The case was only too clear, for the prisoner was almost at the point of death, and it was astonishing that he had not been tried and convicted long previously.  His coughing was incessant during the whole trial, and it was all that the two jailors in charge of him could do to keep him on his legs until it was over.