Justifiable Homicide

This is a remedial age, an age of keys for all manner of locks; so he cannot be said to ask too much who seeks for exact information as to how a young man ought, in justice to himself and to society, to deal with his relations.  During his minority he has lain entirely at their mercy:  has been their butt, their martyr, their drudge, their corpus vile.  Possessing all the sinews of war, this stiff-necked tribe has consistently refused to ``part’’:  even for the provision of those luxuries so much more necessary than necessities.  Its members have crammed their victim full of precepts, rules of conduct, moral maxims, and most miscellaneous counsel:  all which he intuitively suspected at the time, and has ascertained by subsequent experience, to be utterly worthless.  Now, when their hour has come, when the tocsin has sounded at last, and the Gaul is at the gate, they still appear to think that the old condition of things is to go on; unconscious, apparently, of atonement due, of retribution to be exacted, of wrongs to be avenged and of insults to be wiped away!

Over the north-west frontier, where the writ of the English Raj runs not, the artless Afghan is happy in a code that fully provides for relatives who neglect or misunderstand their obligations.  An Afghan it was who found himself compelled to reprove an uncle with an unfortunate habit of squandering the family estate.  An excellent relative, this uncle, in all other respects.  As a liar, he had few equals; he robbed with taste and discretion; and his murders were all imbued with true artistic feeling.  He might have lived to a green old age of spotless respectability but for his one little failing.  As it was, justice had to be done, ruat cælum:  and so it came about that one day the nephew issued forth to correct him with a matchlock.  The innocent old man was cultivating his paternal acres; so the nephew was able, unperceived, to get a steady sight on him.  His finger was on the trigger, when suddenly there slipped into his mind the divine precept:  ``Allah is merciful!’’ He lowered his piece, and remained for a little plunged in thought; meanwhile the unconscious uncle hoed his paddy.  Then with a happy smile he took aim once more, for there also occurred to him the precept equally divine:  ``But Allah is also just.’’ With an easy conscience he let fly, and behold! there was an uncle the more in Paradise.

It was probably some little affair of a similar quality that constrained a recruit in a regiment stationed at Peshawur to apply for leave of absence:  in order to attend to family matters of importance.  The Colonel knew it was small use refusing the leave, as in that case his recruit would promptly desert; so he could only ask, how long was the transaction like to take?  It was told him, after consideration, that, allowing for all possible difficulties and delays, a month would meet the necessities of the case; and on that understanding he allowed his man to depart.  At the end of the month he reappeared on duty, a subdued but mellow cheer shining through his wonted impassiveness.  His Colonel ventured to inquire of him, in a general way, if the business in question were satisfactorily concluded.  And he replied:  ``I got him from behind a rock.’’