[8] In India,
punishments have nowhere been, under our rule, disproportionate to
the crimes; on the contrary, they have generally been more mild than
the people would wish them to be, or think they ought to be, in order
to deter from similar crimes; and, in newly-acquired territories,
they have generally been more mild than in our old possessions. The
accused are, therefore, nowhere considered as objects of public
sympathy; and in newly-acquired territories they are willing to tell
the truth, and are allowed to do so, in order to save the people whom
they have injured, and their neighbours generally, the great loss and
annoyance unavoidably attending upon a summons to our courts. In the
native courts, to which ours succeed, the truth was seen through
immediately, the judges who presided could commonly distinguish truth
from falsehood in the evidence before them, almost as well as the
sylvan gods who sat in the pipal- or cotton-trees; though they were
seldom supposed by the people to be quite so just in their decisions.
When we take possession of such countries, they, for a time at least,
give us credit for the same sagacity, with a little more integrity.
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