Satisfying the Law.
The number of aged men among the prisoners in the gaols of India is said to ba very large, and the explanation is this. Ie is a common practice, when a theft is brought home to a man by the police, for him to get an old father or uncle to take the blame on himself ; or he puts up a younger brother to do so. Before the court this substitute makes full and circumstantial confession. He is convicted and the real thief gets off. It is done to benefit the family. A sturdy youug man is able to do more for the family support by honest labour or by .thieving than an old man or a boy. This is a custom which prevails more or less in all Oriental countries. Tne judges and the people seem to argue in this way : "Somebody has committed a crime, therefore somebody must be punished. Now the law is no respecter of persons, and one persan "is the same as another, so that it can make no difference to the law who is punished. " Thus, if the law punishes some person for the crime, it makes no difference if he did not commit the crime ; the law has bean vindicated."
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 52
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210Satisfying the Law. Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 52
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