TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 193 



divided into tliose who use opium aud those who use alcohol, according to race- 

 lines, e\en in countries where the facilities of obtaining the one or the other are 

 precisely similar. In the east of India I found tliat the consumption of opium in 

 the various districts was just in proportion as a Turanian or Chinese element pre- 

 vailed in the popidation. The Aryan races of India never take to opium in a very 

 gi-eat degree, except in the case of some of the Sikhs, whose religion prohibits the 

 use of tobacco. Even in the districts where the poppy is almost universally culti- 

 vated by the Ryots (and they supply the opium which the Chinese consume), it is a 

 happy fact that the native population does not take to the common use of opium ; 

 and there are no greater symptoms of the ill effects of the drug than in districts 

 where it is very rare and dear — ^far less so than in districts where the cultivation is 

 not permitted, but where there is an Indo-Chinese population. I cannot but 

 think that such race proclivities open up an important held of inquiry. 



From so fertile sources of crime as drink and other stimulants one not unnaturally 

 passes to justice and the repression of crime, as essential to economic safety and 

 prosperity. No one who has experienced the vast relief obtained by the change 

 from a crude and undigested state of the law to the use of codes can doubt the 

 immense advantages of codification. It is very gi-eatly to be regi-etted that so 

 little progress in that direction has been made in this country. Not only would 

 there be the great direct gain, but there would be this enormous advantage, that in 

 a codified shape the laws of the three kingdoms might be assimilated. The very 

 great juridical advantages which we possess in many respects in Scotland would be 

 communicated to the sister kingdoms ; and, on the other hand, we should obtain in 

 Scotland some modern reforms which we need. "We should get rid of that shock- 

 ing anomaly and hindrance to business, the necessity of passing in the same legis- 

 lature separate laws for England and Scotland, only because there is a difference in 

 the legal phraseology and some of the details. I have been much struck by the ex- 

 treme ignorance which prevails in England regarding our Scotch criminal system. 

 The world is ransacked for examples in regard to such questions, as, for instance, 

 the examination of the accused ; and yet there is not one well-educated man in 

 England in a thousand who knows that in his own island, at his own door, there is 

 a system of criminal procedure juost radically different from his own, and, as I 

 venture to think, veiy worthy of English imitation. Who in England has the least 

 idea of the wholesome Scotch system under which the first inquiry includes the 

 examination of the prisoner before lawyers are permitted to see him, and the record 

 for judicial use of the statements which he makes? 



After judicial inquiry comes puuishment ; and here I am inclined to believe that 

 the ci\dlized world is still very much at fault. I think there is still immense room 

 for scientific discussion on the subject of punishments. There are some gi-eat sub- 

 jects, such as sanitation and punishments, in respect ofwhich I believe that the experts 

 claim a certainty and a knowledge which has not yet been attained. On the con- 

 trary, I think there is still every thing to be gained by inquiry and experiment 

 conducted without prejudice or preconceived conclusions. I'he mere sliutting-up 

 a man in prison without severe treatment is by no means a sufficient deterrent to all 

 natures ; and when we seek to be severe, we clash with modern notions of humanity. 

 In one shape, indeed, there seems to be a disposition to revert to a form of torture — 

 that is, by flogging. Yet after a great experience I am myself much convinced 

 that of all forms of corporal punishment flogging is the most uncertain, ineffective, 

 and dangerous. In a light and simple form it is good for juvenile delinquents, 

 whose oflences are petty, and whom we would not contaminate by a first imprison- 

 ment. And flogging is to some natures a material addition to other punishments. 

 But as soon as we try to carry it beyond this we are placed in this dilemma, that 

 a flogging which is safe is an insufficient punishment; a more severe flogging is a 

 sort of lottery : nineteen or ninety-nine men it may not harm, the twentieth or 

 hundredth it will kill. I really believe that it would be safer to cut off a finger or 

 an ear than to attempt to deal with serious oflences by floji-giug only. 



It is because I think we do not yet fully understand the science of puuishment 

 that I am myself opposed to a too uniform and centralized system of prison manage- 

 ment. I thoroughly admit that there is much room for reform in regard to the 

 mimberofour jails and for improvement in the management of many of them. 



