A correspondent of the Times published on Saturday last a
singularly interesting account of the British treatment of the Phoongyes or Buddhist friars of Burmah. They are seventy- five thousand in number, and being rather recluses than priests, who have, strictly speaking, no place in Buddhism, they are greatly venerated by the people, whose indigenous education they entirely control. The Order has now been recognised by the British Government, and in November of last year the Lieutenant-Governor of Burmah, Sir Hugh Barnes, formally invested its head with the right of managing all its internal affairs, a right which within the strict limits of his jurisdiction is to be recognised in all civil Courts. He can- not, of course, issue any order at variance with the ordinary civil law; but he can, we fancy, appoint and depose the heads of monasteries, who are very important persons in the province. In return for his recognition by the State, which, it seems, the Phoongye community greatly wished, he has promised to support the authority of the Government, instead of opposing it at every turn, as his predecessor had done. This power of tolerating all creeds and ecclesiastical systems is one secret of the comparative ease with which Englishmen pacify conquered provinces, as it was also one secret of the absence of insurrec- tion in the wide Roman dominion. Our action does not pro- ceed entirely from the feeling of Gallio; but from a conviction that liberty is good whenever it can be conceded without violence to the conscience inherent in all men. We inter- fere with no creed, but treat suttee as murder, whereupon the practice suddenly subsides.
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