olute authority, whereby they
function exactly as they please, and were instead limited to equity and
truth, and if their sentences involving capital punishment, imprisonment
and the like were contingent on confirmation by the _Sh_ah and by higher
courts in the capital, who would first duly investigate the case and
determine the nature and seriousness of the crime, and then hand down a
just decision subject to the issuance of a decree by the sovereign? If
bribery and corruption, known today by the pleasant names of gifts and
favors, were forever excluded, would this threaten the foundations of
justice? Would it be an evidence of unsound thinking to deliver the
soldiery, who are a living sacrifice to the state and the people and brave
death at every turn, from their present extreme misery and indigence, and
to make adequate arrangements for their sustenance, clothing and housing,
and exert every effort to instruct their officers in military science, and
supply them with the most advanced types of firearms and other weapons?

Should anyone object that the above-mentioned reforms have never yet been
fully effected, he should consider the matter impartially and know that
these deficiencies have resulted from the total absence of a unified
public opinion, and the lack of zeal and resolve and devotion in the
country's leaders. It is obvious that not until the people are educated,
not until public opinion is rightly focused, not until government
officials, even minor ones, are free from even the least remnant of
corruption, can the country be properly administered. Not until
discipline, order and good government reach the degree where an
individual, even if he should put forth his utmost efforts to do so, would
still find himself unable to deviate by so much as a hair's breadth from
righteousness, can the desired reforms be regarded as fully established.

Furthermore, any agency whatever, though it be the instrument of mankind's
greatest good, is capable of misuse. Its proper use or abuse depends on
the varying degrees of enlightenment, capacity, faith, honesty, devotion
and highmindedness of the leaders of public opinion.

The _Sh_ah has certainly done his part, and the execution of the proposed
beneficial measures is now in the hands of persons functioning in
assemblies of consultation. If these individuals prove to be pure and
high-minded, if they remain free from the taint of corruption, the
confirmations of God will make