ion, and was directly
responsible to the Ameer for any miscarriage of justice. The Kazi Rais,
or head judge, had the right to decide all minor matters for
himself--for instance, in his patrols through the streets, if he met a
woman unveiled he could order her to be struck so many times with the
_dira_; or if he found a man selling adulterated food, or using light
weights, he could confiscate his goods, or in some other manner mulct
him in addition to administering a certain number of strokes. He and his
attendants were particularly energetic and zealous in compelling idlers
about the bazaars to repair to the mosques at prayer time, and in a very
paternal and authoritative manner did the Rais exercise his petty power
for the good of his people. Even on his despotism there was some check,
as he had no authority to inflict more than forty blows with the _dira_
for one offence. Intimately connected with the administration of justice
was the police system, which in its intricate ramifications permeated
all sections of society. Much as we may feel admiration for the judicial
code, which, up to a certain point admirably administered, ensured a
certain kind of rough justice throughout the Athalik Ghazi's dominions,
the police laws and discipline have greater claims to our favourable
opinion, as evidences of an astonishing capacity for government. In his
legal code, Yakoob Beg simply adopted the laws enforced on all true
believers by the Koran, and he had no claims to originality as a
lawgiver. But as a ruler adopting all those checks on sedition which lie
at the disposal of an unscrupulous sovereign, and which were brought to
such a pitch of perfection under Fouche and the Second Empire, Yakoob
Beg has reason to be placed in the very highest class of such
potentates. In this achievement, too, he was not a plagiarist, and, as
he must have been ignorant of similar regulations existing in Europe, he
must be allowed the credit of having originated a system of police in
which it is difficult to find a single flaw. In China, indeed, something
of the same kind has at all times existed, and at periods when the
Emperor grasped the sceptre firmly, and made his individuality felt in
the management of affairs, the police were one of the most active tools
of power. But even in that empire there is no record of their having
attained so complete a control over the actions and sentiments of the
people as in Kashgaria during the last decade. It a