Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-05-05


tiscated. Notwithstanding these ter
libir penalties. no trial III the pro
per SENSE of The teIin, Is afforded he
culprlt; his case is heard without Il
jury before 4 mandarin, vino is at
liberty to hear or reject as much of
the testimony as he pioaseS; and al
though rch"aring may be had at
the In-tance of relatives, vet no
counsel cal be heard, and even the
argument of the relations is Il matter
of favor aud not Of right The debt
ors of tie Emperor, if shown or
claimed to be guilty OF fraud, are
{ str ;hTled, II, if the compartment he
! due merely to misfortune, the I'm
porial creditor contiscatcs their pro-
peity, and sells theIr wives and chill
dren to slavery. 4 slave who strikes
his master is hehcaled; if he strike
with infant to kill, he suffers death
by torture; if he accidenily kill his
master, he is imprisoned for Ger
tain sine, and then strangleI; if he
accident Y wound him, be Is b .n;-hcd
TO the distance of three hundred lie,
but not until he has received one
hundred blows. Ii a slave is impu-
dent to his master, he is strangIed;
! if to any of the relatives of his mas.
ter III the first degree, he is bahished
for two years and receive fifty strokes
with the bamboo. The nature Of
dis comhlon method ut ruii, :irrui
iii China should be understood The
victim is su pended from il beam by
ncahs of a rope tied to his whist
and feet, leaving his body bent in
the form OF Il bow; his flesh is torn
to tatters by eXecutioners standing
beneath. 1t is the common custom,
after the prisoner his tainted, to re-
store his strength by remedies, in
order to admit Il repetition of the
operation. The extent to which the
law, in other words, the bamboo, is
brought to bear in all the relations
of life, is shown by the fact that
when trader deliberately plans to
undersell his neighbors so that they
cannot dispose of their goods, he is
punished with forty strokes. Chi
nese marriages are not arranged by
the parties directly interested, but
by their relatives. If one of the
family recalcitrltes, after betrothal
has been agreed upon, the head
thereof receives fifty strokes with the
bamboo, aud under this legal pro-
cess the wedding ceremony takes
place perforce.
But the intent and practice of
Chinese legislation do bot stop with
even this, for wherever person
observes line of conduct that nay
be alleged as offending propriety,
even if there be no special infraction
of any established enactment, he is
liable to receive forty to eighty
Blow. These reculiarities of Chi
nese Jurisprudence readily account
for the fact that all the man darins
speedily grow rich. Where torture
Is the mlidest form Of punishment, IL
due graduation must render the death
penalty frequent for faults considered
to be of a graver kind About a
hundred years ago subject VEN
tured the advice that the Emperor
declare his successor, for which
heinous offence he was put to death.
The Ming dynasty declared that
paper money should be considered
the same as copper coin, and that
whoever demurred to this should be
beheaded. Up to the beginning of
the present century, death was the
punishment of natives who taught
Europeans the Chinese language, OF
who revealed to foreigners the meth
DDS of Chinese manufacture. Dur
Ing the inception OF the opium trade,
the penalty of death was put into
effect to deter the native population
from purchasing or dealing in the
article. Before the power of the
western nations had made itself so
effectually felt in China, foreigners
penetrating to the interior were
beaten. starved, and finally beLead-
ed for their temerity.
"A people living underSuc institu-
tons must necessarily be given over
to all the vices that form the common
heritage of slaves, at the same time
that their peculiar structure of So
clety secures to them many of the
Strengthening attributes of freedom.
Ont of the condition of continual
subsection to PHYSICAL force, and the
fear of bodily and financial harm,
have beeL developed two notable
faculties in an inordinate degree:
one, that of deceit and trickery, by
which punishment may be avoided
and personal benefit obtained: the
other that of avarice, the desire for
the accumulation OF wealth and the
enjoyment of physical ease. For it
is law of nature that people ap.
preciate and value most thai which
they are in the most danger Of losing.
Out of the same conditions, also,
has sprung disregard of human
life which perneates all classes of
society. When, thirty years ago,
new Emperor assembled the throne,
he put to death the counsellors of
his father, who, under the stress of
necessity, had added somewhat to
the privileges of the Europeans.
Among the lower orders, the same
merciless spirit is shown in the COM
mon practice of infanticide; and in
cidentally and in less degree, by
the the almost uniform neglect of
the boatmen on the Chinese water
ways to rescue those whom they
may see drowning in their immediate
neiShbolhood. A French traveller
recalls an instance in which a mum.
Der of prisoners who were being
carried through the country, had |
their hands spiked to the cart in de-
fault of ropes with which to tie them;
and it has been recorded as frequent
" opcurriuu that tran,blarS oftar