Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-10-01
A Chinese MAGISTRATE.

A Chinese Magistrate.
The London md China Telegraph, in
its summary of news from China, re-
cords the following incident which oc-
Cured in the mixed court at Shanghai
on the Goth of May, the conduct of the
magistrate eclipsing anything which
has been seen since the court was es-
tablished. The case out of which the
occurrence arose was petty charge
of lettering for q felonious purpose
brought against three men by a
Chinese clerk in the employ of Mr..
Cory. The three men, when taken to
the police station, were found TO DO in
possession of two letin runners badges
and one tebin runners coat, while one
of them was recognized as an old thief
who had served two months in the
chain gang. The police at first pre-.
ferred a charge against the men of
illegally exercising lekin runners
rights in the settlement, as there was
no direct evidence in support of this
charge it was abandoned, and the
men were simply charged with loiter-
ing. Huang, after putting one or two
questions to the prosecutor in very
offhand manner, said he believed the
man was lying, and he should dis
charge the prisoners. Mr.. Giles, who
was sitting as assessor, did not object
to the men being dismissed, but said
they ought at least to be cautioned
and told that they had been acting
wrongly, especially MS one of them
was a cow ctcd thief Huang, how
ever, in the rudest manner, declined
TO listen to anything Mr.. Giles had to
say, and made use of language to him
of most direspectful kind, using the
second person instead of the third, as
is proper in Chinese, and saying re-
peatedly What business is that IF
yoursP When Mr.. Giles referred to
one of the prisoners having been II
thief, Huang replied: Don't you be-
lieve thief can repentp Before you
were vice consul you used to be an inter-
prefer, but nobody knows what you
were before that" Finally he wound
up by saying, II tell you again that
this matter has nothing whatever to
do with you foreigners" and he en-
phasized this remark by rapping Mr..
Giles sharply on the knuckles with the
inky end of pen which he held in
his hand. Mr.. Giles knocked the pen
out of his worship's hand and angrily
expostulated with him upon his con-
duct, whereupon the magistrate, be-
side himself with rage, jumped up,
and, shouting out something in Chi
nese, deliberately struck Mr.. Giles on
the shoulder with his open hand. Mr..
Giles, who naturally appeared to find
it very difficult to keep his temper un-
der this provocation, hastily left the
bench, overturDing a small table as he
stepped down. Superintendent Nc
Euen, who was seated at the side of
the bench, watching the case on be-
half of the police, at once informed
the magistrate through the interpreter
that he had witnessed the blow, which,
indeed, was too apparent to escape the
attention OF any person IN court. His
worship then directed that the three
prisoners should be detained at the
mixed court, and Capt. McEuen SUBJ
mitted 10 this. only informing the
magistrate that he should hold him
responsible for the production of the
men whenever the higher authorities.
consular or Chinese, might require it.
There were several other police cases
on the charge sheets for hearing, but
Capt. McEuen declined to bring the
prisoners forward in the absence of
Mr. Giles, and directed the police to
take them back to the different sta
tions. The assault committed by the
magistrate on Mr.. Giles was then en-
tered on the charge sheet. The mat
ter will, of course, be taken serious
notice of, and we can scarcely DOUBT
that the British authorities will insist
on the removal from Office of magis-
trate who, after constantly proving
himself unjust and incompetent, has
wound up by disgracing the bench
and shamefully insulting British
! vice consul.