The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-05-31
JUDICIAL TORTURE,
somooA 'he More Common Forms of Cruel.
ty Practiced in China.


suspension of the victim by the thumbs,
with tne arms bent behind the back
and tne toes touching the ground. is 8
common practice. There is used also in
the case CT great criminals, and espe-
claliy IN the southern provinces, a mode
OF torture called 'kneeling on chains. ;"
The victim may be made to kneel on
coil Oh sharp chain, with his arms ex.
tenoeo' and a lictor standing ready to
fog MIN If he lower them; or he NAV be
suspended from the ceiling, face down.
waro' Dy cord attached to his thumbs
and great toes, and lowered till the
Welgne Vi the body rests on the knees
on tne chaln. Quite recently, according
to Cnlnese newspaper, two men charged
with belonging to secret association in
Hupen We're made to kneel on sharp
chains and seceived /, 900 blows with the
llght bamboo to elicit confession. There
had Deen, apparently, some indications
OF local disturbance, and these men
| were arrested as rSgleaders. Suspen-
pension by pole passed under the arm
pit, Win the hands tied under the knees,
and various other cruelties are said to
be pracuced occasionally in the south
ern yamens. Yet there are, in the
! penal code, stringent1p provisions against
heinhrtion of illegal punishment; and
| th6Isasslty, if death ensue, is severe.
! A hau 70 in
stanh, dome to serious grief for decapi-
tatbg man where the law called for
stbngulation; the point being that dis
menberment of the body is a disgrace,
and was in excess therefore, of the legal
senence. But it may easily be con-
ceved that in the matter of torture,
aid in all ordinary cases, the following
revision in section 413 of the Chinese
Jaw is sufficiently elastic to shield a
multitude of delinquencies:
"When it so happens that, Immediately after
the infection of punishment on the upper part
Of the back of the thighs, and in lawful man
ner the culprit commits suicide or dies in any
manner in consequence of the punishment he
had undergone, no person shall be held re-
Bponsible for the same"
Unless case had been so glaring as
to excite the whole northumberland
the Chinese are not easily moved
means would be found to hush up or ex-
plain away imprOprieties. The power
and venality of official underlings, the
general prevalence of bribery, the
difficulties attending appeals, and the
absence of that publicity which renders
illegality practically impossible in En-
gland, make it very difficult to secure
the correction of injustice in China.
Cases do, however, occasionally happen;
and one such was recorded in the Picking
Gazette last September. l. draper at a
small town in Central China found in
the morning that his shop had been
plundered. Going out to prospect, he
found some bits of cloth on the river
bank and little further up junk st
anchor. He then seems to have stretched
point, declared that he had found the
cloth on the junk, and so procured the
arrest of all on board. The magistrate
forthwith employed torture-tortured
the crew into admitting themselves ac-
csssories, and tortured to death the two
! Ysa father and son. who had ONO. ~ 80
tte soa| = NVhan +l,Azoase came before
th chief provincial authorities on re-
pot, they considered it SO unsatisfac-
tory that they sentenced the draper to
bestrangled for giving malicious false
evidence resulting in the death of the
accused, and the magistrate to be cash
Tered and banished for carelessness and
illegal orture.-Fortnightly Review.