The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-09-03
CHINESE LAW.

Topsy-Turvy Decisions and Sentences Yet the System as Whole is Com mended.
 Though a man with a sharp sword
 should cut ones body bit by bit, let no
 angry thought arise, let the mouth
 speak no i'll word.--Fo- Smelling Tsan- King.
 So natural has 1t become to treat eve
 rything connected with the Celestial empire as either comic or semi-barbaric that the denizen of Pump Court will start and rub his own eyes when he
 hears from the latest authority that in
 many respects the Chinese penal code is superior to the English system. MT, Alabaster's work comes as a most re- freshing change from the too often dry and dreary pages which the legal re- viewer Is commended to scan from years end to years end A book which transports one from the musty cloiSters of statute and case law into an atmos- pfere of quaint customs and breezy an ecdote, shot through and through with the golden threads of even justice, de- mands a broader Urea tment than the heading Law Library" would warrant, Legal practitioners are few and far
 between in China: In fact, 1t can hardly
 be said that there are either counsel or solicitors A semi-officlal class exists who solve the more difficult forensic problems; they are called shin 1. The tai shu must be brave set of men: | they qualify for drawing up petitions, l but the work Is fraught with danger. One poor old fellow of seventy got three | years transportation for drawing up | five petitions Advocacy is equally risky; a scholar was sentenced to two years imprisonment and eighty blows from the heavy bamboo for trying to reduce a criminals offense from mur- | der to manslaughter Chinese apathy | when some villainy is being done ia | largely due to fear of the law, which | says that persons must rot interfere
 unless they have a right to do so by | reason of relationship
 The code Is an effectual check on jul | dicial and forensic genius. The duties | of the judge are confined to determin- | ing the facts and the article of the code | they agree with. Thus the sentence IS 1 fixed without variation to begin With, l and any circumstances attenuantes are considered by the judicial board al Pe- king, to whom the great majority of | capital sentences are referred for reVi- 1 sion every autumn. The list of those | who should by right be executed is then | submitted 10 the emperor. who decrees | their fate in a curious way. The names l are written on large sheet of paper,
 those being considered less guilty being | placed near the corners or the center. | rrS,-1 par,p{i inn l circle on the paper, and those whose names are traversed by it are doomed. | The rest go forward to the next list,
 and if they are lucky enough to escape the red for three years they are free. | People who growl at having relations ] would not survive week ln China | There man is blessed with ramifica- | tions of rela tiors in every direction, and when he wants to hit his enemy
 over the head he has to stop and con-
 slider how 1t will affect the vast army l of kindred if the law descends upon | him. He has at least half a dozen | mothers to begin with; there is his fath- l CTS chief wife, the wife who bore him, l the other wives Gf any), the mother who brought him up. the stepmother, 1 the wife of the relative whose heir he l becomes, the mother-in- Jaw, and so on. | In the five degrees of relationship there | can be altogether one hundred souls Here Is a curious instance of the way | the system works in the case of a pa rent father was bribed to hush up the murder of a son. Another son re- vealing It. the father was executed, and the wretched youth heavily sentenced for bringing his father into danger of the law. Again, e. woman, tired with
 reaping, slipped and caused her father in-law to hurt himself By special fa-
 vor she got off with fine in lieu of
 bambooing and three years transporta- tion It is interesting to know that to
 kill one's mother-in-law involves a
 heavier penalty than to kill ones wife
 -"a possibly wise provision senten
 tiously remarks our commentator.
 The relation of master and pupil is a
 very important one. Thus Chinese
 Squeers may not whack his scholars to
 death, nor is it right to knock a clum-
 sy apprentice over among the pots and
 pans, and even priest may not cast
 stone at a staggering disciple, The ap-
 prentice is free at the end of his term,
 but the other two relationships endure
 unto the end of mortal existence; possi-
 bly further, since the arm of Chinese
 law extends into the land of shades as
 We shall see later.
 A lunatic may become great nui-
 sance to his numerous relatives by in-
 volving them in his vagaries. nor does
 his irresponsible condition always help
 him. If he drowns himself in the sa-
 cred waters of the Palace Lake or the