The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-21

precedence of either To butt your enemy
on the nose is an assault only. but it may
involve bambooing and years hard labor.
Punishments to at the crimes are very
carefully arranged and classified. The Sc
yerest capital punishment is slicing to
pieces and extinction of the family. 1t is
called lingering DEATH but in reality the
third or fourth cut is made fatal. The
punishment Is really aimed at The offend
er's existence in the spirit world. In COM
mon with all Orlentals, the Chinese be-
lieve that they inhabit an ethereal body
after death, and that tris tenement can
be injured by a sharp instrument. Hence
the chopping up Of the physical body so
Injuries the doppelganger that he is TN
recognizable even beyond the grave. This
is a subtle refinement our criminal law
has not yet attained to- The offender does
not escape his posthunous disgrace by
committing suicide; his Fsv is sliced up
just the same. When a merciful brother
buried a matricide alive to evade the pen
atty the court had him dug up and sliced.
The feelings of departed spirits are also
considered Mrs. Wang slew virtuous
son who expressed his disapproval of her
improper tastes. Clearly the son could not
wish his mother to be hanged, and so. out
of respect for his fee ings, she was merely
sent to the Tartar slavery.
II is further believed that the departed
spirits subsist on the aroma of wine and
pork offered by the sorrowing relatives.
Hence in order to stamp out very per-
nicious entity, not only is the body sliced
but the relations, whose duty it is to sus-
tain the spirits life with these offerings,
are executed or, if under age, emascu-
lated.
AS a torture the only legal Instruments
are kind of boot" and finger screw:
their use is strictly regulated. Some IL
legal tortures are occasionally used as
deterrents In cases of exceptional Atrocity
In spite OF the evils OF the responsible"
system. the complications and injustices
caused by fine distinctions. relationships,
etc. and some undoubted absurdites.
there is much to admire in the system as
a whole.
Mr. Alabaster declares that the code is
Infinitely more exact and satisfactory
than our own system. and very far from
being the barbarous. cruel abomination it
is generally supposed 10 be- 1t IS in
herently consistent, and capital sentences
are in the majority OF cases committed by
the process of revision described. The
cases quoted will certainly not convey
the impression OF even handed justice, but
some of the worst in the book have pur-
posely been selected. It is in the very
effort TO combine law and justice that the
immense number of distinctions are
drawn which. in many cases. defeat the
end in view. It is In the broad results
however. that the value of a system is
proved. and we have it definitely stated in
this work that there is far greater Sc
curity for life and property in the major
ity of Chinese towns and villages than in
our metropolis"
Thus we can afford to respect and even
learn from Chinese law. An evolved
production of 1900 years it has devel-
oped slowly and steadily to suit the grow
ing needs of the people, and it is remark
ably similar to Roman Law, on which our
own system is based.-The Law Times.