Ove of the worst blemishes on the face of Chinese social life is the existence of an organized system of thieving. In Europe we have our dangerous or criminal classes, and startling revelations are constantly made as to their activity, dis cipline and mode of proceeding; but since the days of Jonathan Wild we have never had an organized system of collusion between the thief and the thief taker. The police in England are not perhaps the most vigorous constabulary in existence, but they are trustworthy, They are selected from the agricultural classes, andre generally models of sobriety and temper. That they have any occult correspondence with the criminals whose practices they are paid to suppress, no one believes. In China, however, a system prevails which closely resembles that in Greece. The official underlings are really in communication with the thieves, and sometimes even the officials themselves undoubtedly profit by the collusion, If we take up any stray translations of the Peking Gazettes, we are struck with a number of instances in which it is as clear asnoonday that the most perfect understanding exists between the authorities and the criminals. Take the following specimen case, culled almost at random, in looking over an old file of Gazettes, It is characteristic as giving a glimpse of the interior of magistrate's office, with its complicated machinery of corruption in full work, which could hardly be matched in the Spain of Gil Blas, "Jui-chang, President of the Board of Punishments, reports the trial of the Chochow Yamen clerks, charged with having bribed a Censor to falsely accuse the local magistrate of extortion. Some time ago Censor Ichang forwarded a memorial to the Throne, charging Sung Peng-show, magistrate of Che-chow in the metropolitan prefecture, with extortion, etc. The case was handed over to Li Hung-chang for investigation. Meanwhile, however, a memorial was received from the metropolitan prefect giving the magistrate's aide of the story. His statement was that the clerks of the Revenue Department, being in arrears with their accounts, he bad taken sharp measures to make them pay up, and had thereby aroused their animosity. Just at that time it was rumoured that there was to be a change of magistrates, and, seizing the opportunity thus offered, they bribed Censor Ichang to accuse him of avarice and so forth to the Throne. The Board of Punishments finds the magistrate's statement substantially correct. One of the clerks has confessed the whole. He says that, in order to avoid the payment of arrears, they got up this tale about the magistrate's extortion. Two of their number were deputed to go to Peking to arrange matters. There they sought out an old acquaintance, named Wang Yang-chen, who said that the plot could be carried out if they were willing to pay about Ts. 300—£100. The accusation against the magistrate was drawn up, and a tax levied on carts, horses &<., in order to raise the necessary funds. Wang Yang-chen then got Chen Chi-tang to bribe censor Ichang to lay the accusation before the Throne. Chen Chi-tang made the proposal to Ichang through Cheuen Weishsi, a clerk in the Censorate; the agreement being that Chen Chi-tang should have Taels 50, Wang Yang-chen and Liu San-yuen Taels 50 each, and the remaining Taels 150 be divided between the Censorate clerk and Ichang. When first examined, Ichang stoutly denied the charge of bribery,. maintaining that be had merely done what it was his duty as Censor to do viz. reported to the Throne an alleged onse of official extortion. But after the Censorate clerk turned king's evidence, Ichang confessed having received Tls. 78."
The reason of the continuance of the state of affairs which this case illustrates, is the prevalent belief that a man who is once a thief is ever afterwards a thief. It is the current belief amongst the people that those who have once stolen, and have shared the plunder with the thief-catchers, will never lead honest lives again—probably a true conclusion based on a wrong premiss. There is, in the first place, a total absence la China of any wish to rehabilitate a man or to give him a second chance; and in the second the sense of easy acquisition must be so congenial to the Mongol mind, that man woman or child who has once lost caste so far as to beg or steal, will never again care to strive, by work, for an end which can be equally well gained in idleness. Once a always a beggar, is a common creed in China and once a thief always a thief is probably equally true. But this only applies to thieving in the professional sense, The bribery disclosed in the case we have quoted above from the Gazette, differs little in classification, but implies more deep-rooted national immorality. Until we reach the millennium, or attain to the condition of the Vrilya, there will probably be always some idle men inclined to steal the accumulations of the industrious. But the system of peculation which runs though the whole of Chinese official and social life, implies a low moral standard supplying one of the most forcible contradictions to the national claim to high civilisation. In China, peculation is a common and recognised practice, whereas the officials of the most advanced European countries are as free from suspicion of bribery, as the judges are of inclination to torture, KINDNESS TO ANIMALS, Tris a satisfactory sign that men are considering their' duties to the lower animals more carefully than they used to do. The existence of an organised Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals is one of the first proofs and results of this feeling. The agitation which has taken place in England on the subject of the Chase is the result of a humane instinct, and the establishment of homes for stray dogs indicates that the sufferings of brutes are regarded with some degree of compassion by the present generation. Mr Leckie, in his history of European Morals, has provided a number of curious and valuable illustrations, showing the estimation in which dumb animals were held in the ancient world and in medieval Europe; and it is satisfactory to find that we are working back, in this respect, towards the perfection of our ancestors, We are naturally disposed to stigmatise the natives of this country as cruel. Every one has a pet anecdote of a China man nailing a living rat toa piece of board and setting fire to it. The way in which pigs are carried in the streets is certainly very barbarous; but for all this the people are not so inhuman as they are pictured. There are influences at work in China which have the effect of alleviating to a considerable extent the pains and penalties to which the brute creation would be otherwise subjected, The doctrines ut Buddhism are partioularly conducive to this kindly and benevolent result, Every one knows that this creed attaches a peculiar regard to life. It holds certain animals sacred; and one distinctive mark of the system, the practice of vows, is favourable tothe cause of merey. It is by no means an uncommon thing for a Chinaman to register an oath that he will not take the life of a specified animal; or on other occasions to swear that he will keep a certain animal alive and"not allow the term of it natural existence to be shortened so long as he can afford to maintain it. We do not aver that the man or woman making this oath is actuated by humane views absolutely, as they generally regard the vow as a means by which they shall gain some temporal and desired blessing—wealth, long life, children or the like. The motive, however, does not affect the animal, though it affect the person who vows; and a vast deal of suffering is warded off from the brute creation by these customs, superstitious though they be, The most noteworthy fact in this connection is the guilt attached to the slaying of the buffalo. Most otus have shuddered at the pictures of horrid tortures that characterize representations of the various chambers in the Buddhist Hell. The imagination of Dante and the pencil of Doré can scarcely rival the horrors of these infernal scenes. But looking at them, it is odd to be reminded that many of the most ghastly punishments are the lot of eaters of beef! These, according to the best observer of Chinese customs, "are tossed upon the tree of knives, thrown upon the hill of swords,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.