Tae recent disturbances at Hangchow are a proof, were proof needed, of how little we are to depend on Chinese pro. clamations or Chinese protestations, One man in a position of authority takes a notion into his head, and all, officers and people, follow in the track, not one halting to enquire the right or the legality of his acts. Verily, in Chi. na, it is impossible to discover the bounds of law or caprice. If one thing be more strictly forbidden in China than another, it is the practice of geo. maney, yet from the Emperor down to the lowest coolie, we find the influence of the geomancer paramount. It twines it. self around every action of a man's life, till he begins almost to lose his own identity in the state of mental tyranny to which he has become a willing slave. Some one whispers to the Fantai of a province, a man high in authority and trusted with the execution of the law over a population of some twenty millions, that a certain house opposite has caused the death of his relation, Did he look to the Jaws, lie would have instantly ordered the rascal to be bambooed for spreading malicious re. ports. He does not do this, but contrary to law, he instigates his. subordinates to seize an innocent man for having, years before, committed the perfectly legal act of transferring his property, as a remote consequence of which transfer the offending building had been erected. Strange to say, an order which would in a civilized State have stigmatized its perpetrator, as at best a superstitious lunatic, is acted on with alacrity by the city officials. The unfortunate man is seized, imprisoned and flogged, while the real culprit received the thanks and money of the second official in the province. As foreign interests happen to be more or less concerned, our atten tion is drawn more particularly to such a case, yet it is but an_ instance of what happens every day in China. All the voluminous laws of the Empire become of no avail, when they contravene the caprice of an individual; and so well assured is this, that the victim as a general rule submits, finding in the long ran that submission to -outrage pays better than an appeal to laws practically never executed. When we find legal, executive, and administrative fanctions exercised indiscriminately by the same individual, the utter disregard of rale or law becomes a natural consequence. Law, in fact, is simply the caprice of the individual who happens to occupy the post of power, and justice flies as naturally away. Practically, in China, the only check to extravagances of this kind exists in the power of combination. The individual is of the smallest account, but does he belong to a powerful association, the magistrate hesitates before sentencing him to even merited punishment. Magisterial caprice begets popular combination, and between them both, poor justice falls to the ground. The rights and wrongs of case, the legality or illegality of acts; are the last things thought of in Chinese yamen. The Wench becomes simply an instrament for the carrying
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.