Sub-Committee is submitted, which is ordered to be printed and circulated amongst the members of the Council as soon as possibi On the motion of the Chairman, it is unanimously resolved that the thanks of the Council be tendered to Messrs, Bridge, Burman, and Holland for drawing up the repo Markham Road.—The Surveyor to be instructed to have a wooden railing placed along the bank of the Soochow Creek where required to the west of Mr. Maclean's house, *roclamations—Abduetion of Widows, de.—At the request of the Senior Consul, the following proclamation is ordered to be posted in the Settlement Chen, Magistrate of the Mixed Court, has instructions to publish the following Governor-General of te'Two Kiang Provinces, reclamation issued by His Excellency Liu, President of the Board of War, decorated With the litle of Baturn, &e., &e, From every district of the provinces und my rule I have lately received petition: stating that widows are abducted and induced by force and coercion to re-marry against their will, It is a fact of daily occurrence that wives, when their husband are dangerously ill and dying, offer themselves for sale, whilst concubines hardly think of sh a thin, pps in-law t ounces the concubines as havin sexual intercourse, and that ti parents-in-law and the band himself forcibly sell the concubines for immoral purposes, If the women are not willing, then they are beaten and maltreated in every way, till at the eud they poison themselves, thinking life not worth living and preferring death to dishonour and shame. Such relatives resemble venomous reptiles and the places of mutual: love and respect are commuted into tape for virtue and dignity, Of all disgusting and infamous customs this is certainly one of tle worst. For every case and form of abduction of wives and girls and of forcitig widows tore-marry against their will, whether committed by men belonging to the family.or by outsiders, a distinct punishment must be laid down.
Parents-in-law and husbands exercise a vast ower and influence over the wives of the family. When they have resolved to sell hem for ium nand or from "the they are to he treated commit murder wilfully it, that neverthe these crimes are committed and increasing every day? Surely, people either do not fear death or are ignorant of the laws of the Empire from want of eilucai the local authorities wrongfully struct their subject. It therefore ly duty to bring the statutes hearing ject to the knowledge of the people, and red as consummated, when public highway or when aman enters a dwelling-house and succeeds in carrying the females away final 5 uch cases, w red money 01 money for or by their act, principals death "by pt mediately after the sentence de death ment in pri People who sory or accessories will banished beyond the If during the act or attempt of the female h the principal or principal by decapitation and exposed in a publi or assistants, wha r part in the crime has been, shall be strangled ment in prison for the usual period, or try to com-the father and mother of the deceased hus:
ie, the grandfather and grandmother, band, are punished with 100 blows and banished to distant provinces for the period of If the deed is done by: persons months, they are punished into banishment at month, they receive 100 blo mourning for nine
into banishment as the 2,500 li if 5 for two guilty parties receive 100 blows into banishment at the Relatives of inferior yend tivo month after confinement period, Buyers and re-sellers of widows, ing aware that they unwilling to re-marr; and that they have bee considered to the crime, and receive the ment as the more distant relat degree, daughter w for immoral purposes, to to sell their
which they demur consequently are abused and beaten and by bad treatment driven to commit suicide, are punished with strangulation after being confined for the usual period.
Women who have forced their daughters-inlaw to submit to being sold for immoral purposes, are distributed as slaves amongst the military encampments in the provinces, if the latter afterwards destroy themselves out of shame and remorse, course with other men, and do not wich that this should become known to their daughters-in-law, and who desire to sell them for immoral purposes, to which they will not agree, and who then conspire with their paramoursand deliberately kill theirdaughtersin-law, in order to get rid of them, shall be considered as persons who have committed wilful murder. "The distinoti i cipal and accessories takes pi Ueing beheaded, the other strangled, be confinement in prison for the usu 5.—The husband it by her riy outsider who 5 he shall suffer death by decapitation, of fined in prison for the usual period, Thave issued the most stringent orders to the local authorities to hunt up and seize any malefacto to deal with them according to law. If the local officials do not show themselves zealous and are lazy in carrying, out my instructions, they shall-be. diswieeed from their posts without mercy.
This proclamation line been issued for the information of the soldiers and the people in general, in order that you, soldiers and men of the people, may obey and alter your conduct. "If in future, now that you know what is against the law, a crime of this nature has been committed and the authorities find out the daring perpetrator, be it by their own po he will be brought to justice and ity or by the accusation of a third
receive his punishment according to law, Parents with regard to their daughters-in-Jaw, husbands with regard to their wives, should they disregard the lay and persist in elling them into houses of ill-fame or trot them in manner as to drive them to self-destruction, thus making an ill-use of their influence they exercise over the fanily, show contempt for the commands of Heaven and are hated by the gods and mankind alike, I, the Governor-General, in my endeavours to reform the people, must resort to measures, and the © 8, when shall suffer death by dei angulation without mercy. example hias been sot, the people, take warning and the bad custome wil rybody obey special proclamation, issued on the 20th of the Let moon of the 7th year of True tran (Signed) 0. Frzusnero. The Meeting than adjourned.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.