(8) 'The following case is reported from Chekiang, Wang' Hein-wen and Heir Teo-lin, two graduates, one literary and one military, were natives of the Hsiao-shan district in that province, both of whom had been stripped of their de They became close confederates and made themselves the terror of the country by promoting litigation and engaging in fraudulent platices, and were known to the people the nicknames of the Black and White nien. The following will serve as specimens of their doings, A' graduate named Tung Ching-hui was part proprietor of a rice shop. One of his partners named Cho Lan-sheng happening to die of an infections disease, Tung through sympathy with the poverty of his family contributed to the expenses of his funeral. The two men induced the wife of the deceased to bring a false accusation against Tung of having killed her husband, and 40° intimidated the latter that he gave them $280 to avoid further trouble. The sisterin-law of Wang Hsin-wen having died he buried her in the cemetery of a distant relative naned Wang Kuan-lan, The latter having expostulated with him, and receiving only abuse, brought an action in the local court, but' the defendant escaped by producing the title-deeds of the cemetery which his wife had stolen at his instigation. Though there was a mass of oral and some documentary evidence to prove these and other crimes, the two men persistently refused to confess their guilt. The law on the subject is, that where a criminal, whose punishment, if found guilty, would be at least banishment in the lower degree, persistently refuses to confess, he may he convicted on the unanimous testimony of witnesses, his sentence being submitted for epnfirmation by the Throne. This course has been followed in the present instance, and the prisoners have under another statute, been sentenced to banishment in an unhealthy district on the borders of his house, C! Yiunan and the Two Kuang provinces.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.