According to a report of the Viceroy Li Hung-chang, eight years ago a man named Wan Yuan-ching was arrested for robbing the house of an Englishman called Wells at Tientsin. Three other men were engaged in the affair; two of them were never caught, but one, the leader of the party, was put to death, having been discovered and convicted by means of evidence given by Wan Yuan-ching. On this account, and because he had not been guilty of bloodshed, Wan Yuan-ch''ing's sentence of death was commuted to one of penal servitude. He was sent to Kao-lan Hsien in Kansu, where he was fettered with an iron bar and stone weight and delivered a man to be taken charge of. The following year, being very miserable, he determined to make his escape. He broke the bar and chain, and with the help of a drug effaced the mark branded on his cheek. After this he started. eastward, and at the end of three years wanderings arrived again in Tientsin, where he was before long recognised and arrested.
A prisoner under commuted sentence of death who escapes from his place of confinement is liable to be put to death on recapture without reference to Peking. But as some such offenders have been allowed the benefit of the recent act of grace, the memorialist humbly reports the case for His Majesty's decision.-—Keferred to the Board of Punishments.
23rd August.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.