ABSTRACT OF POXING GAZETTES, MURDER OF A FAMILY OF FOUR PERSONS IN
June 19th.—The Governor-General of Szechuan, Li Ping-chang, reports the trial and execution of a man' convicted of the murder of four persons of the same family at a place called Yung El From the facts elicited at the trial it appears that the criminal, one Hsia Man, a farm labourer, went one day last March to a butcher's shop and purchased a piece of salt beef, which he took home with him to cook. On his way back to his house he was met by a neighbour, Ch'ou Sheng-ch'éng by name, a man with whom he had lived on terms of intimacy. It so happened, however, that this man had a piece of meat stolen' from have the sentence carried out and the head of the criminal forwarded to the scene of the murder to be placed on a pole as a! warning to evildoers. The criminal was not a married man and leaves no family he was a farm labourer living in a hired house, and possessed nothing of value to compensate the relations of his victims. The Governor-General remarks that Hsia Jen-kuei interfered in the dispute between his brother and Chou Sheng-ch'éng solely with a view of bringing about an amicable arrangement of the dispute, and that when he was attacked, instead of defending himself, he made his escape. He must therefore, he held free from all blame. The attack, however, which Chou Shéngch'éng and his wife made upon him rendered them liable to punishment, but as they are already dead there is no occasion to consider the matter further, neither is there any need to discuss the case of Ts'ai Hsing-fa who, it was clearly proved at the trial, was merely an on-looker without any means of rendering assistance. Instructions have been issued to have the bodies interred, and the knife with which the murder was committed has been returned to the Magistrate to be melted down.—Case referred to the Board of Punishments by Rescript.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.