Tits Mixed Court rule which lays it down that the foreign. Assessor shall not interfere in any case in which no foreign' interest is involved, provides for a ootilingenoy' which, on brand grounds, onn scarcely be said to exist, We hold it to be. sound doctrine that: every crime committed in these Settlements, whether the parties immediately affected by it be Chinese or foreigners, is a matter in which the interests of all residents are very closely bound up; thet no assault, or murder, or larceny, or swindling, oau be perpetrated without endangering the peace and good order of the whole Mr that as long as Chinese residents live within the Settlements, pay taxes, uso the streets, and enjoy the protection of the Connoit avd the Consular Courts, they are responsible to the governing body for whatever breaches of the peace they may commit;.aud thnt there oousequently onunot be avy case coming under any: one of these heads, brought before the Mixed Court, in which foreign interests are not directly or indirectly involved. At present this doctrine is not as distinctly recognised by some of {tics as. ite importance wars rants} thnt, however, will we hope come in time, and the best way to prove ils gounduoss is to try and formulate orimival onso in which no individual foreigner is immediately and personally interested and which must therefore be considered outside the jurisdiction of the police and oot sequently beyond the power of the foreign Assessor to meddle with, The Gisastrgus results which will thus be shown to accrue to the well-being of the Settlements generally, should vho sufficient to prove what the trac view of the matter really is.
Now, cognate to this, is, the equally important question as to the right of the Mixed Qourt to deal, as a Court of First Instance, with every crime committed within the jurisdiction of the Manicipality, A ease occurred the other day in whioh-a woman was ao. cused of kiduappery. It appears that the prosecutor had applied immediately to the District Mngistrate fore warrant, of arrest, instend of seeking Lhe. assistfauoo of the police; that the yaméu-runners had fulled to discover the whereabouts of the accused; that the prosecutor thereupon went off to Sung-Kiang and got a warrant from the Che.fu, ordering the arrest of the cused, and her rendition to the Che-hsien of Shanghai; and that this warrant was countersigned by the Senior Consul. The regularity of these proceedings may be questioned. When, therefore, the accused woman was arrested by the potice, and by them brought up before the Mixed Court, the magistrate declined to have anything to do with the cage on the ground that the prisoner Chezhsion. This. was opposed. by Mr.
on the principle that it is: unlawfal send any accused Chinese, resident in the Settlement, to the higher. court without first having bad a hearing.in what he, and, we think, rightly, regards og a Cunrt of First Instance." Of course there ate charges with whioh the Mixed' Court, as at present constituted, is not competent. to deal tually., But there are no charges which the Mixed Courtis.not competent to: investigate, marder: to seo whether they are sufficiently supported by evidence to warrantithe com-mitral of the accused person for trial before a -bigher tribunal. "A police magistrate in England is not competent to try @ prisoner accused of murder. Bat no prisoner oan be tried for mur-dor unless his ange Lao been previously heard by a police magistrate, and the inferior court has committed him. for trial by the properly constituted authority. This principle prevails even in Consular Courts at the outports here, where the Consul, being incompetent to.. deal certain charge, remands the pi and tries him, subsequently, sitting as Judge, Now. it i very first importance that the Mixed Court should be recognised as a Court of First Lustauce competent so to deal with all crimes alleged to have' been committed within these Settlements. It is necessary as a measure of protection: for what is: to prevent a malicious son from tramping'up a charge against another, posting off to the Ole-hsien or the Che-fu, getting a warrant, and spiriting off his aufortunate tim. to} Sungkiang from under the very noses of the Municipality? And' what' for- i eigner oan be sure that such a fate will not befal a Chinaman in-his own employ If the woman who: was ao: cused -the other day of kiduappery be given up to the city authorities with. out a hearing at the Mixed. Court, a very dangerous precedent will be estaplished. And it reste with the Municipal Council to decide whether thint precedent shall be established or no. There.is no reliance to be placed upou.-the me terpretation of either law or treaties by the Chinese jadioinl officers.' Take the instance to which we drew attention only the other day. Two women are brought up before Haaug, within three or four days, charged with pro-cisely the same offence. The first one la ordered to be cout into the.city, the magistrate declining to try her; the second ie tried on the spot; and sentenced to have her face slipped with a leathern thong.. We need not stop to 0 Mr. Gil terference with the infliction of this punishment.. That gentleman has consistently written to disprove the prevalence of torture in China, and be is nothing-more than consistent, in endeavouring: to> force his theory. into practice, as far as he la able. The point is that the magistrate has distinctly avowed: himself both competent and incompetent two separate.instances 5. his:, opinion,.. therefore, oan. be: worth nothing: Lt\ is for—the: Municipal Council to lay down and hold fast this fundamental doctrine, that the Mixed Court is a Court of 'First Instance, and that 1io Chinese: resident accused' of any onn be given up tothe Chinesoanthorit without having, Lis case first hes it, in order that the ma, Assessor. may \decide. whether there.i8 sufficient evidence to justify: them: in sending bim to the higher Court,': We say that this duty devolves upon the Council because we think the Court of Consuls: are not so clear upon the point as they should be, and because there is a danger now threatening the liberties of these Settlements That danger is the in mout of a bareauoratio rule; which something that Englishmen aid Amieri-Hy the' most quarters, and it be. Loves Couucillots meanwhile to maine tain an attitude of defence.
'THE OUTBREAK AT: s£0ULi—20¢h Dec, 'Tax mischievous and abeird statenionta that are being promulgated with reapeot to. the ocourrenoes in Soon! should not, we think; be allowed to' pass unnoticed, The, Jupanese have been' aroused. of deposit, of intrigue, of conspiracy, sufficiently wanton manner; bat it is served for' the. Shen Pao to charge ined the King and slaughtered his: six, Ministers, Sach folly is laughed') at by the Chinese themselves. It noteworthy fact that from the very firat the Chinese here have suspected their own gar of being atthe. bottom of the is so or not, it is sufficient to show the impression made upon some impartial minds by the plain facts as they: hi reached us. We are not, however, concerned to incriminate or even to throw suspicion upon the Chinese in Seoul, It is enough for ne to point out how pre-pesterous are the insinuations that have been made against the agents of the japanese Government, and how utterly. opposed to the history of Japanese rela=": tious' with Corea, Of Mr, Takezoyé,"' the Minister at the Court of, Seoul, we... may be permitted to speak from: pore: sonal knowledge.:.He is, first and fore. most, a'sobiolar, and, we should' think, far more at home in his library, rounded with ancient books, than. in" any-other situation that occurs to us, His kuowledgo'of Chinese is profound he is un intimate friend of Li' Hang. chang, whose acquaintance he firat made when he-brought rice from Japan to re. lieve the sufferers from famine in Shan. tung; his associations, his antecedents, aud: his personal character guarantee for-the uprightness!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.