17th September,—It is requested that an officer of the Government at Moukden, a senior secretary named Shih-chien, may be discharged on account of his having become incurably insane. The said secretary was mentally deranged some time ago; but it being hoped that he would recover his health, the former Vice-president of the Board to which he belonged merely deprived him of his keys and reported him to Peking as being under punishment for slothfulness. After that he ceased altogether to attend at the Board, and recently it was complained of hhim'that he was constantly troubling the Memorialist therefore sent for him and ad-copie at the Telegraph Office. The present ministered mild rebuke to him, explaining that the office wis a Government Department and could not send his private messages for him. The man however would not listen, and broke forth into violent lanuage, becoming more and more incoherent.
is happened a month ago, and enquiries now made show that he has become hopeless-lyman. {tistherefore requested thathe may be discharged from the public service and handed over tu the charge of the Banner to which he belongs.—Granted by Rescript.
AN APPEAL 10 THE EMPEROR FROM SZECHUEN.
September 18th.—(1) The Governor-General of Szechuen presents a Memorial escribing the result of an investigation into 8 case ming been made the aabienk appears, Feroth the, Memorial thats man of an appeal to the Emperor in person. It
named Liu was living in the district of Sui-ming. He was a licentiate by purchase, but was notoriously a violent and overbearing person. In the neighbouring district dwelt an acquaintance of his, named Chang. The Jatter owned a piece of Iand which he had inherited from his ancestors. "On it stood an old grave, and at about a bowshot's distance from the grave three cypress trees had been planted. ring the autumn four years ago Phang och down these trees, upon which Liu tried to extort money from him, on the Rimily. Soon afterwards Liu's aunt died, pretence that the grave. belonged to his and he tried to make out that the cutting of the trees had caused her death, When Chang could not pay him any money, he carried of Chang's son and locked him up, demanding five hundred strings of cash for his ransom. Chang went with a friend to see his per-sector, but the only reply which he received was a thrast that if the money was not forthcoming on the morrow, his son would be put to the torture. Chang went home in despair, knowing that he could released Chang's son and then ran away to another part of the country. He was however arrested; but his trial was delayed by the absence of an important witness, the friend who had accompanied Chang on He Sherefoxe endeavoured to sirens him-his visit the day before the latter died.
self by bringing an action against Chang's tous, whoms Ne accessed of violence wea extortion. When this story was disproved, he made out a petition in the name of his Peking ud present to the Emperor. As mother, and gave it to a servant to take to
he had no real charges to bring, he invented a number of false ones, even accusing members of Chang's family of plundering his house and ravishing his daughter-in-law. The Memorialist finds that according to law, if any person is guilty of groundless extortion, and thereby causes his victim to commit suicide he shall be condemned to death by strangulation. There is a difficulty in the present case, because the victim was Chang's son, and it was Chang himself who committed suicide. But as it iis stated in a book of legal precedents, the of Punishments decided, with reference to case in Yunnan some years ago, that where the person who is driven to commit suicide is near relation of the person who actually suffered duress, the crime wust be taken as coming under the Jaw quoted above. Moreover, in his petition to the Emperor, Liu brought a charge of capital offences against members of Chang's family; and, these being false, he is liable to the punishment which would have been inflicted on them had his accusations been true. The Memorialist therefore sentences him to the penalty of strangulation after confinement, and his son, who aided and abetted him, to one hundred blows and banishment to a distance of three thousand Ni, As the servant who presented the petition to Peking was acting under his master's orders, itis proposed that he should be pardoned.—Referred to the Board of Punishments.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.