September 24th.—(1) The Censor for the Fukien circuit, Ho Fu-kun, states at_the number of criminals detained the Board of Punishments is excess sive and asks that as an act of com-sion for the sufferers, instructions should issued for the immediate investigation of all out-standing cases. Prisoners are sent to the Board from all the detective departments in the capital, and the maltreatment and exactions which they endure at the hands of the warders are heartrending in the extreme, The autho! the Board, however intelligent and active in their supervision, are unable to ascertain the particulars of each individual case, the result is that persons convicted of slight offences for which banishment and bambooing would be sufficient punishment often, languish for a long time in prison and are either ruined out of house and home or starved to death in large numbers every year. In 1860. Decree was issued pointing out that by law a fixed limit of time was assigned to the Board of Punishments for the determination of all matters that came before it, and enquiring how it was that there were so many cases unsettled. Any delay in Tegal inquiry was for the future to be considered a ground of punishment. In the following yearafurther Decree was issuedonthe same subject and the Board was ordered to clear off all its arrears without delay. At the present moment, however, over 250 prisoners are in the Board's prison awaiting trial. This number is almost double what it was some seven or eight years ago. It comprises of course some recent offenders, compe orsons who have undergone but no small proportion of the total is
a long of incarceration and have not yet had the benefit of a trial. In summer the filth and pestilential air of the place breed disease, while in winter the inmates are pierced to the very bones with wind and cold. This may be suitable to' death, but it certi ly should elid enough treatment for criminals condemned
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.