25th Feb.
Day after day we have to read in our translations from the native papers of the brutal tortures that are being inflicted in the native city, only a few hundred yards from our doors, ov men suspected or accused of belonging to the Kolao Hui. It is almost a Reign of Terror; it recalls the days of the Spanish Inquisition, If a man is denounced, honestly or maliciously, as belonging to the Kolao Hui—and we explained some time since how the most innocent people have been induced to put their names on the Society's roll—he is brought to the yamen, and it is all over with him. Chinese law is so fearful of condemning an innocent man by mistake, that it will not punish him until he has confessed; but if he will not confess, either from innocence orobstinacy, he must be tortured until he does. It is revolting to read, as we did yesterday morning, that Chen Chi-huai showed the greatest possible obstinacy, and though placed in a kneeling posture ov coils of chains and stretched on a bare pole he simply exclaimed that he was innocent. ''hen 500 blows with the rattan were given, after which he was made to inhale the smoke from a roll of burning paper placed under his nostrils." We understand that a hardened villain, suc Chen Chi-huai is reported to be, is supposed to be able to train his muscles to stand any amount of ordinary torture, such as the rack or kneeling on chains, without flinching, but that he cannot fortify his brain against smoke inhaled through the nostrils, and he is therefore tortured with burning paper. Whether he is guilty or invoceut, his ultimate fate is the same, for if he is really innocent the torture goes on until the exhaustion of his nature obliges him to confess.
We have little hope that our protests will have any effect on the tai and the officers who are sitting with him on these cases, but it is impossible for foreigners not to raise their voice against the inhumanity how rampant in the This brutality is a part of China's ci tion we can only record our horror of it, and hope that those who are engaged all over China in urging on the adoption of a purer civilisation will have more and more success. The very shadow of a rebellion seems to have caused a panic among the officials in the Yangtze valley, and weak men in a panic are capable of any cruelty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.