Fu Yun, Governor of Shantung, reports a case of a lunatic named Li Siao-yuan who, while known tobe crazy, was allowed to be at liberty by his family without his use being reported to the leal authorities, avoid his being kept under bonds by them. The murder happened on the 21st of May last, in the district of Ttubsien but the case was sent on to the capital Tsinanfu, in order to be under the personal superintendence of the memorialist himself. It seems that on the day named above the said matricide while in a fit of lunacy was observed by his mother Li Wans-shih in the front yard of the house plying with an iron instrument used for agricultural purposes. Thereupon the mother approached the son and tried to take away the weapon, but the lunatic resisted and in the struggle beat down his mother. At this moment the lunatic's aunt, hearing the noise of conflict, rushed out and saw the lunatic still swinging the iron instrument and dancing over his dying mother's body. She then called out for aid and by the assistance of other members of the family secured the lunatic. The matter was afterwards reported to the che-sion of Itu who arrested the matricide and the male members of the family and the immediate neighbours, These were then sent up to the memorialist who having veritied the facts of the case, sentenced Li Siao-yuan, the murderer, as 4 matter of course, to die by the Lingchife (lingering and shameful) process, which is in accordance with the Inw providing that this be the form of death to anyone, sane or insane, who kills his parents, inten tionally or unintentionally. As the law demands that the wale members of the family or immediate neighbours should report any case of insanity to the local authorities, under pain of a sentence of one hundred blows of the big bamboo, memorialist has dealt the above punish: ment to the male members of the lunatic's family and the immediate neighbours, and as further degraded the tipao of the district, in addition to his allowance of 100 blows of the bamboo, for failing to report Li Siao-yuan's lunacy to the magistrate of Ituhsien.—Rescript: Let the Board of Punishments take note,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.