A prisoner from Ichou was recently brought before the provincial authorities at Moukden. He had already been tried by the local magistrate, and had been found guilty of killing his father, wife, and child while under the influence of a fit of madness. But when the customary re-examination took place at Moukden, the case was found to bear a very different aspect. It appears that in 1877' the prisoner, who was then fifteen years of age, was married to a girl named Wang. One day next year, when the prisoner was away xt work, his wife was caught by some men committing adultery with a neighbour in his garden. They seized the couple and threatened to deliver them up to the authorities for punishment. A peace-maker, however, came forward, by whose offices the affair hushed up, the prisoner's father giving the accusers two hundred and tift strings of cash. This money he obtained fromthe peacemaker, to whom he mortgaged half an acre of ground, He further made the woman's father give a written undertak king that if anything of the sort should happen again, the woman might be beaten to death and no complaint should be made. As the prisoner's mother was dead, and there was no other woman in the house, he was afraid that his wife might again misconduct herself, and he therefore kept close watch upon her. One night two years afterwards, coming home late, he surprised his father creeping away without any clothes on. Angry as he was he did not dare to say anything. He afterwards discovered that the intercourse was going on constantly. On one vceasion he put horse's food into his father's plate at table, to show that he considered his father a brute. 'This act, together with remarks which he made, led to constant wrangling between them.' The father told their relations that the prisoner had gone mad, and time after time tied him up and beat him till he begged for mercy. Indeed, both father and. wife looked upon him as in their way, and in consequence insisted upon quarrelling with him. One night last summer, coming home in the dark he found his father creeping away in the same state as on the first occasion. He pretended not to see anything; but still he was afraid that, knowing they were detected, they might do him mischief in the night. He therefore went to lie down in the courtyard, fastening the door outside with stone to protect himself from attack. There he made up his mind to kill his wife and runaway. He felt that he was under no moral obligation to remain at home in order to support such a father, and he thought that, if he were taken, his life would not be forfeited under the circumstances. Next morning he stabbed his wife with a spear as she was running away from him, and with the same thrust accidentally killed child which she was carrying in her arms. His father, hearing the woman cry, also Fim. The sen tried to defend himself; but iched up a spear, ran out, and attacked
he was pressed so hard that he was forced to use his weapon, and in the excitement of the moment first wounded his father and then killed him. The murderer tried to escape but was shortly afterwards arrested, The case was reported by one of his uncles, who for shame's sake endeavoured to con-coal the disgraceful origin of the affair, and declared that the prisoner had acted under the impulse of a fit of madness, This story was supported by a neighbour and the tipe, and the local magistrate consequently believed it. Upon re-examination, however, the real truth was elicited. In accordance with the law, the prisoner was condemned to be cut to pieces in punishment for the crime of parricide which he had committed; and on account of the heinousness of his offence the sentence was carried out without waiting for its confirmation by the Emperor. The persons who made false depositions are sentenced to receive eighty blows of the whip, and it is requested that the magistrate may receiv some penalty on account of the incorrectness of his finding.—Referred to the Board of Punishments.
TEMPLE IN KUEICHOW 70 TSEN YN-YING, The Governor of Kueichow presents a ester on behalf of a number of officials, going that a temple may be erected in that' province to the memory of the Into Governor-General Ts'en Yicying, This favour has already been accorded to the Province of Yunnan, and the people of Kueichow hope that the same may be ranted to them on account of the manifold lebt of gratitude which they owe to the deceased. In the first place, in the early part of the reign of Tung Chih, a Miaotea chieftain in the mountains of Pichivh hsien rebelled and held out against the united troops of Kueichow, Honan and Szechuan. Ts'en Yii-ying, then Grand Treasurer of Yunnan, brought up a force, and after a campaign of five months destroyed the rebel and restored peace. Later the passes of angeth were held by the Mahumedans, who made incursions into the prefecture of Hsingi. From this trouble he freed the province by his conquest of Tawen hsien in 1872, Afterwards as Governor of Kueichow he perfected the army, and was thus able easily to put down several insurrections and outbreaks, Later, in time of peace, he bridged the Wu River, founded schools, endowed colleges, and instituted a variety of good works, on'account of which his memory is held dear by all classes of people alike.—approved.
14th December.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.