I, the Empress Dowayer Tze-hsi tuan-yn, ete, etc., desire to issue this decree fas an exhortation to my people throughout the Empire, Of late, all the reports sent me by the Vicersys and Governors of provinces, concerning summary executions, have mostly referred to rob bers and brigands. The ferocity of such ment is indeed cause for indignation but again their stupidity moxos my heart to pity. Now the common excuse of these robbers when caught is that they had been pushed to rob by hunger and cold, but they never think that in doing so they have made themselves amenable to the last and that they never can escape Moreover, such men are always active and uble-bodied: they are never composed of the weak and incapable classes. Now how much better would it not have been for these men to direct their activity and energy in farming and agriculture to get a livelihood, or, if not, they could assily join the army as soldiers where they could always have a chance of rising higher in social life by bravery and diligence iti their duties.. What a difference this, instend of being chained and confined in prison! Being sure of nothing except it be the loss of their heads! Such being the ease let mo ask, which of those mentioned above will give a man most advantages? Moreover, as robbers, us soon as they are captured they engulf their parents and brothers, their wives and children in the general catastrophe. Can they bear the responsibility all this incurs? Now, although Lam stopping in the innermost recesses of the Palace, I am yet night and day filled with thoughts for the welfare of my people, and so issue the admonition to my children to consider their evil ways and deserve my anxiety for them by becoming good citizens, Let the Viceroys and Governors of provinces make known this my decree, to all my people in the Empire.
25th October.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.