From Our Own Correspondent, Feb. 27. one wife, he must do #0 only by means of secondary marriage; and the right of banishing secondary wives and hired servants is vested in the local official. The Goveroment has not overlooked the fact that the sale of children not infrequently saves " family from starvation, for the rescript next provides that children may be leased for any term of years up to the age of twenty-five years. In the case of maid servants, masters are bold responsible to provide husbands before the girls pass the marriageable age. A little digression is then made in this interesting proclamation to the effect that concubinage has been abo Europe and Japan, (hina, the rescript adds, cannot yet do likewise, bat the practice can only be continued in this form of legitimate polygamy. In "such cases mothers must sign th wrriago contracts and be accorded the liberty of seeing their daughters from time to time, Formerly the Chinese law did not permit the gentry to marry servants: now such mixed lages may take place. Finally the rescript points out that the sale of women for purposes of prostitution has always been contrary to Chinese law and officials are warned that severe!paoishment will be meted out to. them if they do not prevent sach offences.
The value of the Edict is considerably lessened by the obvious loopholes that exist for evasion of ite application, For fnntance the hire of children for long peri ay be sadly abaed and the marrying of maid servi will provide men with unlimited servente for, of course, secondary wives are always utterly subservient 10 the Bret wile. Nevertheless it it evident that the Prince Regent in steadily on deavouring to correct the greatest abuses in the Empire. One can only Central Goverament jing that while all the leading Powers have been intimately concerned la the welfare and progress of ' bioa for many tens of years, while Christian Missionaries hi all quarters of the globe and have penetrated into the interior in every direction, no systematic effort has been made to induce China to abolish slavery, which has existed asa practice from the days when the leading peoples of to-day were rejoicing in the possession of stone implements. By far the greater number of farm labourers in Chi slaves. ori of Constitational Affairs oe Febroary 1, issued an Edict three weeks Inter abolishing slavery and prohibiting th haviog and selling of human beings China, Tu any other country the 1 would have been looked apon as one of its history: hero it has scarcely raised comment either among Chinese or foreigners. The rescript begins by fur-bidding slavery in a general sense and then it goes on to say that heacefurth no maid servants or concubines shall be sold. If a family needs the services of maid servant, the girl mast be hired born in slavery and it is not im) that many of them will die without knowing that the Central Government has freed th for the decree will travel into the interior along the official lines of communication and many of the yamens will not circulate news which Taotais and Magistrates may utilize as 8 new source of revenue. Slave holders will gladly pay the official runners squeeze rather than lose their valaable human possessions. It is true that the Missionaries will learn the good news from the foreiga papers and that they will circulate it among their people; but the Missionaries' influence is woefully restricted still,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.