7th May, ONE of the most important of the many important changes now being introduced into China is the re-modelling of the penal code upon which His Excellency Wu Ting-fang and some others are engaged. Ib is quite plain that if Chinn is ever to secure the abolition of extraterritoriality is will only be after she has convinced the foreign Powers that she has a code compurshops. That a dozen desperadoes, "ble with those of the West and a including men like the notorious] judiciary above suspicion of dis. Vali Mao-mao, should be allowed honesty in its admini That the practical liberty of a tailor's this will take time is certain. That workshop with its necessarily sharp|the first step towards it is that iostrumente, under the immediate}now being taken is no less sure.
ingle warder, seems almas' There are many things in Chinese ud it will prob-law which in theory appeal to the ably be found advisable to keep the] judicial mind as being almost all convicts under closer restraint in that might be desired, But in prac-future. But the trouble having} tice leave much to be condemned, arisen, bathing could have been|Even in the West the most better managed than the measures perfect paper schemes sometimes taken to put it down. Mr. Blenner-} fail when put to the test, and as bassett, though sorely wounded|China has been decadent for long, early in the fray, never lost his|it is not to be wondered at thut nerve or his sense of the necessities her penal practice is very different of the occasion, and it is due to him from her penal code. that the resulting bloodshed was] For the beginning of her judicial kept within limits, and complete|system we should have to go back mastery regained even before the] to the days of the Chows, when the arrival of police reinforcements.|Greeks were still round Troy, or Vhe chief warder is now being cared|Suul was King of Israel.
There for in the Victoria Nursing Home was certainly an elaborate codificaand there is happily every reason to tion accomplished in the Han believe that he will make a com- Dynasty (B.C. 200 to A.D. 200) by plete recovery from his i: juries, In] Hsiao Ho, when no fewer than 3°9 the case of one Indian warder un-distinct laws were placed in the fortunately the danger is greater. ite book, with endless addi-'The outbreak will be, of course, tional clauses and quoted prece-the subject of close official inquiry|dents. These in the case of capital and also of proceedings in the}punishment alone ran to 409 of Mixed Court. It would be pre-ithe first and 13,472 of the latter. mature therefore to discuss its|Hsiao Ho's monumental work has canees at length, but it} served as a model for all the codes seems likely that the longer sen-Jof the various dynasties since his tences which, under instructions time. from the higher authorities. have} The code at present existing is been imposed during the last few} based largely upon that of the days at the Mixed Court may! Mings, and is divided into seven sections relating to methods of punishment, officials and their responsibilities, fiscal and family laws, religious, ceremonial and sumptuary laws, laws relating to military organisation and frontier defence, criminal laws, and laws relating to public worke.
strictly legal punishments are flogging with the bamboo, impri-soument or banishment, and death by strangulation or decapitation. The legal instruments are the bamboo, the cangue, the iron chain, the wooden manacles, and fetter: of iron. There are permitted, however, two others at the discretion and on the responsibility of ube magistrate—the finger-squeezer, and the ankle-squeezer. These with the bamboo are the "three wooden instruments" so terribly known to the native d.linquent. Mr. Giles, however, declares th "torture though not unknown China, exists there practically in mame onl, The Chinese recognise ten "heinous crimes": rebellion, destruction of imperial tombs, treachery to the State, parricide, triple murder in one fumily, sacrilege, filial impiety, family discord, official insubordination, and incest. No mandarin, it would appear, ever attempts to master the vast agglomeration of statutes in the present code, He relies on the knowledge of a "law expert," much as the magistrate in Pickwick did upon his clerk, ction on fised and family ments. he must be a boy be same surname. A son set up an establishment apart from that of his father. 8 the fumily remains us the national unit. A man may have any reasonable number of concubines but only one wife, Capital punishment is permitted in two forms—strangulation and decapitation, Recently it has been rumoured that in the new code the latter is to be abolished, The natives regard the loss of the head as being a far greater punishment than the mere loss of life, since in such cases the disembodied spirit must perforce present itself in the nether world in the mutilated form. There remain a very considerable number of capital offences in Chinese law, such for example as the following:—High treason, parricide, and the murder of a master by a slave, which are theoretically punishable by ling-chih, the frequency of which Giles vigorously denier. Then follow others for which strangulation is the penalty—the theft of more than Tis, 120, robbery with wounding, highway robbery, kidnapping by violence, opening a coffin, bomicide, attempted murder, accidental
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.