The Municipal Gazette that appears to-day contains one of the most human, most moving documents that could well imagined. It is the story of the illegal arrest and torture, la the City Magistrate's yamen, of the tipao Ng Ab-dau, as told by himself. Even if the details were not attested from other sources there is a ring of simplicity about the manner in which the terrible narrative is told, which would surely carry conviction We have already commented so fully upon this case that we do not propose to go into it again in extense, But there are one or two points that call for emphasis. The fact, of Ng Ah-dan's having received 200 blows in the face with a piece of leather appears now for the first time, if we remember rightly. Over and above this ho tells us that he received, all, 5,600 blows. mith a bamboo between the 7th of thevTthitpoon and the day on] which the Magistrate was forced to let him go. Bat the point that appeals mont i thie: that, whatever seriousness there may have been in the charge on hich he was first arrested and dragged across the Soochow creek, all else was eatually lost sight of bat the Matrate's desire to revenge himself on "his wretched prisoner because the foreigners were moving for the man's release. When we remember that but ten days ago an Tmperial decree was published cashiering a Shantung official for having tartared " prisoner to death, we may wonder what precise degree of torment must be inflicted before an official is considered safticiently guilty of "cruel and improper conduct " and of contravening the law against torture, Towards the close of the incident the City Magistrate would appear to have become apprehensive that complaint might be made against him in Peking. It ie earnestly to bx hoped that that hension will prove justified, and that. the complaint will receive proper attention. According to the medical reports of Dr Billinghurst, Dr. Krieg and Dr. Stanley that appear in the Gazette, there seems to be a reasonable hope that Ng Ah-dan will recover under Proper treatment. But a permanent disgrace to Shanghai will have been left, there will be no guarantee against 1 repetition of the offence, if his mentor be allowed to escape exemplary punishment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.