Kinghsien, Aug. 5.
This case of brutal treatment of a defenceless woman calls for the strongest protest from every humane person in-China. It may seem, perhaps, a little Quixotic, this infamous document posed as a church-member. As soon as I heard of it, it was necessary to obtain proofs. May I say that, in the. presence of witnesses, he acknowledged the existence of this to take up an isolated case of; paper, and promised to destroy it. infamous cruelty to. a woman, and CarRIEp OFF BY Force. attempt redress, as there are so many such cases in the country.
On the night of signing the But did not the friends of Howard} paper, or being forced to sign it, laugh at his protests against} about midnight the widow was prisons as they were a century ago} asleep, when there was a_ great in Europe? Did not Wilberforce noise at the back door, and several himself have many bad moments as! men rushed into the house. They he forced his way against what} burst into her room, and commenc-was considered the immovable led to drag her out of bed. She object of slavery? Did it not seem! called for help, and pleaded to be chimerical for the Lady of Scutari; allowed to throw on a few extra to start on what was considered} garments. When her adopted son her impossible task of nursing the! attempted to come to her rescue sick in the Crimea? Yet the re-he found the door locked on the sults of any one of these so-called} outside, and had to remain a chimerical schemes have silenced} earer of the affair. The widow criticism for all time. It is a shrieked for help, but was bound, fundamental axiom that fair-mind-gagged, and thrown on to the ed Chinese are not going to allow shoulders of a big scoundrel, who their women-folk to be trampled; commenced to carry her off. Sev-on for ever. It is a positive fact eral others accompanied him, and that fair-minded women in China! when he was tired he changed his will not be trampled on for ever. burden with another. In this way It is by the exposure, of and; y. conveyed the woman 10 li protest against, such concrete ex-away, and threw her into the home amples of flagrant brutality as 1 of a man named Wu. The woman detail below that a fair beginning called for help, but there was none may be made in the long chain of forthcoming. She refused to acresistance, and opposition to, cept a place in the house, and systematic oppression of numberless flung down and broke the basins country women that will finally of food they placed before her. exalt their state; frustrate malice Her husband had been a church-aforethought; protect their estates member, and she is an_ inquirer, and give them the rights they so as soon as I heard of her deserve to have. plight I sent a woman down learn particulars. The widow then Estare ann Bremer-in-raw. conveyed to me, a day or two Mrs. Clu was living with her later, an appeal for help, "stating father-in-law and mother-in-law in a the facts as I have written them. good country home. There was This appeal I hold in my' posses-also a brother-in-law and his wife. sion. On July 18 I went to visit Her husband died when she was the family where she was, in only three years in the home. On company with her adopted son, the sth of last Chinese month her and his brother. On arrival at, the father died. Her brother-in-law, house we found that the widow and some confederates compelled was not there. It was stated that her adopted son to write out an'she had gone into the city. The infamous document, aking away|son very soon found her locked up her character, and then some of, in a house in a gully, and rescued them took her hand, and forced her. What her sufferings, fears, her to put her mark to it. The; and horror had been during those estate consists of about 1,000 mow! days a captive in Wu's house I of rice fields; and the widow was leave it to women to imagine. entitled to about one-third of She came back with her son to this. After 17 years' residence'the city. She desired to come, in the home, as soon as the father, and the son desired to receive her. died, she found herself forced to|Thus her temporary rescue was put her mark to this document as. effected. an. "evidence" upon which she could be driven from the home, Moxey.at THE YaMEN. and robbed of her share inj She had no sooner reached the the estate.
This paper has city than her brother-in-law put in figured in her_affairs as the De- a charge to the yamen demanding claration of. Repentance."
That; her restoration to Wu. The son in no repentance was ever needed the meantime wrote out a declara-there is evidence to satisfy both, tion to me that his mother had Chinese and -English law.
The been forced to sign the '"Declara-man who was at the bottom option," that it was false, and that he was a witness to her being" forced to sign it against her will. The money began to flow. The brother-in-law sent in a message that he was prepared to use several myriads of dollars in the case, having no doubt that the official would receive them. Almos} immediately afterwards it was stated that $1,000 had gone in to the magistrate, as a beginning Responsible persons make this statement. I am not called upon to express my own opinion. Events speak for themselves.
When the case came off the official bullied and brow-beat the widow, and her witnesses. On the son's first. utterances he said, 'What nonsense are you talking? Imprison him!" The son's brother said, "What law has he broken that he should be imprisoned? Whom has he made charges against?' The official, put to shame, then committed him and his mother to the charge of a gaoler, to be "detained outside."" When, during the trial, the question of the "Declaration of Repentance' was brought, up the official pooh-poohed it, and said it was "of no importance."' Yet let me emphasize that on that paper depends the life of the woman. The writing out of that paper was a crime. Friends of the official tell him that its acknowledgement will damage him. Therefore its existence must be denied. After the case is long over it is to be brought out again, to the widow's hurt. It cannot be denied. The person who wrote it out is here. The wretch who was the cause of it acknowledged it to me in the presence of three witnesses. Other witnesses are numerous.
"Ox Batt."
The widow was finally allowed out "on bail." As soon as she was imprisoned I sent a staunch-hearted widow to keep her company in gaol. This staunch little widow said, "I will stick to Mrs Ta like ointment. I will go with her to the end. If she goes to prison T will follow her. If she is captured I will be captured with her. will not leave her in life, and. will not leave her to the death." All honour to the little woman. She is a sterling example of what a Chinese woman can be. At midnight two spies came in (they were connected with the yamen) and said to the gaoler that he was wanted urgently in the yamen on business connected with the grain-taxes. The gaoler, who is a decent fellow, said he could not leave his charge. Then they asked to speak with the widow, When they s: w the woman I had sent in, however, they were dismayed, and beat a retreat. Their object was, as the enemies have tried in vain to force her to say, "that she married witl-
Married willingly! She has been a widow for 14 years. The night she was kidnapped her mother-'n-1aw tore the gold. earrings from her ears, lest, she said,. ''she should commit suicide by swa!!.wing them." This she acknowledged credible witnesses. strange thing indeed for a woman
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.