But the everyday economic exploitation of the masses was in taxation, as it always ix where economic exploitation is arbitrarily practiced, and this was levied and collected under a most pernicious system.' The governors of pro-'Yineos were required to ' forward jain fixed sums to the Capital, either in money or kind, bat Timit was placed upon the amount which they might collect from their provinces; and as they were given no salaries, but usually had to pay officials or court favourites for their appointments, and moreover, had no Mermanent security of tenure, they ere under not only the necessity' for providing for the current ex-annex of their establishments but also the temptation to secure—as promptly and as liberally as_ possi ble provision for their own Suture. 'They followed in their provinees the same system as was practised with' themselves, calling for stated]
naunts from the district magistrates who, in turn, collected what] they liked or were able to extract} from subordinate political divi si And so it went on down the the disreputable body of me who were the tax-gatherers, in. direct] contact with the people. 'The taxgatherers,—like others, without talaries, and ving. purchased! their positions,—had the' privilege of getting what they could out of the poor villagers, us long as they ce! within certain forms of the The Wiles of the Wicked The land tax, for example, was! often not unfairly assessed; but alli torts of ways were found for increasing the amounts collected. One way was to let the time for payment go by without notice and then to come down on the delinquent with a perfectly outrageous and arbitrarily fixed fine for delay, which the victim would be too ignorant: and too terrified to combat, It} would be useless to appeal to the mandarin, for his sympathies and those of all the officials of his court were with the tax-gatherer. They! were all participants in the extort tions. And the experienced observer cited above tells us that by chicanery and deception, by lies unspeakable, and by false' accusations that would bring men within the covetous grasp of mandarins, ex-tortious were exacted. that would] bring misery and wretchedness upon the homes of the poor, which means! the large majority of the popula tion. 'The clothes upon their back and the little utensils in which their food was cooked would be taken from the country people if they had no other property with which to meet the rapacious demands, 'The civil list was a very' simple matter. There were practically no charges upon the national treasury for local administration, which took care of itself in the way described. And another witness tells us, a British consular officer of many years' experience over different} parts of the interior, that law and order could be maintained with a small number of troops because the people had no weapons and "the rear bulk of the population was fept under, constrained to be content with a bare subsistence as the reward of constant toll, and the rabble was constrained to starve", "Judicial" Procedure This picture of the economic relations of the masses with their officials has its counterpart in the Personal relations. Oriental philo-Sophy has produced many fine pre-copts for the government of the relations of man with his fellow man; but in the Orient the official is not a fellow man, He is a very superior being, who is himself the judge in the matter of any offense committed against him, with no responsibility to those below him. And in judging the offense too, as well as in other trials of accused persons, he has had time-honoured freedom to make as full use as he liked of the bamboo and other forms of torture in order to facilitate proceedings by stimulating the memory or the inventive faculties of the accused. These inflictions, although not pimnishments adjudged after conviction but mere incidents of the trial, would often tear the flesh of the victims in such manner s to Teave them invalids for months.
But the bamboo was not reserved for use in connection with judicial proceedings only. Lord Macartney tells us in the diary of his mission to Peking, in the last part of the! 18th century, that men were seized without ceremony along, the route and made to tow the boats of the! mission up the Peiho, and purveyors rected fo furnish provisions and other suppl for their use, with prompt application of the bamboo for any failure of service or supply. He tells us also tnat when hi ships needed native pilots for coming up the coast two men were summarily ordered by the local manda in to accompany his fleet, in complete disregard of their pleas that! they had not been engaged in piloting for years and that their business would be ruined if they were forced suddenly to leave.
The British consul described the} prisoners consigned to an old-world gaol, after proceedings of the judi cial' character indicated, heavily shackled with chains that clanked as they moved, crowding up to the bars, dreadful spectras of humanity, for all the world like wild beasts in a cage,—some.of them vicious' by nature, and the rest brutalized by an inhuman penal system. The! prisoners were brutes and the gaolfers were no better.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.