capital cases, is ever stated throughout the whole code, without this addition, "except in cases of high treason." The slenderness of the protection is only to be paralleled by the barbarity of the punishment; and, as in other absolute despotisms, the innocent family of the offender is consigned to destruction.* In 1803 an attempt was made on the life of the emperor by a single assassin. He was condemned to a lingering death, and his sons, "being of a tender age,” to be strangled! Going back to the patriarchal origin of the government, the Chinese derive a sanction for their law of treason from their sacred books. These enjoin it on a son to pursue the author of his father's death to extremity; and Confucius himself tells him "not to live under the same heaven with the slayer of his father." The extension of this rule to the sovereign is, in the mind of every Chinese, a matter of course.

The arrangement of the penal code is extremely methodical and lucid. The first head is composed principally of general definitions and explanations in reference to the whole code; and the six following, which constitute the body of the work, correspond exactly to the six supreme boards or tribunals at Peking, being in fact the best illustrations of the respective duties and functions of those councils. In that light they may be briefly presented to the reader.

I. The division concerning the Administration of civil offices corresponds to the first of the Supreme Tribunals before noticed, whose title may be expressed by "the Board of Civil Appointments." Its two books treat, 1. Of the System of Government. 2. Of the Conduct of Officers.

II. The next comprehends Fiscal and Statistical

Amongst the Persians and Macedonians, not only the criminals convicted of treason, but all their relations and friends, were put to death. The posterity of Marius's faction were disqualified, by a law of Sylla, from advancing themselves by their own merit to estates and offices.-Yorke's Considerations on the Law of Forfeiture.

Laws, and answers to the Board of Revenue at Peking. Its seven books comprise, 1. The Enrolment of the People. 2. Lands and Tenements. 3. Marriage (in its statistical relations). 4. Public Property. 5. Duties and Customs. 6. Private Property. 7. Sales and Markets.

III. The third treats of the Ritual Laws, and comes of course under the Tribunals of Rites and Ceremonies. The two books of this division treat, 1. Of Sacred Rites. 2. Miscellaneous Observances.

IV. The division concerning Military Laws belongs to the Tribunal of War, or Military Board, and contains five books. 1. The Protection of the Palace. 2. The Regulation of the Army. 3. The Protection of the Frontier. 4. Military Horses and Cattle. 5. Expresses and Public Posts.

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V. The next comprehends Criminal Laws, and pertains to the "Tribunal of Punishments," being by far the most considerable portion, and comprising eleven books. The principal heads are, Treason, Robbery and Theft, Murder and Homicide of various kinds, Criminal Intercourse, Disturbing Graves, Quarrelling and Fighting, and Incendiarism."

VI. The last division of the code, treating of Public Works, and coming under the appropriate Board at Peking, contains only two books. I. Public Buildings. 2. Public Ways.

With regard to the punishments by which these laws are enforced, it is important to observe that very unfounded notions have been prevalent as to the caprice or cruelty which can be exercised towards riminals. Some vulgar daubs, commonly sold at Canton, and representing the punishment of the damned in the Budhist hell, have been absurdly styled "Chinese punishments," and confounded with the true ones. There is in the first division of the code a very strict definition of all the legal pains and penalties to which the subject is liable, and even the appli cation of torture in forcing evidence is strictly limited in its extent and application. History indeed relates

the extraordinary contrivances of cruelty adopted by different tyrants previous to the formation of a distinct and written code; but this is common to nearly all countries.

The most general instrument of punishment is the bamboo, whose dimensions are exactly defined. The number of blows, attached gradatim with such precision to every individual offence, answers the purpose of a scale or measurement of the degrees of crime, and this punishment being often commutable for fine or otherwise, the apparent quantity of flagellation is of course greater than the real. A small hollow cylinder, full of tallies or slips of wood, stands before the judge, and according to the nature of the offence he takes out a certain number, and throws them on the floor of the court. These are taken up by the attendants, and five blows nominally, but in reality only four, inflicted for each.* This mitigation goes to the emperor's credit, being called "imperial favour," and it is in strict conformity with the Chinese maxim, that "in enacting laws, rigour is necessary; in executing them, mercy," although the converse has been of late generally maintained among ourselves—in theory at least.

The next punishment is the Kea, or Cangue, which has been called the wooden collar, being a species of walking pillory, in which the prisoner is paraded with his offence inscribed. It is sometimes worn for a month together, and as the hand cannot be put to the mouth, the wearer must be fed by others. After this comes, in the first place, temporary banishment, to a distance not exceeding fifty leagues from the prisoner's home; and then exile beyond the Chinese frontier, either temporary or for life. Tartars are punished by an equal number of blows with the whip instead of the bamboo, and, in ordinary cases, with the Cangue instead of banishment.

*The ceremony of the bamboo is described in the Fortunate Union,' vol. ii. p. 62.

The three capital punishments are, First, strangulation; Secondly, for greater crimes, decollation; Thirdly, for the greatest crimes, as treason, parricide,

[Punishment of Wooden Collar.-From Staunton.]

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sacrilege, &c., that mode of execution called Ling-chy, "a disgraceful and lingering death," which Europeans have somewhat incorrectly styled cutting into ten thousand pieces. The heads of robbers and murderers are publicly exposed in a cage suspended on a pole.

Chinese prisons are very severe, and, as there is no Habeas Corpus Act, the most frequent instruments of judicial injustice are prolonged imprisonments. Nothing tends more effectually to deter from crime than the prospect of incarceration in those miserable abodes, which the Chinese emphatically style Ty-yo, or hell, and the severity of which is increased by the confinement being solitary. Women in ordinary cases enjoy the fortunate exemption of being placed, as criminals, in the custody of their nearest relations, who are answerable for them, and in this manner they escape the further contamination of vice in a prison. The legal mode of torture, in forcing evidence, is to squeeze the ankles or the fingers between three sticks, tied triangularly; the former being applied to male, and the latter to female prisoners. Oaths are never required, nor even admitted, in judicial proceedings; but very severe punishments are attached to falsehood in evidence.

Ten privileged classes are enumerated in the introductory division of the code, who cannot be tried and punished without a special reference to the emperor. The grounds of exemption (which, as usual, are denied in treason) consist, generally, in relationship to the imperial line, or in high character and station. Throughout cases where the crime is less than capital, any person under fifteen years of age, or above seventy, is allowed to redeem himself from punishment by a fine. A species of king's evidence is permitted in cases of thieving and robbery, with a view to the recovery of the lost goods: in fact, something more than mere pardon is offered, as the accomplice who informs is entitled to the reward attached to the discovery of the criminals. This, however, extends only to the firs offence.