CHINESE LAW COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXII, Issue 272, 24 November 1898, Page 4

CHINESE LAW COURT.

Pot a peaceful people the Chinese appear to be a most litigious race. The moment that a quarrel begins to become serious one or the other of the pirties is likely to shout excitedly, *• I will jro to the city "— that Ib to present bis formal accusation at the yamen. lhe other side threatens the same, and while in a large percentages of cases outsiders contrive to suppress the immediaae execution of the menace, evoryone recognises that the trouble is only temporarily patched up, and may break out in au aggravated form at any time, if the accusation presented in Chinese Courts were confined to anything like the facts in ihe caje there wonld be no case at all for niue-tenthß of them. Therefore it i* considered indispensable, t%y» the "North China Herald '* facetiously, to blend with tho real grievance frem 70 to 96 per cent of fiction- The plaintiff does this a3 routine praodce. Bo does the de- 1 fendant. When the magistrate happens to feel in a good humour he calla np the case, or quite as likely he does sm when he is in a very Lad humour, which bodes ill for oce side, and not fnfrequently for bo h The first part of a Chinese dial ia likely to be something like the proceedings in one of our own courts, a great deal of formality, i nd an apparent re*pect for the majesty of the law, and especially for its repreientaiive, the distiict magist ate, who is the Chinese unit of government. Bnt it is not long before ajl resemblance to Occidental piocedore fades into tuin uir. There are no lawyers to protect the clients. ,lf there real y is any law bearing on the case in hand, no one bjt experts, such as the jaman secretaries, know what it is. The m gistrate is himeelf civil and criminal judge, jury, and practically the Appellate Court. There is no manner of restraint upon him in his mode of asking questions, in the snbject of his inquiries, or in his treatment of ihe principals or witnesses. The greater part of the matter brought into a Chinese law «uit would be mtirely ruled onl o any British court aa entirely irrelevant to the main issue. bat in a Chinese case there is often no main issue, issue, or ifeue of any kind, except the impatient ehont of tbe official, " Get out with you " ("Hsia-ch'u la"), whereupon all the parties retire, and not improbably not one of them has the smallest idea where the ease has now got to. Neither perhaps has the magistrate, but for the time be has had enough of it, and wants to Bmoke~a pipe or two of opium, and will hear them again when he has a more convenient season. But before the case has been dismissed the respective parties have by no means been^ idle. Each of tbem has told falsehoods enough to shock a company prospectus-maker, asd a? either pariy delivers himself of these fabrications .ihe other one finds it impossible to restrain himself, and hoarsely bawls, *' That is a lie I" To tbis it is necessary to reply, whieh is done with a volubility greatly in contrast to the quiet of the preliminary stage?, when each replied in a few mono syllables only. From ejicnlatory interrnp'.iOßß giving (he other pari y ths lie, it is but a stage to angry colloquies of some length, iu u hich each, party struggles to be heard, each rnviiea the other vociferously, and neither party is interrupted or reproved by lhe magistrate, who is now engaged in the process ol making np his mind on the ba*U of what he sees and hears as to which aide has tbe moat of " li," or reason. Ia tbe worst «tages of ara-o it often happens that the magistrate himself does the reviling, and Chinese human nature being what it is, it also •ometunes occurs (hit iho wo etei party in the suit revLes the magistrate, although tbis is raab, for he may ben him for so doing, and tLen deoiie the case aaainst him.