CHINESE LAWS.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1800, 9 October 1874, Page 2

CHINESE LAWS.

From a recent number of the. North China Daily News we clip the following, translated from the Peking Gazette 1 :—

The Governor-General of Chihli reports the execution of a lunatic for the murder of his mother. On report of the crime committed having been received from the district magistrate Man-ch'eng, the case was removed to the provincial capital for trial before the Prefect of Paoting Fu. It appears that the murderer, namgd Kia TsaO-poa, alias Kia Ya-pa. (the IJnnb), was a farm laborer living with his mother, whom he supported, aad beside being dumb was also liable to occasional fits of madness. He had, however,' at ho time been guilty of any -act of-mischief r and* being an only son, his mother had been reluctant to report him to the authorities and have him put under restraints Her next of kin and the neighbours equally abstained from making report. .On tie morning of the 3rd February last, the lunatic, in a sudden fit of frenzy, finding his mother lying upon the k'ang.in the house they conjointly occupied, after stripping himself of his clothes and.gesticulating in an insane manner, attacked his mother with a. chopper, and hacked her to death, inflicting a series of frightful wounds about the head, face, neck and

hands. A neighbor named Kia Ju having accidentally entered the. house, was an eye witness of the deed, and summoning another man to his assistance he secured the murderer.- In reply to their questions, he merely looked at them with a fixed stare, and was unable even to make ■igns at usual with his hands. On the murderer being brought to trial, and the evidence being taken, his insanity was verified and, moreover, declared by due medical report; and he admitted his guilt by signs. The judgment of the Court wai that, in conformity with the itatute relating to parricide or matricide, he be executed by the Ung-cKe process, a special proviso running to the effect, in the statute book, that crimes of this nature shall be equally punished whether the offender be insane or not. The Governor-General finding that the scene of the murder lay within the statutory limit of 300 U from the provincial capital, and that no difficulties from river-cros-sings intervened in the way of transit, caused the Financial and Judical Commissioners of the province, accompanied by his own Military Secretary, to gjyurovided with the Imperial death— wariiXt to the spot, and there conjointly with the district Magistrate preside at the slicing to death of the condemned criminal His head was afterwards suspended from a pole, to serve as a public warning. The laws provide with reference to lunatics, that if their relatives and neighbours fail to make report of tlieir condition to the authorities, and likewise to keep them under their own eye, in consequence whereof any murder is committed by such persons, the individuals in question shall suffer the penalty of 100 blows, under the law concerning failure to prevent an intended murder, of which previous cognizance is had. In the present case, five men and one woman came tinder the category above-nampd. In the ease of the men the. penalty of 100 blows was commuted to 40 strokes of the lesser kind, and the woman being upwards of 70 years of age, was permitted to commute her penalty by a fine escheated to Government. Two of the men, filling the post of village Jhead-boroughs, whose offences were merely a dereliction of duty without criminal intent, were exempted from the further penalty of being discharged from their position. A.fair illustration is here offered of the cruelty too of the Chinese nature, and no greater proof can afforded of the uncivilised state of China, than the barbarity, evinced in the punishments referred to in the foregoing extract. The horrid punishment, known as ling ch'e, inflicted upon a dumb lunatic, draws the most of pur attention; then come the lesser penalties inflicted upon the five men and one woman that, so far as we can see, are not even sanctioned by the itatutei of the country, and have been carried out, apparently, merely to gratify the inherent love for torture the Chinese are so remarkable for. It will be observed that the floggings were inflicted " under the law concerning failure to prevent an intended murder of which previous cognizance is had." Where the prescience was in this case, we fail to see, despite the fact that the Chinese Magistrates who tried the case, were sufficiently erudite to discover it. It would be scarcely possible, to get a better insight onto Chinesse peculiarities than is obtained by a perusal of the above extract, and we would draw especial attention to it. It is, in all probability, entirely in keeping with the justice usually- administered in Chinese Courts,'and is therefore, to be taken as a fair specimen of what sort of treatment Foreigners would receive at the hands of the Chinese, were the, to some,—a very few we hope and believe—obnoxious exterritorial clauses repealed. Although we cannot-characterise the' punishment of the dumb lunatic as any-1 thing but cruelty of the most shocking description, we see in his execution the consistent prosecution of one of the greatest and most creditable aims in Chinese society, the insisting upon filial piety in the highest degree. In the Chinese we have failed to discover many virtues, but the one of respect for one's progenitors, exists without a doubt, and so far as we can see, every attempt is made to prevent it from becoming forgotten. No where in the world is the undutiful child more severely punished than in China. The least disobedience reported to the authorities; is visited with prompt punishment, and it is nothing extraordinary so see in China, youths and even grown-up men, chained to large stones against whom no other charge can be be laid than that their parents have represented their inability to keep the offender obedient to their mandates.

As will be seen, even lunacy cannot be urged as an excuse for fiiliai impiety; and .where an aberration of intellect is not sufficientto obtain clemency, we may rest assured that nothing else will be accepted in extenuation. - .;

t Where a dollar is worth two dollars, or, in oil; r words, where money can perform almost anything, it is possible that even filial fljgriety may purchase immunity, but>wPmust confess that we hare never heard of an instance where it has been possible to evade punishment ia China for undutiful conduct towards parents, by the payment of a certain sum of money. We should not go the length of saying that though corruptible in-every other matter, the Mandarins will not allow unfiliaji conduct to; be atoned For by a pecuniary consideration, but we think public opinion it so strong on this point, that the officials dare not fail in the duty imposed upon, them in this matter. At any rate, we would believe that this Chinese virtue is preserved intact, and we hope that it ever may be. No one can dispute that it reflects great credit upon the people of the. Empire, and though we m?.y regret the barbarity of the punishments inflicted for a non-observance of it, we can fully

sympathise with the sentiments that induce tii<- carrying out of horrid tortures upon lliose r guilty pi'; tho murder of a parent. We lilcewiao approve of the minor punishments inflicted for disobedience of parental precepts anr commands. —Hong Kong Times July 22nd.