·THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, ATH FEBRUARY, 1880.
Glen to prolong their existence. Moreover,
de families which are able to purchase children
late an abundance of clothes and food, which
(metáhly offers un advantage beyond anything
Efren had in their own families, as they el beyond all care of providing against
buyer and cold. The foregoing considerations
ulated to make people rather rejoice over
ide fort thut these children change hands.
When parents are willing to sell their sons
lial angliters to others, the reason invariably is, their troubles are innumerable, their plans
autol, their means squandered, and it is only
beg they find there is no better way out of
A difficulty, that they resign themselves to As regards the sellers, their own
di esort.
kutim is to find some one willing to buy, so
A the matter is entirely voluntary, and there. the least compulsion in it. As regards the , they look upon themselves as affording
bf to distressed people, and consider the matter an act akin to charity, especially as the boys
# girle they buy, being of tender age, have, as a ptrral rule, to be clothed, fed, nursed, taught, if they are sick, a doctor has to be engaged
ø wtend to them, aud when they are grown up, de boys have to be provided with a wife and a Wiparate family dwelling, and to be set up in house- ping, and in the case of girls, a good husband
Loob picked out for them to make them Appy for life. The love and care devoted to
m is often greater than that bestowed on one's
in offspring. In view of all this, it is inpos-
le to class this system as identical with life- leg slavery and deprivation of liberty.
1 China honours, above all others, the teneti
Confucianisın, that is to say, the teachings of there are Confucius and Mencius. Mencius says,
Save forms of deficiency in filial duty, but the art of them is to have no descendants. Conse-
rently every childless person considers it obli-
ry to adopt a son, for the term
kg
deficiency
filial duty implies a sin of the most heinous
e. Supposing even, that there were a man yhering no willingness (to adopt a son), his wistàns and friends would certainly do the ut- t to exhort him to do so. Hence the number
df pople who are willing to buy boys for pur-
ps of adoption. But it being once permissible
purchase boys in order to make then one's
a sons, it follows that it is also permissible to ley girls in order to make then one's own dghters. This system is the most essentially important of all Chinese customs, and Your Pitioners therefore beg that this statement be arlescendingly examined and tested.
6. In China there are fixed rules for the pur- daw of human beings, which rules bear abso-. atly no comparison whatever with the mode of "purchasing ordinary commodities. For in buy- gulinary articles of any kind, the buyer pires unlimited power over them, and he is rtinly at liberty to keep them or reject them. There is no such thing in the purchase of human
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阿凡爲母願將自已子女轉與人必係處萬難計
之家必係衣食豐
愈乎且凡買受
得以邀其生機之
人樂於授受也
勝一籌决不至有
足比其父母家定 饑寒之慮此所以
終身爲奴不由自主者相提並論哉 其終身愛護之心多有過於己出者似此看待豈得與
窮力盡捨此別無善策然後始忍爲之在賣者初心乃求 則爲之置家立室以冀其成立女子則爲之擇以 之教之或有疾病則延,以調理之及其長也如係男子 之急頗類蘡端蓋所買之男女其幼時必也衣之食之撫 售於人定是情甘並無繇亳勉强在買者之自視乃濟人
迥然不同凡買各
祈俯察
買人女僞已女矣此乃華人風俗之敢要者 嗣如是之多也既可以買人子爲已子卽可以 不願而親友等亦必力爲成之所以買人繼 爲切念因不孝二字罪名→大也縱其人或有 孝有三無後為大以故凡無子之人皆以立嗣 規與買各種物類 五中國尊崇儒教師孔孟之道是也孟子日不 六中國於買人常
否蓋買女爲嬋其
竊取任便買人則
物買主則有全權