1
298
CHINESE PROVINCIAL
ADMINISTRATORS.
(Daily Press, 21st April.)
99
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[April 30, 1906; the lez talionis is still the law of China, and, | applause, while at the same time filling since the very first day of Western inter- their own pockets. A taotai-ship is ans course, bas heen the fruitful parent of expensive office, and the course of business. misunderstandings and ill-will. Carried to in the northern pört has occasionally bein is a practice of respectable antiquity in even greater lengths than ever it had interfered with while a newly appoint China that when an official is desirous of amongst the Western nations it has cropped magistrate was engaged raising the nec making more than ordinary profit out of up in the recent fray in Kiangsi.sary funds to satisfy the demands of. some abuse he begins by virtuons Investigation has proved that the conduct Court; in such a case the banks denunciations of it and all kindred crimes. of the Lazarist priest at Nanchang had no occasionally for days drained of their The world, 80 far ns it has any connection with the death of the Magistrate current funds, and of course in the lông” cognisance of the righteous reformer, looks KIANG, who went to the mission house run have to be satisfied at somebody's on in admiration of this second DANIEL with the intention of committing suicide, expense. Lately we have from the officiale come to judgment; and the Empire at large having, as he conceived, "lost face" been hearing of the necessity of extinguish-` plumes itself on its possession of the true with both parties. The contention that ing salt smuggling, and judging from the aft of government, and fans itself with such A0 occurrence had anything to orders that have been given, and - the iterative energy over the thought that it do with homocide indicates how far amount of official virtue displayed, it might has an example to show to the unutterable apart in their fundamentals are Eastern have been anticipated that salt smuggling barbarian who would essay to teach it the and Western conceptions of wrong. In the would e'er this have become a thing of the A.B.C. of political economy China, one case it is a matter of punishment when long ago. Occasionally the veil is lifted especially that faction of it which may, in proved to result from evil'intention; in the and we discover that the forbidden erime imitation of a phrase much used elsewhere other it is merely a matter for vengeance flourishes exceedingly, even under the eyʊu for designating the half-fledged youth of a irrespective of moral delinquency. The of the most virtuous of officials. Ite people just waking up to the fact that they subsequent proceedings showed how funda- deed there is a curious, and by unkind have been sleeping for centuries, be called mentally distinct from any conception of reports more than accidental, coincidence Young China, has lately been bewailing the justice in the abstract were the ideas of the between moments of exalted virtue and the very salutary (so far as she herself is Chinese authorities. A swarmery was prevalence of more than ordinary crime; concerned) regulation withdrawing the instituted, the worst feelings of a Chinese and Young China could perhaps explain a subjects of the European Powers from mob were let loose, and the assumed culprit good deal of the mystery. Of course s the very undeveloped system of administra- was under the pretence of the administration imagistrate must live: but Peking has an tion to which China, as compared with of the law, and under the eyes of the unpleasant habit of pretending to think that the West, has as yet attained. Were it administrators, foully murdered. It is the the office exists for the exercise of virtue not that we have been hearing much more very same class who, themselves unable to for the mere love of it. But a magistrate than usual of this supposed unfair dis distinguish retaliation from punishment, has to keep up what he calls his diguity, ability, assumed by the 'Young China'
are now occupying themselves with a ory and this results in his having about his enthusiasts to have been forced on China for the abolition of extra-territoriality as yamen a number of highly useless bangers- against her will, we should have been well incompatible with the self-respect of China. on: they must of course live also, at least disposed to permit affairs to come of thein- Another equally instructive instance of so they think, whatever may be the magis selves to rest by natural process. As a fact the incompatibility of Eastern and Western trate's opinion on the subject: which it is extra-territoriality in the various States of ideas of self-respect was afforded in the needless to discuss. Accordingly the Asia is as old as the first visits of Europeans, recent riot at Shanghai, where the pre-magistrate's virtuous words are interpreted and was introduced by the States themselves sumed guardians of order did not shrink in their own sense by the understrappers aS to get rid of the difficulties growing out of from invoking the same elements of disorder indicating that now has come the time to differences of custom and practice. It was to avenge a fancied slight on their diguity; shut their eyes: Much profit is the result, indeed as old as the Parthian empire, where with the consequence that a similar outrage but it would offend all the institutions of the we find Seleucia with its own Municipal was prevented only by the superior prepar- Empire and lead to endless abuses that the Council governing its inhabitants under edness and organisation of the municipal underlings of a yamen should grow rich the territorial rule of Parthia according authorities. Here, however, the attempt out of their illegal gains. Fortunately for to, Macedonian law. A perfectly similar at vindication of the dignity of the Chinese the good name of the Empire the virtus of account comes to us from Canton in the official hierarchy has not been without its the magistrate is generally equal to the new ninth century: RENAUDOT, in his translation comio element. China was advancing so emergency, and the illicit gains disappear of the voyages
of Two Mohammedan rapidly in the way of reformation of her under gentle pressure: where they go to it Travellers, relates:-"SOLIMAN, the Mer criminal procedure that it was given out were imprudent to enquire, but certain chaut, says, that at Canfu (Canton), which officially that corporal punishment was banks find themselves in possession of is the principle Scale for Merchants, there is abolished; and the Mixed Court was the unexpected funds which they are prepared a Mohammedan appointed Judge over those corpus vile in which the experiment was to to let out at high interest and so the Em. of his Religion by the authority of the be first tried. Under the aegis of one of pire goes on, squeezing and being squeezed. Emperor of China, and that he is Judge of the most potent of the expounders of the Such is the way according to unkind all the Mohammedans who resort to these school of Young China, the Taotai YUEN, rumour that the salt smuggler iu Kiangsu Parts. Upon Festival days be performs all preparations were ngle for the
earns a profitable livelihood, and so 'too the The Public Service with the Mohammedans introduction of the reform, and naturally dignity of the administration is preserved and pronounces the Sermon or Kotbat, foreign eyes looked ou with curiosity for in unfading effulgence. Young China has which he concludes in the usual form the result. There was, it is true, for a spell very weighty reason for the desire to with prayers for the Soltan of the no visible corporal punishment, but that, as
preserve it unshaded. Moslems (or Muslemen). The Merit afterwards turned out, was only in the chants of Irak who trade hither are no way case of prisoners presented by the police. dissatisfied with his Conduct, or his Notwithstanding that apparently Imperial Administration in the Post he is invested orders had abolished corporal punish- with: because his Actions and the Judgment, flogging went on everywhere ments he gives are just and equitable, and conformable to the Koran (or Alcoran), and according to the Mohammedan Jurispru- dence." It was the conviction of the complete incompatibility of the two systems of East and West, rather than any implied superiority of one or other, which in these instances prompted the practice. Some recent occurrences in China suggest how wide apart are still the ideas of East and West, and how little fitted is the mental attitude of the Government of China to comprehend the distance between the two. * Ye have heard,” said two thousand years
as
usual, except in the Mixed Court. And here came in the little joke: it was only in the case of prisoners presented by the police, as it soon turned out, that flogging was forbidden: the MAGISTEATE'S own prisoners were flogged as usual. The police prisoners were of course brought up for crimes and offences against the good order of the Settlements, and that being in the eyes of the MAGISTRATE a thing of no moment, they were allowed to go unpunished; while the others whose crime was having offended himself were made to undergo the for- bidden punishment. Such is Young China's
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THE TROUBLE IN NATAL.
(Daily Press, 23rd April). Those who have an intimate knowledge of South Africa, based more particularly on experience with the native races, have always predicted that the struggle with the Boers would be followed by a big uprising of the coloured people. This prog: nostication is now being fulfilled. Bessät telegrams from Natal show that the present insurrection with which the Government of that Colony has to deal is not the action of a few irresponsibles, not one of those temporary expressions of dissatisfaction to be followed by the usual punitive expedition, but a carefully considered plan of campaign
for ant man in the West, "an eye | conception of the administration of the law. | which only ́required' some act of apparent
eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you resist not evil, and if any one smite you on the one cheek, offer him the other also." Curiously
At the beginning of our article we spoke of an ordinary practice which super virtuous officials sometimes indulged in with the double object of obtaining cheap
aggression on the part of the dominant race to develop into open hostility: This in not an alarmist view of the situationarit kis based on fact. Thönsands of natives have