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the way of breeding good soldiers. They have always lacked the centralised organis- atión and care needed to encourage a nationsl army. The individual soldier
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND in pre-telegraph days many things could happen before an appeal could reach the higher authorities, and the rule for men of common sense seems to have been to "grin and bear it". A very unjust official might, according to an ancient custom, be bitten to death by an enraged community; but it
[June 25, 1908.
THE VICEROY AND THE RAILWAY.
must feel that he is an essential and appreciated part of the whole machine, or he will be found wanting in the hour of need. The Chinese aray must become an is obvious that for such a purpose there ¦ Peking seems able to do is to recommend
Imperial force, administered by one head and without corruption, before it can claim the importance which some on the strength of recent provincial demonstrations, seem disposed to give it. And improvement must begin at the top, in this case. Iu our opinion, not ignoring the many "hopeful signs" that have been hailed with so much satisfaction, it has not properly begun yet. Effective control from Peking, leading to proper administration in the provinces, is the first essential. When the Government is in a position to check the anti-foreign propaganda and outbreaks in the provinces, it will have little to fear from foreign armies. Mean- while, we are obliged to maintain thatt he day of China's appearance as a Power, and of the abolition of extra-territoriality, is still a very long way off.
CHINESE THEORY AND PRACTICE.
(Daily Press, 20th June.) Theoretically, it has often been pointed out, the general arrangements for the good government of China are as nearly perfect as philosophy can invent. Almost every hu man contingency is provided for. We need not recapitulate the points, nor trouble to show all the ways in which practice falls short of precept.
Professor GILES has recently called attention very interestingly to the Chinese penal code; and as this is one of the directions in which Chinese reformers have lately been busying them. selves, we may hope to dwell prontably for a while upon that. For over two thousand years China has had penal codes, one based upon another, and all harking back to the classified list of nearly fourteen thousand laws and precedents prepared by HSIAO Ho in the Han Dynasty. As each alteration would be in the nature of au amendment warranted by cxperience, or should have been, it is only to be expected that of them it can be said,There are many things in Chinese law which in the ry appeal to the judicial mind as being almost all that might be desired." In practice, however, the corruption and the ignorance that have made an ideal form of government a vain thing have also made the administration of Chinese law a byword. When Professor GILES explains that uo maudariu ever attempted to master the vast agglomeration of statutes in the present code, preferring to depend upon an expert adviser, he mi.ht also go on to say that even were the agglomeration less vast, a like disiuclination to study it would be evident. Although bribery is a very serious offence indeed, death by strangulation being the specified penalty for accepting "eighty taels for an unlawful, or a hundred and twenty for a lawful object", it is notorious that in China the "weight of evidence has too often been the weight of monetary offer- ings. False witnesses, also, have never been difficult to get, notwithstanding that the punishment for a detected case of this has to be, according to the law, heavier than the punishment meted to the person charged supposing his guilt established, Olten these miscarringes of justice, or more correctly, carriages of injustice, have been the bart faced and well understood on
we recently pointed out, spot; but as
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would have to be a unanimity which we suppose a smart wan could easily find means to prevent. Even now, in 1906. when telegraph wires are rapidly bringing the Central Government into immediate touch with all parts of the empire, we have daily instances of the ineffectiveness of the control really wielded by Peking. The affair at Amoy yesterday, for instance. Professor GILES is said to beli ve that torture, though not unknown in China, exists there practically in name only. We do not know how general the practice should he to satisfy him that it exists in fact; but there is a commit'ee well-informed
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(Daily Press, 21st June.) Aalthough the Canton VICEROY and thể- Cauton people are still at loggerheads over the control of the new railway, the best that
the parties to "be of oue mind, and work harmoniously together", according to our Cantou correspondent, who_forwards us translations of an Imperial Edict received by Viceroy Suum on June 16th, and of the VICEROY's telegraphic reply. As there is undoubtedly fault on one side or the other, nothing could be more stupid than such weak instructions. The reason that ilo definite order comes seems to be that the EMPRESS-DOWAGER's partiality for Viceroy SHUм conflicts with a desire to redress the grievances of a restive public. We suspented all along that Viceroy SHUM's apparent in Hongkong" graceful yielding" was cloaking a hostility which evidently believes that torture was that would emerge in more subtle form. judicially practised quite recently. Decrees His reply to the Edict seems to indicate from the Throne, abolishing it, and also more plainly than usual his determination abolishing decapitation as a method of to get the belter of his rebellious col- capital punishment, have appeared; aml in stituents. The Edict referred to says it is certain places are known to have been undoubtedly the best policy for the officials ignored. With the system of Censors and to give "full protection to the scheme,
official talebearing, one
memorialising whereas what the people demand is full against another, it might be expected that control, or protection from their would-be Peking had found a means of effectively protectors. According to foreign notions checking malpractices by provincial officials. of justice, they have every right to resent Memorials in plenty we hear of, and the official appointments made for the occasionally degradations in consequence; management of their property. The word- but in many instances it would seeming of the Edict is pitiably futile in such that Peking was too busy to attend to them, and abuses continue unchecked, while the wicked flourish. His Excellency Wu TING-FANG himself, the leading spirit in the reform of the penal code, has been greatly discouraged by the disobedience of the officials who cling to old ways. These Decrees were doubtless easily put forth, with a view to furthering the Chinese ambition for the abolition of extra- territoriality; and it may possibly he that apart from that object the high authorities are not greatly concerned as to their strict observance. It is superfluous to say that until such Decrees appear to be a real force in the land, the dream of China for the Chinese must continue to wait its fulfillment One consideration suggests itself which is relevant more to our observations made yesterday than to the present discussion, It is the apparent inconsistency of the severely brutal Chinese legal penalties with the Chinese abhorrence of soldiering. The re- finements of torture described in the Chinese penal code help to confirm the impression that the Chinese are physically harder than Europeans, more callous to suffering. Yet it is notorious that they shrink from any thing like fighting on an equality. The history of torture reveals the truth that torturers need not be warriors. The soft, effeminate, physically degenerate have always been ingeniously cruel. A befrocked priest of old would continue the racking process where a battle-scarred man would turn away disgusted. So the mandarin who could sit inmoved while a mere child was ling-chih'd for accidentally wounding its parent would scuttle away like a squawking hen and leave his hired retinue to face a small band of robbers. The manly kunck of giving and receiving blows is a vastly different thing to the ability to countenance torture where no resistance is likely. China undoubtedly possesses the manlier material, but we doubt if it possesses those who are fit to develop and sead it.
Mr. B. 8. von Darvasto has been resognisəd as 1. and B. Consul for ustria-Hungary at Hongkong in succession to Mr. N. Post.
case. The perplexed ruler pats the com- plainant on the back, reluctant to clout the defendant on the head. The Cantonese are praised for their earnestness of purpose and their generosity; and then Viceroy SHUM is asked to settle the matter in an impartial manner What unwise statesmanship this, that expects a party to a dispute to be impartial! As a sop, the representa tives of the people who were degraded by the VICEROY for presuming to oppose him are reinstated; and the only definite ruling in the whle Decree seems to be that disagreement with a Viceroy is not neces- sarily sedition. How easily arguments can be produced to bolster a weak case: in the forefront of his defence, Viceroy SHUM makes the excellent-seming point that many subscriptions came in after he had appointed his directors, thus proving, hẹ maintains, that the appointments were not really unpopular at all. How is it, be asks, that the amount of shares subscribed for was doubled immediately after those appointments? We presume that he refers to the money actually paid in un account, for the paper subscriptious wers doubled in consequence of his app i.tments. There was nothing to binder the fulfillment of promises, especially as it was understo d that all installments would be refunded in case the scheme fell through. SHUM anys the only people to protest were a handful of Hongkong merchants instigated by Cantonese gentry. In this case a lot depends upon the way the thing is said. It is admitted that there were instigators, or opponents of his policy, outside Hongkong. It cannot be denied that HIS EXCELLENCY had a short way with those who ventured to express their hostile opinions. What more natural, supposing it be admitted that it was so in fact, that the audible protests should sound louder in Hongkong than elsewhere? For Viceroy SAVM's braves cannot arrest elderly gentlemen in Hongkong, at viceregal whim and without warrant, as they do in Canton. The VICEROY's personal feelings are not well concealed. His reference to the Cantonese gentry who have made
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