is allowable to employ a disinterested person to write down his deposition but a court official is not considered a disinterested person.

Employment of Torture. Torture is of two varieties, legal and illegal. But two legal instruments of torture are recognised the one resembling the old Scotch 'Boot', the other a finger compresser. Other forms of torture are strictly illegal, but are nevertheless often employed and justified by the authorities on the ground of necessity in the result certain other forms have received legal acquiescence.

Torture is not, as the law is construed, to be employed without sufficient reason, and if it is, the officials are liable to punishment. Where, for example, a witness refuses to answer a question, or evidently perjures himself, instead of committing him for contempt, or prosecuting him for perjury, the Court is authorised to punish him summarily, by slapping his face, beating him on the outside of the thighs, or what not, as the case may be. Again where there is clear evidence of guilt, and the prisoner refuses to admit the justice of his conviction, the punishment due his offence cannot be carried out until he does so, and the application

C. E. G.

2

of more severe forms of torture is permitted (H. A. H. L. vol. LIX. p. 5).

In certain cases, a prisoner who has been tortured will be allowed a corresponding deduction from the punishment he is sentenced to. Thus, if the prisoner has been beaten to a jelly in the course of his trial, or, as it is technically described, has been warmly 'questioned, it is taken into account in the punishment, and the number of strokes due is reduced a degree instead of one hundred he is given ninety, instead of ninety eighty, and so on (P. A. S. P. vol. XX. p. 1).

The employment of torture by underlings is, on detection, heavily punished. Thus Ma Yung, a magistrate's clerk, was sentenced to transportation to an unhealthy settlement, for tying a man up by the thumbs, and beating him with the handle of a whip, so that he died. (H. A. H. L. vol. XVI. p. 45). This case is not, it is remarked by an authority, simply one of torturing a man illegally.

Members of the eight privileged classes, persons over seventy years of age, children under fifteen years of age, and those who labour under any permanent disease or infirmity, are not to be put

to the question by torture, but may be convicted on the evidence of witnesses.

THE SENTENCE

Sentences are to be determined by the latest published supplementary laws, and not by the original statute 斷罪依新頒例(H.A. H. L. vol. XLIX. p. 31).

Supplementary laws take effect on the day of publication, and sentences are to be guided thereby, although touching transactions antecedent to such publication. Merely occasional statutes modifying the law have, however, no such retrospective force.

As regard capital sentences, in certain cases of doubt (e. g. of value of property stolen, of several offenders as to who is really the principal), the words 'after the Autumn Assize' are to be added to the sentence.

Delivery and record of sentence. It is carefully provided that, if the sentence be capital or transportable, the prisoner, together with his nearest relations, shall hear it pronounced in open court, and that such protest as the prisoner,

or his relations on his behalf, shall make at the

time shall be taken down in writing, with a view to subsequent investigation.

The final step, preceding execution, is to record

executed within a prescribed time, in cases where the local authorities have a right to execute a sentence without reference. In the case of corporal punishment, the period is within three days: in the case of transportation, the period is within ten days. As regards the majority of capital sentences actually to be executed, a special official is appointed by the High Authorities therefor, and is liable for wilful delay therein.

Magistrates who authorise an execution, without waiting for the Imperial rescript, incur a punishment of eighty blows. Furthermore, after the Imperial rescript has been received, a period of three days must elapse, before the sentence is carried out.

APPEAL

It is provided that where an inferior Court refuses to receive an information or complaint, or decides thereon unjustly, appeal may be made to a higher court. Cases of the latter category for the most part are, furthermore, subjected to revision at the Judiciary Board.

'Unjustly' it is to be noted means injustice in fact, and not what the appellant considers injustice.

It may be mentioned that every Chinese subject has the right to directly petition the Throne for redress, but from the natural difficulty of access this concession is in effect a dead letter.

SUPERINTENDENCE AND REVISION

The important duties of superintendence and revision rest with the Board of Punishments in Peking alias the Judiciary Board. The jurisdiction

of this body is very wide; generally speaking, it busies