her friends, though the marriage contract had not been delivered 收受財禮未給婚書 Her friends subsequently determined to break off the match, and sent back the presents; but the offender knew nothing about it as the person entrusted with the return of the presents appropriated them himself. Hearing that his intended's friends were sending her away, and suspecting they meant to marry her to someone else, the offender carried off the woman, but did not force her to complete the marriage. For this the abductor did not indeed receive the full penalty, but was sentenced to transportation for a term (H. A. H. L. vol. IX. p. 34). The case of Li Hsiao-yang harder. There the offender carried off and compelled to marry him a woman who was perfectly agreeable, and whose friends had accepted his wedding gifts, and the penalty of transportation for life was adjudged as it appeared that the relative who had arranged the marriage was not the one legally entitled to do so (id.). The Authorities, however, admitted that there was some ground for the offender's action 事尙有因

seems even

The following are considerations for substantial mitigation or complete extenuation : (a) where the woman is returned by the offender, and the latter delivers himself up to justice: (6) where the woman had no claims to regard.

In respect of the latter point, a woman who has been sold and resold without objection, cannot claim that her reputation has suffered by her abduction: nor can a woman who has been put up for public sale nor can one who has passed through a broker's hands, whether in obedience to parental orders or otherwise but herein if she be sold to a respectable family she becomes a respectable woman 既經賣入良家屬良家婦女

A divorcee is considered to have no claims to consideration, and much less a woman who has remarried before her late husband is well cold (H. A. H. L. vol. VIII. p. 31). A woman with whom the abductor has been very intimate is also no fit subject for consideration (H. A. H. L. Supp. vol. III. p. 57); and though great violence was employed in carrying her off, the sentence will be simply transportation for life

instead of capital (id.) a certain amount of violence is permissible between intimate friends. And in this connection it is of the utmost importance in cases of abduction to determine, not merely what degree of intimacy (if any) existed between the actual parties, but also how intimate the abductor was with the family of the woman abducted. In regard of the general question of intimacy, such considerations as these are considered cogent: Were the parties merely accustomed to visit each other from time to time? (¿. e. on merely visiting terms

): was she accustomed to meet him without running away?與。。習見不避:did she avoid him after she had grown up and see him no longer?迨年長即避忌不見. Further, the word 'intimacy' does not necessarily imply immoral intimacy 宿.

A question of much force in the determination of the offence is as to the number of those engaged therein. therein. It makes all the difference whether one or more offenders were concerned.

If two were engaged, the principal will be sentenced to decapitation subject to revision, and

the accessory to transportation for life. And, again, it makes a great difference whether more than two were engaged; for, in that case, the principal will be sentenced to immediate decapitation, and the accessories to strangulation subject to revision whether the woman was

maltreated or not, and (contrary to the general rule) whether or not the woman was actually removed from the spot (H. A. H. L. vol. VIII. P. 50).

As regards the revision of the sentence of strangulation for the accessories, it was provided in the 5th year of Taokuang that in the following cases the sentence should be confirmed. Where the accomplice entered the house, or if the woman was violated, where he assisted in dragging her off, although not actually entering the house where the accomplice had been engaged in joint abduction more than once: where he assisted in putting pressure on the woman, thereby causing her death, or where the death of a person who tried to arrest the offenders was caused by resistance thereto whether the accomplice himself was physically

responsible for the death by actually wounding the intervener, or whether the accomplice merely lent his countenance to resistance: where the woman had been sold and cannot be traced: where the abduction was by two or more in the open air the accomplice taking actual part therein. All other cases with the revised capital penalty were to be entered on the List of Cases Reserved, with a view to their commutation (H. A. H. L. vol. IX. p. 51).

If the joint abduction be of a dissolute, the penalty is much reduced. So if the offence be by more than two persons, the principal will be sent to the Mahommedan settlements as a slave, and the accessories will be transported for life 3000 li distance.

Again, where the families of the offender and the girl are connected, and there has been previous proposal of marriage, some mitigation is allowed. As, for instance, where more than two persons are concerned the principal is sentenced to death provisionally, and the accessories to transportation. On the other hand, if there was no tie subsisting between

when