'grave offences punishable with penal servitude, 'the third wrongly of a petty offence, the accuser 'will be liable to two degrees heavier punishment 'than the innocent person would have incurred 'if proved guilty.' [And the gravity of the offence herein varies according to the number of those falsely accused as where they be ten or more 誣十人以上]

'If a prisoner himself protest that a sentence, 'whether of bambooing or penal servitude, which he 'has undergone and which has justly been accorded ‘him is unmerited, or that the magistrate and his 'assistants have been careless in their conduct 'of the case, he shall incur the penalty attaching 'to the charge of the proved case plus three 'degrees so long that the penalty does not 'exceed one hundred blows and transportation 'for life to a distance of 3000 li. If the relations 'of the prisoner similarly protest, they shall be 'sentenced to the penalty adjudged the prisoner 'less three degrees so long that the penalty 'does not exceed 100 blows heavy bamboo.' 'Where judicial officers, in their reports of

'cases

tried by them, charge the
the persons

'reported on falsely, or where officers attached 'to the Censorate bring charges from private 'motives, and the charges prove false, the full 'penalty adjudged an ordinary false accuser shall 'attach in grave cases, and the penalty for 'dishonest action on the part of high officials one hundred blows and transportation for shall attach in minor cases.' [By 'minor case' is herein meant a case which does not involve one hundred blows and three years' transportation].

i. e. 'three years

'Where the wild statements are made during 'a prisoner's term of penal servitude, the case 'is to be dealt with under the law relating to 'offences committed by convicts.'

A point to be noticed is that notwithstanding the severe laws against false or coloured accusations, it seems to be a rule for persons to bring totally different charges to those to which they are entitled and as the phrase runs 'to 'put simple people in peril' thereby HTɅ. So if complaining of abuse, a person will bring

a charge of aggravated assault: if complaining of common battery, a charge of attempted rape will be substituted. Judging indeed from the recorded cases, it is only by the current system of cross-examination that truth can be elicited for there are always witnesses to testify in support of the charges, whether they be true in part, or altogether false.

To draw up an information for another, and make an intentional deviation from the truth therein, involves the same punishment for the assistant as for the false accuser

save in

capital cases, when the punishment for the

assistant is reducible a degree.

Blackguards who make a practice of bringing are commonly flogged.

suits

[On the subject of Barratry and Maintenance v. the interesting case of Lü Wên-ming H. A. H. L. Supp. vol. IV. p. 54].

ESCAPING FROM PLACE OF PUNISHMENT

An offender who escapes from his prison cell will incur a penalty two degrees more severe than that attaching to his original offence. If such an offender further release his fellow prisoners, he will incur the penalty of the most guilty thereof. If prisoners rise collectively against their jailers and forcibly escape, they will all thereby become liable to capital punishment

exception being made in favour of those prisoners who were merely coerced into so rising.

In regard of transportation, a prisoner who escapes from his place of punishment is, when caught, to be flogged, cangued, and sent back to the place he escaped from (H. A. H. L. vol. XIV. p. 87). The amount of flogging herein varies with the number of days absence e. g. fifty blows for the first day's absence, and one

C. E. G.

33

degree additional penalty for every additional three days' absence, so far that the total penalty does not exceed one hundred blows. A prisoner guilty of a capital offence, who has been excused the extreme penalty, because he had given himself up, or because he had given his principal up to justice, or because there were mitigating circumstances in the case, is to be executed if he escapes from his place of punishment (id.).

A prisoner who has escaped, will not, when caught, be allowed to count the time that he has already served, and his term will commence anew from the date of his return to punishment 1 (H.A. H. L. vol.

III. p. 52) and if he escape while undergoing a four years' term, his time may be increased to five years (H. A. H. L. vol. III. p. 53).

RESCUE

This is a grave offence punishable, under some circumstances, capitally (v. H. A. H. L. Supp. vol. V. p. 57) indeed, under the old law, the penalty was decapitation for all concerned.

In the first place, distinction must be drawn