Mr. Davids Extracts frmn the Peking Gazette. 397 



XVIII. A Case of Eape. 



3d moon, 27th day (25th April). 



" The Censor, Leang-chung-tsing, presents this address, having inquired 

 into the truth where a false report had been made in an atrocious case of 

 rape, wliich led to the suicide of the person ravished. He looks up and 

 intreats the Imperial attention. 



" In the 9th moon of the last year, ChaoU'teen-chung, an inhabitant of 

 Shan-se province, came to the capital (being deputed by his brother, the 

 father of the female) and presented at the proper office a complaint, con- 

 cerning which the Imperial pleasure was notified as follows : 



" Let it be referred to Kew-shoo-tang (Governor of Shan-se) for exa- 

 mination. The complaint states, tliat the niece of the complainant, named 

 Urh-koo, having been forcibly ravished by Yen-sze-hoo, put an end to herself 

 in open court with a knife, being urged by the examining magistrate with 

 threats to criminate herself, by acknowledging that she had given her 

 consent to her own defloration,* and that the officer who was despatched to 

 iiold an inquest on the case had tortured the father, Chaou-teen-ho, and 

 extorted an admission of consent on the part of his daughter. Should this 

 l)e true, let those officers be deprived of their situations and severely 

 punished, without admitting of any evasion or concealment. Let tlie com- 

 plainant be conveyed back by the proper board, to be ready at the trial. 



" Khin-tsze." 



" On the 1st day of the 2d moon of the present year, the said provincial 

 governor reported that he had concluded the trial, and found it, as before 

 proved, a case of defloration witli tlie consent of the female. But I, the 

 censor, hearing that the people of the district where it happened were very 

 much incensed and troubled at the decision, gave my attention to the sub- 

 ject, and it was reported to me that the two officers who had been appointed 

 by the governor to try the case were nominated at the particidar intreaty 

 of Chin-tsung, magistrate of Tae-yuen-foo, who begged it on his knees. From 

 this it is plain that there was some improper influence in the case. There 

 exist, also, great discrepancies between the report of the governor and the 



• Rape, or forcible ravishment, is called Keang-keen, and is punished capitally. If the female 

 gives her consent to her dishonour, it is called Ho-keen, or " Fornication by mutual consent," 

 and is punishable merely with the bamboo, as a misdemeanor. 



