ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



965 



tirig atnan into the grare before the 

 breath was out of his body, they 

 teplicd, that they were of opinion he 

 never could recover, and that if 

 they carried him home he wonid 

 only be a trouble and expence to 

 his friends so long as he remained iu 

 a situation which rendered him un- 

 able to assist himself. The man, 

 however, by the humanity and at- 

 tention of doctor Scott, was restor- 

 ed again to his family, and to those 

 friends who knew so well to appre- 

 ciate the value of his life. 



" The do6tor, however, was not 

 aware of the risk he ran in thus ex- 

 ercising his humanity, as, by a law 

 of the country, which appears to 

 ns extraordinary, if a wounded man 

 be taken into the protection and 

 charge of any person, with a view to 

 efl'edt his recovery, and he should 

 happen to die under his hands, the 

 person into whose care he was last 

 taken, is liable to be punished with 

 death, unless he can produce unde- 

 niable evidence to prove how the 

 wound was made^ or that he surviv- 

 ed it forty days. The consequence 

 of such a law is, that if a person 

 should happen to be mortally 

 wounded in an affray, he is suffer- 

 ed to die in the streets, from the 

 fear (should any one take charge of 

 him) of being made responsible for 

 his life. 



"A striking instance of the fatal 

 effe6ls of such a law, happened at 

 Canton lately. A (ire broke out 

 in the suburbs, and three Chinese, 

 in assisting to extinguish it, had 

 their limbs fractured, and were 

 otherwise dreadfully wounded by 

 the falling of a wall. The surgeou 

 of the English factory, with all the 

 alacrity to administer relief to suf- 

 fering humanity, which charadter- 

 i''e| the profcssiun in liritain, di- 



redled them to be carried to the fac- 

 tory, and was preparing to perform 

 amputation, as the only possible 

 means of saving their lives, when 

 one of the Hang merchants, having 

 heard what was going on, ran with 

 great haste to the place, and en- 

 treated the surgeon by no means to 

 think of performing any operation 

 upon them, but rather to suffer 

 them to be taken away from the 

 factory as speedily as possible ; ad- . 

 ding, that however good his in- 

 tentions might be, if any one of the 

 patients should die under his hands, 

 he would inevitably be tried for 

 murder, and the most mitigated pu- 

 nishment would be that of banish- 

 ment for life into the wilds of Tar- 

 tary. The wounded Chinese were 

 accordingly removed privately, and, 

 no doubt, abandoned to their fate. 



" The operation of such a barba- 

 rous law (for so it appears to us) 

 will serve to explain the condu6l of 

 the Chinese in the following instance. 

 In the course of our journey down 

 the grand canal, we had occasion, 

 to witness a scene which was consi- 

 dered as a remarkable example of a 

 want of fellow-feeling. Of the num- 

 ber of persons who had cro^vdetJ 

 down to the banks of the canal, se- 

 veral had posted themselves upon 

 the high-projetting stern of an old 

 vessel, Avhich, unfortunately, break- 

 ing down with the weight, the whole 

 grow|)e tumbled with the wreck into 

 the canal, just at the moment when 

 the yachts of the embassy were pass- 

 ing. Although numbers of boats 

 were sailing al)Out the place, ncjne 

 were perceived to go to the assist- 

 ance of those that were struggling 

 in the water. They even seemed not 

 to know that such an accident had 

 hajjpened, nor could the shrieks of 

 the boys, tioatin;j on pieces of the 



3 (j".J wreck. 



