CHINA. 



25$ 



Peculation 

 f miblic 

 money. 



under night, by force or stealth, incurs a penalty of 80 



' V"" blows ; and the master of the house is justified in killing 

 the person while he is entering, but not after he has suc- 

 ceeded in seizing him. Combinations to raise the price 

 of commodities, are punished w>th 40 blows; and the use 

 of false weights and measures, with 70. 



4. Fornication and certain detestable crimes are punish- 



Adultery. ed with 70 blows ; adultery with 100 blows, but more 

 severely if committed by persons high in office ; and rape 

 subjects the offender to death by stranguhtion, while 

 the attempt itsilf is punished with 100 blows, and per- 

 petual banishment. 



Fire-rai- ."> Wilful fire-raising in a person's own house, is pu- 



ing. nished with 1 00 blows; in the house of another, by drath. 



Accidentally firing ont-'s own house incurs a penalty of 

 40 blows ; but, should the fire spread to the gate of an 

 imperial palace, death is the consequence. 



Forgery. 6. Forgi' .g an imp rial edict, or counterfeiting the cur- 



rent coin of the empire, is punished with death ; but there 

 appears no precise regulation about the forgery of pri- 

 vate writings. 



Bribery. 7. Bribery is punished in different degrees, according 



as the sum is large or small, and the object innocent or 

 criminal ; and the penalties vary from 60 blows to death, 

 which last is incurred by taking 80 ounces of silver ( ibout 

 '26.) for an unlawful purpose, or 120 MI. ices (aK).) 

 for a lawful object. Offering or giving a bribe is pu- 

 nished less sev. rely than accepting ; and agre- ing to ac- 

 cept ii punished as if acuially taken ; but, when it is ask- 

 ed or extorted by an officer of government, the giver is 

 not punishable at all. 



K. Very strict regulations are enacted for accurately 

 keeping and auditing the public accounts, and for pre- 

 venting the embezzlement of the public money. In all 

 cases of defrauding the public, restitution is an indispen- 

 sable obligation, independent of the prescribed punish- 

 ment. Privately lending or employing the government 

 money, is punished as iheft ace ird'ng to the amount ; and 

 actual peculation, to the amount of 1000 ounces of sil- 

 ver, is punishable with death. The revenue officers are 

 reciprocally answerable for each other ; but it 19 rather 

 strangely enacted, in all cases of officrs under govern- 

 m-nt, associated in one department, and committing of- 

 f-Luces against the laws a-, a public b;>dv, by fal<e or er- 

 roneous decisions, that the cl- rk of the department shall 

 be punished as the principal offender, the deputies, or 

 executive officers, one degree less, the assessor* another 

 decree less, and the presiding magistrate less by a third 

 degr e. 



Smuggling. 9. Smuggling is punished nearly as in Great Britain, 

 but the penalties are rather milder. The carriage, bat, 

 or horses, by which the unlicensed goods ar transport- 

 ed, are forfeited as with us ; but the offender forfeits 

 only one tulf uf the goods, three-tenths going to the in- 

 former; and the personal pains are moderate. 



Jtlarriage. 10. Th- regulations on the subject of marriage are re- 

 markably full and precise. Almost every man is mar- 

 ried as soon as he is of age ; and the contract, in the 

 case of a first and legal wife, is always concluded be- 

 tween the parents or relations of the parties, totally in- 

 d. percent of their c >nsent. After this, the husband 

 may espouse oth< r wives, or coi.cubines, or handnmds, 

 cr by whatever other name he may choose to call them, 

 without consulting his friends or ob erving any cere- 

 mony ; but these interior wive*, though equal in rank 

 amo.,g themselvts, are all s-.ib .rdinat to the first wife. 

 >ns bearing the same family name, though no wav 

 related to each other, are -tnclly prohibited from inter- 

 narrying ; but even relations, beyond the fourth degree, 



may marry without any censure. Whoever marries, Law. ^ 

 while his or her parents are in prison charged with a V ""Y""" P ' 

 capital cffence, incurs a penalty of eighty blows, unless 

 the marriage has been consummated by the desire of the 

 parents themselves, and the usual entertainments omitted. 

 If a husband degrades his first wife to the condition of 

 an inferior wife, he is liable to a punishment of 100 

 blows ; if, in the lifetime of his first wife, he raises an 

 inferior wife to the condition of a first wite, he is punish- 

 ed with ninety blows ; and, in both cases, the wives arc 

 replaced in their former situation?. If the wite commits 

 adultery, the husband not o'.ly may, but must put her 

 away, otherwise he would suffer a punishment of eighty 

 blows; and. if he should repudiate a first wife, without 

 a sufficient legal cause, he is punished in every case, with 

 e'ghty blows. The justifying causes of divorce, besides Divorce, 

 adultery, are ; barrenness, lasciviousness, disregard of 

 the husband's parents, talkativeness, thievish propensi- 

 ties, envious and suspicious temper, inveterate infirmity ; 

 yet, if any of the three reasons against a divorce should 

 exist, if the wife has mourned three years for her hus- 

 band's parents, if the family have become rich, alter ha- 

 ving been poor previous to and at the time of marriage, 

 or if the wife have no parents living to receive her b ck 

 again ; then none of the seven aforementioned causes will 

 justify a divorce > a. d the husband, wh puis away his 

 wife upon such grounds, shall suff r punishment, two 

 degrees less, than that last stated, and be compelled to 

 receive her again. If a wife withdraws herself privately 

 from her family, the husband may treat her as no longer 

 his wife, but his slave, whom he msy keep or sell to 

 another in that capacity. If a husband absents Ivmself 

 three years fr m his wife, she may lay her cae before 

 the mandarins, and will then be permitted to take ano- 

 ther husband. 



11. With respect to inheritance, it appears, that land Inheritance 

 cannot be di posed of by wi.l contrary to the regulations "' propcr- 

 of the law, wh in require the hurs to share it amongst *?' 



them in certain established proportions. A son is always 

 a minoi during the life of his f.ither, and whatever he in- 

 herits or acquires is entirely at his father's disposal ; while 

 he, on the < ther hand, is liable fi-r his tattler's debts, ex- 

 cept those incurred by gaming. Women are excluded 

 from inheriting or disposing of property when there are 

 children ; but when there are no tons, a man m.;y leave 

 his whole property by will to his widow. The reasons 

 given for not permitting females to inherit is, that a wo- 

 man can make no offering to deceased relations in the 

 hall of ancestors ; and it is deemed . lie of the first bles- 

 sings of a man's life to leave some descendant who can 

 transmit his name to posteii.y at this public soiemi ity. 



12. It di-es not appear that M creditor can attach the Debtor^, 

 person of a dtbt r ; but, upon a complaint bcn.g pre- 

 sented to a mandarin, he c nnmands the goods of the 



d- btor to be seized and payment to be made ; or, if he 

 has no substance to procure his discharge, he receives 

 thirty blows, and a month's delay to make payment ; and 

 so on, at the rate generally of thirty bl ws per month, 

 till he satisfy his creditor. Hence every possible t xer- 

 tion is made to discharge the claim ; and sometime!" the 

 debt.ir gives himself up as a slave, when he has i Q . >I|HT 

 means of extricating himself fr ,m hii diffi allies. 1 u.nigh 

 the 1 iw punishes with eighty blow- ev. ry creditor, who 

 should attempt to pay hi'nelf, by a violent seizure of 

 what belonged to the person, who was indebted to iiim, 

 yet certain modes of teazing ilr cu elite. r at the com- 

 mencement of the year ar t iterated by thv mandarins, 

 and arc generally accompanied s. Un the first 



day of the year, creditors enter tlie housis, ol their d<.-btora : 



