83 LA} IS, FUA4SHMENT, AND TAXATION. 



princes, nobles [iai-tsi), clergy, and common people. 

 The first three enjoy all civil rights ; the last are 

 semi-independent military settlers, who are not liable 

 to a land tax or to military service. Their laws are 

 embodied in a separate code published by the 

 Chinese Government, to which the princes must 

 conform in their administration ; proceedings of 

 minor importance are, however, decided according 

 to traditional usage. The punishments are fines 

 and banishment, and for crimes and robberies with 

 violence, in some instances, death. Corporal punish- 

 ment is inflicted on the common people as well as on 

 nobles and officials judicially degraded. Bribery, 

 corruption, and every kind of abuse in the adminis- 

 tration and judicial proceedings are most prevalent. 



The people only pay a cattle tax to their princes ; 

 but on extraordinary occasions, such as when the 

 latter travel to Peking or to the assembly, on 

 the marriage of their children, or on removal of 

 camp, special collections are levied. The Mongols 

 pay no tax whatever to China, and are only liable to 

 military service, from which, however, the clergy are 

 exempt. The army is exclusively cavalry ; one 

 hundred and fifty families form a squadron ; six 

 squadrons a regiment, the regiments of one koshung 

 a banner. The people defray the cost of military 

 equipments, but government provides arms. If the 

 whole nation were called out for military duty, Mon- 

 golia ought to supply 284,000 men, ^ but less than 



' Men are liable to military duty from the age of eighteen to sixty; 

 one man in three of a family is relieved from service. The arms are 



