102 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Wong a Sliui, as I mentioned, had a mandarin's 

 button, and acted as a justice of the peace. The 

 sale of these insignia is often accompanied by the 

 understanding that the purchaser is to be at the 

 trouble of exercising some judicial authority. They 

 are sold to men of mark and influence in the country, 

 who may not be disposed to compete at the examina- 

 tions, but \vlio strengthen the hands of the mandarin, 

 and themselves perform some of the business of a 

 magistrate. They are like our justiceships of the 

 peace, which are usually conferred on tolerably wealthy 

 persons. Our host held his courts of justice in the 

 most free-and-easy manner. I found him engaged 

 one day in standing in judgment on a miserable- 

 looking wretch accused of petty theft, who kowtowed 

 to anybody whenever he got a chance, and seemed to 

 imagine that I was sure to exercise some influence 

 over his fate. Old "Wong appeared attending to any- 

 thing except the case before him. He smoked, drank 

 tea, spoke to me, went into a courtyard to give orders 

 to some labourers, and finally went out of the house 

 altogether to the fish-pond, with the whole posse of 

 prisoner, constables, and witnesses following after. 

 Suddenly he turned round and gave judgment, which 

 was, that the accused should be locked up that night, 

 and receive some strokes of a rattan in the morning. 

 I could see, however, that he was attending attentive- 

 ly throughout, and that his object in moving about, 

 and interrupting the proceedings every now and then, 



