Oh. XIX.] FAULTS OF LEGISLATION. 327 



statement may be beKeved. They are pagans of the lowest 

 type, superstitious to a degree, and place the lowest possible 

 estimate upon the value of human life. They have no fear 

 of death themselves, and will sell their own lives for a small 

 sum of money ; so that it is not to be wondered at that they 

 hold the lives of others cheaply, and would commit murder 

 for a dollar, if there was a tolerably good chance of their 

 escapiag detection. The ordinary punishments, therefore, 

 which fail to deter from crime in our own country, are stUl 

 more ineffective when directed against such a people ; and 

 the leniency with which the offenders are treated is not only 

 utterly unappreciated by them, but is mistaken for fear, or 

 inability to act more vigorously. A Chinaman in his own 

 country does not meet with much consideration, and per- 

 haps the system of administering justice is not so perfect as 

 with ourselves ; but though possibly in China there is no 

 particular dread of punishing innocent people, at the same 

 time the measures taken are undoubtedly much more 

 deterrent from crime than our own. 



Our own administration of justice might be no less im- 

 partial than it is, while yet a difference might be made 

 between the punishments appropriate to European Chris- 

 tians, and those suitable to Eastern pagans. Our prisons at 

 Hong Kong are comfortable, and the food plentiful and 

 good, and a sojourn in them is not feared by a Chinaman, 

 who knows perfectly well that he is safe from personal 

 injury when in the hands of the Westerns.. Trial by jury 

 with Western forms and ceremonies, hedged in by oaths 

 and adjurations, is a farce when Chinese rowdies are the 

 defendants ; and however harsh this may sound to English 

 philanthropists, it will be confirmed by the large majority 

 of residents in Chma. The only deterrent used by the 



