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The National Geographic Magazine 



dents in the United States in a confer- 

 ence at Amherst, Massachusetts, last 

 summer, and three days were passed in 

 comparing experiences and in consider- 

 ing the best methods of making their 

 stay abroad most useful to their country. 



a women's daily newspaper, edited by 



WOMEN 



Not the least of the agencies which 

 have brought about the new educational 

 movement has been the rapid multiplica- 

 tion of vernacular newspapers in China. 

 An old resident of the country, in com- 

 menting upon this innovation, writes that 

 five years ago a man seen reading a news- 

 paper was ridiculed as a follower of the 

 foreign devils. Now they are published 

 in every important town in the Empire 

 and are widely read by the people. To- 

 day there are ten native daily news- 

 papers published in Peking alone. One 

 of these is a women's daily, edited by 

 women, dealing with foreign and domes- 

 tic news, politics, history, geography, as- 

 tronomy, as well as the training of chil- 

 dren and the care of infants. The in- 

 troduction of women into the body 

 politic is one of the most astonishing 

 features of the present awakening. Our 

 minister in communicating the details 

 of the boycott of American goods last 

 year to the State Department transmitted 

 the fact that one of the largest mass 

 meetings in Shanghai to encourage the 

 boycott was held in the Wupen girls' 

 school, and that it was attended "by a 

 large number of Chinese ladies, both old 

 and 3'oung, who followed with intelli- 

 gent interest the speeches that were made 

 at the meeting." 



REVISING A CODE 2000 YEARS OLD 



The revision which is now going on 

 in the Chinese penal code is one of the 

 most important of the reforms which 

 have been recently instituted, for it tends 

 to the accomplishment of two very de- 

 sirable results — first, the relief of the 

 people from the ancient cruel and bar- 

 barous punishments; and, second, the 

 eventual release of the country from sub- 



jection to the very irritating practice of 

 exterritoriality. 



We are accustomed to look upon the 

 Chinese system of jurisprudence as crude 

 and almost barbaric. The oft-repeated 

 statement of foreign residents that there 

 are no lawyers in the Empire and what 

 we hear of the methods of administering 

 justice confirm us in this opinion. But 

 the .fact is that the Chinese people have 

 enjoyed for very many centuries the 

 benefit of a well-digested code of laws, 

 embracing in large measure the ele- 

 mentary principles of jurisprudence 

 which distinguish the systems of law of 

 the present day. Two thousand years 

 ago the reigning Emperor caused the 

 laws, which had been enforced in the 

 Empire for centuries before, to be codi- 

 fied, and the compilation constituted 

 forty volumes, each volume being de- 

 voted to a specified branch of law. Since 

 then this code has undergone various 

 changes, under different dynasties, but 

 it has remained the fundamental struc- 

 ture of Chinese jurisprudence. 



The code as it now exists was revised 

 and published in 1647, three years after 

 the present Manchu dynasty began its 

 reign. The emperor in his preface to the 

 publication states that a numerous body 

 of magistrates was assembled at the cap- 

 ital to revise and digest the code, by the 

 exclusion or introduction of such matter 

 as "was likely to contribute to the at- 

 tainment of justice and the general per- 

 fection of the work." When prepared, 

 it was submitted to a select number of 

 the great officers of state to carefully 

 examine the whole. "Wherefore," says 

 the emperor, "let it be your great care, 

 officers and magistrates of the interior 

 and exterior departments of our Empire, 

 diligently to observe the same, and to 

 forbear in future to give any decision, or 

 to pass any sentence, according to your 

 private sentiments, or upon your unsup- 

 ported authority. Thus shall the magis- 

 trates and people took up with awe and 

 submission to the justice of these institu- 

 tions, * * * and be equally secured 

 for endless generations in the enjoyment 



