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The National Geographic Magazine 



improving the condition of the prisons. 

 The edict concludes with these words : 



"Let each official be diligent in seeking 

 the welfare of the people, and give ear- 

 nest attention to the settlement of litiga- 

 tion, and so fulfill the purpose of the 

 throne to have compassion upon the lowly 

 and to lighten their punishments."* 



The foregoing has been a somewhat 

 gruesome narrative, but I have thought 

 the recital necessary in order to show 

 what a notable advance the Chinese gov- 

 ernment has made within the past two 

 years in the criminal procedure of its 

 courts. And yet it does not become us 

 to be too severe upon these Orientals for 

 the backward state of their methods of 

 punishment, for it has not been many 

 generations since the Christian nations 

 emerged from a similar regime. William 

 of Orange, the heroic defender of the 

 Protestant faith, the ruler of one of the 

 most enlightened and humane nations of 

 modern times, was assassinated by a re- 

 ligious fanatic. Listen to the punish- 

 ment inflicted by a judicial tribunal upon 

 the murderer: He was condemned to 

 have his right hand pressed in a case of 

 red-hot iron; his arms, legs, and thighs 

 torn with hot pincers ; his chest cut open, 

 his heart torn out and thrown in his face ; 

 the head severed from the body and stuck 

 on a pike; the body quartered and each 

 part placed over a gate of the city. 

 Within a century, in England and 

 America capital punishment was inflicted 

 for a much longer list of and much less 

 serious offenses than in China. Within 

 the memory of many who hear me to- 

 night imprisonment for debt was enforced 

 in the United States. Happily for man- 

 kind the world around, we are living 

 today in a better age, and China is seek- 

 ing to take her place among the humane 

 nations of the earth. 



CHINA PLANS TO MAKE ITS COURTS 

 SUITED TO FOREIGNERS 



The other motive which has impelled 

 the imperial government to this reform 



*For edicts and notes thereon, see U. S. 

 Foreign Relations, 1905, p. 176. 



has been to place it more speedily in a 

 position to follow the example of Japan 

 and demand release from the exterri- 

 torial regime. Under this practice, as 

 is well known, foreigners who by their 

 acts in China subject themselves to crim- 

 inal or civil litigation must have their 

 cases tried before their own consul, as 

 they are exempt from the jurisdiction of 

 the Chinese courts. Besides, in all the 

 important ports a foreign settlement is 

 established with metes and bounds^ 

 within which Chinese sovereignty is not 

 exercised as against the foreign munici- 

 pality. 



This is a condition which is very hu- 

 miliating to Chinese pride and a source 

 of much discontent, but it is a condition 

 which must continue until the system of 

 jurisprudence of the Empire is brought 

 more nearly into harmony with that of 

 the western nations, and its courts are so 

 purified as to make it safe for foreigners 

 to be subjected to their jurisdiction, with 

 an assurance that justice will be admin- 

 istered fairly and free from corrupting 

 influences. A long step has been taken 

 in the direction of enfranchisement by 

 the reforms which I have noted in the 

 criminal procedure, but much still re- 

 mains to be done. Japan had to wait for 

 ten years, after it had entirely reformed 

 its code so as to conform to the western 

 system of laws and had completely reor- 

 ganized its judiciary system, before the 

 nations with which it had treaties con- 

 sented to the abolition of the exterri- 

 torial regime. 



THE NEW ARMY 



For many generations China has been 

 the least warlike of any of the great na- 

 tions. Her most venerated philosopher 

 and statesman, Confucius, taught its 

 people that nations as well as individuals 

 should settle their differences by appeals 

 to right and justice. Consequently the 

 soldier has occupied a low place in the 

 social and political organization of the 

 country. The tiller of the soil and the 

 industrial classes have been preferred 

 before him. But in the last century of 



