Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/161

Rh property. This severe and sanguinary law is indicative of the fears entertained, by the rulers, of assassination and rebellion. Under an absolute despotism, however, it is the best dictate of policy; and where the people are deprived of the privilege of thinking and speaking for themselves, nothing less than the terror of such a law will ensure the safety of the sovereign. All those who enter into the service of a foreign state, who aim by the practice of magic to bewitch the people, who sacrilegiously abstract the implements used in the public sacrifices, or who steal the imperial signet, shall be indiscriminately beheaded. All the above offences are included under the head of theft, in the Chinese code, because they reckon all those to be thieves, who oppose the established government, or who attempt to invade either the honour, authority, or personal security of the reigning monarch.

Stealing in general is punished by blows; but above a certain amount (£40.), by strangulation. Kidnapping persons, and selling them for slaves, is punished with blows and banishment. The disturbing of graves, is visited with the same infliction; and whoever mutilates, or throws away the unburied corpse of an elder relative shall be beheaded. With regard to murder and homicide, the Chinese are very strict and particular. Preconcerted homicide, is punishable by death. Killing in a fray, or sport, is denounced as murder; while homicide that is purely accidental, is redeemable by the payment of a fine. All those who cause the death of others by poison, magic, or terror, shall suffer death themselves; and all medical practitioners, who kill their patients, through ignorance of the established rules of practice, shall be fined, and prevented from