Page:Inside Canton.djvu/76

Rh night, and the watchman who keeps guard over their tranquillity may frequently sleep all night without being disturbed. This requires explanation. Immediately night has closed in, the entrance of each street is secured by a gate, and every citizen who leaves his house is bound to carry, or have carried before him, a lantern, with his name written on it. When any one wants to pass from one quarter to another, his name is entered in a register at every street through which he passes. The next day, if any offence has been committed, all the strangers, who have passed by the scene of the crime the previous night, are hunted up, but if they can give an account of their actions they are not molested. In this case, notice is given to the inhabitants of the district, that they have to discover the culprit. If they do not succeed, they all pay a fine proportioned to their fortune, in order to indemnity the persons wronged.

Thus we see that, by this system, all the citizens are interested in preventing crime; consequently, they pay for watchmen, for the light that burns at the entrance to each street, and the look-out men, at certain distances, upon bamboo scaffoldings, to discover any fires. These men correspond with each other by means of signals, which appear to be borrowed from Sudre's system; it is by means of gongs that they transmit their discoveries to each F 2