Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/237

 PEIKE FORTE ET DURE the gulf of Pechili in lat. 38 30', Ion. 117 47'. Near the mouth of the river are the villages of Taku and Siku, and a little high- er up Tangku, and in the immediate vicinity are widespread settlements estimated to con- tain 500,000 inhabitants ; but the most impor- tant town on the Pei-tio, and the largest port K". of Shanghai, is Tientsin at the junction of the grand canal, about 70 m. from the sea, and the head of steam navigation. Tungchow, where all the boats land their passengers and cargoes for Peking, is 110 m. higher up, or by the sinuosities of the river 180 m. from Taku. The principal affluent of the Pei-ho is the Hoen-ho. On a small tributary, the Tung- hui, 12 m. from the main stream, is Peking. It is estimated that the river and its affluents drain an area of about 200,000 sq. m. The velocity of the stream, arising from the great altitude of its source, has scoured out a nar- row channel through the deep alluvial plain of Chihli or Pechili, and cut into the substra- tum of clay. For the last 5 m. of its course the plain is little if at all above the level of high water at spring tides, and the river dis- charges itself over an extensive bar formed of tenacious clay, and the distance at low water from a depth of 10 ft. without to 10 ft. within is nearly 4^ m. In the channel leading over the bar there is a depth of 11 ft. at high water ; but at low water there is only 24 in. in most places, and extensive dry mud banks on either hand. Within the bar the channel winds up- ward for about a mile between steep mud banks, which are covered at high water, and render navigation at that time very dangerous. At this distance the banks become covered with reeds, the breadth is about 100 yards, and the current runs from 2 to 3 m. an hour. Forts and earthworks have been erected upon natu- ral or artificial mounds with an altitude of from 10 to 12 ft. at high water, and, from the peculiar configuration of this reach, face and flank it on all sides. In an engagement be- tween English and French gunboats and land forces and the Chinese at the mouth of the Pei-ho, on May 19, 1858, the Chinese were defeated. Another attack was made on the forts, June 25, 1859, chiefly by 11 English gun- boats, manned by 500 men, with 700 marines, when the English were repulsed with a loss of 89 killed and 345 wounded. On Aug. 21, 1860, the attack was renewed with an English and French fleet of 300 sail and a land force of 25,000 men. The Chinese fortifications were captured and destroyed. The English lost 19 killed and 182 wounded; the French, 30 killed and 100 wounded; the Chinese loss was estimated at 3,000. PEINE FORTE ET DURE. Formerly, in Eng- land, when a prisoner indicted for a capital felony or petit treason stood mute, as the phrase was, upon his arraignment, that is, re- fused to plead and so to put himself upon his trial in the mode which the law prescribed, answering either not at all or impertinently to PEIPUS 227 the charge preferred against him, he was con- demned to the punishment of peine forte et dure. It wrought a forfeiture of goods, but no attainder and corruption of blood, and there- fore no escheat of lands. The peine forte et dure was an infliction of extreme severity. The prisoner was carried back to prison, and laid in some low, dark room, almost naked, upon his back ; his body was burdened with very heavy weights; he received once each day a portion of the meanest bread or water, of bread one day and of water the next, and so on alternately ; and thus he continued until he died. In early times, it is supposed, the torture lasted only until the prisoner declared himself willing to plead ; but later, says Haw- kins, he could not save himself, if once the punishment had been ordered. Women were subjected to the same torture. It is matter of dispute how and when peine forte et dure was introduced ; whether it existed at common law, or was created by legislative provision. The statute Westminster the first, c. 3, enacted in the time of Edward I. (and there is DO mention of this penalty before that reign), says that felons standing mute shall be put in prison forte et dure ; and as it does not explain these words at all, it seems to imply that their mean- ing was already familiar in practice. This is the opinion of Sir Edward Coke and Sir Mat- thew Hale, but Blackstone thinks that the punishment had a statutable origin. The pen- alty of peine forte et dure was not abolished until the 12th year of the reign of George III. (1772). It was doubtless for the purpose of extorting a plea and of securing their escheats and forfeitures, that the feudal lords devised this penalty. Generally, no doubt, the device accomplished its end; though there were in- stances of persons who suffered death in this mode in order to preserve their estates to their families. The statute 12 George III., c. 20, prevented further need of this harsh coer- cion, by providing that, if any person thereaf- ter should stand mute on his arraignment, he should be convicted of the felony charged, and judgment and its consequences should follow in the same manner as if such person had been convicted by verdict or confession of the fel- ony charged against him. The only instance, so far as we are aware, in which peine forte et dure has been inflicted in this country, was when in Massachusetts, in 1692, Giles Cory, 80 years old, the husband of a reputed witch, stood mute upon his trial, and was condemned to be pressed to death. PEIPUS, Lake, or Tdmdic Lake, a lake of Euro- pean Russia, bounded by the governments of Esthonia, St. Petersburg, Pskov, and Livonia ; extreme length 90 m., extreme breadth 30 m. ; area about 1,500 sq. m. The southern part is connected with the northern by a strait, and is sometimes called Lake Pskov, the town of that name being situated at its S. E. extrem- ity. There are several small islands at both ends of the strait. Peipus receives the river