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LANDMARKS OF CHINESE LAW. I. By Vincent Van Marter Beede. ON HIGHWAYMEN. The rainy mist sweeps gently o'er the village by the stream, When from the leafy forest glades the brigand dag gers gleam. . . . And yet there is no need to fear or step from out their way, For more than half the world consists of bigger rogues than they! Li She; ' 9th cent. A.D. IN China there is a Bench of an extraordi narily hard and unyielding fibre — but no Bar (to speak of) — and no jury. That such a condition as this should have existed in the vast territory of Tsin from an Unthinkable Then to a Certain Now, is a thing to wonder over. There are a great many people in China — about 399,680,000 of them — all children, in the full sense of the word, of their Sire the Emperor, Son of Heaven, Brother of the Sun and Moon, Grandson of the Stars, Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the Imperial Su preme, and what not. The unit of Chinese government, as Sir Henry Staunton has wisely pointed out, is the family, and every province, department, district and commu nity is itself a household. Williams2 ascribes the wonderful efficiency of the Government to the ancient rule of Yan and Shun,— a strictly patriarchal chieftainship conferred on account of excellent character,— and to the widespread belief that the succession of Yu, of the II in dynasty, were considered as de riving power from heaven. "When Chingtang, founder of the Shing dynasty, B.C. 1 This famous poet (Li Shel. having been caught by brigands, was ordered to give a specimen of his art. The impromptu in the text earned his immediate release. Chinese Poetry in English Verse, by Herbert A. Giles. ' The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams.

1766, and Wuwang of the Chan, B.C. 11 22, took up arms against the sovereigns, the ex cuse given was that they had not fulfilled the decrees of Heaven and had thereby forfeited their claim to the throne. Confucius upheld these doctrines, but it was not till two or three centuries after his death that kings be gan to see the wisdom of his views." 3 Wise those views may have been, but China is pagan and despotic, and pagan and despotic are her laws! " Mutual responsibility among all classes"— Williams' great phrase — is the secret of power in the carrying out of Chinese law. Government rank is minutely graded; officials watch each other with feline perspi cuity, lest they lose their jobs; relatives know that if the black sheep does wrong and jumps the fence they must suffer for his sweet sake; secret societies murder erring members with painstaking unobtrusiveness, and no one dares to lead a rebellion. The Government is a thing by itself, seemingly existing for itself. The Emperor, notwith standing his vicegerent heavenliness, is ex pected to obey the laws of his Fathers, which Li founded two thousand years ago. Those mores maiorum are everything. There have been few changes in " fundamental and social principles " since " The Ritual of Chan," by Chan Kung, and Confucius' " Record of Rites." One's parents and one's brother are always the first consideration. Staunton holds the theory that the movement of the progressive societies of the world has hitherto been a movement from status to contract, but that China has not yet emerged from status; in proof of which he designates the existence in China of the patrice potestas, 3 The Middle Kingdom.