Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/581

* HANG-CHOW. 521 HANGING. Tatars under his coiiunaiul. The streets are toler- ably wiae and clean, and theie are many good shops. The principal street which runs from north to south is four miles long. The western wall is washed by the famous Hsihu or West Lake, the chief attraction of the city. It is a beautiful sheet of water about ciglit miles in ' circtinifcrence. dotted with islands on which are built monasteries, memorial balls, and slirines. On its western side is an abrupt but magniticent range of hills. A little farther to the west are numerous finely situated Buddliist temples to which tens of thousands of pilgrims repair daily. Hang-ehow has long been noted for its magniti- eenee. its wealtli, and its luxury. Marco Polo visited it several times toward the close of the tliirteentb century, and describes it as 100 miles in circuit, and gives the number of its bridges as 12.000. all of them of stone. The name he gives it is Kinsai/, a corruption of Chinese Kingsze, meaning "capital' or "metropolis,' Hang-chow hav- ing become in 1127 the capital of the Sung djiiasty when the Kin Tatars conquered the northern provinces. In December, 1806. Hang-chow was opened to foreign residence and trade in accordance with a treaty made at Shimonoseki between the Chinese and .Japanese in the spring of the pre- ceding year. A foreign settlement containing 1809 mou or Chinese acres, or about 300 English acres, has been laid off on the east bank of the firand Canal about 10 li {3}'^ English miles) from the Wun-li Gate. It is described as low and marshy, and infested with mosquitoes. Com- numication with the city can be maintained by small canals leading from the Grand Canal. Hang-chow is noted for its silk. Here is the Imperial silk-factory in which are woven the bcaiitiful silk fabrics for the use of the Imperial household, and there are about 7000 private looms giving employment to about 30.000 per- sons. There is also a cotton-spinning mill with 1.5,000 spindles. Hang-chow is noted for its fans. and fan-making is an important industry. It has no direct foreign trade, all produce of native origin finding its way to Shanghai by the canal or coastwise, and foreign goods come in in the eame way. The expoi-ts consist chiefly of silk, paper fans, lotus-niits. and tea; and the imports of co])per and sjjelter from .Japan for use in the mint. :ind of native produce, of brass buttons, leather, and tobacco. In 1890 the gross trade of the city passing through the custom-house amounted to 12,000.000 taels. The. Ts'ientang Eiver and the Grand Canal are the chief arteries of inland trade. The former is navigable at all seasons, but unfortunately is tortuous and shal- low, and at certain seasons of the year is subject to an 'eagre' or "bore' which rises to a height of 15 feet, and has a velocity of 1.5 miles an hour. Further it is not connected with the Grand Canal, some miles distant, and the transfer of goods and passengers is very slow. . troublesome, and expensive. There are 400 houses engaged in the steam-launch transportation business on the canal. and the journey to Shanghai may be made in from 20 to 24 hours. The seaport of Hang-chow is Chapu. 20 miles lower down the river. The population of the city proper is estimated at .500.000. but the subi;rbs. which are properly in- cluded in the name Hang-chow, are densely popu- lated, and the whole may be set down as SOO.- 000. On December 29. IStil. Hang-ehow was cap- tured by the Tai-ping rebels after a protracted siege in which it sutl'ered nuich. BiiiLioGK.i>iiY. Mriicu Polo, edited by Yule (2 vols.. London. 1874) : Sotes on Hdiigdiou; by G. E. Aloule (1889): and Scidniorc, China, the Lomj-Uvcd Empire (New York, 1900). HANG'EB, George (c.1751-1824). An Eng- lish soldier and military writer, fourth Baron C'oleraine. After completing his education at Eton and Gijttingen, lie entered the army as a guardsman, but was afterwards captain in the Hessian force sent to America during the Kevo- lutionary Wai". By 1782 he was major of a Brit- ish dragoon regiment which was disbanded at the peace, and as Hanger found be could not live upon lialf pay, he spent nearly a year in a debtors' prison until his retiring allowance was doubled. He set himself up as a jirophet. fore- told the Civil War in America, and was a well- known man about town in London, intimate with the Prince Regent, and noted for his eccentric vulgarity even more than for his published works: An Address to the Army in Reply to Strictures hy Roderick McKenzie on Tiirletoti's History of the Campaigns of 1780 and ITSl ( 1789) ; Aaticipalicm of the Freedom of lirahant (1792) ; Military Reflections on the Attacic and Defense of the City of London (1795) ; and The Life, Adventures, and Opinions of Colonel (leorge Hanger (2 vols., 1801). HANG FIRE. When the powder-charge of a gun fails to explode prompt!}' upon being ignited it is said to hang fire. It is due to a variety of causes, such as moisture, insufficient priming charge, etc., and is a prolific cause of accidents with modern breech-loading guns. Smokeless gunpowder is not easy to ignite, and the small priming charge of black powder sometimes fails to give out a sufficient burst of flame, in which case only a small portion of the charge takes fire, and the burning may last several seconds before the charge explodes. When several guns are being fired the man who operates the breech may think his own has gone oif and o])en the breech while the powder is still burning. If the gun is of large size premature opening of the breech may cause the death or serious injury of every one in the vicinity. See Gi'N.s, Nav.l. HANGING. The common-law mode of inflict- ing capital punishment. The sentence pro- nounced by the court indicates the method of execution, viz. that the convict "be banged by the neck until lie is dead." The time :ind jilace of the execution are also, within statnt(u'y limits, fixed by the sentence. In England, formerl.y. in atrocious cases, it was usual for the c-jurt to direct a murderer to be hung upon a gibbet in chains near the place where the crime was com- mitted — also at a later period to order the body to be dissected — and the execution to take place on the next day but one after the sentence was passed. But these useless severities were abolished by the statute 6 and 7 Will. IV.. c. ."iO. The mode of punishment by hanging was first adopted in England in 1241. when Afaurice. a nobleman's son. was hanged for jiiracy. Other Tuore barbarous modes of inflicting death were long in us^, but have been abolished, and hanging has long been the ordinary, lieeause the most humane, mode of executing capital punishment, in the Ignited States as well as Great Britain.