in the same way.  Two slits were made transversely on the breast, and the heart was torn out; decapitation finished the proceedings.  Now, a slight gash only is made across each collar-bone, and three gashes across the breast in the shape of the character meaning one thousand, and indicative of the number of strokes the criminal ought properly to have received.  Decapitation then follows without delay.  The absurd statement in the Shanghai Daily News of the 16th January last, that this punishment “is the most frightful inflicted, even in any of the darkest habitations of cruelty, at the present day,” is utterly unworthy of that respectable journal, but only of a piece with the general ignorance that prevails among foreigners generally on topics connected with China and the Chinese.  At the same time, it may fairly be pleaded that the error in question was due to disingenuousness on the part of the translator from the Peking Gazette who, mentioning that such a sentence had been lately passed upon two unhappy beings, adds that, “they have been publicly sliced to death accordingly, with the usual formalities,”—­which certainly might lead a mere outsider to conclude that the horrible decree had actually been put into execution.  We may notice in passing that this so-called “lingering death” is now almost invariably coupled with the name of some poor lunatic who in a frenzy of passion has killed either father or mother, sometimes both.  Vide Peking Gazette, two or three times every year.  This is one of those pleasant fictions of Chinese official life, which every one knows and every one winks at.  In nine cases out of ten, the unhappy criminal is not mad at all; but he is always entered as such in the report of the committing magistrate, who would otherwise himself be exposed to censure and degradation for not having brought his district to estimate at their right value the five[*] cardinal relationships of mankind.

    [*] Between, (1) sovereign and subject, (2) husband and wife, (3)
    parent and child, (4) brothers, and (5) friends.

Under the present dynasty the use of torture is comparatively rare, and mutilation of the person quite unknown.  Criminals are often thrust into filthy dungeons of the most revolting description, and are there further secured by a chain; but except in very flagrant cases, ankle-beating and finger-squeezing, to say nothing of kneeling on chains and hanging up by the ears, belong rather to the past than to the present.  The wife and children of a rebel chief may pass their days in peace and quietness; innocent people are no longer made to suffer with the guilty.  A criminal under sentence of death for any crime except rebellion may save his life and be released from further punishment, if he can prove that an aged parent depends upon him for the necessaries of daily existence.  The heavy bamboo, under the infliction of which sufferers not uncommonly died, has given place to the lighter instrument