CHINESE CURIOSITIES.

Kumara Times, Issue 1051, 12 February 1880, Page 4

CHINESE CURIOSITIES.

[fall mall budget.] If English barristers, following the precedent sent in the recent Wushih Shan case, should take to practising in Chinese law courts, they will not only have to throw on one side many complex theories of justice in order to reach those strange laws of equity suited to the ideas of Chinamen, but they will also have to discard their accepted belief in the motives which guide the lives and sway the actions of their fellowmen. The old saying that “ Coelum non anitnum mutant qui trans mare currunt” ceases to hold good when applied to China. That which most men value most highly is but lightly esteemed among - the Celestials, and contrarwise their most cherished traditions are to us of little moment. To secure the comfort of their families or the gratification of their hate, and in some oases the furtherance of justice, men are found who willingly offer up their lives to gain their ends. A wealthy criminal condemned for a capital offence finds no difficulty in purchasing, with the consent of his judge, a substitute by paying an agreed-upon sum to the family of the vicarious victim. It was commonly believed that the men who were executed for participation in the Tientsin massacre played the part of the culprits at the block that their relations might enjoy their ease for the rest of their lives. And it is not an uncommon thing for a man to commit suicide at the threshold of his enemy’s house in order to involve him in a charge of murder. But, strange as these instances appear there lately occurred a case in the neighborhood of Soochow which is even more inoomprehensble. At a place called Ts’ung-ming, two neighbors had for some time lived at enmity, and had resorted to every means in their power to vex and injure each other. At last it occurred to the .mote inventive of the two that if he could persuade his own father to commit suicide he migh charge his enemy before the tnandarin with having so persecuted the old. man a?, to have driven him to destroy himself. The grotesqueness of the idea was only equalled by the success that it with. To the proposal—how made We are not told—the old man assented, and in due course “shuffled off this mortal coil,” leaving the stage clear for the second act. The next scene opens in the magistrate’s court, where the orphan charges his enemy with the constructive murder of his father. So far everything went smoothly for the intriguer; but, unfortunately for him, in the trial which followed the accused was able to produce evidence which placed the whole matter in its true light. Then followed a reversal of positions, and the orphan took his place in the dock on the doable charge of having persuaded his father to commit suicide and of having brought an unfounded charge against an innocent man. Matters had been already made so plain that there was no need of a lobg trial, and the. self-made orphan now lies under a richly deserved sentence of death in the Soochow gaol. We are all familiar with the Enstern story of a man who, having long striven in vain to redress certain public wrongs, committed suicide, leaving open on the table by his side a last appeal to his Sovereign’s sense of justice in words which were surrounded with all the solemnity attaching to the last dying utterances of a patriot. Such a story up to this point finds an exact parallel in an event which has recently caused some stir in Pekin. This story, however, always ends by the Sovereign being so deeply convinced by the words of the suicide that he instantly gives directions for the redress of the wrong and for the punishment of the wrong-doer. Here unfortunately, the story in ; real life deserts its prototype, and the latest accounts tell us that the death of the patriotic censor Wo Ku-tu has been in vain. Among the generals serving in the recent camyaign' in Central Asia was Ch’lng Lu, the commandant of Urumtsi, and. a relative by marriage of the Imperial family. Being of a truculent disposition, and feeling secure by reason of his connections from any inconvenient consequences of his acts, he administered the affairs of this district with a rule which knew neither justice nor mercy. On one occasion he demanded supplies for his troops from the inhabitants of a neighboring village and because they of their poverty were unable to comply with his requisition he marched a detachment against them, aiid massacred every man, woman, and child in the place. Though efforts were made to conceal this outrage the case was too flagrant to be entirely suppressed, and at last it reached the ears of among others a young censor at Peking; named Wu Kp-tu, who was a native of the desolated village. Deeply impressed with the wrongs of his followtownsmen, Wu penned an impassioned memorial ; to the Throne, denouncing Ch’rag Lu and demanding his impeachment. The case became so notorious that notwithstanding the lofty postion of the Recused, he was ordered to Peking to await - hia trial. Meanwhile, as the presence of Wu would have made it diffi- , cult for the authorities to hoodwink the public by. a form of trial, he was charged with having used intemperate language in his memorial to the Throne, and was sentenced to.be degraded from his office. Thus: baffled for the time he retired to his native province, where he remained until he lately received an inferior appointment in'a Government office in Peking. On his return to the capital, finding that Ch’eng Lu was still untried, he again devoted himself to the task of forcing the Gpvernment to bring the criminal to the bar. But the protective influences which hedged in the culprit were too strong for

him, and as a last resource he determined to make one final appeal to justice, and to lay down his life as a protest against the iniquities of the time. In order to give greater publicity to the act, he choose for the scene of his death a temple by the side of the road along which the Emperor and Court were escorting the body of the late Emperor Tung-chih to the Imperial tombs. As the cortege reached the spot the poison completed its work, leaving the ink barely dry on the page on which the dead man’s words cried aloud for justice. With characteristic indifference to public opinion the Government published this indictment against itself in the Peking Gazette, and with more than usual cynicism attributed Wu’s suicide to his grief at the sight of the funeral of his late Sovereign. By latest accounts Ch’eng Lu still remains unpunished, and the blood of his victims unavenged.