De Lano to William H. Seward, August 9, 1879

Mr. De Lano to Mr. Seward.

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your dispatch No. 80, of date July 26, making inquiry in regard to the practice at this consulate in civil cases arising between the Chinese and our people, and I proceed to answer your questions in order as they appear in your dispatch.

• —They are tried by the officer of the defendant.
• —Usually the district magistrate.
• —They are not.
• —He does not, but usually makes up a brief of the case for plaintiff and states what testimony can be produced in support of it. In point of fact the proceedings are irregular and partake very little of the nature of judicial proceedings.
• —The interpreter is sometimes sent to watch proceedings, and is given a seat next the magistrate’s.
• —The only record kept on the side of the plaintiff appears in the Record of Official Correspondence. A record of the proceedings of the court is made by the Chinese Hsii pans.
• —Have never yet had a case of sufficient importance to require the presence of the native assistant of the interpreter.
• —It is made in Chinese, and a copy of it is given to the consul, if he requires it. The only certification is the seal of the magistrate.
• —Usually to the prefects, but the consul may, if he chooses, take the case to a higher court; the intendants or the neatais, but if to the latter, application would be made to the governor or governor-general to have such officer deputed to try the case on appeal.
• —There is no mixed court at this port.
• —Answered. See J.
• —Answered. See J.
• —Answered. See J.
• —Judgments are enforced by imprisonments or other punishments, such as flogging or torture, but if payments are actually enforced it is usually absorbed wholly or in part by the mandarins and their underlings. I have never yet known of a judgment being paid in full to a foreign plaintiff.
• —Answered. See J.
• —Practice is the same in all the consulates, as far as I know. Trials in the consular courts are preferred by foreign defendants, and would be also by most native defendants if it were practicable. Foreign plaintiffs would greatly prefer to have their cases tried in a mixed court if one existed here.
• —I have been an advocate of mixed courts, and have often suggested the organization of one here. The proposition has been favorably met by the more enlightened officials, and others have strongly opposed it. I am not advised as to the views of other consuls on the subject. The great distance of the foreign settlement from the city might be urged as an objection to the establishment of such a court.

At the trial of important cases in the court of this consulate, the presence of some intelligent native official is often solicited, but the Chinese officers are very averse to the presence of foreigners in their courts. In fact, I have been obliged to make emphatic demands, based upon treaty stipulations, on occasions, before gaining their assent to the presence of the interpreter in their courts.

If a mixed court could be established here for the trial of causes in which natives are defendants, leaving it optional with native plaintiffs to avail of such court, or bring their suits in the consular courts, as they might elect, the ends of justice might be more easily attained, but it is not likely that such an arrangement would be acceptable to the Chinese authorities.

I have, &c.