The judicial torture of China., July, 1880

The judicial torture of China.

The want of an abridged record of the proceedings of the “mixed court” of the foreign settlement of Shanghai, as reported in the Supreme Court and Consular Gazette, leaves something to be done in the collation and publication of some cases which, during the year 1879, have been adjudicated upon in a manner assimilating to the Chinese so closely as to create the apprehension that the foreign consuls yield to a pernicious influence. This memorandum has, therefore, been prepared and is circulated for general information.

As to the sentences of the court. Those in excess of one hundred blows are, according to the Chinese code, illegal; the punishment of the cangue, or huge wooden collar, is a torture; beating on the face is a mutilation; the most severe is the remission of persons convicted of capital and heinous crimes to be judged, tortured during examination, and imprisoned by the higher court of the district magistrate in the native city. This remission is not the ordinary “extradition” provided for in the treaty of Tientsin, Article XXI; the criminal is not demanded by the city authorities; the rendition is a matter of convenience.

These matters demand rectification. The association of the foreign consul with the Chinese mandarin is a point of contact capable of being made the inlet for that regard for humanity common to civilization—the base of all the humanities.

Japan has abolished judicial torture. Turkey no longer legalizes the mutilation of offenders. China has yet to gain a good name by repressing the cruelty which is the marked characteristic of her judicial system.