vice and the free distribution of all kinds of
medicine--all this is entirely incomprehensible to the narrow mind of
the calculating native. Their observations have been confined to
the characters and habits of thought which distinguish their
fellow-countrymen, and with the result above-mentioned; of the
European mind they know absolutely nothing.

As regards the evidence of Chinese taken in a foreign court of
justice, the first difficulty consists generally in swearing the
witnesses. Old books on China, which told great lies without much
danger of conviction, mention cock-killing and saucer-breaking as
among the most binding forms of Chinese oaths. The common formula,
however, which we consider should be adopted in preference to any
hybrid expression invented for the occasion, is an invocation to
heaven and earth to listen to the statements about to be made, and to
punish the witness for any deviation from the truth. This is sensible
enough, and is moreover not without weight among a superstitious
people like the Chinese. The witness then expects the magistrate to
ask him the name of his native district, his own name, his age, the
age of his father and mother (if alive), the maiden name of his wife,
her age, the number and the ages of his children, and many more
questions of similar relevancy and importance, before a single effort
is made towards eliciting any one fact bearing upon the subject under
investigation. With a stereotyped people like the Chinese, it does not
do to ignore these trifles of form and custom; on the contrary, the
witness should rather be allowed to wander at will through such
useless details until he has collected his scattered thoughts, and may
be safely coaxed on to divulge something which partakes more of the
nature of evidence. Under proper treatment, a Chinese witness is by no
means doggedly stubborn or doltishly stupid; he may be either or both
if he has previously been tampered with by native officials, but even
then it is not absolutely impossible to defeat his dishonesty.
Occasionally a question will be put by a foreigner to an
unsophisticated boor, never dreamt of in the philosophy of the latter,
and such as would never have fallen from the lips of one of his own
officials; the answers given under such circumstances are usually
unique of their kind. We know of an instance where a boatman was
asked, in reference to a collision case, at what rate he thought the
tide was running. The witn