elations in the second degree, the punishment shall
be 80 blows. If in the third degree, 70 blows. If in the fourth
degree, 60 blows." "The master or the relations of a master of a
guilty slave may ... chastise such slave in any degree short of
death, without being liable to punishment. Nevertheless, if
a master or his aforesaid relations, in order to correct a
disobedient slave or hired servant, should chastise him in a
lawful manner on the back of the thighs or on the posteriors, and
such slave or hired servant should happen to die, or if he is
killed in any other manner accidentally, neither the master nor
his aforesaid relations shall be liable to any punishment in
consequence thereof."

"All slaves who are guilty of designedly striking their masters
shall, without making any distinctions between principals and
accessories, be beheaded.

"All slaves designedly killing their masters, or designedly
striking so as to kill their masters, shall suffer death by a slow
and painful execution.

"If accidentally killing their masters, they shall suffer death by
being strangled.

"If accidentally wounding, they shall suffer 100 blows and
perpetual banishment to the distance of 3,000 li (1,000 miles).

"Slaves who are guilty of striking their master's relations in the
first degree ... shall be strangled.... All slaves who strike so
as to wound such persons shall ... be beheaded."

The "painful execution" which is the penalty of killing a master,
means execution by slicing the criminal into 10,000 cuts. Foreigners
who have witnessed it say it is too horrible to recite.

It is under such slave laws as these that the young girl is trained
as a brothel slave before she is brought to California. After such
tuition, it seems hardly credible that girls do, in San Francisco,
dare to escape from their masters, and flee to the missions for
protection. Governor C.C. Smith, who was for years the Registrar
General of Hong Kong, previous to being knighted and sent to Singapore
as Governor of the Straits Settlements, replied to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies, in reference to the freedom of prostitutes,
"out of an experience of over a quarter of a century":

"There are no restrictive regulations on the part of the
Government which go to prevent or interfere with the entire
freedom of the inmates of brothels, and they c