ith
rods--a favourite punishment, in which there is a way to alleviate
the blows. Slicing, branding, and other horrible punishments with
torture to extort confessions have been forbidden by imperial decree.
Conscious of the contempt excited by such barbarities, and desirous
of removing an obstacle to admission to the comity of nations, the
Government has undertaken to revise its penal code. Wu-ting-fang,
so well known as minister at Washington, has borne a chief part in
this honourable task. The code is not yet published; but magistrates
are required to act on its general principles. When completed it will
no doubt provide for a jury, a thing hitherto unknown in China.
The commissioners on legal reform have already sent up a memorial,
explaining the functions of a jury; and, to render its adoption
palatable, they declare that it is an ancient institution, having
been in use in China three thousand years ago. They leave the Throne
to infer that Westerners borrowed it from China.

The fact is that each magistrate is a petty tyrant, embodying in
his person the functions of local governor,
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judge, and jury, though there are limits to his discretion and
room for appeal or complaint. It is to be hoped that lawyers and
legal education will find a place in the administration of justice.

Formerly clinging to a foreign flagstaff, the editor of a Chinese
journal cautiously hinted the need for some kinds of reform. Within
this _lustrum mirabile_ the daily press has taken the Empire
by storm. Some twenty or more journals have sprung up under the
shadow of the throne, and they are not gagged. They go to the length
of their tether in discussing affairs of state--notwithstanding
cautionary hints. Refraining from open attack, they indulge in
covert criticism of the Government and its agents.

Social reforms open to ambitious editors a wide field and make amends
for exclusion from the political arena. One of the most influential
recently deplored the want of vitality in the old religions of
the country, and, regarding their reformation as hopeless, openly
advocated the adoption of Christianity. To be independent of the
foreigner it must, he said, be made a state church, with one of
the princes for a figurehead, if not for pilot.

Another deals with the subject of marriage. Many improvements,
he says, are to be made in the legal status of woman. The total
abolition of polygamy might be premature; but that is to be kept
i