while a parent, chastising' a disobedient child, so as to cause death, shall be punished with one hundred blows. This distinction between the claims of the superior and inferior relatives, is in unison with the system which they have adopted, of raising rulers and parents to the ranks of gods, and of depressing subjects and children to the level of slaves or brute animals. The policy, however, of these enactments, considering their design, will be easily seen.
Magistrates are forbidden to receive presents of any kind, except eatables, from the people, under the penalty of forty blows. Police officers, neglecting to apprehend offenders, are to be subjected to the bamboo. In judicial examinations, torture is not to be employed with respect to the eight privileged classes; and persons under the age of fifteen or above seventy, as well as those suffering under any bodily infirmity, are exempted; but in all other cases it is allowed and practised. This enactment goes upon the principle of not allowing offenders to be punished, until they acknowledge the fact of which they are accused, the justice of the sentence pronounced against them, and the parental kindness of the ruler in thus inflicting the necessary chastisement. Considering also the utter dereliction of truth, and the consequent want of confidence among the Chinese, the policy of this regulation, whatever may be the justice of it, will be acknowledged.
The laws relative to public works provide, that granaries should be built in every province, supplied with a sufficient store of rice, for the sustenance of the people in time of scarcity; which, being sold at a reduced rate, keeps down the price of grain, and brings the necessaries of life within the reach of the indigent.
