Landmarks of Chinese Law.
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well-known hat-button does not indicate the cuit Judge, is a favorite character in Chinese office of the wearer, and the peacock feather tales and plays. Five Tau-tai are placed over is an individual honor. On ordinary occa as many circuits in Kwang-tung province. sions rank is shown by buttons and girdle- Military affairs come into the jurisdiction of clasps. Mandarins from the first to the fifth this official, but not prisons. His duties are class wear a string of beads. A familiar various, including the guardianship of corn feature of the half-dress uniform is the coni stores. The Prefects are in charge of the cal cap with a tassel of red silk or red hair. prisons and act as Sheriffs-General. They The civil and literary mandarins wear the may be found at military stations in large figure of a bird, and the military mandarins towns and in those localities where " outer that of a beast, on the front of their cos barbarians " appear. District Magistrates tumes. The court garment is extremely derive their titles from the names of their plain, in order to afford a marked contrast districts, and combine the offices of magis to the splendid dress of the Emperor. trate, collector of taxes, superintendent of The ruler of the province is generally police and deputy-sheriff. Altogether this known to foreigners as the Viceroy or Gov magistrate is a hard-worked man, obliged ernor-General. He may be compared to the personally to attend to details, even to the Governor of a British colony, and is always a coining of endless money with holes through mandarin of the first class. His lieutenant it. Every month he must submit a report of is practically an associate, for the Viceroy all his cases, criminal and civil, and he is held must consult with him on all important ques blameworthy for every slip 'twixt the cup of tions, and his troops are independent of the people and the lip of the mandarinate in those of his superior. The lieutenant also his district. He must exercise the nicest has the privilege of reporting directly to the care in sending up cases at the proper Emperor. The Chinese of Kwang-tung prov moment. If he should allow rebellion to ince distinguish the duties of the two men succeed, he would be degraded two steps, by saying that the Governor controls rivers and cashiered, the Tau-tai degraded one step, and the sea, the lieutenant the land. The and so on all the way up the ranks. The Superintendent of Finance is a third manda poor District Magistrate is thus placed in the rin whose authority extends over the whole unusual position of fearing lest he ruin by his province. The land tax comes into his hands, own downfall his superiors rather than his in and it is he who pays the officials. He must feriors in office. The Township Magistrate not be confused, however, with the Treasurer, is a Justice of the Peace, with powers to inwho is much lower in the scale. In criminal . i flict corporal punishment for minor offences, cases the Provincial Judge is the highest ju and large powers of arrest. Sometimes he is dicial authority in the province. He is ex appointed Inquisitor. The Inspector of Po pected to quell uprisings against the Govern lice has the immediate care of the jails and ment, and the issue of death warrants is prisons of the District Magistrate. Secre among his duties. The Collector of the Salt taries, Treasurers and Prison Masters are Gabel also superintends the sale of native assistants to upper class mandarins. The iron. He is assisted by a corps of subaltern Superintendent of Customs in Kwang-tung mandarins. The Grain Collector, the lowest is sent direct from Peking and brings down mandarin having general powers, is a kind of upon himself the scornful words of his victims Commissary General. The Tau-tai, or Cir (well-travelled Americans will sympathize):
