LANDMARKS OF CHINESE LAW. III. Bv Vincent Van Marter Beede. TWELVE of the two dozen criminal cases of Lan Lu-chow, the literary represent ative of the present dynasty, have been translated ' by Herbert A. Giles, M.A., LL.D., professor of Chinese in Cambridge University. Lan was a distinguished and upright magistrate. After making enemies by reason of his very goodness, he was wrong fully cashiered and imprisoned. It was not long, however, before the Emperor heard of the unusual fineness of the man and made him a Prefect at Canton, but the disgrace of the charge had broken his heart, and he died at fifty-three, only a month after entering upon his new duties. The case styled " The Three Body-Snatchers " is as unaffectedly amusing as any. The following narrative is an abridgment from Giles : In 1727 (said Li) I was petitioned by one Wang in the matter of the death by poison of his second cousin, Ahsiung. Ahsiung's mother had married again, becoming, the second time, the concubine of one Chen, who lived in another village. Wang sus pected that Chen's wife had poisoned the son of the new concubine out of jealous hatred of her and hers. Ahsiung was found with fingers drawn up and lips of a livid hue. Wang filed the usual bond. I went to hold the inquest the next morning, but found no corpse; whereupon Wang loudly accused Chen of making away with the body to pro tect his wife. Chen and his family had nothing to say, and I learned from a physi cian that Ahsiung had been sick with dysen tery for two months. Moreover, Chen's wife was suffering from a severe dropsy, and seemed quite incapable of poisoning any one. ' Historic China, ami other Sketches.
A dozen witnesses were questioned in vain as to the whereabouts of the corpse. I be gan to suspect that Wang himself had re moved it. Ahsiung's mother declared that Wang had not entered her house on the day that the boy was murdered. The next day Wang had visited a girl cousin of his. Had she a son? Yes, a boy of fifteen, who testified that Wang had asked him whether Ahsiung had been buried, and that he had told, Ahsiung the location of the grave, on the hills. At this I cried: "The body has been stolen by Wang!" Under the torture of finger-squeezing Wang confessed that he had hired a beggar to open the grave at dead of night. But since he evaded my further questions as to where the body was concealed, and who was his legal adviser, I sentenced him to thirty blows, and to the cangue in the district city. I released Chen and his family and all other persons implicated in the prosecution. The several thousand spectators shouted gladly in the belief that the case was at an end. I had not gone more than a furlong when I in structed one of my runners to lay aside his uniform and hurry to an inn at the East gate of the city, where he was to inquire how long Wang had stayed in the house, and if he found any one in the room he had occu pied, to arrest that person. The latter proved to be a pettifogger named Wang Chuo-ting. This man swore that he was not even acquainted with Wang Shi-hi. I then remembered that to the charge filed were also signed the names of the man who had drafted it and of the guarantor of good faith. From them I learned that the pettifogger had been among the party. I handed him a
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