In the beginning of 1644, a new board was created to look after the interests and affairs of the Chinese; and consisted of two members. A Board of Works in connexion with the Chinese portion of the army was composed of an officer from each banner. An additional dasiadsu was elected for each of the three secretariats.

Another wang, the Soo chin-wang, Howgua was accused of traitorous speech, which was found proven. He was first watched, then liberated, but degraded to the ranks of the common people.

In May, the degraded dasiadsu Fan Wunchung addressed a memorial to the guardian wangs, stating that if they wished to establish a reputation and secure an inheritance, the enormous proportions which robbery had assumed all over China made it an easy matter; while delay or inaction now would cause endless regrets hereafter; and recommending that a village be strongly fortified as a halting place for troops passing to and from the Chinese capital.

Dworgwun ordered the march of two thirds of all the Manjow and Mongol soldiers, with the Chinese army under the three wangs. They got to the Liao river, when they heard that the Ming emperor* and empress had hanged themselves, and that Li Dsuchung had proclaimed himself emperor, taking the title of Dashwun and for his style Yoongchang.

We have now brought the Manjows within sight of their imperial glory, and in a subsequent chapter will introduce them into Peking, after tracing the various causes which paved their way.

J. R.

A MONGOL COURT OF JUSTICE.

ONE evening after sunset, a Mongol came furtively into my tent, and after a few commonplace remarks asked in an earnest whisp

er, if I had any medicine good for wounds.

I said I would like

to see the wounds before giving medicine for them, and asked what sort of wounds they were and who had them. It turned out that the wounds were not yet inflicted, that the visitor was to be tried for theft next day, and as part of the examination was by scourging, he wanted to be prepared for the worst. In his own name, and that of a friend, he also preferred a very earnest request, that I would give him some medicine to make his flesh able to endure scourging without feeling pain! If I could not furnish him with this, perhaps I might give him something to tighten up his mind, so that he would not confess.

*The tree on Mei-shan on which the ill-fated monarch committed the deed, was chained for the crime of permitting an emperor to hang himself, and remains chained to this day! So I am informed, but it must be a very hoary-headed sinner by this time!

under torture! After quite a long and confidential conversation as to his guilt and prospects for the morrow, he rose to go, asking me to tell no one of his visit, because he was in custody, and allowed to go about only by the kindness of his keeper. Next morning early, I had another visitor on the same errand; like his neighbour he wanted something to heal his possible wounds, to harden his flesh, and to brace up his mind.

In the early morning a large tent of blue cloth fluttered gaily in the breeze. It was pitched just beyond the temple limits. The whole half-year's secular business of the tribe had been transacted in the temple buildings, but criminal proceedings could not be taken against culprits within the hallowed ground. Within the boundary it is not lawful to beat and whip men; so the thieves had to be examined outside the little footpath made by devout Mongols who travel round and round the sacred precincts by way of religious duty. No one appeared to know exactly when the court would begin; but after a while stragglers seemed to converge towards the conspicuous tent, and the rumour got abroad that the mandarins had gone out to begin business.

The tent was open at both ends, and with the exception of a contracted space down the centre, was packed full of mandarins of various ranks. Around the mouth of the tent was the disorderly crowd of spectators, who pushed each other about, and talked away among themselves without any seeming restraint. At the tail of the tent was another and smaller crowd, kept in a little better order by the angry commands of "stand back," shouted at short intervals by one or other of the dignitaries sweating under the heat that found its way through the cloth of the tent. The tail of the tent had been opened to secure coolness by circulation of air, but blocked up by a sweltering crowd at both ends, the circulation amounted to little; and the discomfort of the judges within, was only exceeded by that of the trembling culprits who were led up and made to kneel before them. Behind the little table, on which were laid official papers, sat two or three mandarins with buttons of various kinds, but no one appeared to claim higher rank than his neighbours, and no one was seen to be specially presiding. Any one that liked seemed to say anything he liked, and frequently more than one spoke at once; and on more than one occasion a prisoner had to attend to the different sets of remarks made to him by two different mandarins at one and the same time. The noise of the two crowds of spectators outside, and the free and easy way of contemporaneous speaking inside, made it difficult to keep track of what was going on. It was hardly possible both to see and hear; so a good many of those really interested in the proceedings, did not attempt to see, but knelt down outside the tent, and with bended head listened

attentively through the cloth. Beyond the crowd in front of the tent, sat a row of laymen and lamas all looking very solemn and sedate. These were the prisoners waiting to be tried. No one seemed to watch them, and they were not handcuffed or bound in any way. They simply sat and waited till an attendant came and called them forward. One case tried was that of two lamas. The reading of some charge or evidence or other could be heard indistinctly amid the hum and bustle, and then the elder lama was led out in front of the tent and lay down in full view of the court. As the crowd fell back a whip, a couple of rods, and the leather sole of a shoe became apparent. The lictor asked which he was to use, and on being told to take the whip, proceeded to administer thirty lashes. The whip was really a formidable weapon and looked alarming; but the whipper stood so close in towards the culprit that almost all the force of the thong was spent on the grass. This was farce enough, but this was not all. One, two, three, five, eight, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, twenty, -counted the sturdy lictor, bringing up his whip with great display and letting it gently down-twenty he counted, and as he counted twenty-one, an official standing near by shouted thirty. THIRTY, with tremendous emphasis shouted the lictor and then rested his whip, as if his arm had been quite worn out with the great exertion. "Oi yoi yoi," sighed the victim as he got up, and the whole crowd of spectators laughed aloud; the sufferer joining in the laugh as soon as he got his face turned away from the court. Everybody seemed pleased, and what seemed to please them most was the counting-twenty, twentyone, thirty. The turn of the younger priest came next, but his was a more serious affair. He was uncovered and his infliction was with a rod that left a mark at each stroke. The count too was carefully looked to, and, when it jumped from three to five, the lictor was ordered to stop and be careful as to how he counted. This lama got his full complement of thirty strokes and good strokes too.

Another case was that of cattle stealing. Several men were implicated, but the din and bustle made it impossible to hear whether the accused confessed and were punished for the deed, or did not confess and were whipped to make them tell the truth. Doubtless Mongols accustomed to the proceedings knew all about what was going on, but an unaccustomed spectator, hustled about, could only guess. One of the culprits was an old man with a decent dress and respectable look; and one of the buttons inside the tent could be heard shouting to him:-"You are an old man, more than sixty, your life is almost past, you should know better by this time than to steal; if you are poor and hungry, beg; begging is better than stealing; if you beg, people will give you food." Then after a little :-"After

this will you be deterred (from stealing)? Will you be careful? Will you amend your ways?" He was then led forth and had thirty slight lashes with the whip, without being deprived of the protection of his trousers. Concerned in the same case was a young lama who came next in turn, and was punished severely with the rod. No miscounting, no laying it on light for him. He was about twenty years of age, and, according to the expressed verdict of the unofficial mob, just the sort of fellow to steal. The officials were evidently of the same mind, and took care that the scourging was no sham. Once they stopped the lictor, and threatened to have him whipped if he did not hurt the prisoner more. The young lama got fifty good ones, and seemed to get up with difficulty. Perhaps too he was tenderer than his neighbours, for he manifestly suffered severely.

Then came a complicated business of the theft of a single horse. Four or five prisoners were called up, and a long examination ensued. Several persons were beaten, among them the well-dressed respectablelooking son of a man of official rank. This young man was the most decent-looking fellow among the prisoners. He had his thirty lashes by way of examination, and might have had more, if another man had not confessed under his torture, that he alone was the thief, and that the decent-looking young man was falsely accused. The man who confessed was the same who had come to me by night for medicine. His confession admitted that he had stolen the horse, and tied it up in the mountains till he should be able to convey it away secretly; but in his absence the wolves had come and devoured it; so he was none the better for his theft! His unsuccessful experiment was the cause of no little mirth to the official and unofficial spectators.

Another case was peculiarly Mongolian. A young lama was brought up accused of causing a prairie fire, which ran for miles and scorched a caravan of Halhas, encamped with their camels and loads of tea in the long dry grass. The accused admitted the charge, but pleaded that it was unintentional; and appealed to the mercy of the court, reminding them that he was a quiet and orderly subject, and the sole support of his father, an old man aged eighty years. The court was evidently satisfied with the explanation, but the law must be magnified, which was supposed to be done when thirty nominal. lashes were laid on lightly, not even his coat being removed; and the count being so cooked that though thirty was counted, hardly more than fifteen were administered.

Another case elicited rather a curious confession. An elderly man under examination said, that if his two companions in accusation would not own up, he would take the responsibility of the loss. The judges seemed well satisfied with the arrangement, asked if he had

means sufficient to make good the loss, and dismissed him without corporal punishment.

A few more cases followed, and then the greater part of the spectators dispersed, remarking that what was to come next was a civil suit, at which they evidently did not expect to see much beating and whipping, which seemed to form the main attraction to most.

In connection with the above-mentioned criminal proceedings, probably the natives knew pretty well all that happened; but to the eye of an unaccustomed spectator, nothing very definite appeared, and it was hardly possible to make out whether the various flagellations were given as punishments for crimes or inducements to confess. Indeed the language that accompanied them sometimes seemed to indicate, that both purposes were aimed at.

It must not be supposed that these beatings constituted the sole punishment of the thieves. Their sentences of imprisonment, &c. were passed afterwards; and some of the cases were said to be those of men who were undergoing sentences previously passed on them; and who were now brought forth merely to be presented to the court.

During the course of the proceedings, I had been endeavouring to distinguish the governor-general of the tribe; but in the crowd of mandarins in the tent, no one seemed to claim much higher rank than his neighbours. Returning towards my tent, a fat Mongol in a greasy old dress called me to him, passed salutations, conversed a little, then let me go. He had a couple of attendants hanging around near him, and an old lama came up as we were speaking. Two days afterwards meeting the old lama, I asked who that mandarin was who had been talking to me. It had been the governor-general incog. He had deputed his duties to the inferior mandarins; and while they were sweating in the crowded tent, bullying thieves, and speaking down each other, he had been enjoying himself lounging around.

A day or two afterwards, in my tent I happened to ask an aged lama of some small rank in the temple, if he had been to see the trial of the thieves. Hitching himself round, and looking at me as if he thought I was taking some undue liberty with his dignity, he replied "No, no, no; do you think that a respectable man like me would go to see thieves tried ?" This seemed to be the universal feeling on the matter, that it was an exhibition fit only for the eyes of boys and menials.

There seemed too to be a very prevalent idea, that the court on this occasion had been altogether too merciful and gentle; or as the Mongols expressed it, that the mandarins had only been amusing themselves. Perhaps though, they only said so to me from a desire to make Mongolian law appear more imposing in my foreign eyes. The prisoners themselves did not think it much fun. One man on being