Copy 1
The Chinese: a general description of the Empire of China and its inhabitants / By John Francis Davis.
- John Francis Davis
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Chinese: a general description of the Empire of China and its inhabitants / By John Francis Davis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
428/436 page 416
![of revenge than with a view to promoting the ends of substantial justice. This is a very barbarous and shock- ing- state of things, little better on our side than on theirs, and it seems the duty of a great and civilized state, like England, to provide a remedy. [“ From what foreigners,” said Dr. Morrison, “ have witnessed in cases of manslaughter, they have inferred that the Chinese government acted rather from a spirit of revenge than according to law. That this is true, ap- pears from a state paper, quoted in the 34th section of the Chinese Penal Code. During the 13th year of Kien- loong, A. D. 1749, the then governor of Canton reported to the Emperor that he had tried some Macao foreigners who caused the death of two Chinese*, and having sen- tenced them (through their own authorities) to be basti- nadoed and transported, had to request that, according to foreign laws, they might be sent to Temwan—Demaun. To this the Emperor replied, that the governor had managed very erroneously; that he should have required life for life. c If,’ it was added, ‘ you quote only our native laws, and, according to them, sentence to the basti- nado and transportation, then the fierce and unruly dispositions of the foreigners will cease to be awed.’ The Emperor thus declared (and his imperial decision is reprinted with every new edition of the laws), that the native law alone is not to be the guide of the local govern- ment when foreigners cause the death of natives. ‘ It is incumbent to have life for life,’—in order to frighten and repress the barbarians.”] The propriety, and indeed necessity, of non-submission * The European account is, that two soldiers murdered two Chinese, and were falsely represented as insane.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28745681_0001_0428.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
