blows are said to make a prisoner feel very uncomfortable for a few days; and after 400 he won't be able to sit down for a fortnight.

The relations between the Magistrate and the Foreign Assessors who sit on the bench with him form an interesting chapter in the history of foreign intercourse with China. The protection of the interests of foreigners, the enforcement of the regulations for the good government of these Settlements, the suppression of crime amongst the natives who enjoy the benefit of that good government, and the adequate punishment of offenders, depend in a great measure upon the attitude taken by the Foreign Assessors, and the firmness with which they maintain their position. In many a case, injustice would be done to foreign plaintiffs or complainants, or native defendants, or prisoners would get off, were it not that the Foreign Assessor opposes the view taken by the Magistrate and convinces him against his will that the decision of the case must be different to his first intention. The Assessors also many a time prevent injustice being done to a native, where the case is purely of native concern. And yet we must say that cases frequently occur where it appears that the Assessors had not been firm enough, for we often hear of anomalous sentences - sometimes very heavy punishment for an offence which was not an aggravated one, and light sentences imposed on vagabonds that deserved much more severe sentences; the mistake generally being in the latter respect. The police inspectors, who conduct the prosecutions, stand up boldly for proper punishment being given to such characters as have distinguished themselves by being "well-known to the police;" they lay the facts of the case before the Assessor, and request him to see that the punishment which is deserved shall be given; and the Assessor may have a debate with the Magistrate for five, ten, or fifteen minutes before he will consent to the foreign measure of flogging, imprisonment, or fine; a compromise may have to be made; or perhaps the Magistrate will refuse to yield, and, telling them he is Magistrate of the Court, he will have his own way.

A case occurred some years ago, which gave rise to an amusing episode, and the particulars, as related to us by one who witnessed the scene, are worth producing here,-and this is perhaps the first time they have been made public. A prisoner had been sentenced to a short term of imprisonment; there was no difficulty about the sentence of itself; but from some cause, not very clearly understood, it appeared only to be due to the supplications of the prisoner's grandmother, who was in Court, and doing her best at weeping and wailing,Chên, who was the Magistrate at the time, said that the prisoner would be allowed to put in the whole term of imprisonment at the Court gaol, instead of being sent to the Municipal cells at any of the police stations. The police officers protested against this; the Assessor strongly opposed Chên's idea; and excited argument followed. And then there was a "scene" in the great "hall of justice,"-a "scene" that could be paralleled nowhere on the face of the globe. Chên completely lost his temper; he was in a terrible rage to think that his compassion on the prisoner and his grandmother, who was most likely the prisoner's only support! should be thwarted by the Foreign Assessor, who refused to yield to his proposal. He rose from the bench, came round to the arena in front of the big wooden table, and addressing himself to the Assessor, used words to this effect, "You seem to be judge here, and I am nobody; if you are judge, punish me; send me to gaol!" The Assessor asked the old man to come up to his seat on the bench and not make a fool of himself; but seeing things were coming to a pass, he at the same time ordered the police to remove the prisoner. In the twinkling of an eye,

three or four native policemen pulled the prisoner up from his knees, some dragging him by the queue and others taking hold of him by his coat; and they lugged him out of Court in a tremendous hurry. Chên followed after them, but the police inspectors were a rear guard to the squad of native policemen, and Chên could not do anything to effect the rescue of the prisoner, although he pulled at the inspectors' coat sleeves, and shouted and yelled for the prisoner to be brought back. As soon as the native police got outside the yamên, they put their charge on a native wheelbarrow, and made the coolie run off with him as fast as he could to the Central Police Station, the native policemen forming a guard on each side of the antiquated vehicle that was made to do duty for the prison van of the West. The Assessor left the bench, and the proceedings of that day were thus hurriedly closed. Old Chên had summoned his runners, and before the Assessor was out of Court, the enraged mandarin was off in procession, in his great sedan chair, preceded by the red umbrella bearer, gong-beater, and attended by all his retinue. The Assessor went straight home to his Consulate, - and drove too, if we are correctly informed,—but Chên was there before him and was setting off a long story to the Consul about the way he had been abused! The dispute was settled all right, and there was no word of it afterwards at Court; but Chên was baffled for once, for he had to give in; and the prisoner had to put in his time at the Municipal cells.

In giving a full account of the Mixed Court of Shanghai, our task would be incomplete did we not make special reference to the work which the officers of the Municipal Police perform-and perform very efficiently,-in investigating all the cases reported to them by foreigners or natives, or cases coming under the notice of the police in their ordinary duty in watching the Settlements. As we have stated before, the police officers act as public prosecutors at this Court. The greatest part of the work of the police in investigating any case is to disprove all the lies told by the natives who are implicated. What appears to be a good clue, according to the first statements of parties concerned, may be easily found out; but then the police officer finds he is on the wrong track, because he discovers they have been telling a parcel of lies. The police here have a wonderful power, which could not be exercised over people at home. If they can't get hold of a man they want, it will help them greatly to take his brother, or his father, or any of his relations. into custody; if any of these relations of the "wanted" individual have a jinricsha or a wheelbarrow, or anything that can be got hold of, the police will retain that, and tell the owner he won't get it back till he assists the native detective in finding out where the relative has gone. The details of a case which has occurred furnish a good example of what an investigation into a Chinese case frequently amounts to:-Some time ago, a British sailor reported at the Hongkew Police Station that two jinricsha men had taken him at night to the open country opposite the Old Ningpo Wharf, and that they threw dust in his eyes, knocked him down, and robbed him of ten sovereigns. The Inspector of Hongkew Station, being indisposed, the case was taken up by the Inspector of the Louza Station. For a day or two nothing could be found out about the robbery; and doubts as to the truth of the story had from the first been entertained; but it subsequently all came out, and that in a peculiar way. The first that the police heard of the gold was this: a jinricsha coolie told a friend, who told a friend of one of the native detectives, who told that detective, that another jinricsha coolie had been seen changing a gold coin at a cash or exchange shop in the French Concession. The

jinricsha coolie reported against was soon arrested, and when questioned about having had gold in his possession he set off with the first good square lie in the case. He said he took a naval officer on a certain evening from the Astor House to the Club, and received from him. two coins, which he afterwards found to be gold-a sovereign and a half sovereign. He declared this to be true; it had to be proved or disproved. After sending on board all the men-of-war in port, and to the Hotel and the Club, it was found out that the story was false. The coolie was told it was so, and then he coolly said he knew it was. Where did he get the gold? His next explanation was on first thought even more improbable than the naval officer yarn; he said he was sitting in the Canton Road with his jinricsha; he left it a short time, and on returning found a small bag on the seat, and in the bag were two gold pieces. That would not go down at first; but his additional statement had a sting in it. He said he believed the money was placed there to get him into trouble, and that it was placed there by another jinricsha coolie, who had been dogging him about-who was dogging him when he changed the gold at the cash-shop, had dogged him to the police station when he was arrested; and had been round at the station several times, and was even then just outside of it. This coolie was arrested, and the case took a new turn, for it was discovered that this was the man who reported through his friends to the detective that the gold had been changed. He was a consummate fool for his own sake: there must have been something strange which kept him hovering about that police station to see how the fellow he had a spite at was getting on when he was in danger himself. He was accused of having put the gold in the other fellow's jinricsha, and, after many lies, he admitted that he did so out of spite and to get the other one into trouble. He was next accused of robbing the sailor, which he first denied, and told lies right and left, and then admitted that he was one of the two coolies who perpetrated the robbery. He was prepared to tell all about it, but he thought he had just better put out his spite on two or three people as long as he had a chance. He said three sovereigns were changed in a shop in the city, and that they were changed by a woman who kept a lodging-house at Sinza, and also that two men lodging there were implicated in the robbery. The police found out the cash-shop in the city, and, sure enough, three sovereigns had been changed there; then they went for that lodginghouse at Sinza, and arrested a woman and two men, all of whom protested that they knew nothing of the gold, and they also said the accuser had a spite at them because he was put away from the house two months before. This champion liar had blamed these people only from spite!His next story was that the woman and two men he ought to have informed about lived on the Yang-king-pang, but one of the men was away into the interior, past Soochow, and had three sovereigns with him; and the woman and the other man had just started a day or two before on a wheelbarrow, and were to camp the first night at a small village a little south and west of Shanghai.city. He was again mixing lies and truth together: it was found that a woman, and two,men lived on the Yang-king-pang, at a certain house he named, and they had all cleared out, and two had gone on a wheelbarrow; the other might have gone to Jericho if he liked, for it was found he had not three sovereigns with him. The police could not find the wheelbarrow coolie who took the couple into the country; but they found his brother; a jinricsha belonging to him was seized, and he was told he would have to assist in finding his brother; he did this gladly. The wheelbarrow

coolie was found, his barrow seized, and he was enlisted into the detective staff for the nonce, and sent out into the country in pursuit of his late fare, who was soon discovered and brought back; one sovereign was found on him, and he actually turned out to be the second jinricsha coolie who took part in the robbery. The police even succeeded in finding all the ten sovereigns—one and a half from the first coolie, who had only spent thirty cash of the change; one and a half which the chief prisoner changed; three which he "planked" under the doorstep of the house on the Yang-king-pang, but had said the man who had gone to Soochow had taken; one from the second prisoner; and three which the woman had changed. The case was disposed of at Court some days after the sailor who lost the money had left the port; so that the presence of the complainant is not always necessary at this Court. The two jinricsha coolies were each sentenced to nine months' imprisonment; and the jinricsha proprietor, who let his vehicles on hire to these villains, was also brought under the arm of the law-which stretches wonderfully here-for he was ordered to pay some fifteen dollars and odd cents,-with which the three sovereigns changed by the woman were redeemed. All the identical gold pieces stolen from the sailor were thus recovered, and were given to the agents of the vessel, who remitted the money to him.

OW many of the European residents of Shanghai ever think of visiting the strange scenes by which they are surrounded, or feel a passing curiosity about the daily lives. of the peculiar people in whose midst they have settled? The jealous reservation of this most ancient and conservative of empires has hitherto to a certain extent baffled the researches of the most diligent, and rendered difficult every effort made to communicate its inner history and usages to the outer world. A people so interesting, and a condition of society in such striking contrast to that of Western nations, would naturally be expected to awaken the keenest interest in those to whom a higher order of civilization has always been familiar; and the apathy of Europeans here to the state of things around them is all the more to be wondered at, when it is remembered that they have comparatively many facilities of observing native life in China. Perhaps it is that foreigners coming here are satiated with wonders, and lose their relish for the marvellous, or it may be that the pursuit of business absorbs all their thoughts and renders them unmindful of everything passing around them, except the state of trade, the fluctuations of the shares and exchange, or the prospects of promotion in the various departments of the public service. Whatever the cause may be, the fact remains that, out of the large number of Europeans here, only a few are conversant with the manners, or are even aware of many things of real interest that happen in the Settlement every day. Take the Mixed Court for instance. How many Europeans ever think of going to see how justice is administered there, or how the inmates of the prison attached are housed and provided for in their confinement? and yet the subject is one calculated to excite a keen curiosity in those who have been accustomed to the procedure of the law in European countries. It it just opposite the Maloo Market, and one cannot well pass without noticing it for the crowds of voluble coolies that gather outside its white walls when the hearing of cases is in progress inside. You enter either of the two wide wooden gates, and find yourself in a small courtyard. The walls are high and white washed, and on them are painted grotesque frescoes-dragons, winged lions, and other monsters, to strike terror into the hearts of malefactors. Facing the Nanking Road is another wooden doorway, leading into a larger courtyard, and on each side of this doorway is a large wooden cage, in which the prisoners undergoing the punishment of the cangue are confined. Two or three wretches may be crouching inside the bars, with this contrivance: a heavy frame. of wood, with a hole in the centre for the head to come through, resting on their shoulders; and slips of paper, telling the crime for which they are suffering, are pasted on the apparatus ; and criminals are condemned to wear this for one, two, three, or four days, or weeks, or months, according to the nature of their offence. Passing through the inner courtyard, around which are ranged the offices connected with the Court, and at the further end, a large and