brilliantly painted door leading to the native Magistrate's house; then, turning up a narrow passage to the left, you reach the Court itself. It is a good-sized square room, with whitewashed walls, a table at which the Mixed Court Magistrate and the European Assesors sit, and a few chairs. A space is railed off in front of the Magistrate's table, inside of which, the prosecutor, witnesses, interpreters, and prisoners take their places, the latter kneeling. The body of the court-room is usually filled with a crowd of natives-idlers, petitioners, or friends of the persons to be charged. It is seldom a European appears, except the Assessors, the Police, or persons interested in a case. When a case is called the prisoners are led in at a double quick trot by one of the runners, of whom a goodly number are always at hand, and dumped down in a kneeling position before the Magistrates. The prosecutor then makes his statement, then the witnesses, and then the prisoner. If his dialect is unintelligible to the Court, the services of an interpreter are brought into requisition. Perhaps the prisoner is convicted; and sentenced to imprisonment and flogging with the bamboo; if so, the bamboo is frequently applied there and then; he is seized and held firmly by two or three of the lictors, while another delivers the blows, on the face, hands or feet, as the case may be. This is sometimes a very revolting sight, the poor wretch writhing and screaming whilst his flesh is being pounded into a jelly by the official flagellators, who, with the most merciless deliberation and apathy, tell out the blows as if they were threshing corn. When the full number has been delivered, the prisoner is seized by the pigtail and led off to his place of confinement. These blows can be made to fall much lighter if the prisoner only "tips" the lictor: the more he pays the lighter the blows. The prison for men is on the right-hand side of the outer courtyard as you enter from the Nanking Road; that for women is on the other side. Sometimes as many as a hundred men are crowded into this squalid den, which is about 30 feet long by 20 feet wide. To go through it, all that is necessary is to ask permission of one of the Court attendants. Entrance is effected by raising one of the wooden bars that shut off the inmates from the outer world, and passing through the aperture thus made. This may seem a very loose method of caging in criminals, but it is really as secure as any other, because half-a-dozen jailors are always on the watch outside. As a matter of fact it is generally one of the prisoners themselves that admits you; your guide comes up to the bars, and calls to someone inside to let you and him enter. Once within, nothing can be conceived more abject than the scenes of squalor that arrest your attention on every side. The stench is sickening, the dirt revolting; and everything calculated to debase and brutalise a human being is to be found within those reeking walls. Vice and misery are huddled together here, and vie with each other to render the place a pest-house, and a forcing-house of crime. In one corner a group of hardened ruffians are endeavouring to lighten their incarceration by gambling for cash, or clothes, or anything that the rapacity of their jailor may have left them; even scraps of food are played for, and the daily sustenance of the gamblers depends as often as not upon the issue of the dice-box. But all the inmates are not so callous to their condition; some of them are still quite young, and suffering for their first offence. These are to be found huddled up in odd corners or crouching on their wretched pallets, shrinking from intercourse with their older brethren, past-masters in villainy, or trying to forget their miseries in sleep. However, if their sojourn amongst the abandoned criminals, whom they now shudder at, be long, they will themselves become as bad in time, and young minds that may be almost prepared to turn to better things will be poisoned with the contact, and so far will their imprisonment be from having any beneficial effect on them that they will leave that jail more determined thieves and villains, and more cunning in the ways of vice than they were before imprisonment. The practice of herding criminals of all grades and ages in one room has for many years been condemned and abandoned in European countries, and a modern Chinese prison amply exemplifies the wisdom of our prison reformers. Verily some imitator of the great Howard is wanted in China, where there are more abuses connected with prison administration than in any country basting of civilization. ANY of our readers will have observed new and handsome premises on the Woosung Road, just beyond Garden Villas, in the American Settlement, or Hongkew, erected for the China Inland Mission. These buildings, as every one now knows, have been built mainly through the munificence of one donor, a member of the C. I. M., and they furnish a magnificent monument of liberality to a good cause. Without having much claim to architectural beauty, the buildings are substantial, effective looking, and admirably suited for the purpose for which they were built-namely, the head-quarters of this Mission in China, and, for the future, members of the Mission visiting Shanghai will have no occasion to want for accommodation, the new premises being amply sufficient for any strain that is likely to be put upon its resources for many a year. The premises, which stand within their own grounds, also donated to the Mission, are in two blocks, one, three storeys high, facing the Woosung Road, and the other a very long two-storey building running at right angles to this for a distance of 256 feet. In the centre of the front range of buildings is a very fine, lofty, and commodious Prayer Hall, the dimensions of which are 43 feet by 36 feet, the height being probably about 20 feet. The ceiling is supported by massive pillars of Oregon pine, and the general aspect of the hall, if somewhat plain, is cheerful, and very well lighted by large windows during the day and well-placed gas jets at night. At one end is a platform and reading-desk. The hall will easily accommodate a couple of hundred persons. In this block, which is divided up into four separate houses, are situated the offices and apartments of the four permanent officers of the Mission, and excellent servants' accommodation. The rooms throughout are somewhat small and plainly finished, but very comfortable and well designed. The ceilings are lofty, and the ventilation has been well attended to. A long corridor runs along the back of the block, from which a spiral iron staircase, outside the building, descends into the spacious grounds at the back, which would serve admirably as a means of escape if a fire should unfortunately break out in the building. Here it may be mentioned that all the buildings have fire-proof walls. Underneath the three-storey building, a long colonade, supported by brick arches, runs along the back and gives access to the premises. The Mission-house proper, where the members of the Mission find accommodation, is a very long, two-storey building, and is divided into east, centre, and west sections. In the centre of the building, on the ground-floor, is situated the large well-fitted dining-room, neatly furnished and very cheerful, with tables and seats for sixty or seventy persons; opposite the dining-room are a couple of tastefully arranged sitting-rooms. In the east section on the ground-floor are found box-rooms, store-rooms, with well packed shelves of provisions of all kinds, piles of stationery, which indicate voluminous correspondence and other literary activity; and a post-office, with boxes for the various stations. The west section of the ground-floor is devoted to offices for the directors of the Mission and secretary's office. The whole of the upper portion of all three sections is ocupied by redrooms, each section having one large room upstairs and five small ones, all facing on the lawn, except five at the back. Each room has its own verandah shut off from the others and looking out upon the trim-looking lawn. There are in all 36 bed-rooms in the building, with six more in the front building; so that there is plenty of room, even at the periodic busy times, for the missionaries gathered from all parts of the country for the Conferences. A long gallery runs along the three sections at the back, where kitchens, pantrys, etc., are situated. On the other side of the lawn, on the left-hand side of the high building, are situated the quarters for natives attached to the Mission, etc. The back of these quarters, a high brick wall without windows forms the boundary of the lhwn on one side. Fourteen sleeping-rooms, with two guest-rooms are provided, with cook-houses, etc., with a verandah running along the entire range. The whole of the buildings are of grey brick, faced with red; the windows have the usual venetian shutters, and the premises are all well raised from the ground and ventilated by a through current of air underneath. The buildings are well supplied with water and gas. The roofs of all the buildings are of corrugated iron. The lawn, which is as yet quite plain, has a fanciful Chinese pavilion of brick in the centre, and comprises several mow of land. The entire site occupied by the Mission is 12 mow. There are several entrances to the premises-one from the Boone Road and two or three from the Woosung Road. The centre of the building facing the latter thoroughfare bears the plain legend "China Inland Mission, A.D. 1890," cut on a slab of granite over the Prayer Hall. The Mission is certainly to be congratulated upon the excellent premises which they have acquired, and upon the great generosity of the donor, who has thus provided one of the most deserving and thorough-going of the Missions working in China with suitable head-quarters. In closing this article we will add a very brief extract from China's Millions, of May 1893, where, at the May meeting of the Mission in London, the worthy organizer and director of the Mission, Dr. Hudson Taylor, refers to their new premises in Shanghai as follows:-" In those premises, I believe lives have been spared, sick ones restored, and weary ones refreshed not a few, who otherwise might have been lost to the work, or who might have had to come here at considerable loss of time as well as expense." THE THOMAS HANBURY SCHOOL AND HE fine new building at the junction of Boone and Miller Roads, which has grown out of the amalgamation of the old Eurasian School, which stood on the same site, and the Children's Home, Markham Road, has now fairly entered upon its career of charity and rescue, and henceforward will be looked upon with pride by Shanghai people as one of their most imposing edifices, and one of the most truly philanthropic institutions in the Far East. The new amalgamated institution was opened in September 1891. The following description of the house will serve to show what a large scheme of charity the founders con templated, and the energetic way the work has been carried on since its inception. Built entirely of red and grey brick, it is the most striking edifice in Hongkew, with a noble frontage along Boone Road, and an altitude which commands one of the most comprehensive views in the Settlement; of a plain, bold, architectural style, none of the funds have been wasted in unnecessary exterior ornamentation, but everything about the building has been carried out with a view to securing the greatest possible amount of space and comfort for the little inmates on the alloted space, and as the completed structure stands, it bids fair to endure for generations as a solid evidence of the noble generosity of its founders and endowers. There are four stories in the edifice, exclusive of the lofty attic, and the gables tower 73 feet above the roadway. The frontage is 92 feet and the depth 55, and as the groundplan is an unbroken parallelogram, some idea can be gathered of the immense amount of accommodation there is within its walls. There are, of course, the usual out-offices, washhouses, kitchens, etc., in a separate block in the rear. The principal entrance is from Boone Road, under a 7-feet porch, while a smaller entrance on each side of the main one gives admittance to boys, on the left, and girls, on the right. The main entrance opens into a spacious hall, floored with polished teak, and measuring 10 feet in breadth, with the wide main. staircase opening off the end, and a sitting-room, 17 feet by 3 inches by 19 feet, on each side. Each sitting-room adjoins a school-room, that on the left being assigned to boys and that on the right to girls. In fact the whole building is thus divided, all to the right of the main staircase in all the storeys being occupied by girls, and all on the left by boys, and as both sides correspond exactly in plan, a description of one side of the house will suffice for both. Taking the girls' side, which is exactly similar to the boys,-except that perhaps it is.kept a little tidier by the youthful occupants,-we will commence with the school-room, and ascend to the attic. We find the school-room a spacious and well-ventilated apartment, measuring 45 feet by 25 feet, lighted from the right side and front by 7 long windows Every school-boy knows what the furniture of such a temple of instruction is, so we will not describe all the desks, maps, blackboards, and forms in this apartment, but, remarking only en passant that the pupils are an orderly and attentive swarm of happy-looking juveniles, we will proceed to the class-rooms on the same floor, which has (like the school-room) its fellow on the other |