ABSTRACT
The mandarins are also held responsible if a large conflagration takes place. In obedience with the intimations from Peking, the mandarins undertake the task of endeavouring to “persuade” the rich men and the gentry under their jurisdiction to supply the wants of the emperor. When it is necessary that the people should be instructed in regard to important affairs, the mandarins cause proclamations to be posted up more or less numerously, in the most frequented streets of the city and in the country villages, containing the information. The mandarins are also held responsible if a large conflagration takes place. Jailors and magistrates frequently resort to modes of punishment and torture entirely unauthorized and unrecognised by law. The harder the cord is pulled or twisted, the tighter are the fingers squeezed, and the more painful does the torture become. The victim is finally willing to confess anything which his accuser desires, so dreadful is the pain suffered.
