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Article A VISIT TO CANTON. ← Page 8 of 14 →
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A Visit To Canton.
without awaiting a confirmation of the sentence from Peking . The command of the armed forces is intrusted to a Tartar general , who provides for the defence of the city . The administration of the finances is confided to the director-general of the customs , the receiver-general of the taxes , and the inspector-general of the salt-mines ; that of justice is under
the criminal judge , who is only assisted by the other authorities of the province in cases of capital punishment . These are the functionaries on whom the charge of the viceregal government devolves , and under their control the administration of the department and districts is carried on . Each department is placed under the jurisdiction of a civil
magistrate , who exercises functions analogous to those of a French prefet , but with more extensive privileges . Each district has its own magistrate ( a kind of sous-prefei ) , who , like the magistrate of the department , is invested with powers at once judicial and executive . The department in which Canton is situated is divided into fourteen districts , in each
of which the magistrate nominates an officer , who has the police and the duty of raising the taxes . These officers are of a very subordinate rank , rarely decorated with the "button , " and men whom the magistrate subjects to the bastinado without ceremony . In the country , however , whenever any public works are to be undertaken , or any grave affair to be decided , these officers preside at the council of the elders , who direct the deliberations .
The administration of affairs in China is , as we have seen , little complicated ; 14 , 000 mandarins suffice to govern a population of 361 , 000 , 000 : but this simplicity of organization , by accumulating enormous prerogatives in the hands of one individual , is attended by those evils which are inherent in a despotic administration , —the venality of justice , and the
most odious exaction- in levying the taxes . The sentence in the courts of justice is in a manner piit ' up to the hammer , and the decisions of the law are in- the hands of the highest bidder . An income-tax is levied upon all Chinese from the age of twenty to sixty , and there is also a tax on the products of the soil equal to from a tenth to a thirtieth part of the harvest
, according to the quality of the land * These taxes , however , are almost invariably doubled or tripled by the cupidity , of the mandarins . The Chinese have not recourse to insurrection to remedy social evils or injustice ; they are of too peaceable a nature . In the south , however ; there has been at all times less clispo-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Visit To Canton.
without awaiting a confirmation of the sentence from Peking . The command of the armed forces is intrusted to a Tartar general , who provides for the defence of the city . The administration of the finances is confided to the director-general of the customs , the receiver-general of the taxes , and the inspector-general of the salt-mines ; that of justice is under
the criminal judge , who is only assisted by the other authorities of the province in cases of capital punishment . These are the functionaries on whom the charge of the viceregal government devolves , and under their control the administration of the department and districts is carried on . Each department is placed under the jurisdiction of a civil
magistrate , who exercises functions analogous to those of a French prefet , but with more extensive privileges . Each district has its own magistrate ( a kind of sous-prefei ) , who , like the magistrate of the department , is invested with powers at once judicial and executive . The department in which Canton is situated is divided into fourteen districts , in each
of which the magistrate nominates an officer , who has the police and the duty of raising the taxes . These officers are of a very subordinate rank , rarely decorated with the "button , " and men whom the magistrate subjects to the bastinado without ceremony . In the country , however , whenever any public works are to be undertaken , or any grave affair to be decided , these officers preside at the council of the elders , who direct the deliberations .
The administration of affairs in China is , as we have seen , little complicated ; 14 , 000 mandarins suffice to govern a population of 361 , 000 , 000 : but this simplicity of organization , by accumulating enormous prerogatives in the hands of one individual , is attended by those evils which are inherent in a despotic administration , —the venality of justice , and the
most odious exaction- in levying the taxes . The sentence in the courts of justice is in a manner piit ' up to the hammer , and the decisions of the law are in- the hands of the highest bidder . An income-tax is levied upon all Chinese from the age of twenty to sixty , and there is also a tax on the products of the soil equal to from a tenth to a thirtieth part of the harvest
, according to the quality of the land * These taxes , however , are almost invariably doubled or tripled by the cupidity , of the mandarins . The Chinese have not recourse to insurrection to remedy social evils or injustice ; they are of too peaceable a nature . In the south , however ; there has been at all times less clispo-