Note 24 — CHAP. VII.
Reading edition
Various accidents having happened at different times to Chinese subjects in the port of Canton, which have generally led to disagreeable discussions with the Chinese government, the supercargoes of the East India Company thought proper, on a late occasion of a person being wounded by a shot from a British ship of war, to make application for an extract from the criminal code of laws relating to homicide, in order to have the same translated into English, and made public. This extract consisted of the following articles:
1. A man who kills another on the supposition of theft, shall be strangled, according to the law of homicide committed in an affray.
2. A man who fires at another with a musquet, and kills him thereby, shall be beheaded, as in cases of wilful murder. If the sufferer be wounded, but not mortally, the offender shall be sent into exile.
3. A man who puts to death a criminal who had been apprehended, and made no resistance, shall be strangled, according to the law against homicide committed in an affray.
4. A man who falsely accuses an innocent person of theft (in cases of greatest criminality) is guilty of a capital offence; in all other cases the offenders, whether principals or accessaries, shall be sent into exile.
5. A man who wounds another unintentionally shall be tried according to the law respecting blows given in an affray, and the punishment rendered more or less severe, according to the degree of injury sustained.
6. A man who, intoxicated with liquor, commits outrages against the laws, shall be exiled to a desert country, there to remain in a state of servitude.
In this clear and decisive manner are punishments awarded for every class of crimes committed in society; and it was communicated to the English factory from the viceroy, that on no consideration was it left in the breast of the judge to extenuate or to exaggerate the sentence, whatever might be the rank, character, or station of the delinquent.