§ DR. BOWRINGput the following question to the Under Secretary for the Colonies:—"Whether any answer has been received to the communications made from the Colonial Office as to the infliction of corporal punishment by the police courts at Hong-Kong? Whether any steps have been taken to prevent the infliction of corporal punishment, whether by flogging, bastinadoing, or cutting off the tails of the Chinese, when they have been unable to pay pecuniary fines? Whether an ordinance circulated in the Chinese newspapers (No. 10, of 1844), has been brought to the notice of Her Majesty's Government, and obtained their sanction; such ordinance appearing to authorize whatever barbarous and brutal punishments may be inflicted under the Chinese code, or according to Chinese usages? 'And be it enacted, that in lieu of the whole or any part of any penalty provided by the law, statute, or ordinance whatsoever, it shall be lawful for the court of justice before whom the matter shall be adjudicated upon, to sentence any offender, being a native of China, or a native of Hong-Kong, of Chinese origin, to undergo such punishment in conformity with the usages of China as has hitherto been usually inflicted on natives of China committing offences in this colony."
§ MR. HAWESsaid, that the hon. Member last Session drew attention to the case of a Chinese who had been subjected to corporal punishment: and he (Mr. Hawes) told him that all the circumstances connected with that case should be inquired into. The noble Lord at the head of the Colonial Department had in consequence written to the Governor of Hong-Kong, and the following explanation had been received:—The Chinese in question had been guilty of felony, and was arrested. A rescue, attended with considerable violence, was attempted by a large number of persons. However, the offender and the parties attempting the rescue, were finally captured, and on conviction were subjected to a fine of five dollars, or to corporal punishment to the extent of twenty strokes with a rattan, and also, he must confess, 425 to the loss of their tails. But it should be borne in mind that those seas were infested with gangs of violent and lawless men, and that it was difficult to find any punishment applicable to them which would be of beneficial effect, imprisonment for any long period being out of the question. Consequently the magistrate had the power of inflicting on the Chinese the punishment of the loss of their tails. His hon. Friend had called the attention of the House to an ordinance sanctioned by the Crown in 1844, not lightly, but after a great deal of consideration. He was bound to admit it to be quite impossible to permit the criminal law of China to be incorporated with the British law, the former comprehending some of the most ingenious barbarities that could be devised. He would therefore promise that on that particular point further inquiry should be made, and the whole subject of the criminal law of Hong-Kong brought under the immediate attention of the noble Lord at the head of the Colonial Department.