difgraced by their oonduaors for not having in readinefs a fuf-
ficient number o f eeolies or porters to proceed with the baggage,
and to carry the fedan chairs in which they travelled.
The tyranny that men in office exercife over the multitude,
and each other, is perfaäly agreeable to the fyftematic fub-
ordination which the law has fandtioned. But as authority is a:
dangerous depofit in the hands o f the wifeft, and leads fome-
times the moft wary to
(i Play fuch fantailic tricks before higjh heaven
“ Ä 3 make the angels weep,’*
what niuil the effects o f it be when veiled in an illiterate Chi-
nefe or rude Tartar who haß no other talent or recommendation,
for his authority than,, the power alone which hiß office
allows, him to exercife I
Several inftances however occurred in the eourfe o f our journey
through the country, which feemed to mark the fame unfeeling
and hard-hearted difpofition to exift between perfons o f equal
Condition in life, as in men in office over their inferiors. One
o f thefe afforded an extraordinary trait of'inhumanity. A poor
fellow at Macao, in the employ o f the Britiih fadtory there,
fell by accident from a wall and' pitched upon his ikull. His
companions took him up with very- little appearance o f life
and, in this ftate, were carrying him away towards the ikirts
o f the town, where they were met by one o f the medical genr
tlemen belonging to the embaffy, He interrogated them what
they meant to do with the unfortunate man, and was very
coolly
coolly anfwered, they were going to bury him. Having e x -
preffed his aftoniihment that they fhould think o f putting a
man into the grave before the breath was out o f his body, they
replied that they were o f opinion he never could recover, and
that i f they carried him home he would only be a trouble and
expence to his friends fo long as he remained in a fituation which
rendered him unable to affift himfelf. The man, however, by
the humanity and attention o f Dodtor Scott, was reftored again
to his family and to thofe friends who knew fo well to appreciate
the value o f his life.
The dodtor however was not aware o f the riik he ran in thus
exercifing his humanity, as by a law o f the country, which appears
to us extraordinary, i f a wounded man be taken into the
protection and charge o f any perfon with a view to effedt his
recovery, and he fhould happen to die under his hands, the perfon
into whofe care he was laft taken is liable to be ptmifhed
with death, uniefs he- ean produce undeniable evidence to prove
how the wound was made, or that he furvived it forty days'.
The conlequence- o f fuch a law is, that i f a perfon- ihouM happen
to be mortally wounded in an affray, he is- fuffered to die in the
ftreets, from the fear (fiiould any one take charge o f him') o f
being made refponfible for his life.
A ffiriking inftance o f the fatal effedts o f futh a law happened
at Canton lately. A fire broke out in the fuburbs and tHree-
Chinefe, in affifting to extinguiih it, had their limbs fraAured
and were otherwife dreadfully wounded by the falling o f a wall.
The furgeoii o f the Engliih fadtory, with all the alacrity to adminifter