vented from sliding by a padlock.

A plank

serves the prisoner for a seat and for a bed. İbid.

WOODEN COLLAR, IN CHINA.

This punishment is deemed very disgraceful. The collar is formed of heavy pieces of wood, closed together, and having a hole in the centre which fits the neck of the offender, who, when this machine is upon him, can neither see his own feet nor put his hands to his mouth. He is not permitted to reside in any habitation, nor even to take rest for any considerable length of time, an inferior officer of justice constantly attending to prevent him. By night and by day, he carries this collar, which is rendered heavier or lighter, according to the nature of the crime and the strength of the offender. The weight of the common sort of these wooden collars is only fifty or sixty pounds, but there are those which weigh two hundred, and which are so grievous to the bearers, that sometimes, through shame, pain, want of proper uourishment or of natural rest, they have been known to expire under them. The criminals find various methods, however, of mitigating their punishment, by walking in company with their relations and friends, who support the corners of the collar, and prevent it from pressing upon the shoulders; by resting it upon a table, a bench, or against a tree; or by having a chair constructed for the purpose, with four posts of equal height, to support the machine. When this ponderous incumbrance is fixed upon an offender, it is always before the magistrate who has decreed it; and upon each side, over the places where the wood is joined, long slips of paper are pasted, upon which the name of the

2N3

person,

person, the crime which he has committed, and the duration of his punishment, are written, in very distinct characters; a seal is likewise stamped upon the paper, to prevent the instrument from being opened. Three months is the usual time appointed for those to bear about this collar who have been convicted of robbery; for defamation, gambling, or breaches of the peace, it is carried a few weeks; and insolvent debtors are sometimes ordered to bear it till they have satisfied their creditors.

When the offender is liberated from the collar, it must be in the presence of the magistrate who imposed it. He then generally orders him a few blows of the pan-tsee, and dismisses him, with an exhortation to comport himself more regularly in future.

Persons in this situation are supplied with food by a particular kind of basins and spoons. Ibid.

WOODEN TUBE, IN CHINA.

A piece of bamboo cane is provided, which nearly corresponds with the height of the criminal, and is of considerable circumference. This bamboo being perfectly hollow, admits the passage of a large iron chain, one end of which is rivetted round a stake, the other encircles his neck, and is confined there by a padlock: his legs are fettered by a few links of chain. Ibid.

WRITS.

According to the prevailing system, if a debt exceeds 40s. the action may be brought in a superior court; where, if contested, or defended, the expence, at the lowest computation, must be upwards of fifty pounds. Prudent men, under such

circum

circumstances, will forego a just claim upon an other, or make up a false one upon themselves, as by far the least of two evils, in all cases where they come in contact with designing and bad people; and hence it is, that the worthless part of mankind, availing themselves in civil, as others do in criminal, cases of the imperfections of the law, forge these defects into a rod of oppression, either to defraud the honest part of the community of a just right, or to create fraudulent demands where no right attaches; merely because those miscreants know that an action at law, even for 20l. cannot either be prosecuted or defended, without sinking three times the amount in law expences, besides the loss of time, which is still more valuable to men in business.

To convince the reader that this observation is not hazarded on weak grounds, and that the evil is so great as to cry aloud for a remedy, it is only necessary to state, that in the county of Middlesex alone, in the year 1793, the number of bailable writs and executions, for debts from ten to twenty pounds, amounted to no less than five thousand seven hundred and nineteen, and the aggregate amount of the debts, sued for was the sum of 81,7911.

It will scarcely be credited, although it is most unquestionably true, that the mere costs of these actions, although made up, and not defended at all, would amount to 68,7281.-and if defended, the aggregate expence to recover 81,7911. must bestrange and incredible as it may appear, no less than 285,950l.! being considerably more than three times the amount of the debts sued for !

The mind is lost in astonishment at the contem plation of a circumstance marking, in so strong a degree,