The Grecian Thebes, of which Sophocles wrote, was notorious for its torture of suspected criminals, and Herodotus relates that the ancient Medes exercised similar practises. The “third degree” is outrageously developed in China as in no other country, the law requiring confessions in every case before penalty is inflicted. “_More Sinico_”, the pepper is rubbed in the eyes, and the confession is forced out of whomsoever is made the victim. Crimes are often “planted”, and blackmail of the weaker by the stronger runs riot. The laws themselves have been noted for their conciseness and simplicity, the number of volumes signifying little as the Chinese ideograph-text is expansive. “It is prohibited to murder”; “It is prohibited to trespass”, etc. There is imperfect codification of precedents and decisions, so that the prisoner must rely on himself (or on money!) to explain that the homicide was in self-defense; the trespass to escape from a mad dog. The spirit is always above the letter; it alone makes perfect law possible. Where there is a will to do right, right generally prevails, and it may be said that many of the Chinese judges try to do right, get at the truth, and give a common-sense judgment, for they are not iron-bound as the Occident is under appeal, precedent, quibble and evasion; the letter above the spirit. If the case is an action within a clan, the “hsiang lao” (old man of the village) generally assists the judge in getting at the truth. If the action is between two clans of two villages, or between competing guilds, God help the judges in sifting the truth from the lies! Such situations arouse the sympathy of disinterested foreigners for Chinese judges. Sometimes the native is not at fault, as the Chinese viceroys and Foreign Boards have often complained that some of the Romanists and one legation have interfered to a greater or lesser degree when a nominal Christian, who had a suit at law, was trying to evade justice by enrolling himself as a “rice Christian”.