(REPRODUCED FROM “CHINA IN DECAY”)] “The Supreme Ruler loves to give life and wishes that all beings might enjoy themselves without harm. But if a mother and father destroy the child to which they have given life, how can they help but see in that act a blot in the celestial harmony? “If flood and famine, war and pestilence, visit their terrors on the people, it is because these misfortunes are the punishments for the crimes spoken of. The ancient Emperors wept bitterly over these faults of the people and pardoned crimes, and by that spirit imitated the Spirit of Heaven, who loves to give life. When one of our officers addresses us a report concerning a great wrong, we first look to save the life; if it is not possible to use clemency, and if it is necessary that we pronounce the sentence of death, such a decision causes us genuine sadness. How great ought to be our sorrow, however, at the sight of an infant that had hardly been born, condemned to death. “Although the mandarins have prohibited this custom, all people are probably not aware of the prohibition. Measures must therefore be taken to bring this prohibition to the knowledge of all and an end must be put to this custom. Not until then will we be joyous and content. “Ho Long Tou in his book entitled _On Abstaining from Drowning Little Girls_ has written these words: “‘The Tiger and the Wolf are very cruel but they understand the relations that should exist between the parent and its offspring. Why then should man, gifted as is no animal, show himself to be on a lower plane? Our infants, boys and girls, are equally the fruit of our bodies. I have heard that the sad cry uttered by these girl babies as they are plunged into a vase of water and drowned is inexpressible. Alas! that the heart of a father or a mother should be so cruel.’” Choen Tche then makes an appeal to his subjects asking them not to tolerate further this barbarous custom, dwelling on the superior and more gentle quality of daughters over sons, citing historical instances of the good fortune that many daughters had brought to their parents, and concluding by promising the benediction of Heaven on those who would protect the lives of the little females. Choen Tche (or Shun Chih) was the ninth son of T’ien Ts’ung and was left to the care of his uncle as regent. His reign was marked by an endeavour to consolidate the newly acquired empire. His biographers speak of his magnanimity as a ruler and he was much praised by his contemporaries. The fact that he treated the Catholic missionaries with favour may also partially explain his horror over the conditions of which he was apparently ignorant until the protest.