[25] The following law case, which is literally translated, from a volume of reports of trials, published in the present reign of _Kia-King_, and with which I have been favoured by a friend (who was himself the translator), will serve to shew the mode of proceeding in criminal matters of the provincial courts of judicature. The circumstances of the transaction appear to have been enquired into fairly and impartially, and no pains spared to ascertain the exact degree of criminality. Being given to me about the time when the trial took place of Smith, for the murder of the supposed _Hammersmith ghost_, I was forcibly struck with the remarkable coincidence of the two cases, and with the almost identical defence set up by the Chinese and the English prisoners, and on that account it excited more interest than perhaps it might otherwise be considered to be entitled to. _Translation of an Extract from a Collection of Chinese Law Reports, being the Trial, Appeal, and Sentence upon an Indictment for Homicide by Gun firing._ At a criminal court held in the province of Fo-kien, upon an indictment for shooting, and mortally wounding a relation; setting forth, that _She-fo-pao_, native of the city of _Fo-ngan-sien_, did fire a gun, and by mischance, wound _Vang-yung-man_, so that he died thereof. The case was originally reported, as follows, by _Vu-se-Kung_, sub-viceroy of the province of Fo-kien: The accused _She-fo-pao_, and the deceased _Vang-yung-man_, were of different families, but connected by marriage, were well known to each other, and there had always been a good understanding between them.