Two actual instruments of torture are mentioned, one for compressing
the ankle-bones, and the other for squeezing the fingers, to be used
if necessary to extort a confession in charges of robbery and homicide,
confession being regarded as essential to the completion of the record.
The application, however, of these tortures is fenced round in such a
way as to impose great responsibility upon the presiding magistrate;
and in addition to the risk of official impeachment, there is the more
dreaded certainty of loss of influence and of popular esteem. Mention is
made in the code of the so-called "lingering death," according to which
first one arm is chopped off, then the other; the two legs follow in the
same way; two slits are made on the breast, and the heart is torn
out; decapitation finishes the proceedings. It is worthy of note that,
although many foreigners have been present from time to time at public
executions, occasionally when the "lingering death" has been announced,
not one has established it as a fact beyond a doubt that such a process
has ever been carried out. Not only that; it is also well known that
condemned criminals are allowed to purchase of themselves, or through
their friends, if they have any, spirits or opium with which to fortify
their courage at the last moment. There is indeed a tradition that
stupefying drinks are served out by the officials to the batches of
malefactors as they pass to the execution ground at Peking. It would
still remain to find executioners capable of performing in cold blood
such a disgusting operation as the "lingering death" is supposed to be.
The ordinary Chinaman is not a fiend; he does not gloat in his peaceful
moments, when not under the influence of extreme excitement, over
bloodshed and cruelty.

The generally lenient spirit in which the Penal Code of China was
conceived is either widely unknown, or very often ignored. For instance,
during the excessive summer heats certain punishments are mitigated, and