numbers burnt into the concealed end, from which the customer draws;
at another stall dice are thrown into an earthenware bowl, and so on.
Every hungry coolie would rather take his chance of getting nothing at
all, with the prospect of perhaps obtaining three times his money's
worth, than buy a couple of sausage-rolls and satisfy his appetite in
the legitimate way. The worst feature of gambling in China is the
number of hells opened publicly under the very nose of the magistrate,
all of which drive a flourishing trade in spite of the frequent
_presents_ with which they are obliged to conciliate the venal
official whose duty it is to put them down. To such an extent is the
system carried that any remissness on the part of the keepers of these
dens in conveying a reasonable share of the profits to his honour's
treasury, is met by _a brutum fulmen_ in the shape of a proclamation,
setting forth how "it having come to my ears that, regardless of law,
and in the teeth of my frequent warnings, certain evil-disposed
persons have dared to open public gambling-houses, be it hereby made
known," &c., &c., the whole document being liberally interspersed with
allusions to the men of old, the laws of the reigning dynasty, and
filial piety _a discretion_. The upshot of this is that within
twenty-four hours after its appearance his honour's wrath is appeased,
and croupiers and gamblers go on in the same old round as if nothing
whatever had happened.




JURISPRUDENCE

Law,[*] as we understand the term, with all its paradoxes and
refinements, is utterly unknown to the Chinese, and it was absolutely