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    September 10, 1853.] THE LEADER. 883

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    UNNOTICED EKROKS OF THE "VESTIGES." Vest...

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    History Of The Chinese Rebellion. Is Ins...

    to have the chest opened in his presence ; when , in the place of his ingots of gold ' lie found nothing but flints and pieces of stone wrapped carefully up in silky paper The coolies were audacious thieves , who had dexterously contrived the substitution ' The Viceroy , in a transport of rage , set all the police on the alert ^ but without avail . The thieves had doubtless taken refuge in the country of the rebels , \ yhero both their persons and their booty were in safety . " . " : Here is one for the advocates o ^ capitaL punishment : '— - . " . ' A CHINESE EXECUTION . « 'On the 1 st of May / he writes , 'I attended an execution with three of my friends . The street in which these frightful scenes occur , is situated , as you are aware , without the walled city of Canton , towards that part of the suburbs which

    lies to the south along the river . This narrow , dirty street , which is about 100 metres long and 15 wide , is called by the Europeans , the ' Potter ' s Field . ' All the houses on each side are in fact inhabited by workmen who make common services of porcelain , and those portable furnaces which you have often seen in the poorest houses , and in the floating residences on the river . For fear that a Chinese scholar like you may dispute names with me , I must tell you at once that this dismal place is called by the natives , Tsien-Tze-Ma-Teou , or , the Quay of the Thousand Characters / in allusion to the numerous signs which are seen there from the river . " < We arrived there at ten o ' clock in the morning , and took our station in front of a shop belonging to a mender of old stockings . This was an excellent position to take a survey of the whole ceremony , and we remained there quietly till noon ; at which time some soldiers and officers attached to the service of the mandarins

    arrived , to clear the street and thrust back the curious . As in Europe , the persons who came to see the spectacle were the vilest ; dregs of the populace , —dirty , ragged people , with sinister countenances , who wandered about this ensanguined soil ; where most likely they had already seen the execution of a number of their companions , and perhaps of their accomplices " 'In a short time the roll of the tam-tyn announced to us the arrival of the whole procession . Mandarins of every degree , with the red , white , blue , or yellow ball , riding on horseback , or carried in palanquins , and followed by an escort of musicians , sbirri , and standard-bearers , alighted at a short distance from the place of execution . Contrary to their ceremonious habits , they arranged themselves in the dismal enclosure .

    "' Then arrived the criminals . They were fifty-three in number , each shut up in a basket , with his hands tied behind his back , his legs chained , and a board inscribed with his sentence hanging from his neck . You have often met in the Chinese streets a pair of coolies carrying a pig stretched out at its full length in a bamboo case . Well , just imagine a human being put in the place of the unclean animal , and you can form an idea of the fifty-three unfortunate creatures in their cages . When the cages were set down , they were opened and emptied , just as when a pig is turned out at a butcher ' s shop . I examined these unfortunate wretches with attention : they were worn out with hunger , and looked more like skeletons than , living beings . It was evident that they had suffered the most dreadful privations . They were clothed in loathsome tatters , wore long hair , and the dishevelled tail attached to the crown of the head , had been reduced to a third of its usual length . They had evidently belonged to the insurgent bands , who had adopted the fashion of the Mings , and allowed all their hair to grow .

    Many of these unfortunate persons were very young : some were not sixteen years of age ; while others had gray hair . Scarcely were they thrown on tho ground pell-mell , when they were compelled to kneel ; but the greater part of them were so debilitated from suffering , that they could not keep in this position , and rolled in the rand . An executioner ' s assistant then picked them up , and arranged them all in a row ; while three executioners placed themselves behind them and waited the fatal moment . You , doubtless , recollect those horrible figures whom we have often seen together in the cortege of the criminal judge of Canton —those figures dressed in a red blouse , and wearing a copper crown , adorned above the ears with two long pheasant ' s feathers . Well ! these were the executioners who now wiiited the signal with a rude and heavy cutlass in their hands . •' These enormous weapons are about two feet long , and the buck of the blade is two inches tliick : altogether it is a cumbrous instrument , shaped like a Chinese razor , with a r « do handle of wood .

    ' 'A mandarin who closed the cortege then entered tho enclosure . He was utorned with the white ball , and held in his hand n board , inscribed with tho order lov execution . As soon as this man appeared the frightful work began . Tho executioner ' s assistants , each clothed in : v long black robe , and wearing a sort of 'WHl-dress-of iron wiekor-work , seized the criminals behind , and passing their arms intler the shoulders of their victims , gave them a swinging- movement , which made 'e m stretch out their necks . Tho executioner , who was now in front , holding . his sword

    m Loth hands , threw all hi * strength into the weapon , and divided tho cervjcnl vertebras with incredible rapidity , severing tho head from tho body at n single >< w Tho executioner never had to striko twice ; for oven if tho flesh wan not t j > mpletely Cll <; through , tho weight was sufficient to tear it , and the head rolled on otT 5 - " '" Au aK - siHtll "t then levelled the victim with a kick , Cor tho corpse would ^ wnviKo havo remained in a kneeling position .. After three or four decapitations , ^ » e executioner changed his weapon ; tho edge- of tho blade seeming completely ' "ilTiir Th ° oxwnitio" of these fifty-threo wretches only lasted koiug minutes .

    na tl , tll ° 1 : isfc il 0 ll ( l Im > 1 ' " " He " , tho mandarins retired from the scene as silent on \ ^ eoine . Seeing the highest provincial officers present at tho execution hor ' -Tr "" fortuilIlto mon > J Wll « "truck with tho reflection that in all countries—Iho 1 MI | y- ~ tllc Political Hcanold has been elevated instead of degraded . After th ,. ¦ 'T ' ° f tl 10 llmn ( larmH > ill ( J executioner picked up all the heads , and threw tho ! V" a ClU"St l > ronffllfc for tll ° P ««* POS « - A < : tho same time the assistants took awn J i "T ( , th ° victil » s ns ilu 'J Kv » " « P ™» 1 of blood . The heads were carried « « A i lu )( lio » wuro left on tho place of execution . liuir lnil "' « il > Ie Hcono then commenced . A troop of women with dinhevelled Vmtr ° tho lutftl H ] wiam >' U ) ldll tf aloud , in wild disorder . These unhappy \\\ i WOr ° olMl « "vourinto distinguish their fatherstheir liuwbandsami their ' ¦¦¦¦ ifjnirni uiuni iiiiiuuih wieu

    ' vn . B , , <« hil (| v •••« ) , i / iien iiiujimnu . ; , aim - nhou ! ° " ' '""" " ^ ° ^ wmUwss eorp . ws . It was a frightful scene to see them hurrying «« Hvh ! ¦ " ' IUUl W ) IIHtnntly >»«« t » k « n mtiMlsfc these headless remains . This niiiHri fti " !! V ld " ' a (; coll'l > ' »» i < : d by a mournful noise ; funeral dirges l > ein K «' lmn ( - W CniiH mid sobs " Tho wom «» nev « r conned repenting thut kind of ti nio of Vi """™ "ll iHlierHl ^ reinonies , and which was composed , it is miid , in tho « onHt-ii » n Mll ^ rfJ- Tti w «»» rt of rhythmical plaint , in which the sumo worth Vou rS '' ^" m , ' - ' * lnirior -V ! Oh , despair ! My happinc . ™ in gone for ever ! nil r : ' T " ° P ° W ) ft 0 " ' bill «"'«« H oVMlo I Alone and bereaved of * can only woep mid dio over your jihIicb ! ' nud mo on ' "

    September 10, 1853.] The Leader. 883

    September 10 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 883

    Unnoticed Ekroks Of The "Vestiges." Vest...

    UNNOTICED EKROKS OF THE "VESTIGES . " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation . Tenth Edition . Churchill [ FOURTH ARTICLE . ] The Vestiges has been attacked frequently enough ; both its facts and its conclusions have roused polemic ardour . Where these attacks hare had some reason , the author has admitted them , and either modified or defended his positions . We are about to break new ground , and to point out what appear to us errors Far more serious than a mis-stated fact , or a misapplied illustration . Wo hope to do so with the courtesy of sincere respect ; with the vigour of admiring antagonism , which will not let us mince phrases .

    The primary error—npan-ov iftevSos—of the Hypothesis set forth in the Vestiges , as our readers will have perceived from previous remarks , is tho quiet assumption of Nature's growth and development being a preordained " Plan . " This is an assumption . It is a metaphysical assumption , and as such unwarrantable in a work which professes to explain all things by " Natural Law . " It is an assumption contradicted at every step , both by metaphysics and by fact . It is an assumption , for what can the author lenow of Providence and

    " pre-ordained designs" which can induce him to say , for example , that the " Acarus Crossii was a type of being ordained from the beginning , and destined to be realized under certain physical conditions ? " Unless he have some revelation to assure him , he can have no authority for such a statement . All that observed facts and deduced inferences , permit us to say , ( admitting , which we do not , the experiment of Mr . Crosse to be decisive , ) is that the Acarus is formed under certain conditions—but not a word of pre-ordained type ! The same tacit assumption of a knowledge of the " ways of Providence" is noticeable in this sentence : —

    "Amongst the arrangements of Providence is one for the production of original , inventive , and aspiring minds , which , when circumstances are not decidedly unfavourable , strike out new ideas for the benefit of their fellow-creatures , or put upon them a lasting impress of their own superior sentiments . " The theologian may say so with perfect consistency , for he claims to hnoio the ways of Providence ( in spite of their declared inscrutability ) , but the philosopher who takes his stand on Science and Natural Law must not be allowed such language . Having assumed that this universe does not live its own life , but lives

    a life " planned" for it—every change being " pre-ordained , " every movement " forethought " - —the author passes on to the assumption that this Plan is realized in a long , slow process of " gestation ; " that just as tho microscopic cell which is subsequently to be developed into an animal , passes through various successive forms , all determined by Natural Law , so does this universe advance through the stages of its gestation , the final stage being " contained" in the primal stage , pre-existent , preordained , requiring only time for development .

    " The proposition determined on after much consideration is , that the several series of animated beings , from the simplest and oldest tip to the highest and most recent , are , under the providence of God , the results , first , of an impulse which has been imparted to the forms of life , advancing them , in definite times , by generation , through grades of organization terminating in the highest dicotyledons and vertebrata , these grades being few in number , and generally marked by intervals of organic character which we find to be a practical difficulty in ascertaining

    affinities ; second , of another impulse connected with the vital forces , tending in the course of generations , to modify organic structures in accordance with external circumstances , as food , the nature of the habitat and tho meteoric agencies , theso being tho ' adaptations' of the natural theologian . We may contemplate these phenomena as ordained to take place in every situation , and at every time , where and when the requisite materials and conditions are presented—in other orbs as well as in this—in any geographical area of this gloho which may at any tinio arise—observing only the variations duo to diilerenco of materials and of conditions . "

    Elsewhere : —• " Two principles are thus seen nt work in tho production of the organic tennntfl of tho earth—first , a gestativo development pressing on through the grades of organization , and bringing out particular organs necessary for new fields of existence ; secondly , a variativo power connected with the will and dispositions in animals , re-acted upon by external conditions , and working to minor ellects , though these may sometimes bo hardly distinguishable from the other . Everywhere along tho central scaio of or ganization , the land has been , as it were , a temptation or provocation to new and Hiiperior forms adapted for inhabiting it . We might almost regard the progression as tho result of an aspiration towards new and superior fields of existence , as from the deep sea to tho shallow or river embouchure , from the shore to the bank , from that again to the higher ground in tho interior . "

    Now , this appears to ua as metaphysical an assumption as any of thoso final causes of which metuphyaicians nro bo prodigal . It is ' moreover singularly unfortunato in an author who admits the modern embryologiwil doctrine of Epigonesia , and rejects * tho old doctrine of Involution . It ia also singularly inappropriate to the tank of explaining phenomena , and leads him into Htrango errors when he attempts that task ; indeed , wo find it difficult to convey an idea of tho impreHHiou made on xih by orio Bontenco in his book , — -that , mimely , where he upealcH of " rudimentary organs being harmless peculiarities of development and interesting evidences of tho manner in which the ' Divine Author linn been ' pleased to work . " Such a sentenco from one who had studied embryology would bo Htarlling , but from one who holds the development hypothesis it is inconceivable .

    Connected with this metaphysical aberration —forming , indeed , an integral part of tho author ' s hypothesis—is another on Time , so frequently adduced as a positive clement m development . Without having recourse to atiy Kantian negation of Time us an objective existence , it will be easy to show that Time being an 'Universal condition , mnnot become special—¦ in plainer language , that Timo can Imvo nothing whatever to do in this hypothesis . When wo say it requires time for falling water to wear away a stone , wo do not mulco Timo \ sx \ clement in tho oU ' cct of . friction ;

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10091853/page/19/