On the 15th instant, the Imperial commissioners received a despatch from the Emperor, approving of their proceedings, but degrading Governor Le. Peacock's feathers, rings, &c., in profusion, have been sent down for the meritorious; among whom we observe the name of Ko-tse-tsin, who was lately at Macao, as the "Casa branca Mandarine,"—the Hae-fang Tung-che, or guardian of the coast. This little man, is by descent, one of the Yaou-jin, lately in rebellion; and Governor Le sent him up, expressly to do the needful. His death has been reported, but the report now appears to have been untrue.
Two legal judges, Yang and King, sent up to the highlands, have so acted that their merits and demerits balanced each other; therefore the commissioners requested that they might be passed over.
Thus the war has ended, as almost all wars do—in Europe, all parties (excepting a few slain, degraded, &c.,) returning to the state they were in before the war. The mountaineers have agreed to stay at home, and the imperialists have agreed not to go among the hills to extirpate them.
Governor Le, immediately after his disgrace, having delivered up to He-ngan the seals of office, set out on his journey to Peking; where, on his arrival, he is to be put on trial before the Hing-poo, or tribunal of punishments. His family left Canton for their home in Keang-se, on the 15th instant.
The Village Tyrant.—A case which has lately excited considerable attention, and been matter of much talk in Canton, is that of Ye-mung-che, a Peking officer; who, by his pride and profligacy, has brought himself to an untimely end. On the 27th of the 4th moon, the Fooyuen Choo sat in person on his trial, and sentence of death has been passed on him, but has not yet received the Imperial sanction.
Ye-mung-che (or, as the first syllable of his name signifies, Leaf,) is now in 44th year of his age. In his youth he was a good scholar, and rapidly rose to the highest degree of literary rank. The first and most honorable scene of literary combat, in China, takes place at Peking, in the presence of the Emperor, There Leaf succeeded, and was forthwith appointed to a respectable place in the Board of Revenue; in which situation he remained some years at the capital. Two or three years ago, his mother died; and he, being thereby incapacitated, by law, from holding office, for three years, returned to his native village in Tung-kwan district, accompanied by a Peking servant, whom he brought with him.
Leaf, a clever man, and a treasury secretary from Peking, was a person greatly esteemed and feared in his native village. But he carried his acts of injustice in raising money by intimidation, and his acts of profligacy, on the persons of wives, daughters, and nuns, to such an extreme degree, that scores of accusers have appeared, at Canton against him. His maltreatment of others to gratify his vicious propensities has caused upwards of ten suicides. We have the native details before us, but we decline entering into them minutely. The tyrant Leaf was a terror to all the neighbourhood. The police-men were afraid to attack him. But an old friend of his, the Pwan-yu magistrate, succeeded in betraying him. The magistrate and he were sworn brothers, that is, they had, in Chinese phrase, "exchanged cards." This magistrate went and paid his old friend a cordial visit, and said, "Brother Leaf, there are various charges against you at Canton; go with me, and let us set them to rights." Leaf immediately consented, but as soon as the worshipful magistrate had brought his friend to Canton, he sent a posse of special thief catchers from the Fooyuen's office, who speedily took him into safe custody.
The Kwang-chow-foo magistrate who sat on the trial, was also an old friend of Leaf's.—Leaf denied, positively, every charge, and the magistrate was unwilling to torture him. He therefore said, "Brother Leaf, I wish you would confess, for it will disgrace our whole caste to subject you to the torture." But the prisoner was obstinate. So the magistrate took his Peking servant, who, having been constantly attached to his person, knew all his wicked ways, and tortured him, till he made a most ample confession of the criminal acts of his beloved master.
