lue. The penalty for this offence is
transportation to a distance of three thousand _le_--about a thousand
miles; or imprisonment or flogging, according to circumstances. We
question if such an instance as the following ever occurred out of
China:--'A forger of some notoriety having been several times
prosecuted by the bankers, and with but little success, for he still
continued to carry on his malpractices, they conferred together, and
agreed _to take him into their pay_, making him responsible for any
future frauds of the kind. He continues to receive a stipend from them
at the present time, and is one of their most effective safeguards
against further imposition, as it devolves upon him to detect and
apprehend any other offender.'

Most of the bank-notes are printed from copperplates, but some of the
petty dealers still use wooden blocks. They are longer and narrower
than ours, and have a handsomely engraved border, within which are
paragraphs laudatory of the ability or reputation of the firm. The
notes are of three kinds: for cash, dollars, and sycee. The first are
from 400 cash (1s. 3d. sterling), to hundreds of thousands, and are
largely circulated in all the smaller business transactions. The
dollar-notes, varying from a unit to 500, and, in some instances, to
1000, circulate among the merchants, their value continually
fluctuating with that of the price of the silver which they represent.
The sycee-notes are from one to several hundred _taels_ (ounces), and
are chiefly confined to the government offices, to avoid the trouble
and inconvenience of making payments in silver by weight. Whatever be
the value or denomination of the notes, the holder is at liberty to
demand payment of the whole whenever he pleases, and receives it
without abatement, as the banker makes his profit at the time of their
issue. When notes are lost, payment is stopped, as here, and they are
speedily traced, as it is the practice not to take notes of a high
value--say, 100 dollars--without first inquiring at the bank as to
their genuineness. But no indemnification is made for notes lost or
destroyed by accident. Promissory-notes are the chief medium of
interchange among merchants, who take ten days' grace on all bills,
except those on which is written the word 'immediate.'

The rates of interest are, on lands and houses, from 10 to 15 per
cent.; on government deposits, which the people are made to take at
times against their will, 8 per c