Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/104

addressed to the Emperor Kiaking (1766-1820) a remonstrance against his attachment to play-actors and strong drink. Kiaking, much incensed, summoned the official to his presence, and angrily demanded what penalty would be fitting for the author of such a document. Sung answered, "Death by the slicing process." Being ordered to select some other punishment, he said, "Let me be beheaded," and being again required to choose, he named "strangling." The Emperor ultimately appointed him to be Governor of Ili, thus rewarding his probity while placing him beyond the reach of exercising it inconveniently. Naturally the censors do not largely avail themselves of their liberty to reprove members of the imperial family, preferring rather criticisms of officials whose acts seem to call for public censure. Emperor Taou-kwang's (1820-1850) definition of a censor's functions is generally quoted as comprehensive and intelligent: "The Censors are allowed to tell me the reports they hear, to speak plainly about any defect or impropriety they may observe in the monarch himself. But they are not permitted to employ their pencils in writing memorials which are filled with vague surmises and mere probabilities or suppositions. This could only fill my mind with doubt and uncertainty, and I should not know what men to employ. Were such a spirit indulged the detriment to government would be serious." The Censorate is under two presidents, one a Manchu