A remarkable instance of this power of use, to enable us to bear
hardships, and even blows, occurs among the Chinese. It appears, from
the accounts of travellers, that there are men in China who make it
their trade, being properly feed for it, to receive the bastinadoes in
the room of those who are sentenced to it by the Mandarin; in the same
manner as there are men about the Courts of Law in this Country, ready
to bail upon any occasion. As the bastinado is inflicted on the spot,
while the Mandarin is dispatching other business, the thing is to bribe
the Officer who is to superintend the operation: the real Culprit then
slips out of the way; the man who is to do duty for him comes forth,
suffers himself to be tied down to the ground, and receives the
bastinado; which is laid on in such earnest, that a fresh man, or
executioner, is employed after every ten or twenty strokes.