Chinese dynasty, viz., that of Sung (A.D. 964), and he exclaimed, "It is my duty to deliver the people of this region." A prodigy was seen by the people of Canton, "all the stars flowed to the north," and the ensuing year they obtained peace and tranquillity.

At this period Canton appears to have been in a very barbarous state; and, in the estimation of the government, was excessively addicted to sorcery and superstition. Hence (A.D. 980) government " prohibited the superstitious practices on the south of the mountain," and threw down their "superstitious temples." Yin (superstitious) usually denotes "lewd,"—whether lewdness formed a part of their rites is not certain.

Another prohibition was,—not to "kill men to sacrifice to demons.' Thus it appears that not more than 800 years ago human sacrifices were offered in China; and report says that, even to the present day, the makers of porcelain purchase a child which they devote to be burnt in a new made furnace. At the period now referred to, witches and wizards were prohibited; and dispensaries of medicine were established to relieve the sufferers from the noxious damp diseases, much spoken of in the history of that period. The Sung dynasty, at its commencement, appears to have studied much the welfare of Canton. It forbade expeditions against Cochin-China, reprobating the idea of distressing the people from a mere covetous desire of useless territory It caused the city of Canton to be walled in; and when the Cochin-Chinese pillaged the western side of the province, they did not venture to lay siege to Canton.

It was subsequently harassed by internal rebellions, and by attacks from contending dynasties. In the first Tartar conquest it suffered much; and their historians dare not yet tell what it suffered in the conquest made by the reigning family. Tradition says that two-thirds of the inhabitants perished.

About 1397, "Ho-tsaug," "burning funeral rites" were prohibited; i. e., burning the corpse instead of interring it. This is, however, the present practice of the Buddha priests in China. The same authority also forbade the use of the terms created by the preceding Tartar dynasty, viz., "Gods of the west, east, and north seas"-retaining only the "God of the southern sea."

About A.D. 1500, the pirates of Canton joined with the Japanese pirates, and committed depredations on the coast; and frequent insurrections are recorded, some of which lasted for ten years at a time, which, together with banditti of robbers, must have greatly distressed the peaceable inhabitants. It was in these troublesome times, during the reign of Kea-tsing, who ascended the throne in 1520, that Europeans first visited China by sea.

Chinese annalists close by saying, that during the last years of the Ming dynasty, when anarchy generally prevailed, the sufferings of the people were inexpressible; but the temporary blaze of an expiring flame naturally precedes its eternal extinction; and the flame of discord blazed awhile, till the rising Tartar family that now reigns extinguished it for ever, and introduced a never-ending tranquillity!

GENERAL REMARKS

ON THE

GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF CHINA.

THE Chinese government is, nominally at least, patriarchal. The authority of a parent over his children is the type of the imperial rule. The Emperor claims to be the father of his subjects, exercising an influence over the minds of his people in the promotion of virtue and the encouragement of talent. The Chinese have a saying-" A prince is like a vessel, the people like water; the water is moulded by the shape of the vessel."

As such, the Emperor exercises supreme, absolute, unchecked power over more than one-third of the human race. He has but to sign the decree, and any one of three hundred and fifty millions of human beings is instantly deprived of rank, possessions, liberty, or life itself. This is a stupendous system, a phenomenon unmatched in the annals of time, and worthy to engage the profound attention of statesmen and philosophers. The subjects of the Macedonian were but as a handful compared with the teeming millions of Eastern Asia; the Roman empire, when at its widest extent, numbered not more than one-third of the present population of China; and the throne of the Cæsars was, in the power it conferred upon its occupant, but as a child's elevation in comparison with that on which the Tartar sits. Even the British empire, vast as it is, and extending into all regions of the globe, does not contain more than one hundred and eighty-one millions of souls. We can but glance at a few of the details of this system, and the causes which have given it stability.

At the head of the system stands, of course, the Emperor. His titles are, the "SON OF HEAVEN," and the "TEN THOUSAND YEARS." In an official document received by the Governor-General of Bengal from the general of the Chinese forces, the Emperor is styled, "THE FLOWER

OF THE IMPERIAL RACE, THE SUN OF THE FIRMAMENT OF Honour, the RESPLENDENT GEM IN THE CROWN AND THRONE OF THE CHINESE TERRITORIES." Of this august personage it was said by a Tartar, over-powered by the glories of the Emperor (A. D. 1060),-" The sovereign of China is a manifestation of the sun in the Heavens."

Ubiquity is considered as among his attributes; (temples are erected to him in every part of the empire: and he is worshipped as a god. Yet he sometimes styles himself "the imperfect man," and his ordinary dress is far from splendid. While the grand mandarins that compose his court, glitter in gold and diamonds, he appears in a plain and simple garb. Nevertheless, no means are omitted to keep up the prestige of his majesty. The outer gate of the imperial palace cannot be passed by any person whatsoever, in a carriage or on horseback. There is a road between Pekin and the Emperor's summer residence in Tartary, wide, smooth, level, and always cleanly swept, on which no one but himself is permitted to travel. At the palace, a paved walk leads to the principal hall of audience, which is never pressed but by imperial feet. Despatches from the Emperor are received in the provinces with prostrations and the burning of incense. Sir George Staunton records an instance of the august dread with which the Chinese regard their sovereign in the following anecdote; -"In the beginning of this journey," says he one of the ambassador's guards died of a surfeit, as was supposed, of fruit. His death happened in one of the Emperor's palaces; but such is the extraordinary delicacy of the people in everything relating to their dread sovereign, that it was contrary to rule to have allowed any person to breathe his last within the imperial precincts. The conductors, therefore, of the ambassador, directed the corpse of this European to be carried from thence in a sedan, as if still alive; and his death was announced at some distance upon the road." The succession is at the absolute disposal of the Emperor. Instances have occurred, though they are rare, in which persons not connected with the imperial family have been named. The immediate assistants of the Emperor are

66

I. The Nuy-ko. This is the great council of state. The chief councillors are four, two Tartars and two Chinese. Besides these there are several others of inferior rank, who, in conjunction with them, constitute the council. Almost all the members of the Nuy-ko are selected from the imperial college of the Hânlin.

II. The Keun-ke-tâ-chin. This is a body of privy councillors. III. The Luh-poo, or six boards for conducting the details of public business. They are,

1. The Board of Appointments, having cognizance of the conduct of all civil officers.

2. The Board of Revenue, whose duties extend to all fiscal

matters.

3. The Board of Rites and Ceremonies, which keeps watch and ward over the public morals, and has controul over the fashions in China.

4. The Military Board, charged with the affairs of the army

and navy.

5. The Supreme Court of Criminal Jurisdiction.

6. The Board of Public Works.

IV. The Le-fân-yuen, or Office for Foreign Affairs. Its duties embrace all the external relations of the empire. The members of the Le-fân-yuen are always Mongol or Mwan-chow Tartars.

V. The Too-cha-yuen. This is a body of censors, forty or fifty in number. They are sent into different parts of the empire as imperial inspectors, which means spies. By an ancient custom, they are at liberty to give any advice to their master without the hazard of losing their life; but blunt honesty is not often relished by the great from any quarter, and unpalatable remonstrances have sometimes cost their authors the favour in which they had before basked.

The provinces are governed each by a chief magistrate, entitled Fooyuen, or two together are under the government of a Tsung-tŭh, who has Foo-yuens under him. Canton and Kwâng-se are subject to a Tsungtuh, called by Europeans, the Viceroy of Canton. The governors of the provinces have, subordinate to them, an army of civil magistrates amounting to fourteen thousand. No individual is permitted to hold office in the province where he was born; and public functionaries interchange places periodically, to prevent the formation of a too intimate connection with the people under their government. A quarterly publication is made, by authority, of the name, birth-place, &c., of every official person in the empire; and once in three years a report is sent up to the Board of Official Appointments, by the foo-yuen of each province, containing the names of all the officers in his government, and a full statement concerning their conduct and character, received from the immediate superiors of each. Every officer is held to a strict responsibility for the good behaviour and fidelity of all who are under him. Letters are held in higher esteem than arms, and the civil officers of course outrank the military. This may be set down to their credit, as it is certainly a mark of social advancement.

No man in China inherits office, nor does hereditary rank enjoy much consideration or influence. This fact is placed in a strong light by the following anecdote, related by Sir George Staunton, secretary to Lord Macartney's embassy. Among the presents for the Emperor was a volume of portraits of the British nobility. That the inspection of

them might be more satisfactory to his majesty, a mandarin was employed to mark, in Chinese characters, on the margin, the names and rank of the persons represented. When he came to the print of an English duke, from a portrait taken in childhood, and was told that the original was a Ta-jin, or "great man," of very high rank, he had so little conception of a child's being qualified, by hereditary right, to be possessed of such a dignity, that he gave a look of surprise, and laying down his pencil exclaimed, that he could not venture to describe him in that manner, for the Emperor knew very well how to distinguish a great man from a boy.

The penal code of China is an interesting subject. If we go upon the principle of judging the tree by its fruits, and look at this code in connection with its results, we shall be compelled to allow that it is wisely framed and efficiently administered. It is lucidly arranged under six principal divisions, corresponding to the six boards above described. It is not needful to enumerate the several heads of chapters embraced in these divisions. The principal defects of the code, in the opinion of Mr. Davis, are

"1. A constant meddling with those relative duties which had better be left to other sanctions than positive laws.

"2. A minute attention to trifles, contrary to the European maxim, 'de minimis non curat lex.'

"3. An occasional indulgence in those vague generalities, by which the benefits of a written code are in a great measure annulled.

"A prominent feature of the Chinese criminal law is the marked and unrelenting severity with which it punishes treason, not only in the person of the traitor, but in those of his unoffending offspring, even the suckling at the breast. The whole are cut off at one fell blow! It is impossible to read the recital of some of these punishments, so abhorrent to humanity and justice, without a sentiment of indignation as well as of sympathy."

The most common instrument of punishment is the bamboo, the dimensions of which are exactly defined. The number of blows, attached gradatim with such precision to every individual offence, answers the purpose of a scale or measurement of the degrees of crime; and this punishment being often commutable for fine or otherwise, the apparent quantity of flagellation is of course greater than the real. The next punishment is the "kea," or cangue, which has been called the wooden collar, being a species of walking pillory, in which the prisoner is paraded, with his offence inscribed. It is sometimes worn for a month together, and as the hand cannot be put to the mouth, the wearer must be fed by others. After this comes banishment to some place in China, and