emperor of China are eunuchs, who, alone, are charged with the protection and police of the interior of the place, where he is domesticated with his wives and children.

The emperor hath power of life and death over all his subjects. His will is the sole law, and his commands admit not the least dispute or delay. He is, indeed, obliged to govern according to law, and to consult his courts* in important matters; but as he is the uncontrolled interpreter of the former, and bears absolute sway over the latter, the whole government depends on his will. It is despotic in theory, but in practice, is generally mild, and well administered. The crown is hereditary; but the reigning emperor may name his successor from any branch he pleases. In consequence of his numerous wives and concubines, he generally has an ample range from which he may make his choice. The honours paid him are little short of adoration. He is never approached but with prostration, nor spoken to but on bended knees. In all affairs of moment, he consults his supreme councils, and generally decides according to their advice. Of these councils, there are two: the extraordinary, consisting of princes of the blood, and a number of ministers of state. Besides these councils, and in subordination to them, are six tribunals for civil, and five for military affairs; each of which has its particular province and business assigned, in such a manner, that they are a check upon one another.

Nothing can be more magnificent than the imperial court,

* There are two sovereign councils. The first consists of princes of the blood; the second of the public ministers. There are also six sovereign tribunals. The first has the inspection of the mandarins and magistrates of the empire; the second attends to matters of finance; the third to ecclesiastical ceremonies; the fourth to the military force; the fifth to criminal causes; the sixth to public works. The members of these councils remain in office no longer than three years, and can never be natives of the province where they officiate, lest if they be of mean descent, they be despised, and if rich, they be too well respected, or become too powerful. This is esteemed one of their wise maxims in politics; and to this may be added another, equally just and salutary, namely: never to sell any of the public employments, but to confer them on persons of merit, learning, and probity; and to allow the functionaries sufficient stipends, by which they may be enabled to discharge their duty, and administer justice without fear, or bribery.

especially when the monarch goes abroad. He appears on horseback, the harness covered with gold tissue, and glittering with the richest variety of precious stones. The umbrella held over his head, which covers him and his horse, sparkles with diamonds, so that the eye can hardly bear their lustre. After him follow all the tributary kings, princes of the blood, 200 mandarins and ministers of the first rank, 2000 commanders of his army, 500 youth of quality, attended each by two footmen, dressed in silk richly embroidered with gold and silver.

When the emperor goes out to take the diversion of hunting, he is attended with an army of 40,000 men, stationed at proper distances along the road; 3,000 archers, and a party of men bearing lances, riding before and after him. His revenue has been computed by Niewhoff at about 37,000,000 of pounds sterling in money, besides immense quantities of grain, salt, hay, silks, calicoes, linen, velvet, China ware, varnish, oil, oxen, sheep, hogs, deer, fowl, fish, and all sorts of provisions, which are paid in kind for the support of his household. These are levied on the subjects as particular duties on their respective lands.

The emperor is allowed many wives, but only one is empress, who sits at table with him. Of these wives, nine are of the second rank, and thirty of the third. Next to his wives, are his concubines, in the number of which he is not restricted. With respect to their children, the offspring of the lowest rank stands as good a chance as those of the highest, to succeed to the empire; for the emperor, as already stated, has the sole right of naming his successor. As soon as this is done, the children readily submit, but are all handsomely provided for. The emperor's palace, his hall of audience for the reception of ambassadors, and his throne, are all superlatively magnificent; but a particular description of them would be tedious and uninteresting to the plain citizens of the United States.

The punishments in the Chinese government, are either capital, corporal, or pecuniary. Rebellion and treason being esteemed the greatest of all crimes, are punished by cutting

the criminal in pieces. The next crime to rebellion is that against parents. If a father charges his son before a magistrate, no farther proof is required; and the criminal is immediately condemned and executed, though it be for disobedience or disrespect; but if it amounts to mockery, insult, or inflicting a blow, the criminal is condemned to be cut to pieces, and afterwards burnt. Murder is likewise punished with death. If a man kills his adversary in a duel, he is strangled; if by assassination, he is beheaded. Theft is punished by the bastinado or pillory. There are certain enormities for which the offenders are burnt on the forehead, or the cheeks, with a Chinese character, expressive of the crime. To extort confession, the hands or feet are put into an engine, capable of crushing the bones into a paste. The Chinese prisons are capacious, airy, and sweet. The women are confined in a separate court, to which no man is admitted.

No advocates or attornies are allowed in China. Every man is his own lawyer, unless he procures some friend to draw up his case. This he presents in writing to an officer who carries it to the tribunal, where it is examined by the judges. If the suit proves to be frivolous, or vexatious, or cannot be supported, the plaintiff is commonly sent home with a sound drubbing; but if his plea be just, or well supported, the defendant is sent for, and obliged to appear in person, and make his defence. Either party, if dissatisfied with the sentence, may appeal to a superior court; and whether they do or not, the judge is obliged to transmit an account of every such trial to the next superior court to be revised, and either confirmed or reversed. If the sentence be evidently unjust, the superior court is obliged not only to do justice to the injured party, but to punish the inferior judge. It would be natural to conclude, that this institution would banish fraud and corruptions from these tribunals; but the higher classes prey so extensively on the lower, that a plaintiff has but an indifferent chance, let his claim be ever so just, if he does not strengthen it with such bribes as may turn the scale in his favour. Notwithstanding all these discouragements, the people in some districts are very litigious.

Free schools are very common in China. In these, the sons of the poor are as easily received, and as faithfully instructed, as those of the rich. From these obscure sources talents often spring which make a distinguished figure on the grand stage of life. It is not uncommon in China to see the son governor of a province in which his father long toiled in cultivating a few acres.

In this vast empire a descriptive register is kept of all the people, by families, districts, and provinces, comprehending every individual. By means of these registers it is easy to ascertain the particular situation of families and individuals, in all the variety of their circumstances. They enable the government to determine what succours are necessary in years of scarcity; to know the state of agriculture and of manufactures, and how far they can be advantageously extended. The government has also an accurate and minute account of all the lands in each district-of their products and different degrees of fertility. Public magazines are erected, and also furnished with provisions necessary for relieving the distresses of the people in public calamities. Memorials are presented to the emperor by the different tribunals in the various departments of state, in which plans are proposed for promoting the happiness of the people. Such as are approved by him, are delivered for execution to the department to which they properly belong.

The country is cut up into an infinity of islands, or peninsulas, by canals. These are all projected, constructed, and repaired by government, so as to give all parts of the empire cheap and easy means of transportation. These canals are of different sizes. Some of them are very large; but in general they are from twenty to thirty yards in breadth, and of them are bordered with cut stone. many

The modern Tartarian masters of China, as above remarked, made no material change. They submitted to the laws and customs of the conquered, and were content with reforming abuses. China gained much by being conquered. Peace was restored to her borders. The only hostile neighbours she previously had, became her friends and subVOL. II.

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jects, under the name of her conquerors, though really no more than a new dynasty of sovereigns. The Tartars have never yet given any emperors unworthy of governing this immense empire. Whatever faults are discovered, are not to be imputed to them, but to the system of government, which, like all others, where the people have no voice, is radically unsound: it is, nevertheless, generally well adminis

tered.

OF THE LEARNING, ARTS, SCIENCES, LANGUAGE, &c. OF THE CHINESE.

THE Chinese boast of having made great progress in the arts at very remote periods of their monarchy. Were this true, they must have gone backwards, instead of advancing, on the hill of science. The Europeans derived their knowledge from the Greeks and Romans, long after the establishment of the Chinese monarchy; yet when the Jesuit missionaries, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, visited China, they were confessedly far superior to the most learned natives, in every branch of literature.

The Chinese were so struck with the surprising experiments shewn to them by the missionaries, in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, statics, catoptrics, and perspective, as well as at their clocks, watches, organs, and instruments for navigation, astronomy and mechanics, that they considered the whole as the effect of enchantment. The emperor Kanghi, in particular, was so delighted with their machines and experiments, that he seemed to lament every moment he was absent from them, and continued the friend and benefactor of the missionaries as long as he lived. In a short time, many of the native literati and nobles became their disciples, admirers, and patrons; and by reading their books, hearing their lectures, and assisting at their experiments, became proficients in mathematics, mechanics, and every branch of natural philosophy

Though they have expelled all the missionaries out of the empire, yet the natives cultivate what they learned from them, and teach it in all their academies. The calculation of eclipses is made a part of the duty of public officers. Information