out the preliminary provision that rank shall be as knowledge-to all vain endeavours to extract disinterestedness and statesmenship from men educated in conceit, unsociability, and ignorance -to the old and battered hope of plucking grapes from thorns, or figs of thistles. If, in this Western region, there be Nations, on whom, haply, such light hath yet scarce dawned, and if our intercourse with the East must, of necessity, be commenced in jocularity, assuredly the laugh, in the first instance, ought not to be directed against the Chinese!

These practical and imaginative tea-producers do thus not fail in sentiment-or in their concep. tion of what government ought to be. What they fail in is knowledge of the mode by which practice may be made conform to theory. No Simon de Mountford has yet arisen to guide them in the true way, by accident; and no other lucky chance has revealed the power and the mystery of the principle of representation. Without it, there can, of course, be no steadfast or peaceful security, that the constitutional system of appointments be attended to; and, accordingly, the Emperor contrives to introduce as much corruption, as much sheer venality, and as much consequent tyranny, as some of ourselves were wont to witness, during that never-to-be-forgotten epoch of Schedule A, when the members of our Lower House waxed fat on "independence." The practical history of Chinese government is, in truth, nothing other than what the history of such a government would be, under any circumstances, or in any meridian. The emperor corrupts his officers, sells his offices, and fleeces his people, generally to the utmost verge of endurance-which limit is ever and anon overpassed, to the production of revolts, and the risk of his dethronement. This latter rude check is the only check the Chinese know of; but they put it in efficient action. Their annals number upwards of a score of distinct dynasties, all of which-two or three excepted-came to a violent termination from internal causes; and no dynasty, during its existence, has failed to be chastened, purified, and warned, by various and and very salutary rebellions. The notion that the Chinese are a multitude of ignorant and im- | passive slaves, is the merest folly. They are only an exceedingly conservative, because a reflecting people-never acting on impulse-and only constrained to endure a certain modicum of ills, by their ignorance how to amend them. Their attachment to antiquity and to their monarchy, goes nothing farther than this. The whole external configuration of their constitutional law has already been brought into conformity with reason; and they prudently exercise their one rude mode-itself fraught with evil-of checking abuses in practice. Alone, amongst civilized states, have they arrived at this condition; and the true wonder is, not in reference to what they do not know, but to what they have discovered and realized. Let it be remarked, that the civilization of China is wholly indigenous. What it possesses is of home growth; the Chinese live at the extremities of the world, and have enjoyed

none of the benefits of communication. What nation of Europe would have flourished-would even have existed under circumstances so untoward? Besides the ennobling influences of Christianity, there has been poured into the veins of the social frame of England, whatever is lifegiving in the free philosophy of Greece-the stern manhood of Rome, and the chivalrous and elsewhere unknown frankness of the Germans. We were by turns excited by the sight and rumour of Saracenic polish, and wooed to adventure by the tales borne by the mariners who followed Columbus. And still are we collecting into our bosom the wisdom, and experience, and heroism of kindred nations. The heart of our masses still glows with a fire which will never die on the remembrance of the name of Washington; and, at this moment, are we emerging from a Revolution worthy of all sacrifice, but which has cost no blood, save that which flowed on the streets of Paris! But China is all Chinese. Every people, save this off-shoot of the Mongols, has been acted on by so many extraneous impulses, that the character or original determination of the parent-stock, may form no greater a part of its final civilization, than the waters of the infant Mississippi, of that mighty confluence which disembogues into the Ocean. China is thus a wonderful and a solitary phenomenon. Here is a ground which the philosophic historian and the searching annalist have long sighed forwhy, at this late day, does it remain to be explored? Here is an experimentum crucis for the phrenologist-no foreign influences have troubled the civilization before him--it is and must be simply a developement of the native tendencies of the Chinese ; and, in this astonishing social structure--astonishing amid all its imperfections-reared, completed, and preserved in circumstances so unwonted and unpromising, there is distinct and solid proof, that when the mind of that People shall be excited, sharpened, and drawn out by close and constant intercourse with Nations of a different type, they will become in all respects, as they already are in many, one of the most remarkable, and probably of the greatest People of the earth.

But of general speculation enough. We proceed, by assistance of Mr Gutzlaff, to make palpable a few characteristics of the Chinese. If it shall seem that hitherto the British public has done little but misrepresent them, the British public may yet be consoled-we only repay the Chinese in their own coin. Like Greeks, Romans, Englishmen-it is their custom to designate all Nations of whom they know nothing, by the complimentary title of barbarians!

First then, good reader, you shall have a few specimens of energy of various sorts in the Pos. sessors of power. These specimens are given simply that you may be disabused—not that we like them. These are given in proof that Chinese history is not deficient even in that sort of heroes which, until lately, occupied the largest space in our European histories-heroes whose first virtue is wilfulness, and who owe

apotheosis to the intensity-not to the direction of their passions. In private life, that man is greatest who exercises the greatest self-control: in the case of heroes, judgment proceeds on the opposite rule-merit ascending through the degrees of a graduated scale, until it reaches the elevation of that of Rabelais' Gargantua, whose noble accomplishment it was to eat three pilgrims garnished with salad to his breakfast. The Chinese, in sooth, do not admire such heroes with the fervour of Englishmen-paying their unromantic devotions to individuals of a different cast; but the few instances now presented may serve to expel the notion that they are a dull people, fit for nothing of that which our poets have called great-a foolish notion, as will just be seen, foolish even in its wider sense, for the annals of this People contain details of a military service and a military genius, which frequently overcame the deserts and difficult passes of central Asia,-they narrate successful contests with barbarians, whose kindred shot terror through the disciplined hosts of Rome; and, amongst other names worthy of being ranked with an Alexander or a Napoleon, they enrol that of the brave, the generous, and the simple yet princely Kublai.*

The admirers of great men after the type of our Eighth Henry, styled by historians" the most magnificent of monarchs," will doubtless very much admire something of an oriental

similitude of him.

Kee was naturally vicious. He saw the decline of the imperial authority, and endeavoured to chastise the unruly nobles. Yew-she, governor of Mung-shan, saw the tempest approaching; and in order to avert it, gave his daughter, Mo-he, an artful crafty woman, to Kee. Charmed with her appearance, Kee abandoned all thoughts of war. In order to please her, he built a room coated with jasper; all the furniture was adorned with precious stones; and in this place he celebrated the orgies of the most degraded licentiousness. In his court he had piles of meat, and ponds of wine, to which he invited his votaries to indulge in all kinds of excesses. History ought never to have dwelt upon the monstrous debaucheries which were here practised without shame or reluctance. A minister, who remonstrated with his sovereign, was beheaded; upon this, E-yin, another faithful servant, withdrew, which occasioned murmuring throughout the nation. Ching-tang, a descendant of Hwang-te, was highly displeased with the proceedings of his sovereign, who grew daily worse; and with the extreme cruelty with which he treated his subjects. As he held a hereditary barony, that of Shang, of the crown, he afforded an asylum to all the faithful ministers of the emperor, who were forced from the presence of their lord. E-yin advised Ching-tang to dethrone the monster. Ching-tang at first refused, but being overcome by the solicitations of the multitude, he took up arms; protesting, that he was not seeking his own advantage, but only executing the decree of Heaven. The Supreme Emperor, he said, has ejected Kee; I go to punish him for his crimes; cleaved

Kublai was a Mongol; but so are the Chinese. Place the Chinese in Mongolia, and they will speedily take on all the peculiarities of Mongols, dropping those of Chinese; the reverse occurs on the transplantation of the Mongols. Here is visible, and alone in action, the differencing power of circumstances. Facts of the utmost moment might be evolved from this phenomenon by the philosophical annalist. If we can infer from the music and scraps of lays collected by Pallas, the Mongols are highly imaginative-the Chinese seldom exercise any imagina

tion.

But

to me to the last. The two armies coming in sight, Ke suffered a defeat, and surrendered himself to the victor; but feigning repentance, he only prayed that his life might be spared. Ching-tang willingly left him in possession of the throne, and returned to his own principality. Kee promised to reform his past errors. scarcely was he again seated upon the throne, when he relapsed into his former enormities, and threatened to revenge himself upon Tang. But Tang again marching with a numerous army against the faithless monarch, the imperial troops, at the sight of the enemy, throw down their arms and fled. Ke escaped, and, forsaken by the whole world, died an ignominious death in exile, 1766.

The Chinese, we see, did, in the end, put in action the check formerly spoken of; and they are not to be despised because they bore so much, by any one in this country at least, who maketh remembrance of a certain patron of cameleopards. The following goes beyond Henry somewhat. The Garden of Stags!' Who has forgotten Louis the Fifthteenth's celebrated "Parc aux Cerfs?" There is an odd coincidence between the ingenuities of Royal virtue in the West and East! For Chow's other amusements, substitute lettres de cachet, and the dungeons of the Bastile. The likeness will then be closer it is difficult to say which is the most merciful. Chow, however, excels in energy; and his death, as Gutzlaff says, was quite worthy of that of Sardanapalus. Be the check again noticed. Its operation is not laggard in China. To set it a-going in France required another generation.

Chow-sin, the last emperor of this family, ascended the throne in 1134 B. C. He was naturally of a cruel and restless disposition. Being a man of powerful mind and strong passions, he very soon excelled in all kinds of wickedness. The endeavour to put any restraint on his violent passions was without avail; and his vices were rather nourished by Tan-ke, an infamous, but beautiful

woman. moter.

Every vice found in her an advocate and proShe imitated the shameless concubine of Kee, by publicly exhibiting the most abominable scenes of debauchery. There was a garden of stags, splendidly adorned, where these orgies of lust were nightly celebrat ed. But her cruelty was still greater than her licentiousness. Seeing that the court and the whole family had fallen into contempt, she inveighed against the lightness of punishments; and, to remedy the evil, made an iron vessel, which, when heated red-hot, the criminal was obliged to hold in his hands till they were roasted. She also erected a brass pillar, which being greased or daubed with unctuous matter, and made slippery, was laid over a fire. Across this pillar the criminal was compelled to walk, until, after many vain efforts, he fell into the flames, which afforded the greatest delight to Tan-ke.

The emperor Chow was equally ferocious. He ripped up the belly of a female, that he might behold the fœtus in the womb; and with his own hands murdered a lady, who refused to comply with his inordinate desires. On a cold morning, seeing several persons walking over the ice, he thought them very hardy, and ordered their legs to be cut off, that he might inspect the marrow of their bones. Wang-wang, his minister, the father of Woowang, remonstrating against these enormities, was thrown into prison, where he perfected the Yih-king, the symbo lical book of the Chinese. His son, Woo-wang, greatly dejected at the sufferings inflicted on his father, sent a beautiful female to the tyrant, who, captivating him with her charms, procured the liberty of the minister. When several governors had taken up arms to rid themselves of such a monster, Wang-wang opposed their design, and re-established the peace of the empire. Having arrived at a very old age, he called to him Se-pih Fa, his -on, (afterwards Woo-wang,) and said, "I am about to die; re

when the Nation seems passive, fine traits of individual intrepidity break through to lighten the scene, and at the expense of heroic sacrifice to invoke and ensure relief. The following remonstrance was addressed to our friend, as aforegoing-Che-hwang-te:

The exile of his mother, who lived in the utmost wretchedness, roused the minds of some philosophers to expostulate with the prince upon his impiety and unheardof cruelty. "Filial piety," they remarked, "is the first of all virtues, against which you wantonly offend." The emperor, highly indignant at their freedom, prohibited, under pain of death, similar remonstrances; and, in order to shew that he was in earnest, always held a naked sword whenever he gave audience. But notwithstanding this threat, twenty-seven literati, venturing to represent the matter again, were immediately despatched; and in order to strike terror into the people, their limbs were hung up outside the palace. Yet the veneration in which filial piety is held, inspired another intrepid man, called Maou-tsaou, to venture to upbraid the emperor. "A man," he said, "who lives as if he were never to die, a prince who governs as if he could never lose his kingdom, will not long enjoy what he possesses;-the first possesses a life of which he does not know the price, the second an empire which he does not know how to preserve. Be pleased to hear me for one moment." The emperor granted him the request. Maou continued: "You have put to death the pretended father of two children who, being brought forth by your mother, were your brothers. You have most barbarously massacred your nearest kindred, your brethren. You have exiled her to whom you owe your life. Whether or not she has committed those crimes which are imputed to her is not the question; I only wish to point out to you, that a son whom she has nursed in her lap has no right to treat her according to the rigour of the law. You have butchered the sages who exposed your nefarious actions. Can the heinous crimes of the barbarous and voluptuous Kee, and of the ferocious Chow, be compared with yours? They lost the empire; I tremble for you, if you do not hasten to amend your life. This is all I have to tell you, for your own advantage, and I shall die content."

The emperor, struck with the intrepidity of the sage, pardoned his freedom of speech. After having expressed his regret that he could no more revive those whom he had cruelly butchered, he went himself, accompanied by Maou, to recal his mother. Maou was retained at court as a faithful adviser.

Many anecdotes of this sort are faithfully recorded by Gutzlaff; but our limits are fixed. We cannot refrain, however, from transcribing, for the benefit of the Duchess of Abrantes, an account of the female whom Gutzlaff whimsically denominates Mrs Ching-Yih; and, with a notice of a Chinese Pulcheria, we shall close this part of our extracts. Be it remarked, en passant, that it is absurd to accuse the Chinese of cowardice in the wholesale. They cannot fight, it is true, in unusual circumstances; but they can fight notwithstanding. They gave the Dutch, for instance, several sound drubbings; and, when gain is in prospect, the Dutch are no cowards.

The pirates were divided into six large squadrons, under different flags; the red, the yellow, the green, the blue, the black, the white. Ching-yih, their commander, wished to imitate Ching-ching-kung, who had fought in order to drive the Tartars out of China; but he was drowned, and his wife assumed the command; whilst she created Paou, a poor fisher boy, whom her husband had picked up, her lieutenant. She promulgated a code of laws, by which good order and fair treatment of each other were enforced. The people on shore were to be paid

for their provisions and ammunitions, and the severest discipline introduced amongst these lawless hordes.

A squadron, consisting of fifteen junks, was despatched against them, and likewise taken; the commanding mandarin, not meeting with death from the hands of the prates, committed suicide. Another fleet sent out against them, set all sail to come up, but when the mandarin perceived the great number of vessels, he was anxious to escape. The pirates followed, and a calm ensuing, they jumped into the sea, boarded the mandarin's junks, and took six of them.

Their daring valour, however, was at least once disappointed: an imperial fleet of 100 sail attacked them, set fire to their sails, and burned at their rudders. The pirates were thrown into confusion, two hundred were taken prisoners, and several junks captured. A pirate's wife defended herself desperately in a boat, and wounded several soldiers, but on being wounded by a matchlock ball, she fell back, and was taken prisoner. This disgrace they wiped off, by a total defeat of the imperial fleet, in the bay of Kwang-chow, where Ching-yih's widow herself commanded. A squadron, commanded by admiral Kwei, was likewise either destroyed or captured, so that there remained no other alternative to the Chinese government, but the cutting off of all supplies. All vessels, large as well as smail, were detained in the harbours, and no communication allowed. But this measure was productive of another evil; for the pirates saw themselves obliged to ascend the rivers, and to plunder along the banks.

Some Englishmen were captured, and detained prisoners on board. They witnessed the depradations which the pirates committed in the rivers about Canton, and saw the destruction of several cities and villages. A ficet sent to repel them was forced back, and the commander blew up his own junk. To encourage them in their cruelties, the pirate admiral paid for every head brought to him, ten dollars; which induced these cruel bucaniers, to kill many innocent people.

The Chinese government engaged the Portuguese, at Macao, to lend them several ships, well fitted out and manned. These united fleets, consisting of ninety-three junks, six ships, a brig, and a schooner, attacked the pirates in a bay, under the island Lantao; but having tried several methods to annoy them, and also sent in fire-boats, which did no execution, they finally withdrew, chased by the Ladrones.

Government would, perhaps, never have been able to reduce them, if Paou had not quarrelled with one of his chiefs, Opo-tae. Their contention ended in fighting, a bloody engagement ensued, and Paou's fleet was defeated. Sixteen of his vessels fell into the hands of the victor, and 300 prisoners were butchered. Opo-tae, fearing the vengeance of Mrs Ching-yih, tendered his submission to government. In the paper he sent to court, he adduces instances from history, which prove, that robbers obtained grace from his imperial majesty. He mentions poverty as the original cause which had driven them to despair, and hopes for mercy. Opo-tae went over, with 8000 men, and was made a naval mandarin.

commodate affairs, received a commissioner on board. The Mrs Ching-yih, having shewn herself willing to ac pirate fleet sailed up towards the Bocca Tigris, and the governor of Canton came out to meet them, in order to conclude the treaty. As the governor approached, the pirates hoisted their flags, played on their instruments, and fired salutes. Many thousand spectators were standing on shore, to witness this reconciliation. Followed by Faou, and three officers, Mrs Ching-yih went on board the mandarin vessel; all fell on their hands and knees, and prostrated themselves, whilst they received her gra cious pardon, and promise for future good treatment. But the appearance of some war junks, and a Portuguese ship, causing the pirates to fear that some treachery was intended, they immediately hoisted sail, and the negotiations were broken off. Mrs Ching-yih, convinced of the honesty of the governor, offered to proceed alone to Canton, and conclude the treaty of peace. This the pirates would not allow, until two mandarins arrived, and assured them that no treachery was intended. She went, with several wives of the pirates, to the provincial city;