cies of degradation to have intercourse with them. The Chinese merchants themselves, with whom alone any intercourse is had, know little about their government, and are reluctant to communicate what knowledge they do possess. These circumstances, together with the peculiarities of the Chinese language, render it difficult to obtain an intimate knowledge of the country, and what is obtainable is not fully to be relied on.

GOVERNMENT. The government of China is an absolute despotism. Opposition to the will of the emperor is punished with instant death. He is styled the sacred son of heaven, sole ruler of the earth, the great father of his people. Not content with exacting from his subjects absolute and unconditional obedience, he requires of them adoration. Offerings are made to his image and to his throne. His people prostrate themselves before him and worship his person. His ministers, when receiving his orders, or spoken to by him, must kneel. When he goes out, the inhabitants take care to shut themselves up in their houses; all the shops in the streets through which he passes must be shut; whoever is met in his way, falls flat with his face on the ground, or is exposed to instant death. He is preceded by two thousand lictors, carrying chains, axes, and other instruments of eastern despotism. He has three wives, but one of which bears the name of empress, and a harem of concubines under the custody of eunuchs, as numerous as his vanity or passion dictates.

The only custom tending to limit the royal authority, is the liberty sometimes allowed the mandarins to remonstrate against what they consider to be the errors of government. These remonstrances, under a virtuous prince, sometimes produce salutary effects, but are often disregarded, and frequently are attended with dangerous consequences to the remonstrants.

MANDARINS. The different civil and military offices are filled by a species of nobility called mandarins, deriving their title from their official stations, or personal qualities. There are 14,000 civil, and 18,000 military mandarins. The former are divided into nine, and the latter into five classes. Their rank is designated by the color of the buttons on their caps. These officers, in their respective spheres, are as absolute as the sovereign from whom they derive their power. A mandarin, entering a city belonging to his department, can order any person who has given him offence, to be arrested and put to death without trial, and without any person's venturing to undertake his defence. A high mandarin on entering a city is preceded by a hundred executioners, who announce his approach, and should any one neglect to retire to the wall, he is beaten with whips or rods of bamboo. The mandarin himself is subject to the same sort of discipline, for any provocation or disrespect to his sovereign.

CHINESE LAWS.

CHINESE LAWs. The laws of China inculcate a system of good morals, which is but little observed. Using false weights and measures, and disguising the quality of goods offered for sale is common. Justice is ill administered, but those only suffer who neglect to pay the expected price. They have, indeed, courts, where in point of form, a private subject may prefer his complaint against a superior, but on an almost sure expectation of being foiled, and of suffering for his audacity.

The laws of China are stable, because the emperor does not wish to alter them, having all power placed in his hands; as little inclination have the mandarins to wish for a change, because the laws invest them with absolute authority over the people. They, in their turn, being ignorant and oppressed, are taught that it is impious to change the laws of "the celestial empire." There is no disunion among the great, for while they hold the lash over the heads of the multitude, they see the emperor's waving over their own.

There is no resistance on the part of the people, who, having much cunning, but no courage, find it safer to preserve a part of their property, by grovelling at the feet of their masters, than to risk the whole, together with their lives by opposition. All the notions of the Chinese from their infancy, are directed to a single point, obedience. The sacred nature of rank is perpetually inculcated by numerous ceremonies. At every step in the presence of an officer they make bows, and every phrase must be a compliment. It often happens that the poor on the point of starving, betake themselves to robbery, in considerable bodies. Such, when detected and overpowered, are hung.

China is more densely populated than any other extensive empire. The great mass of the people subsist upon the least portion of food which will sustain life. Historical information as to China is imperfect, and reaches only to recent periods; so far back as it does extend, it presents a picture very little varied from its present condition. According to its own traditions, its existence as a nation was many thousand years before the Mosaic creation.

The Chinese derive their religion from Foe, who is supposed to have been upon the earth about a thousand years before the Christian era. Their legend concerning him is this: that the mother of Foe was impregnated by a ray of light; that the moment he entered the world he stood upright on his feet, stepped forward seven steps, and pointing one hand to heaven and the other to the earth, spoke these words: "none in heaven or on earth deserves adoration besides me." In his seventeenth year he married three wives, and became the father of a son. In his nineteenth he left his family and went with four wise men into the wilderness. At the age of thirty he became a Foe, or divinity. He confirmed his doctrines, they say, by a series of

CHINESE LAWS.

miracles, gathered a great number of disciples, and spread his religion through the earth.

Lamaism, Brahmaism, and indeed all the superstitions of the east are supposed to be derived from this source, and are little else than different sects of the same religion. In his 79th year, Foe perceiving his end approaching, declared to his disciples that hitherto he had spoken only in enigmatical or figurative language, but that now he would unveil to them the mysteries of his doctrine: these, as modified, enlarged and corrected by the most intelligent of his priests, and now received as the religion of China, are, that he who has done good in this life will be rewarded, and he who has done evil will be punished, after death; that there are two distinct places for these two sorts of souls, and to each soul a station is assigned according to his deserts; that the good Foe was born to save mankind, and bring back those who had strayed from the path of righteousness; that he suffered for their sins and obtained for them a happy resurrection; that he gave his followers five commandments; 1st, not to kill any living creature; 2d, to avoid impurity and unchastity; 3d, never to take the property of another; 4th, never to speak falsely; 5th, to refrain from strong drink.

The priests of Foe inculcate certain works of charity as necessary to salvation, particularly liberality to their order; the building of convents and temples, in which they may, by their prayers and pious exercises, deliver others from the punishment they deserve. They teach that whoever disobeys their commands, will suffer the most dreadful torments after death, and that his soul will enter the body of the vilest and most loathsome of animals.

They have a curious system of metaphysics, into the mysteries of which but few are initiated, and which are understood by none. The leading ones are, the origin and end of all things is nothing; the first human beings sprang from nothing, and have returned to nothing; this void or nothing constitutes being; all that exists sprang from nothing and a mixture of elements, and all must return whence it came; all things animate and inanimate constitute one whole, differing from each other not in essence, but in form and qualities; the original essence of all things is pure, unchangeable, and highly subtle and simple, and because it is simple, it is the perfection of all other being; it is perfect and therefore exists in an uninterrupted quiet, without possessing virtue, power, or intelligence; its very essence consists in the absence of intelligence, activity and desire; whoever desires to be happy, must constantly endeavor to conquer himself, and become like the original essence; to accomplish this, he must accustom himself not to act, think, feel or desire. Their directions on this head, were summed up in this precept: 66 deavor to annihilate thyself, for as soon as thou ceasest to be

en

CONFUCIUS.

thyself, thou becomest one with God, and returnest into his being."

They believe in the transmigration of souls, and that when a soul first appears on earth, and animates a human body, it is that of a Brahmin. After his death it passes into the body of some other man, or of a beast, according to the preponderance of its good or evil deeds, until it finally enters the class of Samaneans, where it has no more crimes to expiate, all having been wiped off by former emigrations. He then needs no longer to worship the gods of the earth, they being only the servants of the Supreme God of the universe. Free from passion, and incable of crime, the Samanean dies only to return to the deity from which his soul emanated.

The Supreme Deity, the essence of all things, is eternal, invisible, incomprehensible, almighty, merciful, just and beneficent. He originated from himself. He cannot be represented by any image, neither can he be worshipped, because he is elevated above all worship; but his attributes may be represented by images and worshipped. This principle is the foundation of the worship of images, or idolatry, and of the multitude of tutelar deities in China.

All elements, the changes of weather, the various phenomena of the atmosphere, every rank, profession, and employment, have their gods. These deities are the principal officers of the Supreme God, SONG, WANG, MAN, who looks down from his seat in the highest heaven, in undisturbed quiet, upon the transactions of men. Every person makes an image of his guardian god, in wood or stone, and pays homage to it three times a day. The Samanean, or perfect man, is lost in the contemplation of the Supreme God, and makes it his chief concern to destroy himself, in order that he may return and be absorbed in the bosom of that being which created all things out of nothing.

CONFUCIUS. The Chinese system of morals and religion, was much improved by the celebrated philosopher, Confucius, who lived about 500 years before the Christian era. He was of royal descent, and held the rank of mandarin at court, but as the king would not follow his advice, in measures to promote the good of his subjects, he resigned his dignity and offices, and became a private teacher of morals and philosophy. He taught the immortality of the soul. He favored the existing belief of his countrymen in fate, in soothsaying, and in the worship of certain genii, or good spirits, who preside over the elements, as well as the concerns of men. He enjoined universal benevolence, justice, virtue, and honesty. He taught his followers to observe all usages and customs which had become established; it being proper, in his estimation, that those who live together in society, should live in the same manner, enjoying each other's pleasures, and mutually sympathizing in their pains. Accom

LANGUAGE.

panying their creed are a great variety of ceremonies, among the most peculiar of which is the feast of lanterns, the principal feature of which is a numerous procession to the temple of their chief idol, bearing a great number of lanterns, in honor of their god.

The Chinese empire and its tributaries, embracing one third of the human race, and its religion extending considerably beyond its political boundary; the foregoing may be considered in substance, the religious creed of nearly one half of the human family, commencing a thousand years before the Christian era. The creed and the customs of China have remained nearly stationary to the present time. Being much the largest empire in the world as to population, they hold in contempt other nations, and disdain to receive improvements from them. Of late, however, this principle has been ameliorating, and missionaries have been allowed to teach the Christian religion.

LANGUAGE. One great cause which has kept China in a stationary condition as to literature, religion, morals, and the arts, for so long a period, is the peculiarities of its language. To readers familiar with copious modern European languages,