reign the missionaries had performed the most important services. In doing so, and in enjoying the high imperial favour which those services secured to them, it was to be expected that they should incur many enmities; and had the new emperor been as wise as his predecessor, to such enmities would he have attributed the host of complaints which now assailed his ears. But the emperor was at least equal to any man in his vast dominions in fierce and bigoted haired of Christianity; and he gladly received and implicitly listened to all complaints against the missionaries and their native converts, who at this time probably numbered a quarter of a million. Orders were issued for the expulsion of the whole of the mis sionaries, with the exception of a few whose mathematical attainments ren dered their services of the utmost consequence to the court; and there were a few sheltered at the imminent risk of both parties by the more zealous of their pupils, and thus enabled to evade the edict and in some measure to preserve the leading truths of their teaching among the native converts. But it was a very insignificant number of these missionaries that remained in China owing to both these causes, and the whole of their chapels and stations were either sacked and destroyed by ferocious mobs, converted into public offices, or perverted to idolatrous wor ship. The excessive violence which this emperor displayed toward the catholic missionaries caused the king of Portugal in 1726 10 dispatch an embassy to the emperor on their behalf. The ambassadors were received with distinction; but, though general promises were given even with profusion, the converts to Christianity derived not the slighest practical benefit from their interference on their behalf. The persecution of Chris tianity in China was, indeed, no exception to the general rule—for the more the persecution raged, the more numerous did the proselytes become. It would seem that the errors of their heathenism were in too many cases blended by the converts with the truths they were taught by the missionaries; and even the most intelligent of the higher classes were seen to worship the images of saints, as formerly they had had worshipped the idols of their native superstition. Christian charity demands that we should attribute this unfortunate confusion of ideas to the obsti nate and ineradicable superstition of the converts, rather than to neglect or design on the part of the teachers.

Unhappily, in the year 1726 a new and more terrible persecution took place. Both torture and imprisonment, the former in most cases ter minating, after the most frightful agonies, in the death of the sufferers, were now resorted to in every corner of the land where a Christian could be discovered. Deep policy, however, was mixed up with the vengeful spirit; and to avoid the persecution it was only necessary to declare reconversion to Confucius or Buddha. It may easily be supposed that, under such circumstances, the number of Christians was, nominally, at least, soon reduced to a mere handful. One of the causes of this terrible persecution was a dreadful famine which occurred in the previous year, and which was still attributed to the sin of conversion to Christianity. With the usual inconsistency of fanaticism, it was quite overlooked, that of the hundreds of thousands who perished, not one in a thousand had ever even heard of Christianity.

The year 1730 was marked by an event which Yung-ching's worst fatterers could not, after his two terrible persecutions of the Christians, venture to attribute to any undue encouragement of the new faith. The whole province of Pecheli—in which Pekin is situated—was shaken by an earthquake. The imperial city was for the most part laid in ruini: and the emperor, who was at the time walking in the garden, was violently thrown to the ground. In Pekin alone upwards of ten thousand souls perished by this lamentable occurrence, and at least thrice that number in other parts of the province. The emperor distributed upwards

of a quarter of a million of money for the relief of the survivors. The bigotry and cruelty of this prince can scarcely be excused on the plea of being ill-advised, for it is certain that he was personally aware of the great benefits that the calumniated and persecuted missionaries had conferred upon his people- The best that can be said of this reign is, that it was a peaceful one; and the interval of peace would have been infinitely more valuable than it was, had the Christians and their foreign and highly intelligent instructors been allowed to improve it to the best advantage. He died in the year 1735.

The throne was now tilled by Keen-lung; whose first act was to recall the princes and courtiers who had been banished by his father. This done, he put down some revolts among the Elenths and other tribes on the north-western frontiers. Probably it was the vigour with which he executed this latter measure, that caused a deputation to be sent from Russia to settle the disputes which were perpetually breaking out as to the trade between the two countries. Ragusinki, who was at the head of the Russian embassy, acquitted himself with so much address, that he obtained a treaty by which a Russian caravan, not to exceed two hundred in number, was to visit China for the purposes of trade once in every three years; a church was to be erected; and a limited number of Rus sians were to take up their permanent abode in the Chinese capital for the purpose of acquiring the language. In this treaty, which is called "the treaty of Kiachta," the Chinese authorities, urged no doubt by sound considerations of mercantile profit, conceded much, yet they could not forbear from giving one characteristic specimen of their extreme jealousy of their national polity. Thus, though a caravan wag permitted to visit the capital, it was to halt upon the frontiers until the arrival of the proper officer to conduct it through the emperor's people.

The next important event of this reign was the expedition sent by the emperor in 1767 against the Burmese. This expedition seems to have originated wholly in the most wanton lust of war on the part of the Chiaese, who, in the sequel, were very deservedly punished. An army of above 100,000 men marched into Burmah; but no regular army appeared to oppose its progress. As it penetrated farther, however, every foot of country, and especially where swamp or jungle rendered the route naturally more difficult, had to be traversed with active and daring hordes of guerillas hovering upon its rear and flanks, cutting off stragglers, pouring down suddenly upon weak detachments or divisions—such as the very nature of the country made inevitable; and, in short, acting with such efficient destructiveness, that the Chinese lost upwards of 50,000 men without coming to a general engagement! Incredible as it would seem in European warfare, of the immense army of 100,000 men, only 2,000 returned to China—the rest were all killed or taken prisoners; and all in the latter category were naturalized and settled in Burmah. Even this horrible loss of life did not prevent the emperor from persisting in his unjust scheme. He sent a still greater force under his favourite general A-quei, who was as fond of war and as ferocious as himself. Choosing what he thought a less difficult line of march, A-quei had scarcely entered the Burmese territory when he found that if he had fewer human enemies to contend against than his predecessor, he had a still more deadly and irresistible enemy, the jungle fever. He saw his men perish around him by thousands, and he was glad to hasten from the deadly place with even a diminished army, rather than remain to see it wholly annihilated. And the result of all this loss was, that China was obliged to agree to a treaty which confined her dominion within her natural frontier, thereby giving to Burmah rich gold and silver mines which otherwise would have remained undisputed in the possession of China.

Keen Lung was engaged in several minor warfares originating in en

deavours of the more distant northern and western tribes to throw of their yoke. The Mahometan Tartars, a brave and bigoted race, inade an inroad into the province of Shen-si; A-quei, who was sent against them, called upon them to surrender the city in which they had entrenched themselves, and, on being refused, took it by storm, and put every huinan being he found within the walls to the sword, save a few of the chiefs whom he sent to court. The emperor, whose blood-thirsty nature was such that he was accustomed to have criminals tortured in his presence, ordered these unhappy chiefs to be tortured before his assembled court, and then cut to peices and thrown to the dogs! Not content with this sanguinary act, the monster gave orders to A-quei to march upon the Mahometan Tartars, and put all to the sword who were above fifteen years of age. Many, very many, rebellions took place during this reign; among them was that of the people of the island of Formosa. The mandarins who acted as viceroys in this island were guilty of the most shameful exactions and cruelties. On one occasion they put to death a mandarin who had ill-treated them. The viceroy of Fuh-keen, being commissioned to avenge the death of the mandarin, sailed to the island and sacrificed victims to his manes, without regard to the guilt or innocence of those he immolated. The Formosans soon became so enraged that they rose en masse, butchered every Chinese and Tartar in the island, and were only at length induced to return to their yoke—after having bravely beaten off the imperial fleet—on being indemnified for their losses, and assured against a recurrence of the tyranny of which they complained. As though fairly wearied out with the strife of sixty years of perpet ual warfares, Keen-lung abdicated the throne in favour of his son Keaking. Though he never personally commanded his armies, he caused more bloodshed than probably any modern commander, with the excep‐ tion of Napoleon.

Kea-king's first use of his power was to renew those persecutions of the catholics, which, in the last reign, had seemed to be falling into disuetude. Torture and death were the fate of many; still more were sentenced to wear the cangou or wooden collar during their lives, or were banished to Tartary, which last was a singularly impolitic punishment, as the Tartars needed no discontented men to incite them to revolt. A rebel lion of a very threatening nature, inasmuch as some members of the imperial family, and other principal persons were concerned in it, was planned in 1803. By some fortunate accident, or, still more probably through the treachery of some of the confederates, the plot was discovered ere it was ripe for execution. Many of the principal conspirators were put to death, and others only escaped to suffer the confiscation of their property, which was peculiarly acceptable to the almost empty treasury of the emperor. In 1793 Lord Macartney was sent by George 111. as ambassdor to China, to endeavour to establish trade with that country upon a better and surer footing, and more especially to obtain for the British factory a cessation of the insolence and extortion of the viceroy of Canton. The embassy was productive of but little good effect. The insolent and extortionate viceroy was recalled, it is true, but his predecessor was not long in office ere he went far beyond him in both of those bad qualities The ambassador was blamed at home for having been too high and unbending in his demeanour; but the truth is, that the time had not come for a proper understanding to exist between the Chinese and any European nation.

When in 1808 it was feared that Bonaparte would aim at the eastern trade of Great Britain, Admiral Drury was ordered to Macao: but after much wordy disputation between the Chinese authorities there and the admiral, the latter retired after a slight collision. The Chinese pretended to have gained a great victory, a magniloquent account of the same

was sent to Pekin, and a pagoda actually erected to commemorate it. In 1816 another ambassador, Lord Amherst, was sent to China, but his mission was to the full as unsatisfactory as that of Lord Macartney. It was about this time that the opium speculation began to grow to something like a noticeable extent—but on that head we shall have to speak at length in the next chapter. After twenty five years' reign, marked far more by despotic temper than by the talent necessary to render it effective, Kea-king died, in the year 1820, and was succeeded by the present monarch.

CHAPTER V.

The reigning einperor of China, Tau-kwang, is the second son of the preceding monarch, and owes his rise to the throne, in preference to his elder brother, to the great resolution and attachment to his father displayed by him on an occasion of a revolt. The parties concerned in it had proceeded to such an extent, that some of them actually forced their way into the palace with the avowed intention of putting Kea-king to death. Taœu-kwang, with a mere handful of the imperial guards, repulsed the conspirators, two of whom he shot with his own hand. Since his advancement to the throne, however, he has by no means displayed the vigour that might have been anticipated. He has for the most part committed the management of affairs to his ministers and favourites, and given himself up to effeminate pleasure in the seclusion of his palace.

The Mahometan inhabitants of eastern Turkestan and the Formosan islanders have revolted, but have hitherto been subdued. Their discontents, however, will probably at no distant time have great effect upon the destinies of the empire. The Chinese, to a man, are said to detest the Tartar race; and though the vast population of the empire would at first sight appear to render its subjugation now by any people an event of great improbability, the clashing opinions and interests of the constituent portions of the population may, at some future time, possibly render the vastness of the empire a principal cause of an entire alteration in both its political and religious condition. A strong proof that strength is not necessarily the consequence of the numerical superiority of China, was furnished a few years since. A serious revolt occurred in the province of Canton, where, from its facility of communication with "the outside barbarians," revolt was especially to be feared, and to be put down, whensoever occurring, with the sternest promptitude. But though the Celestial Empire boasts its standing army of a million of fighting men, the general Le, who was ordered to quell this revolt, could barely muster a few hundreds of ill-armed and ill-disciplined troops, and he was obliged to resort to the Chinese panacea of paying a pecuniary bribe to the rebels.

The trade of England as well as of all other nations, with China, has ever been subject to such restrictions, and been liable to so many interruptions, from the caprice of the Chinese and from the insolence with which these caprices have been acted upon, that it has of necessity from time to time very much partaken of the character of smuggling— even as regards articles to which no moral exception could by possibility be taken. During the memorable "opium" dispute, this fact seems to have been much neglected by many of the leading political writers of England. They have looked at the question rather as a moral than a political one, and have blamed political resistance to national insult, because that resistance happened to be made upon a point in which a moral question was artfully mixed up with it by the Chinese.

No sane man will pretend to vindicate the trading in opium otherwise

than as a very important article of materia medica; no one will say that it is otherwise than highly desirable that the use of this "insane" drug as a means of intoxication should be prohibited. But, we repeat, though collision with the Chinese has chanced to arise upon the question of the importation of opium, the moral consideration as to the sale and use of that drug are really quite beside the question: had the article of trade been Yorkshire cloth or Birmingham hardware, the same collision might have taken place.

Opium was imported into China as early as the 17th century, and it was not until the close of the 18th century that Kea-king prohibited it. We applaud him for doing this. It was high time to put some check on the use of it; for though it was professedly imported only as a medici nal drug, it was imported to the extent of 1000 chests per annum as early as 1767, and the importation had been perpetually increased in amount up to 1796. Up to this time, be it remembered, the traffic was strictly legal; it paid a duty of five mace per catty, and was for the most part delivered to and bonded by the government.

It is clear that from 1796 the trade in this drug was mere smuggling, equally clear, that whether John Tomkins or "The Company" was the trader, that trader was a smuggler. We will go farther. When the East India Company, having the monopoly of the eastern trade, compelled the ryots of Pekin to grow opium instead of rice, and compelled the ryots of divers other parts of the Anglo-Indian territory to do the same, the act was one which the English press ought loudly to have denounced, and which the English senate ought to have put a stop to, on pain of the loss of the Company's charter. All this is clear as noonday; but there is another consideration. The government of China is essentially paternal: from the emperor to the lowest office of his state link connects link, as from the father of a family to his youngest child or his nearest servant. The trade in opium was forbidden from time to time by edicts: true; but the very officers who were charged with the duty of enforcing these edicts were themselves the virtual importers of opium! Had the Chinese authorities of Canton and along the coast not connived at the trade for enormous bribes, or, as was more frequently the case, been themselves actual traders in the article, the trade would have been at an end years ago, and when only a comparatively small portion of British capital was involved in it.

It appears to us that the public prohibition of a drug of which the consumption was hourly increasing, and the aid given to its importation by the very persons appointed to carry that prohibition into effect, are merely "part and parcel" of the settled Chinese policy of fleecing barbarians to the utmost possible extent, on the one hand, and of always having a convenient pretext for such a stoppage in trade as circumstances might make convenient in the way of temporarily making the fleece longer and finer It would be an instructive lesson for politicians to con—the difference of profit to China, between the one hundred chests imported in 1776 at a fixed duty of five mace the catty, and that upon the forty thousand chests smuggled in 1840—at whatever profit the unscrupulous authorities could extort!

It was not until 1839 that anything in the shape of a real determination to put down the trade was exhibited by the Chinese; for the occasional stoppages of trade and blustering manifestos, as already said, we look at as mere measures for fleecing Lin appeared at Canton, in that year, a "high commissioner"—an officer possessing almost dictatorial powers, and one who had not been more than thrice previously appointed during he present dynasty. In an edict he said, "I, the commissioner, am sworn to remove utterly this root of misery; nor will I let the foreign vessels have any offshoot left for the evil to bud forth again." The Brit