Robbery with the concerted use of offensive wea- more than two thousand years ago, so highly do pons is punished with death, however small the the Chinese respect his memory, that "whatever amount taken; and, if a burglar be killed by him was said or done by him, is made a rule of action whose house he invades, it is deemed an act of at the present day”—vol. ii. justifiable homicide. When the crime is less than Reprehensible as some of his precepts are, many capital, any person under fifteen or above seventy of them deserve high praise. Being asked, if any years of age, is allowed to redeem himself from one word could express the conduct most fitting punishment by fine. Heavy penalties are de- for one's whole life, he replied, " will not the word nounced against officers of government for unjust Shoo serve?" and he explained this by saying, “do imprisonment, delay of justice, cruelty, &c. Se- unto others as you would they should do unto you." vere punishments are also attached to falsehood in There are three things, said he, to beware of evidence; but oaths are never required, nor even through life. "When a man is young, let him beadministered in judicial proceedings. Mr. Davis ware of his appetites; when middle aged, of his condemns the penal code, because of its minute passions; and when old, of covetousness especiattention to trifles, and its interference with those ally." Being asked to define the man of superior duties which he thinks should be left to the opera- virtue, Confucius replied, "He has neither sorrow tion of other sanctions than positive laws. He nor fear." "Does that alone constitute the characgives the following comprehensive specimen, which ter?" observed his friend, with surprise. "If a evinces more anxiety for the punishment of of man," rejoined the sage, "searches within and fences, than ability and precision in defining them. finds naught wrong, need he have either sorrow or "Whoever is guilty of improper conduct, and such fear?" His doctrines refer chiefly to those social as is contrary to the spirit of the laws, though not duties which have a political bearing. A family is a breach of any specific article, shall be punished the prototype of his nation, and morals the subat the least with forty blows; and when the impro- stratum of his politics. The following maxim of priety is of a serious nature, with eighty blows." his merits the respect of all rulers, in or out of With truth, may Mr. D. exclaim, that it is "difficult to escape from the net of the law" in China. The bamboo is the most usual instrument of punishment. The next has been called the wooden collar, being a species of walking pillory, in which the prisoner is paraded with his offence inscribed. Besides the doctrines of Confucius, the ridicuIt is sometimes worn for a month, and the wearer lous follies of Budhism, and those of a sect called must be fed by others, as the hand cannot be put Rationalists, are tolerated by the governinent of to the mouth. There are several other punish- China, and dignified by the name of religion. A ments, more or less rigorous, in proportion to offen- striking resemblance is said to exist between the ces. The Chinese seem not to regard the will of dress and ceremonies of the Budhists, and the the Emperor as superior to the requirements of monks of the Roman Catholic church. The Budlaw, for it is a singular fact, that the following is a hists practice celibacy—they fast and pray for the popular maxim among them: "To violate the law, dead-light candles on the altar-sprinkle holy wais the same crime in the Emperor as in a subject." ter, worship relics, &c. &c. The Rationalists Erroneously as kings and emperors ordinarily think | pretend to alchemy, profess the science of magic, of their rights and duties, some of the sovereigns encourage the belief in ghosts and evil spirits, and of China have evinced just conceptions of the re- contrive successfully to humbug the ignorant, and lation in which they stood to their subjects. The live as comfortably upon their contributions, as did first Emperor of the Ming family observed, "The Signor Manuel Ordonex, when he was administerbowstring drawn violently will break; the people ing the funds of the poor. pressed hard will rebel." Another sovereign prettily said to his heir, "You see that the boat in which we sit, is supported by the water, which at the same time is able, if roused, to overwhelm it: remember that the water represents the people, and the Emperor only the boat."

China. "Let those who produce revenue be many, and those who consume it few: let the producers have every facility, and let the consumers practice economy: thus there will be constantly a sufficiency of revenue."

Christian missionaries have been repeatedly sent to China, for the laudable purpose of disseminating the truths of the Bible, but all such attempts appear to have eventuated unfavorably. These fai lures are to be attributed partly to the injudicious conduct of some of the missionaries, but mainly, The doctrines of Confucius constitute the state as we believe, to Chinese assumption of superior religion of China, and in all the chief cities, tem- wisdom, and consequent indifference to the opinions ples have been erected and dedicated to his honor. of foreigners upon all subjects. The following The state worship is divided into three classes of extract of the prayer of the reigning Emperor, on sacrifices, and heaven and earth are worshipped the occasion of a long drought, with which his under the first class. There are no tythes collect- country was afflicted, in the year 1832, will show ed for the support of priests, nor is there any con- the responsibility which is attached to the admin gregational worship. Although Confucius died istration of the Emperor, and that he recognizes a

Supreme Ruler of events. "I, the minister of the cavalry are bows and arrows: their swords heaven," says the Emperor, " am placed over man- are indifferent. The infantry use guns, and Mr. kind, and made responsible for keeping the world Wilkinson of London, after comparing Chinese in order, and tranquillizing the people. Unable, as I am to sleep or eat with composure, scorched with grief, and trembling with anxiety, still no genal and copious showers have descended.

gunpowder with that of six different European nations, found that the powder of China contained nearly the same proportions of nitre, charcoal and sulphur, as the powder of England. Chinese troops I ask myself whether, in sacrificial services I have never yet (unless very recently) encountered have been remiss; whether pride and prodigality European troops on land, but the natives admit have had a place in my heart, springing up there their inability to contend with Europeans in a naval unobserved; whether from length of time I have engagement, and doubtless they would fare as badbecome careless in the affairs of government; ly on the land as on the ocean. The usual land whether I have uttered irreverent words, and de- force retained about the city of Canton is stated served reprehension; whether perfect equity has at 7,000 men, and for the defence of that place, been attained in conferring rewards and inflicting there are two forts, which together have only one punishments; whether, in raising mausoleums and hundred and thirteen guns. In the art of navigalaying out gardens, I have distressed the people tion, it is thought the Chinese have not advanced, and wasted property; whether in the appointment but retrograded. Their principal vessel for comof officers, I have failed to obtain fit persons, and mercial purposes, called a junk, is an illy-contrived thereby rendered government vexatious to the and unwieldly ship, reflecting no credit upon the people; whether the oppressed have found no naval science of the country. Is not their ignomeans of appeal; whether the largesses conferred rance of ship-building to be ascribed chiefly to on the afflicted southern provinces, were properly their limited foreign trade? They possess great applied, or the people left to die in the ditches. ingenuity, and if they were fond of external comProstrate, I beg imperial merce, we believe the Chinese would soon learn Heaven to pardon my ignorance and dullness, and to construct vessels as able to encounter wind and grant me self-renovation; for myriads of innocent wave as those of other nations. The Emperor of people are involved by me, a single man. My China issued a paper a few years ago, in which he sins are so numerous, that it is hopeless to escape inveighed against "the falling off" of his navy, as their consequences. Summer is past, and autumn he declared had been proven on several occasions. arrived-to wait longer is impossible. Prostrate," There is the name of going to sea," he remarkI implore imperial Heaven to grant a gracious ed, "but not the reality. Cases of piracy are condeliverance"-vol. ii, p. 78. tinually occurring, and even barbarian barks anchor in our inner seas."

There is no established censorship of the press in China, nor any restrictions but those which the We come now to the interesting subject of Chiinterest of social peace render necessary. Nor nese revenue. From the earliest ages a land tax is there any regular post for facilitating and pro- has been the principal resource of the government. moting a general intercourse among the people. It appears from the book of Mencius, written more The government expresses are despatched by land than two thousand years ago, that the Chinese have along a line of posts, at each of which a horse is always regarded the earth as the original source of always kept ready: and when the haste is urgent, all wealth, and the appropriate subject of taxation. the courier is expected to go at the rate of about They call agriculture the root, and manufactures one hundred miles a day, until relieved. In this and trade the branches, and hence the greater attenmanner, an express from Peking reaches Canton, tion and higher honors awarded to the former. or vice versa, a distance of twelve hundred miles, The ordinary contribution of the landholder to the in twelve days. revenue, amounts to one-tenth of the annual pro"The principal duty of the military of China," duce. This tax is paid not by the tenant, but by says Mr. Davis, "is to perform the office of a the proprietor. In order to secure to the Emperor police; and it must be admitted, that, by the aid of his revenues from the land, there is a public registhe unrelenting system of responsibility, there is try of real property, and those lands are forfeited no country in the world in which a more efficient which are not registered by the owners in the police exists than there"-vol. i, p. 372. public records of government. Large as this tax The military force is estimated at 700,000 men, of one-tenth may seem, it leaves a considerable reof whom the largest portion are fixed to their na-mainder to defray the wages of the laborer, to pay tive districts, cultivating the land, or following interest on capital invested in land, &c.; and falls some other private pursuit; and hence we are authorised to believe them quite ignorant of the important and varied duties which appertain to the soldier. They are represented as very deficient in courage and discipline. The principal arms of

greatly below the tax levied upon the ryots, or cultivators of land in India, who have to pay one-half of the whole product of the soil to their merciful masters, the East India Company. Another source of revenue in China, next to the land tax, is the

66

by any unusual draft upon its resources;" and he thinks the House of Commons has done a great deal more in the way of taxation than the Emperor of China could probably " attempt with safety." Centuries ago, China had a paper currency, but

duty on salt, which, in consequence of the immense were transmitted to Peking. The accuracy of consumption of salted fish, as well as other provi- this latter sum seems nearly “confirmed,” adds sions, yields a very large amount. The trade in Mr. Davis, " by what appeared in a Peking Gasalt is a government monopoly. Customs on im- zette, in 1833. The revenue of China is not much ports and exports, and taxes on the internal trade, larger than that of England, whose annual taxes constitute other and productive sources of income. amount to fifty millions sterling. If to this sum, Mr. Davis is of opinion, that the main reason why we add eight millions sterling for the poor rates, the government confines the foreign trade to the the taxes will amount to fifteen and a half dollars single port of Canton, is to augment the revenue to each individual, which is far beyond the tax arising from taxes imposed on the transit of goods, imposed on each individual in China. Although He represents the transit duties as embracing the land tax in China is reported to be one tenth nearly all articles of consumption," and as amount- of the annual produce, "this tenth part," says ing to £150,000 per annum on black teas alone. Adam Smith, "is estimated so very moderately, that, The expense of constructing the Grand Canal may in many provinces, it is said not to exceed a thirhave suggested the policy of internal duties, or tieth part of the ordinary produce." The present tolls, to the Chinese government. The foreign government of China, Mr. Davis informs us, is trade of China is very inconsiderable when com- "hard pressed for means, and would be distressed pared with the domestic trade; and the amount of the latter cannot be estimated by a reference to the former. The vast population of China, the great extent of its territory, the variety of climate, and consequently of productions, in its several provinces, and the easy communication between the in consequence of its great depreciation it was most of them by means of water-carriage, contri- abolished, and the currency is now exclusively bute to make the home market more valuable than metallic. In each of the eighteen provinces there the foreign. Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, is a mint for coining money, and in every conbook IV.) represented the home market of China siderable town there is a class of what is called as, “in extent, not much inferior to the market of 'money shops," "approaching in some degree”, says all the different countries of Europe put together." Mr. Davis, "to the private banking establishments We are told by Mr. Davis, that "in order to of England." The public revenue is deposited in comprehend in any way the subject of the Chinese these 'money shops' by those who collect it, and revenues, we must premise, that from the produce the banker gives a receipt for the amount and of taxation in each province the treasurer of that stipulates to pay it to the order of government province deducts the civil and military expenses, within a certain period. From private individuals and all outlays, whether for public works or other- these banks receive either deposites drawable at wise, remitting the surplus to Peking, either in will, in which case no interest is allowed, or they money or kind. The difficulty, then, of ascer- take money at interest not exceeding twelve per taining the real expense that attends the adminis- cent, to be repaid after some days notice. They tration of the whole Empire, arises from this sur- are represented as not differing materially from plus being the only point that has been clearly as- similar establishments in Europe; but it should be certained, as well as from a considerable portion remembered that there are no chartered or priviof the taxation being levied in commodities, as leged banking companies in the Empire. There are grain, salt, silks, and stores of different kinds"- no public funds in China, and the purchase of land vol. ii, p. 379. A portion of the land tax in is regarded as "the chief, if not the only mode of grain, is reserved in each province for the supply rendering capital productive with certainty and of the public granaries, to be sold at a reduced regularity." The legal limit to the rate of inteprice to the people in times of scarcity. Whether rest is thirty per cent per annum; this interest is the policy of receiving commodities in payment of however rarely given, except for very short periods, the public dues originated in a scarcity of the pre- or under very peculiar circumstances. This rate cious metals in a remote age, and has been adher- is very high for a country in which property is ed to when the cause no longer exists, from that said to be as secure, and the precious metals so repugnance to innovation which forms so promi- abundant, as in China. The ordinary rate of innent a feature of the Chinese character; or whe-terest at Canton is stated, by Mr. Davis, at from ther it had its origin in a desire to encourage and twelve to fifteen per cent per annum; and this foster the interests of agriculture, we know not. he ascribes partly to the scarcity of large capitalBut of this we are confident, that such a system ists, caused by the great subdivision of property. of taxation is liable to many abuses, and ought to Sir George Staunton ascribed the high interest to be reformed. the want of confidence, which he considered geneDu Halde estimated the whole revenue at sixty ral, except between relations: Adam Smith to the millions sterling, of which twelve millions only insecurity of property; and others to a desire on

the part of government to facilitate loans, and partly tion to the rule, which is bad government. After to discourage luxury and prodigality, by hastening Dioclesian had voluntarily resigned the imperial the ruin of such as borrow merely to spend. We crown, he acknowledged to his friends, that the do not suppose the profits of trade in China are most difficult of all arts was the art of reigning. high enough to justify very high interest. The He spoke from experience, and he uttered very rate of interest is sometimes enhanced by a defect good sense. To write a constitution with ingein the laws in relation to contracts. When the laws do not enforce them, the money lender is tempted to demand a higher rate of interest to indemnify him for the risk, as is exemplified by those who violate the usury laws of our own country.

nious checks and balances, is not a very difficult task-but to create and to carry on a government, which conforms with the genius, disposition, temper, and prejudices of a nation, is a different affair altogether. Because republican institutions Those who have travelled in China, have en- guarantee our liberty, and are conducive to our injoyed the opportunity of observing the results of dividual and national prosperity, we are not to inits government, and their opinions are not unde- fer that similar institutious would produce similar serving our consideration. "In the course of our results in China. The unavailing attempt of the journey through the Chinese Empire," said Sir Ex-Emperor, Charles V., to make two watches George Staunton, "I can recall to my recollec- run exactly alike, forcibly convinced him of the tion (the seaport of Canton of course excepted) folly of those efforts which he had previously made but very few instances of beggary or abject misery to bring about entire conformity of religious faith among the lower classes, or of splendid extrava- and worship. Would there be less folly in recomgance among the higher; and I conceived myself mending the same political institutions as worthy enabled to trace almost universally throughout of universal adoption, without any regard to cirChina, the unequivocal signs of an industrious, cumstances? thriving, and contented people." Mr. Davis tells us that he is no unqualified admirer of the Chinese system; but after a residence of twenty years in China, he writes the following for the public eye: "The great wealth of the empire, the cheerful and indefatigable industry of the people, are all of them circumstances which prove, that, if the government is jealous in guarding its rights, it is not altogether ignorant or unmindful of its duties. In practice, there is of course a great deal of inevitable abuse; but upon the whole, and with relation to ultimate effects, the machine works well: and we repeat, that the surest proofs of this are apparent on the very face of the most cheerful, industrious and orderly, and the most wealthy nation of Asia. It may be observed that we make great account of the circumstance of cheerful industry; because this characteristic, which is the first to strike all visitors of China, is the best proof in the world that the people possess their full share of the results of their own labor. Men do not toil either willingly or effectively for hard masters"vol. i, p. 197.

In 1793 a Chinese mandarin, who had access to authentic documents in the public offices in Peking, handed to Lord Macartney, at his request, a statement, by which it appeared that the population of China amounted then to 333,000,000. Malthus, in his work on population, written nearly forty years ago, refers to this statement, and expresses the belief that the population was not much short of that number. Mr. Davis states, that "a census, said, on the authority of a Chinese statistical work of some note, to have been taken in 1812, makes the population reach the number of 360,279,877;" while M'Culloch refers to a census taken in 1813, by which the population of China Proper appeared to be 367,821,000. M'Culloch represents the Chinese as disposed to underrate their numbers in their returns to government, and Davis thinks they are more inclined to exaggeration. If the population was 333,000,000 in 1793, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that in twenty years, or from 1793 to 1813, it increased more than 34,000,000, which would make the number stated by M'Culloch. It appears that Sir George Staunton regarded the Mr. Davis is right in attaching much importance statement delivered to Lord Macartney as worthy to cheerful industry, and in believing that men do of credit, and he states that "the number of indinot toil willingly for hard masters. Did a despotic viduals is regularly taken in each division of a disgovernment, under the guidance of ignorant and trict by a tything man, or every tenth master of a imbecile rulers, ever dispense the blessings of family-those returns collected by officers resident cheerfulness and content throughout an empire? so near as to be capable of correcting any gross The affirmative will hardly be maintained, and if mistakes: and all the returns are lodged in the the foregoing views of Messrs. Staunton and Davis great registry at Peking." "The general stateare correct, the government of China is, in prac-ment," he remarks, "is strictly the result of those tice, much less oppressive than it has often been returns added to each other." Be this as it may, represented. In so extensive and populous an empire, there will, in the very nature of things, be many abuses in the public administration. A good government is a very rare thing; it is an excep

we can with safety estimate the population at 300,000,000 now, which is larger than that of Europe, and more than double the population of the Roman Empire, when her thirst for conquest had

been fully indulged, and her territorial limits had are to be seen in the country, and whatever cannot been made to embrace more than 1,600,000 square be transported on water, is borne on the shoulders miles. Gibbon expressed the belief, that the Ro- of men; that scarcely any land is devoted to pasman Empire had "the most numerous society that turage, very little occupied by roads, and the only has ever been united under the same system of go- places allotted to sepulchral purposes are the sides vernment;"* and though he acknowledged the dif- of barren hills and mountains; that agricultural laficulty of ascertaining its population accurately, he bor prevails over manufacturing employment, which estimated the number during the reign of Claudius, circumstance tends to prolong life, and also augat 120,000,000-one-half of whom, he says, were ment the quantity of food; that the consumption of slaves. The first volume of Gibbon's history was meat as compared with vegetables is limited; that published in 1776, and of course before Lord Ma-China not only abounds in fish and wild-fowl, which cartney's mission to China; and we suspect, that contribute to support her people, but that her cliGibbon discredited the information which he then possessed as to the population of the Chinese Empire.

mate is such as to enable the Chinese to raise two crops of rice and one of vegetables, annually. It is to this last circumstence, that Adam Smith In territorial extent China Proper is about eight mainly attributed the existence of so large a poputimes as large as France, and but little more than lation in that empire: (Book 1st, ch. xi.) He half as large as the United States; while her popu- maintains that where land is adapted to the growth lation (if counted at 300,000,000) is more than of rice, it will yield more food per acre in rice than eleven times as great as ours. Although our popu- in corn; and as two crops of rice can be made anlation does not now exceed 18,000,000, there are nually on the same land, he argues that rice counmany cogent reasons to sustain the opinion, that, tries are "accordingly much more populous;” and in the progress of time, the population of this coun- that Europe would be more populous if rice could try will equal, if not surpass, the present popula- be grown there successfully, and the inhabitants tion of China: yet it would be unreasonable to an- induced to use it as the natives of China and the ticipate that our numbers would be doubled every East Indies do. We have a high respect for twenty-five years until it reached 300,000,000 or Smith's opinions upon most subjects, yet we think more. Fifty years hence our population will not he attached undue importance to rice, and thus probably double in less than thirty-five or forty overlooked other and auxiliary causes of the great years; and in a century hence, it may not double population of China. While treating of population, in fifty years. How has it happened that China it is proper to remark that slavery exists in that has so dense a population? is a question which country, but to what extent we are not apprised. naturally occurs to the mind when its attention is The population presses closely upon the means of directed to the Chinese. This question is an- subsistence; dearths are not unfrequent, and cause swered when we reflect, that in China very great great distress, and parents frequently exercise the encouragements are held out in favor of early mar- absolute authority conferred upon them by the riages; that the system of clubbing among families laws and sell their own children. "A man," says and kindred enables them to live at the least ex- Malthus, "sometimes sells his son, and even himpense; that the country has enjoyed an uninter- self and his wife, at a very moderate price. The rupted peace, and its consequent blessings, for more common mode is to mortgage themselves with a than a century; that emigration is prohibited by condition of redemption." Infanticide may be trapositive laws and the influence of public opinion; ced to the inability of parents to provide for their that the people are temperate, and remarkable for children. Mr. Davis admits its existence, but patient and persevering industry; that China is thinks that instances "occur only in the chief generally healthy and possesses a soil of great cities, and the most crowded population, where natural fertility; that for about two thousand years the difficulty of subsistence takes away all hope agriculture has been encouraged and honored by from the poorest persons of being able to rear the government, and almost reverenced by the peo- their offspring." So far as infanticide prevails, it ple-who have increased the productive power of seems to be fairly attributable to hopeless and unatheir country, by skilful cultivation, irrigation and voidable want; and it must, like starvation, epimanures; that, with the exception of the few parks demics and wars, be considered as one among the belonging to the Emperor, China has no parks or many positive checks to population. From this pleasure-grounds, nor such large land owners as melancholy theme, we turn with pleasure to the are to be found in England or the United States; more interesting ones of Chinese education and that on the contrary land is very much subdivided, literature. So highly do the Chinese appreciate and is rarely allowed to lie untilled; that there is education, that the language is full of maxims reno meadow cultivation whatever, and no food raised ferring to it. "Bend the mulberry tree when it is except for the use of man; that very few horses young." 'Without education in families, how are *Vol. 1st, Chapter II, Decline and Fall of the Roman governors for the people to be obtained?" &c. Empire. Every town has its public place of instruction, and