China and the West

Southey, Robert. Barrow's Travels in China [review] (2) [ID D31052].
England, we fear, could produce blacker anecdotes of commercial knavery than China. Large fortunes have been accumulated in this country by manufacturing bad guns for the African trade, which sooner or later are sure to burst and to maim or kill the purchaser. But it is not from such instances of individual villainy that the national character is to be estimated. It may also be remarked with respect to the tricks practiced at Canton, that the worst people of every nation are always to be found in its sea-ports ; and also that the Chinese only extend that principle of overreaching which is openly practiced in our own country by all genteleman dealers in horse-flesh.
Some valuable extracts from lord Macartney's journal are given in this volume, and a hope expressed that the whole may one day be communicated to the public. In one part of these the Chinese comedy is described, and the diversions given at court in honour of the emperor's birth-day ; they were somewhat in the style of Sadler's Wells, but very inferior, only the fire-works exceeded any thing in Europe or in any other part of the world ; for they have the art of colouring flame, probably by the combustion of metals. Their drama is very like a burlesque on the Italien opera, just as absurd in its principles, and supplied with performers by the same atrocious means, though such means are more necessary to the Chinese theatre, no women being suffered to appear in public. Having no change of scene, they have a very ingenious method of representing change of place. If it be necessary to send a general on a distance expedition, he mounts a stick, takes two or three turns round the stage, brandishes a little whip, and sings a song ; when this is ended he stops short, and recommences his recitative, and the journey is supposed to be performed. To represent a walled city, a parcel of soldiers lie in a heap to be scrambled over by storming party. Thus easily do the spectators admit the excuse of time, of numbers, and due course of things which cannot in their huge and proper life be there presented.
Their dramas are as despicable in composition as in stage management. They complain as we do, that a depraved taste for modern productions prevails ; but there seems no reason for believing that their classical stock pieces are materially better than the gross and disgusting medleys of filth and barbarity which delight the present generation.
The account of the Chinese language is exceedingly curious. In this part of the work Mr. Barrow acknowledges his obligations to sir George Staunton, from whose rare or rather unequalled erudition in this particular subject, England and Europe have much to expect and hope. The characters of this language on which so much has been ignoranly or superficially written are here most perspicuously explained.

"Certain signs expressing simple objects or ideas may be considered as the roots of primitives of this language. There are few in number, not exceeding two hundred and twelve, one of which, or its abbreviation, will be found to compose a part of every character in that language ; and may, therefore, be considered as the key to the character into which it enters. The eye soon becomes accustomed to fix upon the particular key, or root, of the most complicated characters, in some of which are not fewer than sixty or seventy distinct lines and points. The right line, the curve line, and a point, are the rudiments of all the characters. These, variously combined with one another, have been extended from time to time, as occasion might require, to nearly eighty thousand different characters.
To explain the manner in which their dictionaries are arranged will serve to convey a correct notion of the nature of this extraordinary language. All the two hundred and twelve roots or keys are drawn fair and distinct on the head of the page, beginning with the most simple, or that which contains the fewest number of lines or points, and proceeding to the most complicated ; and on the margins of the page are marked the numeral characters one, two, three, &c. which signify, that the root or key at the top will be found to be combined on that page with one, two, three, &c. lines or points. Suppose, for example, a learner should meet with an unknown character, in which he perceives that the simple sign expressing 'water' is the key or root, and that it contains, besides this root, six additional points and lines. He immediately turns over his dictionary to the place where the character 'water' stands on the top of the page, and proceeding with his eye directed to the margin, until the numeral character six occurs, he will soon perceive the one in question ; for all the characters in the language, belonging to the 'root water', and composed of six other lines and points, will follow successively in this place. The name or sound of the character is placed immediately after it, expressed in such others as are supposed to be most familiar ; and, in the method made use of for conveying this information, the Chinese have discovered some faint and very imperfect ideas of alphabetic writings, by splitting the monosyllable sound into a dissyllable, and again compressin the dissyllable into a simple sound. One instance will serve to explain this method. Suppose the name of the character under consideration to be 'ping'. If no single character be thought, sufficiently simple to express the sound 'ping', immediately after it will be placed two well-known characters 'pe' and 'ing' ; but as every character in the language has a monosyllabic sound, it will readily be concluded, that 'pe' and 'ing', when compressed into one syllable, must be pronounced 'ping'. After this, the meaning of explanation follows, in the clearest and most easy characters that can be employed.
When, indeed, a considerable progress has been made in the language, the general meaning of many of the characters may be pretty nearly guessed at by the eye alone, as they will mostly be found to have some reference, either immediate or remote, though very often in a figurative sense, to the signification of the key or root ; in the same manner as in the classification of objects in natural history, every species may be referred to its proper genus. The signs, for instance, expressing the 'hand' and the 'heart', are two roots, and all the works of art, the different trades and manufactures, arrange themselves under the first, and all the passions, affections, and sentiments of the mind are under the latter. The root of an unit or one comprehends all the characters expressive of unity, concord, harmony, and the like. Thus, If I observe a character compounded of the two simple roots, 'one' and 'heart', I have no difficulty in concluding that its signification is unanimity ; but, if the sign of a negative should also appear in the same character, the meaning will be reverwed to discord or dissention, literally 'not one heart'. Many proper names of persons have the character signifying 'man' for their key or root, and all foreign names have the character 'mouth' or 'voice' annexed, which shews at once that the character is a proper name employed only to express sound without any particular meaning."
"The sounds and various inflections incident to languages in general, are not necessary to be attended to in the study of the Chinese characters. They speak equally strong to a person who is deaf and dumb, as the most copious language could do to one in the full enjoyment of all his senses. It is a language addressed entirely to the eye, and not to the ear. Just as a piece of music laid before several persons of different nations of Europe would be employed by each in the same key, the same measure, and the same air, so would Chinese characters be equally understood by the natives of Japan, Tunqin, and Cochin-China ; yet each would give them different names or sounds that would be wholly unintelligible to one another. When, on the present voyage, we stopped at Pulo Condore, the inhabitants, being Cochin-Chinese, had no difficulty in corresponding by writing, with our Chinese interpreters, though they could not interchange one intelligible word."

The plan of bishop Wilkins, it is observed, for a universal character, though more systematic and more philosophical, is so similar to that upon which the Chinese language is constructed, that it will convey a very complete idea of it. The roots are only 121 in number, but their combinations have been extended to 50,000 different characters. A European can only make out 342 monosyllabic sounds in this whole language ; a native, by the help of aspirates, intonations, and accentuations, can increase them to 1331 : a number so small, when compared to the written vocabulary, that, on an average, 60 characters of so many different significations must necessarily be called by the same monosyllabic name. Hence a composition, if read, would be totally unintelligible to the ear, and must be seen to be understood. If a Chinese has not made himself intelligible, he draws the character, or its root, in the air, with his finder of fan, and the ambiguity is removed.
The system of education is slow and laborious, and destructive of any thing like genius. The boys begin at about six years old to learn by name a certain number of easy characters without any regard to the meaning ; for the name has no reference whatever to the meaning. The only object of the scholar is to acquire the sound ; five or six years are employed in this stupefying process. A regular bred scholar is required to get by heart a very large volume of the works of Confucius so perfectly, that he may be able to turn to any passage from hearing the sound of the character only, without having one single idea of their signification. The next step is to form the characters, which requires four years more, and the last step is to analyse them by the help of the dictionary ; so that at the end of his education he first begins to comprehend the use of the written characters. In proof of the absurdity of this wretched process, if any proof were necessary, it is stated that sir Geo. Staunton, at the age of twelve years, and in little more than twelve months, not only acquired a good colloquial knowledge of the language, but had learned to write it with such accuracy, that all the diplomatic papers of the embassy addressed to the Chinese government, were copied by him.
The excellence of a composition depends on three points ; that every character be neatly and accurately made : that each character be well chosen, and not in vulgar use ; and that the same character do not occur twice in the same composition. Fine writing, therefore, would be a literal term of praise. The beauty of an expression depends entirely on the choics of the character, not on any selection or arrangement of sounds. This whimsical taste would render poetry impossible, even if the natives were not by their habits, and their want of all the better and nobler feelings, made totally incapable of that noblest of all human arts. Poets, however, they have, after their own fashion. The emperor Kien Long was considered the best of modern times, and the following ode, in praise of tea, is the most celebrated of his compositions. It has been painted on all the teapots in the empire.

"On a slow fire set a tripod, whose colour and texture shew its long use ; fill it with clean snow water ; boil it as long as would be necessary to turn fish white, and crayfish red ; throw it upon the delicate leaves of choice tea, in a cup of 'youé' (a particular sort of porcelain). Let it remain as long as the vapour rises in a cloud, and leaves only a thin mist floating on the surface. At your ease, drink this precious liquor, which will chase away the five causes of trouble. We can taste and feel, but not describe, the state of repose producted by a liquor thus prepared." '

Some ludicrous errors, into which Europeans have been betrayed by their ignorance of Chinese manners and arts, are noticed in this volume. The famous lines or marks on the back of the tortoise, which, by one of the missionaries, were supposed to contain the sublimest doctrines of philosophy, are nothing but the schoolboy's musical square. And a copper coin which was found in an Irish bog, explained in the Collectanea Hibernica, proves to have been a common coin of the last emperor Kien Long : though a very able antiquary had pronounced the characters on the face to be ancient Syriac, and those on the reverse, talismanic symbols, and inferred that it must either have been imported into Ireland by the Phoenicians, or manufactured in the country, in which case the Irish must have had an oriental alphabet ; in either case, he adds, these medals contribute more to authenticate the ancient history of Ireland, than all the volumes that have been written on the subject.
Astronomy is little understood by the Chinese, though they affect to value it highly. The main business of their astronomical board is to prepare the national almanack ; of this, whatever is scientific, is made up by the missionaries from European almanacks, and the chief business of the native sages, is to mark the lucky and unlucky days. An eclipse occasions a public mourning, and gongs, and kettle drums, and trumpets, are sounded to frighten away the dragon, lest he should swallow the moon. It is no part of the system of Chinese government to interfere with the superstition of the people, so that this is solely the effect of ignorance. When Kublai Khan conquered the country, he invited learned men from every part of the world ; and chiefly by the help of Mohammedans, who were not then the brutalized race that they are at present, he surveyed the empire, adjusted the chronology, and corrected the astronomical observations ; he imported mathematical and astronomical instruments from Balk and Samarcand, and repaired the great canal. This is acknowledged by the Chinese annalists.
They know as little of earth as of heaven, fully believing, as they were taught above two thousand years ago, that the heaven is round ; the earth a square fixed in the middle ; the other four elements placed at its four sides : water to the north, fire to the south, wood to the east, and metal to the west ; and they believe the stars to be stuck, like so many nails, at equal distances from the earth, in the blue vault of heaven. For the good maps of their own country which they now possess, they are indebted to the Jesuits.
They were certainly acquainted with gunpowder before it was known in Europe. Mr. Barrow quotes Mariana from bishop Watson, to prove that it was first used at the siege of Algeziras in 1342, but it had been used before this by the Spanish Moors. Zurita mentions it in the year 1331, as exciting great terror when employed by the king of Granada. It is remarkable that the balls discharged at Algeziras seem to have been red-hot ; if the chronicle, who is Mariana's authority, be accurate in his expression - 'venian ardiendo como fuego', they came burning like fire. But though the Chinese know the use of gunpowder, there is reason to believe that, like the other eastern nations, they were unacquainted with the art of casting cannon, and that their matchlocks were imitated from the Portugueze. That their printing should have continued in its present imperfect state is more the fault of the language, than of the people ; the component parts of the characters are sufficiently simple, but the difficulty of putting them together upon the frame, into the multitude of forms of which they are capable, Mr. Barrow thinks is perhaps not to be surmounted. The Romans were more stupid in this respect.
The power of imitation which they possess is truly remarkable ; a Chinese at Canton, on being shewn an European watch, though he had never seen any thing of the kind before, undertook to make one like it, and succeeded ; only the main spring which he could not make was furnished him. All those ingenious pieces of mechanism which were formerly sent to China from the repositories of Coxe and Merlin, are now fabricated at Canton as well as in London, and at one third of the expence. Of this imitative power a ludicrous instance is related by Mr. Price. In the course of a very long passage to China, the chaplain's cassock had been so often patched and mended, that it was necessary to have a new one ; it was therefore sent to a tailor at Canton, that he might make another by it. He so accurately copied every patch and darn of the old one, that, except by the freshness of the new cloth, it was impossible to tell one from the other. This ingenuity would probably long ago have introduced many improvements into the country, had it not been counteracted by the contented ignorance of the government, and the contempt for Europeans which it has so successfully inculcated. A native of Canton who began a ship upon the English model, was obliged to destroy it.
Their music is despicable ; of all their instruments there being not one that is tolerable to an European ear. A Chinese band generally plays, or endeavours to play, in unison ; but they never attempt to play in separate parts, confining their art to the melody only. Du Halde relates an ingenious trick to which this custom gave occasion. A king of Tsi was very fond of the instrument called Yu, and assembled three hundred men to play upon it in concert : a fellow who understood nothing of the matter, thought that, with a little impudence, he might pass in the crowd ; accordingly he offered his services, and received wages safely for a long time. But the next king happened to be a still greater lover of the instrument Yu, than his predecessor, and he chose to hear each of the three hundred performers play singly. Several popular Chinese airs are given in this volume ; they themselves have no other notion of noting down music, than that of employing a character expressing the name of every note in the scale, and even this imperfect way they learned from Pereira the Jesuit. Of their painting we have specimens enough in Europe ; for though these be not the work of the best artists, they sufficiently show what progress has been made in the art of design. Their architecture is well explained as imitating a tent, the curved roof of all their dwellings, and the wooden pillars in imitation of the poles, forming a colonnade round the brick walls, clearly denote the origin, and from this original form they have never ventured to deviate. Their temples are mostly constructed upon the same plan, with the addition of a second, and sometimes a third roof, one above the other. The whole of their architecture indeed, 'says this traveller', is as unsightly as unsolid ; without elegance or convenience of design, and without any settled proportion, mean in its appearance and clumsy in the workmanship. This censure is perhaps too harsh ; the inconvenience of their dwellings Mr. Barrow had experienced, and the meanness of appearance may probably result from bad workmanship and poor materials ; but the view of a mandarin's house which he has given, is certainly picturesque, as indeed the buildings mostly appear in the prints published with sir George Staunton's account. The village in the same plate might be mistaken for an English one. Mr. Barrow could not discover for what the pagodas were intended ; they are now decaying, and no new ones erected that in Kew Gardens is not inferior to the very best which he saw. Their knowledge of medicine is contemptible, and quackery flourishes as successfully there, as in England.
The hired sophists of tyranny in Europe have labored to prove the propriety of absolute power in the sovereign, by deducing it from what they are pleased to call the patriarchal system of parental authority. In China, the government is actually established upon this system ; the son is the slave of the father, the subject the slave of the emperor. The Great Father is a title which the emperor takes ; and being thus placed above any earthly control, he is supposed to be also above earhly descent, and therefore, as a natural consequence, he sometimes styles himself the sole ruler of the world, and the son of heaven. The late emperor Kien Long, seemed indeed, in his latter years, to have been himself the dupe of this impiety, which was designed to impose upon the people. His reign had been unusually long and fortunate, and he conceived that the Lama had condescended to become incarnate in his person. This system, or more properly speaking, this language is carried through all the subdivisions of power ; the head of every province, city, or office, is considered as the father ; but, Mr. Barrow says, this fatherly care and affection in the governors, and filial duty and reverence in the governed, would, with much more propriety, be expressed by the terms of tyranny, oppression, and injustice in the one, and by fear, deceit, and disobedience in the other.
To curb my disposition to abuse this parental power in the monarch, a singular check has been devised.

"This is the appointment of the censorate, an office filled by two persons who have the power of remonstrating freely against any illegal or unconstitutional act about to be committed or sanctioned by the emperor. And Although it may well be supposed, that these men are extremely cautious in the exercise of the power delegated to them, by virtue of their office, and in the discharge of this disagreeable part of their duty, yet they have another task to perform, on which their own posthumous fame is not less involved than that of their master, and in the execution of which they run less risk of giving offence. They are the historiographers of the empire ; or, more correctly speaking, the biographers of the emperor.
Their employment, in this capacity consists chiefly in collecting the sentiments of the monarch, in recording his speeches and memorable sayings, and in noting down the most prominent of his private actions, and the remarkable occurrences of his reign. These records are lodged in a large chest, which is kept in that part of the palace where the tribunals of government are held, and which is supposed not to be opened until the decease of the emperor ; and, if any thing material to the injury of his character and reputation is found to be recorded, the publication of it is delayed, out of delicacy to his family, till two or three generations have passed away, and sometimes till the expiration of the dynasty ; but this indulgence they pretend, that a more faithful relation is likely to be obtained, in which neither fear nor flattery could have operatedto disguise the truth.
An institution, so remarkable and singular in its kind in an arbitrary government, could not fail to carry with it a very powerful influence upon the decisions of the monarch, and to make him solicitous to act, on all occasions, in such a manner, as would be most likely to secure a good name, and to transmit his character unsullied and sacred to posterity. The records of their history are said to mention a story of an emperor, of the dynasty or family of Tang, who, from a consciousness of having, in several instances, transgressed the bounds of his authority, was determined to take a peep into the historical chest, where he knew he should find all his actions recorded. Having made use of a variety of arguments, in order to convince the two censors that there could be nothing improper in the step he was about to take, as, among other things, he assured them, he was actuated with the desire only of being made acquainted with his greatest faults, as the first step to amendment ; one of these gentlemen is said to have answered him very nobly, to this effect : 'It is true you majesty has committed a number of errors, and it has been the principal duty of our employment to take notice of them ; a duty', continued he, 'which further obliges us to inform posterity of the conversation which your majesty has this day very improperly held with us."

The press in China, we are told, is as free as in England : but Mr. Barrow's notions of the freedom of the press seem to be taken from the days of archbishop Laud and Mr. Pitt ; for this liberty, he says, seems to excite no apprehensions in the government. The summary mode of punishing any breach of good morale, without the formality of a trial, makes a positive prohibition against printing unnecessary, being itself sufficient to restrain the licentiousness of the press. The printer, the vender, and the reader of any libelous publication are all equally liable to be flogged with the bamboo. So much for the liberty of the press in China ! The censorial board of the inquisition is mercy, when compared with such freedom.
A short account of the laws is given, which it is the less necessary to notice, as a compendium of the complet code is likely to appear in an able and faithful English translation. We have searched the volume in vain for an account of the state of property ; a most important subject, which will of course be fully explained in these institutes. Birth and fortune are of no weight in China ; learning alone, such as it is, leads to office and distinction. But such learning as can neither soften the manners or strengthen the intellects is of little avail, and the officers of government carry on a system of plunder far more oppressive thant the regular taxation. They who have acquired riches by their trade or possession, dare not openly enjoy them, for the officer of the district would find no difficulty in bringing the wealthy within the place of the sumptuary laws. To repress this act, a system of espionage has been established ; the magistrates keep watch upon each other, and secret inspection upon all. No viceroy can hold his office longer than three years, no servant of the crown from a family alliance in the place where he commands, nor obtain an office of importance in the place where he was born. These precautions sufficiently show the extent of the evil.
That a government should have continued without any material change for above two thousand years, is certainly a singular phenomenon in history, and the wonder is increased by the magnitude of the empire. Its unambitious character, and its situation, having no formidable neighbours, have contributed to secure it ; but the main cause of its stability has been the wise plan of interesting all the learned in its cause. The disturbances which occasionally arise, are produced by famine, an evil to which this great empire is miserably exposed. To allevitate this evil government stores up a part of the grain which it receives in taxation, for all taxes are paid in kind ; the people have no other relief, and this, which in itself is insufficient, is impeded by those impertinent and oppressive delays, which are not peculiar to the public officers of China. It is however the desire of government, as it is the interest, to administer effectual relief, and whenever it appears that an officer has withheld the relief from the poor, either through neglect or malice, the punishment is justly severe, even sometimes extending to the life of the culprit.
Taxation is fixed and certain ; the main and enviable blessing of this government. No new assessment is ever required, except in cases of rebellion, when an additional contribution is sometimes demanded from the neighbouring provinces ; and it happens quite often that the land tax or rent, is remitted in such districts as have suffered by drought or inundation. The annual value of the whole is about sixty-six millions, not more than double the revenue of Great Britain, exclusive of the poors-rate and parochial taxes. The civil and military establishments, and all the incidental and extraordinary expences are paid on the spot, and the surplus revenue remitted to Pekin, amounting to about twelve millions. The military force is stated to consist of eighteen hundred thousand men ; the whole expences of this great establishment lord Mcartney calculated at little short of fity millions sterling. But it mus be remembered, that in China soldiers do not cease to be useful. They are parceled out in the smaller towns, villages, and hamlets, where they act as jailors, constables, thieftakers, assistants to magistrates, subordinate collectors of the taxes, guards to the granaries, and are employed in a variety of different ways under the civil magistracy and police. They are posted in little forts all along the public roads, canals, and rivers, at the distance of three or four miles asunder ; thus they prevent robberies, and carry dispatches to and from the capital, there being no other post. Every soldier has his portion of land which he cultivates : such a provision induces them to marry, and the married men are never removed from their station.
It is, however, probable, that some convulsion is brooding in this great empire. The Tartar family on the throne retain a national prejudice which it was formerly their policy to conceal : though the conquereors adopted the dress, the manners, and the opinions of the conquered, they have not sufficiently blended with the mass of the people ; the court is now becoming partial to its own race ; all offices of importance are given to Tartars, and the Tartar language is likely to become prevalent at court. This partiality is not regarded by the people with indifference ; secret societies of united Chinese have been formed, and it appears by the last accounts that a very serious rebellion has broken out, with one of the family of the last Chinese emperors at the head, who had assumed the imperial yellow. To predict its fate would be impossible ; this only is certain, that from a change of dynasty no good results, and the expence of lives and tranquility at which such a change must be purchased, is actual loss. Such revolutions we deprecate as sincerely as Mr. Barrow, but we have not, like him, that horror of the enlightened doctrines of the rights of man, which he expresses in a manner so little consistent with his usual good sense and good manners. We have expressed our difference of opinion on this head, in reviewing his Travels in Africa ; and will therefore here only repeat our hope, that a system, which, like that of the Chinese government, and indeed all the Asiatic governments, totally prevents all improvement, all increase of knowledge and happiness, may be radically destroyed.

"The primitive religion of China, or, at least, those opinions, rites, and ceremonies that prevailed in the time of Confucius, (and before that period all seems to be fable and uncertainty) may be pretty nearly ascertained from the writings that are ascribed to that philosopher. He maintains in his physics, that 'out of nothing there cannot possibly be produced any thing ; - that material bodies must have existed from all eternity ; - that the cause, (lee reason) or principle of things, must have had a co-existence with the things themselves ; - that therefore, this cause is also eternal, infinite, indestructible, without limits, omnipotent and omnipresent ; that the central point of influence (strength) from whence this cause principally acts, is the blue firmament (tien) from whence its emanations spread over the whole universe ; - that it is, therefore, the supreme duty of the prince, in the name of his subjects, to present offerings to tien, and particularly at the equinoxes, the one for obtaining a propitious feed-time, and the other a plentiful harvest.
Other parts of the doctrine of Confucius were will calculated to keep alive the superstitious notions that still prevail among the multitude. He taught them to believe that the human body was composed of two principles ; the one light, invisible, and ascending ; the other gross, palpable, and descending ; that the separation of these two principles causes the death of man ; that at this awful period, the light and spiritual part of the human body ascends into the air, whilst the gross and corporeal matter sinks into the earth. The word 'death', in fact, never enters into the philosophy of Confucius ; nor, indeed, on common occasions is it employed by the Chinese of the present day. When a person departs this life, the common expression is, 'he has returned to his family'. And although the body resolves itself in the course of time into its primitive elements ; and becomes a part of the universe : yet, he contended, the spirits of such as had performed their duty in life were permitted to visit their ancient habitations, or such places as might be appointed for receiving the homage of their descendants, on whom they had the power of conferring benefactions. On this ground, it became the indispensable duty of every good man to observe a strict obedience of the performance of sacred rites in the temple, consecrated to the memory of ancestors. He maintained, that all such as neglected this great branch of moral duty would be punished for their neglect, after death, by their spiritual part being dprived of the privilege of visiting the hall of ancestors ; and, consequently, of the pleasure arising from the homage bestowed by their descendants."

The system of Confucius, or Gong-foo-tse as the name should be written, is pure Pantheism. What is most remarkable is, that his disciples should never have attached any superstition to their master. They regard him as a philosopher, who, by the strength of his own intellect, had attained to the knowledge of the truth, and who is worthy of reverence as the benefactor of mankind, because has has enlightened them. Two other sects, more adapted to human folly, have established themselves. That of the Tao-tze, or 'Sons of Immortals', is not very clearly explained. Its founder Lao Kung, by the account which is here given, would be more properly classed with Mainaduc, than with the founders of new religions. He maintained that enjoyment should be the main object of man, and that he could make man immortal by certain preparations taken from the three kingdoms of nature. Many princes are said to have been poisoned with this liquor of life. That such an imposture should maintain its credit for more than one generation appears incredible. Whether or not this part of the system is still believed we are not told ; but the priests of Lao Kung still continue a separate body ; they devote themselves to a state of celibacy, and associate in convents. Their temples are crowded with images, which represent the different passions, or the benefactors of the particular monastery, or the deceased brethren ; to these images they offer no homage. This account must be accurate ; but if the of Lao Kung's system be accurate also, it is very extraordinary that the practice of the disciples should so materially differ from the doctrines of the founder.
The other superstition is tha of Fo, or Budha, which is so widely diffused over the east. Formerly these hostile sects struggled for the mastery, each aiming to be established by favour of the court eunuchs. They often took arms against each other, monasteries were burnt, and thousands destroyed ; but as the people took no part in the contest, leaving it entirely to the priests, such wars were rather useful than prejudicial to the state. The present dynasty has reconciled the two parties by the sure method of neglecting both. The court religion is that of the Lama, whose priests are paid and maintained as a part of the imperial establishment : to this superstition also the Tartar officers of state are attached.
Their burying grounds are strikingly described.

"A plain, extending beyond the reach of sight, opened out on the left of the river, upon which were observed many thousands of small sandy tumuli, of a conical form, resembling those hillocks which in myriads are thrown up on the continent of Africa by ther termites or white ants. In several parts of this plain were small buildings, in the form of dwelling-houses, but not exceeding four or five feet in height ; in other places were circular, semicircular, and square enclosures of stone-work, and here and there were interspersed small pillars of stone or brick, and other erections of every variety of form. This was the first common burying-ground that we had observed, except a very small one at Tong-tchoo ; and the tumuli and the different rections marked out the mansions of the dead. In many parts of this extensive enclosure we met with massy coffins lying upon the surface, some new, others newly painted, but none in a mouldering state. It was explained to us, by our interpreter, that some of these coffins had been deposited there, until the proper advice should be obtained from the priest, or the oracle consulted, or from casting lots, as to the most propitious place of interment, and the most favourable day for performing the obsequies ; some were placed there till the pecuniary circumstances of the surviving relatives would enable them to bestow a suitable interment, and others were left to dry and moulder, to a certain degree, in order o be burnt, and the ashes collected and put into stone jars or other receptaccles. On no occasion do the Chinese bury their dead within the precincts of a city or town, much less within the walls of their temples ; but slways deposit them at a proper distance from the dwelling of the living, in which respect they have more discretion than the Europeans.
The bank of the river, being one of the enclosing fences to the burying-ground, was ornamented with beautiful weeping willows, which, with a few solitary cypresses interspersed among the tombs, were the only trees that appeared in this part of the country.
In a corner of the cemetery was a temple, built after the usual plan, with an altar in the center ; and a number of deities moulded in clay were ranged on each side on some pedestals. We observed no priests ; but an elderly lady was very busily employed in throwing the sticks of fate, in order to obtain a lucky number, in which, however, she failed. During the operation of shaking the cup, her countenance betrayed a greater degree of eagerness and anxiety than usually appears on the face of a Chinese ; and she left the temple in a peevish and muttering tone, sufficiently expressive of the greatness of her diasappointment, which, it seems, was no less than a refusal, on the part of the oracle, to hold out the hope of her being blessed with a second husband. Till this circumstance had been explained to us by the keeper of the temple, it was concluded, that the old lady had been muttering imprecations against us for disturbing her in the midst of her devotion."

Though nearly a fourth part of the whole country consists of uncultivated lands, it is probable that the population is not over-rated at 333 millions. Enormous as the aggregate appears, yet this population is to that of Great Britain only as 256 to 120, or in a proportion somewhat greater than two to one. Mr. Barrow has set this point in a clear light, and sufficiently proved, in confutation of the common opinion, that China is not over-stocked.
The latter chapter describes the journey from Pekin to Canton. This article has been extended to so great length, that we have no room to notice its details farther. We have said enough of the volume to evince its excellence. Bruce's is the only work of equal value which has appeared dring the present reign – we had almost said during the last century.