LORD MACARTNEY’S OBSERVATIONS
ON CHINAManners and Character
If I venture to say anything upon the manners and character of the Chinese, I must begin by confessing that I am very far from being a competent judge of them. Though assisted by an honest and able interpreter, though possessed of many advantages from the intercourse which my station afforded me with persons of the first rank and abilities, and from the extent of my travels through the country of China; yet I am sensible that it was impossible to avoid falling into mistakes. From my not knowing the language, from sometimes misconceiving those who did, from misinterpreting looks and gestures, where our hands and our eyes were to perform the offices of our tongues and our ears, I may have formed wrong judgments and have deceived myself but as I do not mean that others should be deceived, I fairly own my disadvantages, and give previous notice of the nature of the information that may be expected from me. It will be chiefly the result of what I saw and heard upon the spot, however imperfectly, not of what I had read in books or been told in Europe.
It should never be absent from our recollection that there are now two distinct nations in China (though generally confounded together by Europeans), the Chinese and the Tartars, whose characters essentially differ (notwithstanding their external appearance be nearly the same) and whose minds must naturally be differently bent by the circumstances which respectively govern them. They are both subject to the most absolute authority that can be vested in a prince, but with this distinction, that to the Chinese it is a foreign tyranny; to the Tartars a domestic despotism. The latter consider themselves as in some degree partakers of their sovereign’s dominion over the former, and that Imagination may perhaps somewhat console them under the pressure of his power upon themselves; like the house servants and house negroes belonging to a great landlord in Livonia, or planter in Jamaica, who, though serfs themselves, look down upon the peasantry and field negroes of the estate as much their inferiors.
If opinions were solely to be formed of China and its inhabitants from the accounts of the first travellers and even of later missionaries, they would often be inadequate and unjust; for those writers, although they probably did not mean to deal in fiction, yet when they do tell the truth, they do not always tell the whole truth, which is a mode of narration that leads to error almost as much as falsehood itself.
When Marco Polo, the Venetian, visited China in the thirteenth century, it was about the time of the conquest of China by the western or Mongol Tartan, with Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, at their head. A little before that period the Chinese had reached their highest pitch of civilization, and no doubt they were then a very civilized people in comparison of their Tartar conquerors, and their European contemporaries, but not having improved and advanced forward, or having rather gone back, at least for these one hundred and fifty years past, since the last conquest by the northern or Manchu Tartars; whilst we have been every day rising in arts and sciences, they are actually become a semi-barbarous people in comparison with the present nations of Europe. Hence it is that they retain the vanity, conceit, and pretensions that are usually the concomitants of half-knowledge, and that, though during their intercourse with the embassy they perceived many of the advantages we had over them, they seemed rather surprised than mortified, and sometimes affected not to see what they could not avoid feeling. In their address to strangers they are not restrained by any bashfulness or mauvaise honte, but present themselves with an easy confident air, as if they considered themselves the superiors, and that, nothing in their manners or appearance could be found defective or Inaccurate.
Their ceremonies of demeanour, which consist of various evolutions of the body, in elevating and inclining the head, in bending or stiffening the knee, in joining their hands together and then disengaging them, with a hundred other manoeuvres they consider as the highest perfection of good breeding and deportment, and look upon most other nations, who are not expert in this polite discipline, as little better than barbarians. Nevertheless having once shown off and exhausted all these tricks of behaviour, they are glad to relapse into ease and familiarity, and seem never so happy as when indulging in free conversation with those whom they do not distrust, for they are naturally lively, loquacious and good-humoured. They were certainly much surprised to find us so mild, sociable, and cheerful.
The court character is a singular mixture of ostentatious hospitality and inbred suspicion, ceremonious civility and real rudeness, shadowy complaisance and substantial perverseness; and this prevails through all the departments connected with the Court, although somewhat modified by the personal disposition of those at their head; but as to that genuine politeness which distinguishes our manners, it cannot be expected in Orientals, considering the light in which they regard the female world.
Among the Chinese themselves, society chiefly consists of certain stated forms ‘and expressions, a calm, equal apathetical deportment, studied, hypocritical attentions and hyperbolical professions.
Where women are excluded from appearing, all delicacy of taste and sentiment, the softness of address, the graces of elegant converse, the play of passions, the refinements of love and friendship must of course be banished. In their place gross familiarity, coarse pleasantry, and broad allusions are indulged in, but without that honesty and expansion of heart which we have sometimes observed to arise on such occasions among ourselves. Morality is a mere pretence in their practice, though a common topic of their discourse. Science is an intruder and gaming the resource. An attachment to this vice accompanies even the lowest Chinese wherever he goes. No change of country diverts him of it. I have been assured that the Chinese settled in our new colony at the Prince of Wales’s island, pay not less than ten thousand dollars per annum to the government - for a licence to keep gaming-houses and sell opium.
Every Chinese who aspires to preferment attaches himself to some Tartar of consequence, and professes-the utmost devotion to his service; but such is the strong and radical dislike in the client to the patron, that scarcely any benefits can remove it and plant gratitude in its place. As the nature of dependence is to grow false, it cannot be wondered at if these Chinese are not strict observers of truth. They have indeed so little idea of its moral obligation, that they promise you everything you desire, without the slightest intention of performance, and then violate their promises without scruple, having had no motive for making them that I could perceive, unless it were that they imagined what they said might be agreeable to you just at the moment ‘When detected or reproached they make light of the matter themselves, and appear neither surprised nor ashamed; but nevertheless it was evident that they particularly remarked our punctuality and our strict attention to truth in all our transactions with them, and respected us accordingly.
Although the difference of ranks be perhaps more distinctly marked in China than in any other country, yet I often observed that the Mandarins treat their domestic servants with great condescension and talk to them with good nature and familiarity; but in return an unremitted attention and obedience are apected and never withheld.
A Chinese family is regulated with the same regard to subordination and economy that is observed in the government of a state; the paternal authority, though unlimited, is usually exercised with kindness and indulgence. In China children are indeed sometimes sold, and infants exposed by the parents, but only in cases of the most hopeless indigence and misery, when they must inevitably perish if kept at home; but where the thread of attachment is not thus snapped asunder by the anguish of the parent, it every day grows stronger and becomes indissoluble for life.
There is nothing more striking in the Chinese character through all ranks than this most respectable union. Affection and duty walk hand in hand and never desire a separation. The fondness of the father is constantly felt and always increasing; the dependence of the son is perfecdy understood by him; he never wishes it to be lessened. It is not necessary to coax or to cheat the child into the cutting off an entail, or the charging his inheritance with a mortgage; it is not necessary to importune the father for an irrevocable settlement According to Chinese ideas, there is but one interest in a family; any other supposition would be unnatural and wicked. An undutiful child is a monster that China does not produce; the son, even after marriage, continues for the most part to live in the father’s house; the labour of the family is thrown into one common stock under the sole management of the parent, after whose death the eldest son often retains the same authority, and continues in the same union with his younger brothers.
The houses of the better sort exhibit a certain show of grandeur and magnificence, and even of taste and elegance in, their decorations, but at the sanw time discover, at least to our eyes, evident marks of discomfort and inconvenience. There is a want of useful furniture. They have indeed lanterns of gauze and paper and horn and diaphanous gum, most beautifully coloured and disposed, and they have tables, couches, and chairs, loosely covered with rich carpeting, with gold and silver damñsks, and other silks; but they have no bureaux, commodes, lustres, or looking-glasses; they have no sheets to their beds, neither does their bedding itself seem well adapted or agreeable. They don’t undress themselves entirely as we do, when they go to rest, but lay themselves down upon alcoved benches, which are spread with a single mat or thin mattress, and adjusted with small pillows and cushions. Their apartments are not well contrived or distributed, according to our ideas of utility and propriety, having seldom any doors that shut with locks Or proper fastenings, but in lieu of them screens and curtains, which are removed or drawn back as occasion requires. In the cold weather they are warmed by flues under the floor, for there are neither stoves, fire-places, nor fire-grates in the rooms; but sometimes braziers filled with charcoal are brought in and occasionally renewed.
The people, even of the first rank, though so fond of dress as to change it usually several times in a day, are yet in their persons and customs frowzy and uncleanly. Their outward garnient of ceremony is richly embroidered with silks of different colours (those of the highest class of all with golden dragons), and their common habit it of plain silk, or fine broadcloth; but their drawers and their waistcoats (of which they usually wear several according to the season) are not very frequently shifted. They wear neither knit nor woven stockings, but wrap their legs round with a coarse cotton su,ff, over which they have constantly drawn a pair of black satin boots without heels, but with soles nearly an inch in thickness. In summer everybody carries a fan in his hand, and is flirting it incessantly.
They wear but little linen or calico, and what they do wear is extremely coarse and ill washed, soap being never employed by them. They seldom have recourse to pocket handkerchiefs, but spit about the rooms without mercy, blow their noses in their fingers, and wipe them with their sleeves, or upon anything near them. This practice is universal, and what is still more abominable, I one day observed a Tartar of distinction call his servant to hunt in his neck for a louse that was troublesome to him.
At their meals they use no towel; napkins, table-cloths, fiat plates, glasses, knives nor forks, but help themselves with their fingers, or with their chopsticks, which are made of wood or ivory, about six inches long, round and smooth, and not very cleanly. Their meat is served up ready cut in small bowls, each guest having a separate bowl to himself. Seldom above two sit together at the same table, and never above four. They are all foul feeders and eaters of garlic and strong-scented vegetables, and drink mutually out of the same cup which, tough sometimes rinsed, is never washed or wiped clean. They use little vinegar, no olive oil, cyder, ale, beer, or grape wine; their chief drink is tea, or liquors distilled or prepared from rice and other vegetables, of different degrees of strength according to their taste, some of which are tolerably agreeable and resemble strong Madeira.
They almost all smoke tobacco and consider it as a compliment to offer each other a whiff of their pipes. They also take snuff; mostly Brazil, but in small quantities, not in that beastly profusion which is often practised in England, even by some of our fine ladies.
They have no water-closets nor proper places of retirement; the necessaries are quite public and open, and the ordure is continually removing from them, which occasions a stench in almost every place one approaches.
They have no wheel-carriages for travelling on a better construction than that of a higler’s cart; the best are set upon four clumsy wheels, and drawn by five horses or mules, two abreast in the shafts and three leaders abreast before them. They are without springs, consequently very uneasy. The saddles, bridles and accoutrements of their horses are inelegant and ill-contrived, much heavier than is requisite, and equally inconvenient to the beast and his rider. Although so much prejudiced in favour of their own customs and fashions they could not, after some time, withstand the superiority of ours in a variety of instances. The lightness, neatness, and commodiousness of my post-chaise, in which I travelled to Jehol, they were quite delighted with; but the fearlessness and celerity and safety with which my postilions drove it along almost petrified them with astonishment. The elegance and finishing of our saddles and other parts of horse-furniture particularly struck the Tartars, some of whom I think are likely to adopt them by degrees.
Our knives and forks, spoons, and a thousand little trifles of personal conveniency were singularly acceptable to everybody, and will probably become soon of considerable demand, although the government is certainly averse to all novelties, and wishes to discountenance a taste for any foreign article that is not absolutely necessary; but luxury is stronger than law, and it is the prerogative of wealth to draw from abroad what itcan’t find at home. One great advantage indeed of the embassy is the opportunity it afforded of showing the Chinese to what a high degree of perfection the English nation had carried all the arts and accomplishments of civilized life; that their manners were calculated for the improvement of social intercourse and liberal commerce; that though great and powerful they were generous and humane, not fierce and impetuous like the Russians, but entitled to the respect and preference of the Chinese above the other European nations, whom they have any knowledge of. This favourable impression of us may be confirmed and improved in them by a continuance of our own attention and cautious conduct. The restriction and discipline of our seamen at Canton are among the proper regulations for this purpose, not to mention some other arrangements that will naturally be made there, in consequence of the ground we now stand upon.
The common people of China are a strong hardy race, patient, industrious, and much given to traffic and all the arts of gain; cheerful and loquadous under the severest labour, and by no means that sedate, tranquil people they have beea represented. In their joint efforts and exertions they work with incessant vociferation, often angrily scold one another, and seem ready to proceed to blows, but scarcely ever come to that extremity. The inevitable severity of the law restrains them, Tor the loss of a life is always punished by the death of the offender, even though he acted merely in self-defence, and without any malice prepense.
Superstitious and suspicious in their temper they at first appeared shy and apprehensive of us, being full of prejudices against strangers, of whose cunning and ferocity a thousand ridiculous tales had been propagated, and perhaps industriously encouraged by the government, whose political system seems to be to endeavour to persuade the people that they are themselves already perfect and can therefore learn nothing from others; but it is to little purpose. A nation that does not advance must retrograde, and finally fall back to barbarism and misery.
A Chinese boy who was appointed to wait upon young George Staunton would not for a long time trust himself to sleep in the house with our European servants, being afraid, he said, that they would eat him. The Chinese, however, at all the seaports where we touched were quite free from these foolish notions; and I flatter myself that the Embassy will have effectually removed them in all the provinces which it passed through.
The lower sort most heartily detest the Mandarins and persons in authority, whose arbitrary power of punishing, oppressing and insulting them they fear, whose injustice they feel, and whose rapacity they must feed. The Mandarins themselves are equally at the mercy of their superiors, the Ministers and Grand Secretaries of the Court, and are punishable by confiscation, and even by death, not only for their own offences, but for what others may do amiss within their department. They are responsible for whatever happens in the place where their authority extends; accident is construed into intention, and unavoidable error into wilful neglect. But this is not all, for the penalty is often inflicted on the offender’s whole family, as well as on the offender himself. The Ministers and Grand Secretaries too are liable to any indignity which the caprice of the Emperor may chance to dictate. The bamboo is one of the grand instruments of discipline from which no rank or elevation is exempt or secure. The Emperor’s nearest relations, even his own sons, are subject to it, and there are two of them now living upon whom it is well known to have been inflicted. But this is an argument of obedience which will probably one day refute itself.
Although the Emperor, as the father of his people, affects and professes impartiality, and wishes to have it understood that he makes no distinction between Tartars and Chinese, neither Tartars nor Chinese are imposed upon by the pretence. The care taken to preserve the Manchu language among all the Tartars settled in China forms one unequivocal line of demarcation, exclusive of the others which I have occasionally taken notice of in these sheets. After a short residence in the country, I found no difficulty in distinguishing a Tartar from a Chinese, although their mode of dress and forms of behaviour are precisely the same, but there was always something (I know not well how to describe it, quod sentio tantum) that indicated the difference in a moment.
In any attempt at a general sketch of the manners and character of a nation, candour and experience will naturally suggest a number of exceptions, and Chtistian charity will make large allowances. The composition of mankind, in all countries, is a mixture of the same materials, though blended in different proportions; but there is usually one particular essential ingredient that pervades and leavens the whole mass, as from a predominating feature results the general cast of the countenance. If therefore the majority of the people, whom I have been describing, should be less perfect than might be wished, it is not very difficult to conjecture the cause. The Tartars perhaps imagine that their own selfish government derives a good deal of its vigour even from the unwholesome state of the juices in the body of the nation; and as a healthy constitution might be the consequence of a proper fermentation of them, the interested physician, who wishes to keep the patient as long as possible under his hands, will be in no haste to cure a disease whose duration he thinks may be long protracted without becoming fatal. The fault therefore is less in the people than in those who have the care of them.
If among others with’ whom we were conversant we met with a few superior characters the merit is entirely their own and to themselves, not to education or example, they chiefly owe those virtues and good qualities by which we distinguished them. For notwithstanding the high-flown eulogiums to be found in books of Chinese morality, it is in general of a very flimsy texture and little understood. The tincture is more relished than the essence; the frame is more looked at than the picture; the parade of duty almost stifles duty itself.
It so happened that of our four principal connections, the Grand Secretary Sung-yun, the Viceroy Ch’ang-lin, and our cdnstani cotnpanions Wang and Chou, two were Tartars and two were Chinese; and although their respective nationalities could not escape us, yet they seemed perfectly united in their friendly and honourable conduct towards us, and made us therefore the more regret our ill fortune in having known so few others that resembled them.
As my knowledge of the female world in China was very limited, have little to say upon thç subject, but it may not be improper to say that little. The women of the tower sort are much weather-beaten, and by no means handsome. Beauty is soon withered by early and frequent parturition, by hard labour and hard fare. They have however a smart air, which arises from their manner of tying up their hair on the crown of their heads, and interspersing it with flowers and other ornaments. In the neighbourhood of Pekin I met some ladies of the higher ranks in their carriages, who appeared to have fair complexions and delicate features. They were all painted, as indeed are many of the inferior classes.
There is no law to prohibit intermarriages between the Tartars and the Chinese, but they very seldom intermarry. The Manchu and Mongol Tartars chiefly marry together, and scarcely ever with any of the other Tartar tribes. The Manchus often give a large portion with their daughters; the reverse is the case among the Chinese, where the parent usually receives a consideration or handsome present from his son-in-law.
The Tartar ladies have hitherto kept their legs at liberty, and would never submit to the Chinese operation of crippling the feet, though itis said that many of their husbands were desirous of introducing itinto their families. I made many inquiries ielative to this strange practice, but with little satisfaction. Chou admitted that no very good reason could be given for it. Its being an ancient custom was the best he could assign, and he confessed that a religious adherence to ancient customs, without much investigation of their origin, was a principal feature in the Chinese character. He added, however, that it possibly might have taken its rise from oriental jealousy, which had always been ingenious in its contrivances for securing the ladies to their owners; and that certainly a good way of keeping them at home was to make it very troublesome and painful to them to gad abroad. The rendering useless and deformed one part of the human body that is connate with the rest is little less strange than the practice of totally cutting off another; and yet we express no disgust nor surprise at the operation of circumcision, which prevails among a large proportion of mankind, and the Italian opera has long reconciled us to the indecency of castration.
It is inconceivable from whence arises the dissatisfaction at our natural form that seems to be felt by the whole human species, from the politest nations of Europe to the most barbarous islanders of the South Seas. Boring the ears, painting the face, and dusting and plastering the hair with powder and grease are equally fashionable in London and Otaheite;89 but this perverseness and disfiguration are not confined to ourselves, but extended by us to the inferior creation. A noble lord of my acquaintance in Ireland contrived to put out all the eyes of Argus and extinguish the brilliant plumage of his peacocks, and to propagate in their stead a breed of whites, greys and cream colours. The good wives of Dorking have added a supernumerary claw to all the chickens of their hatching; and our jockeys, by their docks and crops, their fan-tails, short tails, and no tails at all, make their horses as little like what God made them as can possibly be imagined. We find beauty in defects and we create defects where we don’t find them.
I by no means want to apologise for the Chinese custom of squeezing their womens pettitoes into the shoes of an infant, which I think an infernal distortion. Yet so much are people subject to be warped and blinded by fashion, that every Chinese above the vulgar considers it as a female accomplishment not to be dispensed with. Nay, a reverend apostolic missionary at Pekin assured me that in love affairs the glimpse of a little fairy foot was to a Chinese a most powerful provocative. Perhaps we are not quite free from a little folly of the same kind ourselves. We have not yet indeed pushed it to the extreme the Chinese have done, yet are we such admirers of it, that what with tight shoes, high heels and ponderous buckles, if our ladies’ feet are not crippled they are certainly very much contracted, and it is impossible to say where the abridgement will stop. It is not a great many years ago that in England thread-paper waists, steel stays, and tight lacing were in high fashion, and the ladies’ shapes were so tapered down from the bosom to the hips that there was some danger of breaking off in the middle upon any exertion. No woman was thought worth having who measured above eighteen inches round at the girdle. At present a contrary mode prevails. Prior’s comeliness of side is exploded, and protuberance is procured wherever it can be fitted. The Chinese ladies, like other Asiatics, never alter the costume of their dress, and I suppose the gowns they now wear are much of the same cut as those of their great grandmothers on board of Noah’s Ark; but though the habit is the same, they are a little more changeable and coquettish in the choice and disposition of their ornaments.
The shift is of silk netting, the waistcoat and drawers are usually of silk and trimmed or lined with furs in cold weather. Over all they wear a long satin robe made full and loose which is gracefully gathered round the waist and confined with a sash. These different members of their apparel are usually each of a different colour, and in the selecting and contrasting of them, their taste and fancy are chiefly displayed. They adorn and set off their hair with ribbons and flowers, with bodkins, and pearls, but wear neither powder nor pomatum, diamonds nor feathers. Many of the mysteries of an European toilet they have never heard of, though perfectly versed in all those of their own, to which they devote no small portion of their time. They have not yet becn initiated in the secrets of captivation by false pretences and love-swindling, or of eking out a skeleton figure by a cork rump, a muslin bosom and a buckram stomacher; for though they reckon corpulence a beauty in a man, they think it a most palpable blemish in their own sex. They therefore pay particular attention to the slimness of their shape, and have the art of preserving it in all its ease and delicacy without effort or compression.
Though a Chinese has properly but one wife at the head of his family, the number of his concubines depends on his own opulence and discretion. So far in this point Chinese and European manners seem pretty much alike, but they differ widely in another. The mistresses of a Chinese live in tolerable harmony together in the same house, and even under the authority of the wife, who adopts and educates their children, and these children inherit from the father equally with hers.
I have been the less reserved in what I have said upon this subject, because I was willing to convey an impartial idea of some things in China, which to our local vanity and prejudice appear monstrous or incredible. Nor was I sotry to have this opportunity of remarking how little right we have to despise and ridicule other nations on the mere account of their differing from us in little points of manners and dress, as we can very nearly match them with similar follies and absurdities of our own.
Religion
The project of an alliance between church and state does not seem to have entered into the contemplation of the politicians of China. Perhaps the pride of despotism disdained the sñpport of religion, or the wisdom of government rendered the aid of superstition unnecessary. The Europeans who first visited the country were astonished to find a general toleration of religious worship and opinions prevail, and to observe lamas and bonzes, Parsees, Jews and Mahometans living together in peace, and believing as they pleased, without molestation; a state of society, as yet uncommon in Europe, and at that time little expected to be found in Asia. It is therefore not improbable that Christians would have enjoyed the same indulgence, had it not been for the rashness of their missionaries. The pious zeal of these good fathers outran their discretion, and they seemed desirous of anticipating the promised call of the Gentiles without patiently waiting for the day of the lord. The jealousy of the state was naturally alarmed and measures were adopted to repress an innovation which, if not regulated, might soon become dangerous, but if it were found innocent, might be afterwards allowed. And now, notwithstanding the disturbances at different times occasioned by their apostolic labours, and the persecutions, as they are fond of terming them, which have raged against the Christians in China, they are neither forbidden nor restrained in the exercise of their religion at Pekin, where the steeples of Christian churches and the pinnacles of pagan pagodas are to be seen rising in the same city. They enjoy a perfect personal toleration, and are capable of holding offices in the state. Nothing more is required of them than not to interrupt the public tranquility by working at conversions, and fishing for proselytes. In these regulations they now apparently acquiesce, and conduct themselves, I believe, with much more prudence and circumspection than their predecessors, but they never lose sight of their vocation. They are silently but unceasingly raising recruits for the church, and adding to the number of the elect. Some few of their neophytes may perhaps be adult persons, but the greater part are foundlings saved by them from perishing, or children purchased from indigent parents. To aid them in their pious labours, they send some of the most promising of these youths to be educated in the Chinese community at Naples, who at their return are usually commissioned into the distant provinces. Those of them whom I had occasion to know the best appeared to be persons of acute understandings, of gentle manners and sincere piety, zealous for the propagation of their faith, but possessing little energy or powers of persuasion.
Although it is affirmed that there are at present about one hundred and fifty thousand Christians in China, the number at the same time is confessed to be much smaller than it was a century or two ago; but I much question whether many of those, who were then called Christians, could fairly come under that description. The first evangelical adventurers there highly magnified their own merits, and the success of their labours. They indiscriminately honoured with the name of Christian every person whom they baptized, and the outward and visible sign was rated as equivalent to an inward conviction. And this, I believe, has been pretty much the real history of most of the other oriental mission; which we read such exaggerated accounts of in the Lettres edifiantes and other Jesuitical publications. There appear to be indeed several unfavourable circumstances to the rapid growth of Christianity in China. It is attended with no worldly advantage to the professor, and a Chinese is more likely to be allured by an immediate though transitory benefit, than by a distant reversion, however valuable and lasting. The prohibition or restriction of sensual gratifications, in a despotic country where there are so few others, is difficult to be relished. Confession is repugnant to the close and suspicious character of the nation, and penance would but aggravate the misery of him whose inheritance is his labour and poverty his punishment. Against it also is the state of society in China, which excludes women from their proper share of influence and importance. (A religion which requires that women should at stated times communicate to priests in private their thoughts and actions, must be particularly disgusting to a Chinese husband, who had not himself been suffered to see his wife till the day of his marriage, and who but seldom suffers her afterwards to see even her near reladons of another sex.) A religion like that of Mahomet can only be extended by violence and terror, for the natural stubbornness of men does not readily give way to novel impressions; but the mild spirit of the Gospel is only to be infused through the means of gentleness, persuasion, and imperceptible perseverance. These are the proper instruments of conversion and peculiarly belong to the fair sex whose eloquence, on such occasions, gives charms to devotion and ornaments to truth. The earliest stages of Christianity received no small support from female agency and example; and for what show of religion still appears in our churches, we are surely not a little indebted to the piety and attendance of the women.
The missionaries at Pekin, with the exception of one or two of the youngest, appear perfectly reconciled to their situation, and to live as contentedly and happily as they probably would do in any other place. Among them the Italians and French are best informed, the most learned, and the most liberal in their sentiments; but their coadjutors the Portuguese still retain a considerable share of ancient bigotry and rancour. They all wear the Chinese dress, acquire the language of the country, and in outward appearance are scarcely to be distinguished from the other inhabitants.
I come now to speak of the profane religions that are current in China. As far as I could observe none of them have much influence on the conduct of those who profess them; whatever difference may be in the dogma, the morality is pretty nearly the same, and the practice of the same social duties approved and recommended. But men’s virtues do not always depend on their theological notions, and the sinners of one sect are, I believe, seldom less numerous than those of another.
There is properly no established religion in China, none to which any monopoly of particular privileges is attached, none that excludes the professors of another from office and command. The employments of the state are open to all subjects, whether they pray in a micro or a pagoda. Of those deputed by the Emperor to attend my Embassy, the legate followed the doctrine of the lamas, Wang was a disciple of the bonzes, and Chou a Confucianist, and all three were joined together in the same commission.
The Tartars for the most part profess the court religion which is the worship of Fo-hi, according to the doctrine and discipline of the grand Dalai Lama, the pope or patriarch of Lhasa in Tibet, of whom so many fables have been related and credited in Europe. By the most correct accounts he is a kind of ecclesiastical sovereign, under the direction of a regency, whose dominions are in themselves very considerable, but whose spiritual jurisdiction stretches from the shores of the Caspian to the sea of Kamchatka, and from the mountains of Bhutan to the frozen Ocean, an extent of belief not inferior to that of Islamism or Christianity, and hitherto as prosperous as either. The Emperor Qianlong, as I have observed in my journal, is not only firmly persuaded of the truth of this religion, but from the unexampled success of all his undertakings during a fifiy years’ reign, seriously entertains an idea that his progenitor, the great Fo-hi himself, has condescended to become incarnate in his person, and actually at this moment to animate his imperial body.*
However wild and extravagant such a conceit may be regarded, we know from history how much even the best understandings may be perverted by prosperity, and that human nature, not satisfied with the good things of this world, sometimes wishes to anticipate the condition and felicity of the next. If Alexander scorned to have less than Jupiter Ammon for his father, if many Roman emperors extorted altars and sacrifices in their life-time, if even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth an English nobleman encouraged the belief of his descent from a swan, and was complimented in a dedicationt upon his feathered pedigree, a similar infatuation may be the less inexcusable in Qianlong, a monarch, the length and happiness of whose reign, the unlimIted obedience of whose incalculable subjects, and the health and vigour of whose body have hitherto kept out of his view most of those circumstances that are apt to remind other men of their misery and mortality. At all events, he is a most scrupulous practitioner of every form of the Lama religion, and the numerous and superb convents and temples, which he has erected at Jehol, the first in the world for costliness and grandeur, are incontestible evidences of the sincerity of his faith and the fervour of his piety. The mass of the people in China are gross idolators, and also worship a deity by the name of Fo or Fo-hi; but he is understood to be a different deity from the Fo-hi of the Court, although he is reported to have come from the westward, as well as his namesake, and to have preached his revelation at a very remote period of time, long before the Christian era. The miaos or temples dedicated to this mode of religion, and the confraternities of bonzes and bonzesses who administer it, are prodigiously numerous in all parts of China. The vulgar, as elsewhere, are in general excessively superstitious. They are strict observers of lucky and unlucky days, and many of them, like their betters, are dabblers in chiromancy, f divination and astrology. In the course of my journal I have had occasion to notice the striking resemblance between the trumpery of Chinese worship and the apparatus of the Church of Rome. In several of the miaos and pagodas there is a recess or alcove carefully concealed by a close curtain, the removal of which discovers the image of a beautiful woman with a crown upon her head, surrounded by a glory, and two little boys sitting at her feet; the whole seeming like a parody upon popery, or a typification of the Virgin Mary, our infant Saviour, and the young Evangelist St. John. The female figure is called the mother or parent of the gods, and is therefore sometimes represented with a number of arms branching from her shoulders, each furnished with some characteristical emblem, a sword, a spear, a sickle, a sheaf of corn, etc. A thousand legends are related and implicitly believed of this lady and her children, which are said to originate in very high antiquity, probably coeval with the Cybele of the Greeks and the Isis of Egypt. Nevertheless among all these absurdities and contradictions the Chinese, like the Indians, have a confused idea of a unity in the Godhead, and both equally pretend that though Fo-hi and Brahma are supposed to split themselves into a number of divinities, who are called the god of the Sea, the god of the Mountain, the goddess of Pleasure, the goddess of Plenty, etc., yet that these are merely parts or emanations of one only supreme God overall, whose providence divides itself into separate functions for the better government and instruction of this sublunary world.
The higher ranks of the Chinese and those of good education are many of them what in England we courteously call free thinkers and philosophers, the rest are mostly disciples of Confucius, of whom there are two sects. The one consider their founder to have been a man of great wisdom and charity, endowed with talents and virtues much superior to the age he lived in. They venerate his name, sing his praises at their feasts and drink bumpers to his memory, in the same manner as the Whigs of Ireland do in honour of the glorious King William. But among the other Confucianists this grateful recollection has degenerated into a corrupt superstition; the toast has changed into a libation, and what originally expressed a tribute to deceased merit is become a mixture of sanctified ceremony and convivial abuse. Even here the perversion did not stop. Sacrifices were added, and sheep and oxen are now immolated to the manes of Confucius. These rites are celebrated at stated times and every person who presents the offering acts as hierophant himself, for this sect of enthusiasts, like the Quakers among ourselves, has always kept clear of an exclusive priesthood.
Although I have only mentioned the religions most prevalent, I must not omit that several Jews and Mahometans are to be found in China; but their number is not considerable, and they are melting fast into the common mass. I have been told that the Arabs or Mussulmans came into the country at a period so early as the ninth century. The Jews can boast of a much higher origin, and are pretended to be a remnant of the captivity. I have particularly noticed the case of these nations, in order to show that the Chinese are not intolerant of any religion, from which no danger is apprehended, and to disprove a common opinion prevalent in Europe that, by the ancient laws of the empire, foreigners were no allowed to settle there. This notion was originally insinuated by the Jesuits, with an exception as to themselves, and more particularly disseminated by the Portuguese, but it is in a great measure erroneous. The fundamental caution and circumspection of the government, which is awake to the slightest alarm, and perhaps not groundlessly jealous of European enterprise, naturally keep them on their guard, and prevent them from being quite so prone to. encourage strangers as many other nations are. The immense population of the country renders such recruits unnecessary, but I do not find that their policy in this respect goes beyond its mark.
Lay Europeans, as well as missionaries, assuming the dress and manners of the Chinese, and desirous of entering into the Emperor’s service at Pekin, would I believe be received and naturalized without much difficulty. They might establish and propagate themselves there like Jews and Mahometans, and be christened or circumcised as they liked, without any notice of such practices by the magistrates or any malediction of their neighbours. I saw nothing at Canton to hinder any Englishman, who would wear the Chinese habit and speak the Chinese language, from becoming a Chinese if he chose it, and of becoming even a Hong merchant if possessed of money and address. It is true, he could not easily quit the country and return home without a particular permission. Several missionaries however have found means of procuring it, and are now actually resident in Europe. But whilst we are startled with such difficulties in China, how can we forget that at this hour no person whatever can depart from Russia without a formal passport from the Chancery? An attempt to escape from such a restriction would be highly criminal and incur a most rigorous punishment. Every foreigner whatsoever, even the most respectable English merchant at St. Petersburg, is subject to this regulation, as much as the meanest peasant in the empire.
The missionaries remaining at Peldn are considered upon the same foodng as, or perhaps in some respects a better than the other subjects of their rank in the immediate service of the Court. Some of them have been honoured by the Sovereign with particular marks of distinction and favour; and if the indispensable celibacy of their order had not prevented them from contracting matrimonial engagements in China, we might possibly have now found several of their posterity possessing high offices, and yet retaining their religion. It was formerly a part of their institution to keep at a distance as much as they could, all Europeans who were not closely connected with, or entirely dependent upon the missions; and the Portuguese Jesuits who remain alive still adhere to this maxim. But since the abolition of their Societr a great change has taken place in the sentiments and policy of the other missionaries, and, I believe, most of them are now of opinion that an unqualified admission of Europeans into China would be rather favourable to their interests than prejudicial to their views.
I should not have omitted that the different missions possess, beside their churches and communities, several shops and houses in the city of Pekin, which they let out to the Chinese, and receive a handsome rent from them. They have also villas and vineyards in the country to retire to for health and devotion. The French Jesuits formerly had a very large estate there, but it was dissipated on the dissolution of their Society, and only a very small part of it now remains in the hands of the order of St. Lazarus.t The revenue of the two Portuguese seminaries at Pekin amounts to 52,000 taels, or f4,000 a year. That of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide is very trifling, and the deficiencies are chiefly supplied from Rome. The French Missions Etrangéres, which are a distinct body from the Lazarists, and have their particular establishment in China, were maintained by their superiors at Paris before the late subversion4 but since that event they are in a most deplorable situation.
In treating of the religions of the Chinese I should have mentioned the Taoists who are the most ancient of all the superstitions, being as is pretended, some thousand years antecedent to the revelation of Fo. But as they are not at present very numerous it was the less necessary to be particular on their subject. For the same reason I have not noticed the various subdivisions of the other religions, which are from time to time branching into new sects and fraternities, like the Methodists, Seceders, Swedenburghers, Moravians, and Muggletonians in England.
Government
The ancient constitution of China differed essentially from the present. Although the Emperor was styled despotic, and decorated with all the titles and epithets of oriental hyperbole, the power and administration of the state resided in the great councils or tribunals, whose functions were not to be violated or disturbed by court intrigue or ministerial caprice. It was a government by law, and when attempts were made by their princes to render it otherwise, ns often happened, rebellion was the consequence and expulsion the penalty. Hence according to history the regular succession of the crown was broken through, new sovereigns elected, and the former constitution restored. The present family on the throne is the twenty-second distinct dynasty whose hands have swayed the sceptre of China. The government as it now stands is properly the tyranny of a handful of Tartars over more than three hundred millions of Chinese.
An uninterrupted succession of four Emperors, all endowed with excellent understandings, uncommon vigour of mind and decision of character, has hitherto obviated the danger of such an enormous disproportion, and not only maintained itself on the throne, but enlarged its dominions to a prodigious extent.
Various causes have contributed to this wonderful phenomenon in the political world. When the Tartars entered China a century and a half ago, the country had long languished under a weak administration; had been desolated by civil wars and rebellions, and was then disputed by several unworthy competitors. The Tartars availing themselves of these circumstances, at first took part as auxiliaries in favour of one of the candidates but they soon became principals, and at last by valour and perseverance surmounted every obstacle to their own establishment. The spirit of the Chinese was now effectually subdued by the weight of calamity; they were wearied with contending for the mere choice of tyrants among themselves, and the less reluctantly submitted to a foreign usurpation. The conquerors, however terrible in arms and ferocious in their manners, were conducted by a leader of a calm judgment as well as of a resolute mind, who tempered the despotism he introduced with so much prudence and policy that it seemed preferable to the other evils which they had so recently groaned under. A state of tranquil subjection succeeded for some time to the turbulence and horrors of a doubtful hostility; the government, though absolute, was at least methodical and regular. It menaced but did not injure; the blow might be dreaded, but it seldom was felt.
Chinese preceptors of the highest reputation for learning and virtue were appointed to conduct the education and instruction of the young Partar princes, from whom were to spring the future sovereigns of the empire. The Chinese language was preserved as the language of the state, the highest veneration was affected for the ancient institutes and laws; the established forms of office and pageantry of administration were retained, and the external manners and deport-ment of the vanquished were assumed by the victors. All these contributed at first to impose upon the people, and to reconcile many of them to the new government. From hente has arisen a vulgar mistake that the Tartars had indiscriminately and sincerely adopted all the maxims, principles and customs of the Chinese, and that the two nations were now perfectly amalgamated and incorporated together. So far as respects the habits and head-dress they are certainly assimilated; but it is not the Tartar who has conformed to the Chinese costume, but the Chinese who has been obliged to imitate the Tartar. The nature and character of each continues unchanged, and their different situations and intrinsic sentiments cannot be concealed under any disguise. Superiority animates the one, depression is felt by the other. Most of our books confound them together, and talk of them as if they made only one nation under the general name of China; but whatever might be concluded from any outward appearances, the real distinction is never forgotten by the sovereign who, though he pretends to be perfectly impartial, conducts himself at bottom by a systematic nationality, and never for a moment loses sight of the cradle of his power. The science of government in the Eastern world is understood by those who govern very differently from what it is in the Western. ‘When the succession of a contested kingdom in Europe is once ascertained, whether by violence or compromise, the nation returns to its pristine regularity and composure. It matters little whether a Bourbon or an Austrian fills the throne of Naples or of Spain, because the sovereign, whoever he be, then becomes to all intents and purposes a Spaniard or Neapolitan, and his descendants continue so with accelerated velocity. George the First and George the Second ceased to be foreigners from the moment our sceptre was fixed in their hands. His present Majesty is as much an Englishman as King Alfred or King Edgar, and governs his people not by Teutonic but by English laws. The policy of Asia is totally opposite. There the prince regards the place of his nativity as an accident of mere indifference. If the parent-root be good, he thinks it will flourish in every soil and perhaps acquire fresh vigour from transplantation. It is not locality, but his own cast and family; it is not the country where he drew his breath, but the blood from which he sprung; it is not the scenery of the theatre, but the spirit of the drama that engages his attention and occupies his thoughts. A series of two hundred years in the succession of eight or ten monarchs did not change the Mogul into a Hindu, nor has a century and a half made Qianlong a Chinese. He remains at this hour, in all his maxims of policy, as true a Tartar as any of his ancestors.
The Viceroys of the provinces, the commanders of the armies, the great officers of state are almost all Tartars. The detail of business indeed, and the laborious departments ate chiefly carded on by the Chinese, as being more regularly educated, more learned and more patient than the Tartars, who in general have a different turn, and prefer active military duty to tranquil or sedentary occupations. In all the tribunals of justice and finance, in all the courts of civil or military administration, an equal number of Tartar assessors is indispensably necessary to be present, in order to watch over and control the others. A Chinese may preside at the Board, and pronounce the opinion, but the prompter mid manager is a Tartar who directs and governs the performers. These regulations and precautions sufficiently disclose the sovereign’s real opinion of his tenure of the empire, and how little he depends upon the affections and loyalty of his Chinese subjects. The government of China, as now instituted, may not inaptly be compared to Astley’s amphitheatre,t where a single jockey rides a number of horses at once, who are so nicely bitted and dressed that he can impel them with a whisper, or stop them with a hair. But at the same time he knows the consequence of mismanagement or neglect, and that if they are not properly matched, curried and fed, patted and stroked, some of them will be liable to run out of the circle, to kick at their keepers and refuse to be mounted any longer. Considering then all circumstances, the original defect of title to the inheritance, the incessant anxiety of forcible possession, the odium of a foreign yoke, the inevitable combats of passion in a sovereign’s breast, when deceived by artifice, betrayed by perfidy, or provoked by rebellion, the doubtful and intricate boundaries of reward and punishment, where vigour and indulgence may be equally misapplied, the almost incalculable population, the immense extent of dominion, the rrsonal exertions requisite in war, and the no less difficult talents of administration in peace—considering, I say, all these circumstances, the government of such an empire must be a task of inconceivable vigilance and toil; and yet it is a task that has hitherto been performed with wonderful ability and unparalleled success. That such singular skill in the art of reigning should have been uninterruptedly transmitted through a succession of four princes for upwards of a century and a half would be very difficult to account for, if we did not constantly bear in mind a fundamental principle of the state. All power and authority in China derive solely from the sovereign, and they are wit only distributed by him in his life time, but attest their origin after his decease. The appointment of his successor is exclusively vested in him. Without regard to primogeniture, without the fondness of a parent, without the partiality of a friend, he acts on this occasion as the father of the state, and selects the person of his family, whom he judges the most worthy to replace him. Every choice of this kind as yet made has been unexceptionably fortunate. Kangxi proved as great a prince as his father; Yung-cheng was inferior to neither, and Qianlong surpasses the glory of all his predecessors. Who is the Atlas destined by him to bear this load of empire when he dies is yet unknown, but on whatever shoulders it may fall, another transmigration of Fo-hi into the next emperor will be necessary to enable him to sustain it on its present balance; for though within the serene atmosphere of the Court everything wears the face of happiness and applause, yet it cannot be concealed that the nation in general is far from being easy or contented. The frequent insurrections in the distant provinces are unambiguous oracles of the real sentiments and temper of the people. The predominance of the Tartars and the Emperor’s partiality to them are the common subject of conversation among the Chinese whenever they meet together in private, and the constant theme of their discourse. There are certain mysterious societies in every province who are known to be disaffected, and although narrowly watched by the government, they find means to elude its vigilance and often to hold secret assemblies, where they revive the memory of ancient glory and independence, brood over recent injuries, and meditate revenge.
Though much circumscribed in the course of our travels we had opportunities of observation seldom afforded to others, and not neglected by us. The genuine character of the inhabitants, and the effects resulting from the refined polity and principles of the government, which are meant to restrain and direct them, naturally claimed my particular attention and inquiry. In my researches I often perceived the ground to be hollow under a vast superstructure, and in trees of the most stately and flourishiAg appearance I discovered symptoms of speedy decay, whilst humbler plants were held by vigorous roots, and mean edifices rested on steady foundations. The Chinese are now recovering from the blows that had stunned them; they are awaking from the political stupor they had been thrown into by the Tartar impression, and begin to feel their native energies revive. A slight collision might elicit fire from the flint, and spread flames of revolt from one extremity of China to the other. In fact the volume of the empire is now grown too ponderous and disproportionate to be easily grasped by a single hand, be it ever so capacious and strong. It is possible, notwithstanding, that the momentum impressed on the machine by the vigour and wisdom of the present Emperor may keep it steady and entire in its orbit for a considerable time longer; but I should not be surprised if its dislocation or dismemberment were to take place before my own dissolution.t Whenever such an event happens, it will probably be attended with all the horrors and atrocities from which they were delivered by the Tartar domination; but men are apt to lose the memory of former evils under the pressure of immediate suffering; and what can be expected from those who are corrupted by servitude, exasperated by despotism and maddened by despair? Their condition, however, might then become still worse than it can be at present. Like the slave who fled into the desert from his chains and was devoured by the lion, they may draw down upon themselves oppression and destruction by their very effort to avoid them, may be poisoned by their own remedies and be buried themselves in the graves which they dug for others. A sudden transition from slavery to freedom, from dependence to authority, can seldom be borne with moderation or discretion. Every change in the state of man ought to be gentle and gradual, otherwise it is commonly dangerous to himself and intolerable to others. A due preparation may be as necessary for liberty as for inoculation of the smallpox which, like liberty, is future health but without due preparation is almost certain destruction.t Thus then the Chinese, if not led to emancipation by degrees, but let loose on a burst of enthusiasm would probably fall into all the excesses of folly, suffer all the paroxysms of madness, and be found as unfit for the enjoyment of freedom as the French and the negroes.
Justice
In the ancient accounts of Chin; the administration of its justice, the strict impartiality observed in rewarding desert and in inflicting punishments, the equal security afforded to all men by the laws, are mentioned in such high strains of eulogy, that we are tempted to suppose this was the spot where the last footsteps of Astraet were imprinted. So long a period has elapsed since that time that the marks are a good deal effaced, and seem to be wearing out every day. This is the natural consequence of a convulsion in the ancient government, and particularly of the last grand revolution, when it could scarcely be expected that the balance of justice should be held with an equal hand between the conquerors and the conquered. It is, however, pretended by many that little or no alteration has been made; the common modes of procedure are continued, the usual formality in the pleadings is observed, and the same solemnity of decision is practised as before; but the consumption of the body cannot be concealed by the fullness of the robe.
My friend Chou (who as civil governor of a city of the first rank on which several others are dependent, has a very extensive judicial range and jurisdiction)t endeavoured to impress me with an idea of the equity and regularity of the courts where he presided, and as I entertain a very favourable opinion of him, I dare say that few of the others are better ordered or more pure; but it escaped from him in conversation that considerable presents were often made by the suitor to the judge. I took this occasion of explaining to him as well as I could the nature and principles of our jurisprudence and establishments, which placed the dispensers of justice above temptation by the magnitude of their salaries, and therefore rendered the acceptance of presents as unnecessary as improper. To this he answered that the circumstance of presents. in China ought not to be misinterpreted, and that the offering and receiving them formed a part of their ceremonies, and were an established usage from which no mischief was to be feared. He seemed so much prejudiced in favour of the manners of his country in this instance, and so little aware of what they must lead to, that he further informed me that the presents on these occasions were always proportioned to the opulence of the donors, and to the rank of the persons to whom they were made; and when I expressed my suspicion that a poor man who had little to give, must run a bad chance in a law-suit with a rich man who had much, he assured me that perquisites of office (as these things are considered) had seldom any influence of the determination of a cause. Perhaps he did not wish to deceive me, for there are some favourite points on which men are often apt to deceive themselves. But allowing his own particular conduct to be as unexceptionable as he meant me to believe it, yet I have strong ground to suspect the, general course of justice to be very much otherwise, and that this practice of presents, sanctioned as it is by usage and authority, is perverted to the worst purpose and grown into an intolerable abuse. A missionary indeed, in talking to me once upon this subject, seemed to apologize for the Chinese by saying that they give and receive these presents rather from custom and fashion than from bad motives, and that if they are corrupt, they are so without being aware of it. The true meaning of all which is that, through an appearance of decency and gravity of proceeding, justice wears a double face, and that integrity is professed though bribery be allowed. Another person, who had still better opportunities of knowing these matters, made no scruple of dashing out to me that money was well known to be the great instrument of decision in their courts which generally found reason in the bottom of the longest purse. But the influence of preliminary presents is supposed to prevail also in the other departments. No introduction can be obtained, no business effected without it. A refusal would be considered by the suitor as an unequivocal mark of hostility. This infamous system is universal among the Orientals, and is, I conceive, a principal cause of their decay and subversion. All the other great monarchies of the east, which we are acquainted with, have been overturned by it, one after another, and it will probably some day have its share in the catastrophe of China. In the criminal department capital punishment is not so comprehensive as with us." Fine and imprisonment, flagellation and exile are the usual infictions, except in cases of blood, Which admit of no pardon or commutation.
There are six modes of capital punishment.
1st Cutting into ten thousand pieces.
2nd Cutting into eight pieces, or what is called double quartering, both of which operations are performed upon the living subject.
3rd Beheading.
4th Strangling, which is the least infamous of all, but excessively barbarous, the patient being nine times drawn up and let down, the cord nine times restricted and relaxed, before the final suffocation.
5th Burning with green faggots.
6th Beating to death with cudgels.
The Sheriff’s calendar is said to be usually very large; but there is a general gaol delivery once in every year at which the prisoners are either punished or released, unless where particular circumstances require a longer detention.
I had been informed that a delinquent was sometimes allowed, when sentenced to be bambooed, to hire another person to undergo the punishment in his place, but the fact was strongly denied. Neither did I find it now to be true, Though possibly it may have been so in former times, that a son might substitute himself for his father’s punishment.
The order and administration of the gaols are said to be remarkably good; the debtor and the felon are confined in separate places and not permitted to approach each other. This is an excellent regulation; it seems equally impolitic and immoral to associate guilt with imprudence, and confound wickedness and misfortune by promiscuous imprisonment. By the laws of China the case of a debtor is, in other respects, extremely cruel. Although he should resign every farthing of his property, yet if it be insufficient to discharge the whole of his debt, and his relations cannot or will not make up the deficiency, he is condemned to wear a neck yoke in public for a certain period. If his insolvency be incurred by gaming, he is liable besides to a corporal punishment.
A man may sell himself in some cases, as for instance to discharge a debt to the crown, or to procure money for enabling him to bury his father, but if he behaves himself well during his servitude, he is entitled to his liberty at the end of twenty years, if otherwise, he continues a slave for life, and his children also if he had included them in the original agreement. The Emperor’s debtors, if fraudulently such, are strangled; if such only by common misfortunes, their wives and children and property of every kind are sold, and themselves banished into the wilds of Tartary. Oaths are not required in civil or criminal causes; if voluntarily offered they are always suspected; and yet, what is singular, the torture is sometimes used in both to procure evidence and confession.
It is not invariably, though generally, true that all sentences of death are signed by the Emperor. There have of late been several occasions where the first magistrate has taken upon himself to execute criminals upon the spot for treason, rebellion, atrocious murder, etc. He takes his chance for approbation and usually obtains it.
[CRANMER-BYNG, J.LN (ed), (1962),An Embassy to China. Being the journal kept by Lord Macartney during his embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung, 1793-1794, [Lord Macartney's observations on China, pp. 221-242], Londres: Longmans.]