No one will wonder at the emigrating spirit now alive in China, when he is informed that the most common evils to which the Celestials are subject is that crowning misery, starvation. The population is extremely dense; the means of subsistence, in ordinary times, are seldom above the demand; and, consequently, the least failure of the rice-crop produces utter wretchedness amongst hundreds of thousands of the people. Dreadful disorders, in such circumstances, arise, which even the strongest Government would be inadequate to repress. A total change seems to take place in the peaceful nature of the people, and many a patient labourer turns fiercely upon his rich neighbour, to plunder his substance. "No one," says Gutzlaff, "can have any idea of the anarchy which, on such occasions, ensues, and the utter demoralisation of the people. Yet, as soon as relief is afforded, and a rich harvest promises fair, the spirit of order again prevails, and outrages are put a stop to. The people then combine, arm themselves, and proceed in thousands to catch marauders like wild beasts. No mercy is shown on such occasions, and the Mandarins, on account of their weakness, cannot interfere." This is just a very effective species of Lynch law; and it is not a little instructive to remark how this system has arisen alike in the United States and in China-amidst the youngest of the Anglo-Saxon, and the oldest of the Mongolian branches-from the same cause, namely, the weakness of the executive government.

Owing to the geographical peculiarities of China, one of the most frequent causes of famine is the overflowings of its great rivers. Three years ago, Mr Wade informs us,† the Yellow River and the Yangtse-keang burst their embankments, and inundated to a frightful extent the level country through which they flow, and which is the very garden of China. "The rains have been falling for forty days," says a memorial to the Emperor," until the rivers, and the sea, and the lakes, and the streams,

* Life of Taou-kwang, 113.

have joined in one sheet over the land for several hundred li, [three lis are equal to one English mile,] and there is no outlet by which the waters may retire." In the province of Hupih alone, says the Padre Marzetti, a district 230 miles long by 80 broad was under water, and in two of its larger cities the damage done amounted to between three and four millions sterling. Woo-chang-foo, the capital of the province, "fared no better;" while the smaller towns fared infinitely worse; ten thousand people were destroyed, and domestic animals drowned in untold numbers; crowds even of the first families were begging bread, and (horror of horrors to the pious Celestials!) coffins were floating about everywhere on the face of the waters. Thus the loss of lives in this single province was equal to that by which we purchased the immortal victory of Waterloo. Such an inundation is too stupendous for the European mind adequately to comprehend its extent, and is said to have exceeded any similar disaster in China within the memory of the present generation.

"Your

The Emperor and his court did their utmost to alleviate the wide-spread distress. Taxes were remitted, gratuitous distributions of grain made from the public stores, and subscriptions for the sufferers opened throughout the empire. Nevertheless these appliances fell far short of remedying the evils, and many governors of provinces sought to conceal their incapacity by a timely resignation. servant," says one styled Woo-wanyung, in his memorial to the Emperor, "has set up altars in all places; and, followed by his subordinates, has gone hither and thither, sacrificing early and late, shedding bitter tears, and crying aloud for grief; but he has been unable to succour the afflicted." If he had been cutting drains and building dikes, it would have been more to the purpose. "Shuddering and bewildered," proceeds the luckless Governor, humbly speaking of himself in the third person, "at his meals, he cannot swallow his

food; during the night, as he hears the rain falling, he wanders about his dwelling. He knows not what measures to adopt, and beats his breast at his own incompetency." This is all very fine; but we think the rescript of the Vermilion Pencil must have astonished him. The Emperor very coolly writes back that "Woo-wan-yung's despatch is the extreme of stupidity, absurdity, and audacity! He has had the sense only to accuse himself of a fault, but has not thought of discharging his duty to the utmost. If, whenever there were a season of difficulty, all those upon whom devolves the personal charge of our dominions were to act like Woo-wan-yung, what would become of the misery to which the myriads and tens of myriads of the black-haired race are exposed?" The luckless Governor is then deprived of his button, but ordered to remain at his post-with the assurance, that if he is successful, he may yet in some measure atone for his transgression. "But if it again appears," says the Emperor," that he does not know how to exert himself, and that his administration is, after all, so unsuccessful as to send the people wandering to the streams and ditches, [to drown themselves ?] his crimes will of course be severely dealt with. When Our word has once gone forth, the law follows it; and We shall assuredly not allow the least mercy to be shown him. Tremble and attend! Respect this !"

Old Taou-kwang was a sad miser. He could never be got to put his hands in his own pocket to pay his expenses; and, among other similar eccentricities, he used to confer the repairing of his palaces, as a special mark of his regard, on some favoured courtier! Inundations, accordingly, and such-like costly disasters, grieved him exceedingly; so that he adopted the notable plan (but not very original one, either in China or in Europe) of raising money by sales of rank. The result of the measure has naturally been, to increase the evil it was meant to cure. Mercenary or incompetent men got into the Government offices, whose embezzlements rendered fresh sales of rank necessary; then more embezzlements; and so the mischievous system goes on. To

such an extent is this selling of rank carried, that, on an average of the seven years preceding 1850, the money thus raised in Cheh-keang has annually amounted to upwards of £93,000; while the whole pay of the civil and military officers of that province only amounts to £100,000; so that more than nine-tenths of its expenditure (exclusive, however, of the sums for public works) has been made up by riches unfairly reaping the rewards of merit.

"An

Incapacity is thus very prevalent among the Chinese officials; but, bad as this is, their corruption and corruptibility is a still more formidable evil. Their main science of government seems to be,-to give bribes to all above them, and to receive bribes from all below them. In truth, the Government offices, from Peking to Thibet, are one vast hive of peculators. Take one province and one excise department as a sample. In Shantung the salt-tax should yield a fixed revenue of £40,000; but the arrears in 1849 amounted to nearly £30,000, of which £22,000 was interest due on collections from 1844 to 1848. inquiry, under the auspices of a High Commissioner, resulted," says Mr Wade, "in the arrest of the present governor of the province, four exgovernors, his predecessors, and eight ex-directors of the Gabelle, accused of collusion with the salt monopolists, and general abuse of their trust. The Minister of Finance was also implicated." The governor of Shan-si was exiled in the early part of the same year, on account of the extortion of a relative of his, and others in the province; but his misdeeds were so eclipsed by the rapacity of his successor, that he was recalled and promoted. Similar instances of peculation might be endlessly multiplied; and in a recent decree the Emperor even threatened to send his Lords of the Treasury "to the Board of Punishments, who will make strict inquiry, and, upon proof of the facts, award the proper penalties. Governors-general and governors guilty of previous connivance at, or subsequent suppression of, such acts, shall be treated with the utmost rigour." In China, not even a transit of Government goods from one place

to another can take place, without those in charge making the most of their opportunity. Thus we learn that the supply of copper for the Imperial mint, despatched in the beginning of 1848 from Yun-nan in the south-west, had not reached Peking by the end of 1849 -the real cause of the delay being the avarice of the officials in charge, who profitably employed their leisure in laying fees upon such boats as they met or overtook, upon the pretext that they were obstructing the passage of the Government vessels. Indeed, so thoroughly national is this predilection for fraud and dishonesty, that an Imperial proclamation offering a reward almost always closes with the assurance that Government will keep faith-that it will not "eat its words;" and the issue of licenses, or the payment of a sum, is usually guaranteed to take place in open court, to prevent any extortion on the part of the clerks and

runners."

66

Although the whole of this vast Empire uses the same character to express its ideas, and obeys the same Sage in its institutions, still there is frequent collision and rebellion. Foreigners, who know nothing about the internal state of the country, are apt to imagine that there reigns lasting peace; but nothing is more erroneous. Under the oppression of the greedy Mandarins, and other causes-such as dearth and demagogues-insurrections of villages, cities, and districts are of frequent occurrence, without in any great degree affecting the stability of the Government. In these cases, the destruction of property and the hostility of the people to their rulers (especially if these have been tyrants) is often carried to great excess, and instances are on record of the infuriated mob broiling their magistrates over a slow fire. On the other hand, the Government, when victorious, knows no bounds to its cruelty, and the treatment of political prisoners is of the most shocking description. Fear is the great parent of cruelty in all parts of the world, and it ought to be confessed that the Mandarins have good grounds for apprehensions.

There is an immense Chinese rabble ready to seize every opportunity to commit ravages upon industrious citizens, and to plunder the Governmental stores; and they never fail to do so whenever the attention of the Mandarins is directed to the defence of the country, or when they are beaten in the field. This was frequently exemplified during the war with this country; for whenever our troops took a city, the mob completely plundered the houses, taking away even doors and window-frames. In the capital, especially, there is an immense floating population of this abandoned character, which, like the classes dangereuses of Paris, require quite an army for their repression; and one of the greatest apprehensions of the Imperial Government, when the British fleet cast anchor in the Peiho river, on whose banks Peking is situated, was, that the mob of the city would profit by the confusion, and would rise en masse the moment our forces arrived in the neighbourhood. Another cause of alarm, doubtless, was, that the capture of the metropolis would have paralysed the whole machinery of Government throughout the empire. The political administration of China, like that of France, is a centralised bureaucracy; and the consequence in both countries is the same-the party in possession of Paris and Peking being the virtual rulers of the empires to which they belong.

The Chinese have a saying in their language, that "a mob of people is more dangerous than a troop of wild beasts;" and their manner of dealing with these popular demonstrations is very curious: the police have strict orders never to interfere, as they conceive that difficulties are more likely to arise from meddling, than benefits to accrue from suppressing them by force. "There was an extraordinary instance of this at Canton, only a few years ago," says Lord Jocelyn,* "when the opposition to the opium-trade first broke out. The people refused to admit the soldiers to search their houses, and, forming themselves into parties or trades, barricaded the streets. The

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approaching each other, the two latter by land, the former by both land and sea. China has spread through Mongolia to the shores of the Caspian and the heights of the Caucasus, and has come in contact with the Mahommedan population of Western Asia and the Christianity of the Russian prefects. Russia, the great nascent power of the Old World, has rolled her armies across Siberia up to the foot of the Great Wall, and now casts a covetous eye upon the northern portion of the Celestial Empire, in order to obtain possession of the mouths of the great river Amour, which forms the only navigable outlet for the products of her Siberian dominions. Britain, firmly seated on her Indian throne, has reached with her fleets every harbour of the Flowery Land, has menaced its capital with her broadsides, and dotted its shores with her settlements. Five of its maritime ports we hold in common with the natives, and on the island of HongKong a British dependency has arisen almost within gunshot of its southern capital. But it is by another branch of the Anglo-Saxon race that the greatest impression upon China is destined to be made; and the same era which has brought the British army to the gates of Nanking has esta blished the Americans in force on the shores of the Pacific. From the harbours of California, that restless and enterprising people are besetting with their merchantmen the Chinese waters, and already a naval armament has passed through the Golden Gate on its way to the adjoining territories of Japan. The Bay of San Francisco is nearly opposite to the mouth of the Yangtse-keang, the artery of Central China, and the fair isles of the Archipelago, linking the Old World to the New, are convenient stepping-stones between. Another year may not elapse before the Sandwich group is annexed to the Union; and, strong with the strength of all the hardy desperadoes whom the rudest and roughest races of the West have poured into California, how long will it be before some more fortunate Aaron Burr, some wiser and braver Lopez, plants the banner of the Stars and Stripes on the opposite coast of Asia?

VOL. LXXII.-NO. CCCCXLI.

From these events, as well as from the rapid rise of our Australian Empire, it is evident that the Pacific Ocean is about to become the arena of the latest and possibly crowning achievements of our race on earth; and the name given to it three centuries ago may prove to have been unwittingly prophetic of its future history-of the comparative millennium which its peaceful waters are yet destined to witness. The numerous isles of that vastest of oceans will cease to be the Ultima Thules of navigation, and themselves give birth to kingdoms. Already the stalwart Anglo-Saxons, after compassing the earth from the rising to the setting, and from the setting to the rising sun, are meeting amidst the solitudes of that virgin ocean; but new combinations of mankind are there preparing, to play the leading parts in the last act of the long drama of human life. The New World commenced the fusion of the varied nations of the Old, but it is on the shores, or in the bosom, of the Pacific that that fusion is to be consummated. There, the diverse elements of the population of Eastern America are gathered to a focus, and, blending with those of China and the intervening isles, will by and by settle in peace in California. Auriferous Australia will ere long be the scene of an analogous combination; and at this moment, in New Zealand, a fusion is in progress between the most powerful of the Caucasian races and the most elevated of the Australasian. Gold is now the great lodestar of the nations, and is yet destined to break up the seclusion of the hermit races of India and China. It was gold abroad and distress at home that first covered the Atlantic with ships and its western shores with a new population, and the same agencies of Providence are now doing a like service for the Pacific. But the progress of the human race, though slow and liable to many fluctuations, is, on the whole, ever onwards; and instead of the labour-market of the new empires of Oceanica being supplied, like that of Eastern America, by means of violence, and with the captive savages of Negroland, it will be voluntarily occupied by the free and industrious outpourings of China.

I