Pekin in triumph, and proclaimed his nephew emperor, under the name of Shun-che.

Shun-che was a minor, and the regency which ruled during his minority did much to conciliate the Chinese. Notwithstanding, the mandarins obstinately opposed his reign. Four princes of the Ming family were successively raised by them to the throne; but they were all defeated by the victorious Tartars. Shun-che still reigned, and at the death of his uncle, Amawang, in 1651, he assumed the reins of government.

Shun-che was instructed in the art of government by a German Jesuit, to whose suggestions perhaps he mainly owed his success. After the death of his uncle, he ruled, for the most part, in peace, having only one antagonist to encounter, namely, a Fo-keën man, whose father had fallen a victim to the treachery of the Mantchoos, and who, incited by revenge, braved the whole imperial forces, by ruling over the Chinese seas. Shun-che reigned solely eleven years, and he was succeeded by his heir, the renowned Kang-he.

Notwithstanding much had been done during the reign of Shun-che towards the establishment of the Mantchoo Tartars in China, such a consummation was doubtless fully brought to pass by the master mind of Kang-he. He it was, who, by his vigour and his skill, laid a firm foundation for the throne of his dynasty, which is still in existence. For not only did he by his personal character win the hearts of the Chinese, but by his prowess he subdued his foreign foes. The Mongols and Kalmucks were humbled by him; and he even prescribed a treaty to the Rus

sians, who had pushed their settlement to the river Amour.

Having thus proved victorious over all his enemies, Kang-he applied himself to the reformation of the government, in which he was equally successful. He endeavoured to introduce arts and sciences, and to destroy the system of slavish adherence to antiquated custom, which is the characteristic feature of the Chinese. But in this he failed. What the Chinese were before and were then, that they still remain. Notwithstanding, he gave a fresh impulse to literature by the expulsion of all those doctors from Han-lin college, who could not give proof of their qualifications, and by having a national dictionary compiled. Under his direction, also, the whole country was surveyed by the Jesuits; and he so far triumphed over national prejudices, as to adorn his palace by European arts.

Kang-he ruled sixty years over the empire of China. He died in 1723; and was succeeded by Yung-chin, who obtained the imperial dignity by stratagem. His brother, who had been nominated heir of the crown, being absent in Tartary, he usurped the throne, and sent all his nearest relations into exile, one brother excepted, to whom he was tenderly attached, lest they should prove rivals.

One of the first measures of Yung-chin was to banish the Jesuit missionaries to Canton, because of their disposition to intrigue, and the influence they had gained thereby at court. To their conduct at this period, as well as the jealous eye with which the Chinese ever look upon "barbarians," may be attributed the entire expulsion of

the missionaries from the interior of China. They saw that while the Jesuits professedly served God, they sought with eagerness after mammon; and looking upon other missionaries as similar characters, have hence denied them that free intercourse by which alone the people of China can be fully instructed in the ways of righteousness.

Yung-chin was succeeded by Keën-lung, who, like his great predecessor, Kang-he, reigned during the long period of sixty years. Keën-lung was no unworthy inheritor of the fame and dominion of his grandfather. He was a munificent patron of learning, and, under him, the empire was at peace. One expedition only, of any celebrity, was undertaken by him, which was against the Meaou-tse, a race of mountaineers on the borders of Kuei-chow, and not far from the province of Canton. The emperor boasted that he had subdued them; but there is reason to believe that they still not only retained their independence, but that they were victors. Never yet have they submitted to the Tartar tonsure, which is the only mark of Tartar conquest.

During the reign of Keën-lung, the Dutch, English, and Portuguese sent embassies to China, which were favourably received. He was upon the point of being involved in a war with Russia, but, fortunately for the Chinese empire, matters were amicably arranged. When he had ruled sixty years, which just completes a revolution of the Chinese cycle, he resigned his throne to his son Kea-king, a.d. 1795.

Kea-king was ill calculated to maintain the imperial dignity after such an able ruler as his father. His habits were extremely profligate.

After the morning audience, from which no emperor can excuse himself, he generally retired to the company of comedians: he even took them with him when he proceeded to sacrifice at the temples of Heaven and Earth. This conduct gave birth to secret machinations and open rebellion. His life was frequently attempted; and scarcely a year elapsed without a revolution breaking out in some part of the empire. His profligacy brought him into universal contempt, and his pusillanimity rendered him the object of scorn. The care of

administration was left to others, and he wallowed in pleasures of the grossest nature, and in the midst of which he died, leaving the empire to Taou-kwang, A.D. 1821.

Taou-kwang, which signifies "Reason's glory," is the present emperor of China. He was ap

pointed to succeed his father, because he nobly defended him when his palace was stormed by a band of robbers. His personal character is much better than that of his father, though his conduct has been far from realizing the lofty title ascribed to him. The torrent of corruption which broke forth among his subjects during the life of Kea-king remains unstemmed, while he lives a life of inglorious ease in the retirements of his palace. In the civil administration he has done nothing requiring particular notice. As he found the laws, so they still remain. The great maxim of his government is to remain passive, and to accommodate himself to circumstances as they occur. Twice only has the emperor's energy been roused to action in the field, and in both cases without honour. When a rebellion occurred in Turkestan, he quelled it by bribes of silver and

gold; and when he arrayed his forces against the English in the recent war, they were on all occasions defeated. He has been compelled to purchase peace by indemnification.

Like his immediate predecessor, Taou-kwang has exhibited a determined aversion and hostility to the Roman Catholic religion. The "religion of the western ocean " is to him an abomination; and he has given full proof of this in expelling the last of those European missionaries from Pekin, who had been attached for two hundred years to that tribunal, whose business it is to observe the motions of the heavenly bodies, and to construct the Imperial Calendar. He has also warred against European science. The last traces of it have been nearly obliterated in the capital; and a series of fierce edicts have been successively published to prohibit the Chinese from making themselves acquainted with it again. They have been commanded to have no dealings with barbarians!

And yet the recent successes of the English open a wide door of hope for the true philanthropist. The two people are more closely united than they have ever before been in the annals of history. Twice indeed have the English been permitted to send embassies to the court of China, but they were received as unworthy of entering into the "celestial empire." But now it is otherwise. The humanity of the conquerors towards their foes has begotten in the breasts of the Chinese respect for them. Even the haughtiness of the court is subdued by it, and a disposition for a close and friendly alliance is clearly exhibited. From this contact, therefore, with the Christians