Government immediately gave in, and the military made no further attempts at the time." "Everybody who has travelled in China," says Mr Fortune, "knows that, whereever the natives are enterprising and bold, they set the Government at defiance, whenever it suits their purpose to do so. For example, what can the Government do, if the natives on the coast of Fokien-a bold and lawless race-choose to disobey its orders? Positively nothing. Even farther north, where the Mandarins are more powerful-in Shanghae, for example-the Chinchew men, as they are called, often fight pitched battles, with firearms, in the streets and in the open day; and the Mandarins, with all their soldiers at their backs, dare not interfere. The system of apprehension and punishment in such cases is so curious, that I must not omit to mention it. The belligerents are allowed to fight as long and as fiercely as they choose, and the soldiers never interfere; but when the weakest side is overpowered, and probably a number of lives lost in the affray, they come down in great force, and seize and carry off to punishment the most defenceless; and, in circumstances of this kind, they are not over particular about seizing the most riotous, or those most implicated in the disturbances, provided those they seize are the weakest and least able to resist."

We learn from the posthumous work of Gutzlaff, already quoted, that the danger from these popular émeutes has greatly increased since the War. The attempts of the Government to replenish the exhausted exchequer, by imposing heavier taxes, encountered a most determined resistance from the people. The soldiers, who were ordered to enforce payment, were in most cases driven back, and the Government was obliged at last to hush up the matter by effecting a compromise. This disastrous attempt begat similar resistance in other parts of the country; and the comparative' disrespect into which the Emperor and his Mandarins had fallen, in consequence of their defeat by the "bar

barians," greatly augmented the boldness of the malcontents. "Democratic assemblies, in which the rights of man were declared,” rose in many parts of the country. "The elders and gentry took the lead in this matter, and demanded that, in all measures in which the happiness of the people were concerned, they should be first consulted. If there was anything that did not suit their wishes, they instantly remonstrated; and, if this proved ineffectual, they proceeded with an immense crowd to the Government offices, and carried by force what was denied to courtesy.”

In Canton and its environs, a belief had prevailed that the populace could beat the Barbarians, and permission was accordingly given to wear arms and organise a numerous militia. The leaders of this movement, however, either were, or soon became, demagogues, and began to hold monster meetings for political ends. In this emergency the characteristic policy of the Chinese Government was manifested-which is, to adapt itself to circumstances, and to yield, rather than put the supreme authority in jeopardy by firm resistance. Seeing the impossibility of stemming the popular current, many Mandarins sided with the people, doubtless with the wise object of endeavouring to gain the direction of these dangerous movements. Every effort was made to rule by the masses, and to establish practically the truism, that the Government exists for the benefit of the people, not the people for the benefit of the Government. This warded off any direct collision between the State and its subjects, but, as was to be expected, much anarchy arose in consequence of the weakening of the Executive. In one case "a prefect," says Gutzlaff, "having beaten an innocent man in the streets, the sufferer appealed to his fellow-citizens, collected a crowd of more than ten thousand, and proceeded directly to the establishment of the obnoxious Mandarin, which was burnt down, and razed to the ground; a declaration being made, that in such a manner would the sovereign people avenge themselves.

The military were called out, but would not attack the people; and the Government, utterly powerless, had to overlook the insult. . . . Similar scenes of outrage and popular revenge occurred in many parts of China, and the ascendancy of the populace daily increased. Men of the worst character, gifted with a glib tongue, put themselves at the head of the movement, and did incalculable mischief. The Mandarins were often obliged to buy off these demagogues, and to make their peace by very large and important concessions. Thus the whole state of society underwent a change, such as had never been anticipated. The people armed themselves, and paraded in large masses, ostensibly for the purpose of exterminating the robbers, but in reality to terrify the Mandarins."

Is this "somnolent" China we are reading of, or is it a leaf from the opening scenes of the French Revolution? The events are strangely alike in both cases, but the career of democracy in the two countries can never be alike. The French rose against a system and a class-the Chinese do neither. There are no castes, no privileged classes with them, and the Mandarins and officials have risen from the common mass. It is the abuses of power only against which the Chinese protest, not against its form. They admire and venerate with their whole heart the Governmental system of their country, which is not only associated with their whole past history, but which adapts itself admirably to the national spirit. is no mere theoretical constitution, such as have lately been so much in vogue in Europe,-it is a perfect embodiment of the Chinese predilections in government, and has grown with the growth and strengthened with the strength of the people. Dynasties fall, but the constitution remains, and probably will remain as long as China is a united Empire. The present Executive, however, has been undergoing sundry rude shocks. "Amidst all this turmoil," says Gutzlaff, "citizens and peasants turned politicians, and neglected their work; great poverty and misery were the consequences, and only a few, urged by sore experience, returned

It

to their useful and profitable occupation. Favoured by such circumstances, large bands of robbers assembled, and committed terrible ravages upon the country; indeed, they became at length so numerous and powerful as to set the Government at defiance, and to make the forces brought against them contemptible."

Such calamities befalling the Empire have induced many writers to speculate on its speedy disruption and downfall. In these anticipations we cannot concur, and incline much rather to the opinion more maturely formed, two and a half years ago, by Mr Wade, our Assistant Chinese Secretary at Hong-Kong. Justly attaching much importance to the pernicious influence of the sales of rank in undermining the strength of the Imperial Government, he says:

"This error is always quoted as a chief one amongst those that have led to the downfall of previous dynasties; and its manifest injustice, and necessarily increasing mischief, joined with the poverty of the exchequer, and consequent recurrence to so disastrous a remedy, apparently more often than of old, incline us to apply to the State the words of its great philosopher, spoken of himself a few days before his death :

'The mountain is crumbling,

The strong beam is yielding.'

"Still, widely as the grievance must be felt, it may be long ere the outery against it be sufficiently general to menace the security of the present line; the difficulties of intercommunication are great, news of all kinds travel slowly, and the propagation of written opinions, save in placards, which only affect an immediate neighbourhood, seems less a habit with this people than with any who have the command of a press. The selfishness of clanship is also opposed to a community of feeling; a district or province is not supposed to be much interested in the oppression or affliction of the one adjoining it, as was shown in our invasion in 1842; and the inhabitants of many a country-side wage real and endless war with their nearest neighbours. A revolution would but transfer the present form of government to other hands, as the Chinese are unacquainted with the nature or merits of any other, and complain neither of the present mode of government, nor of the laws, in which they are not stated to discern any defect, but

simply of the abuse of the latter. There is, at all events, no general expression of dissatisfaction at this, or any other measure now in force; and, notwithstanding all that is here assumed to be evidence of the Empire's decay, there is not, as yet, to be detected any prognostic of its immediate dissolution. Its Sovereign neither contemplates nor attempts any act of aggression, such as that of the latter monarchs of the Ming, the strife ensuing upon which, after the struggle of half a century, seated his ancestor upon their throne. In Peking, the Paris of his dominions, he maintains a large army, by

crown.

various ties affected towards him rather than to any Chinese aspirant to the He has been at pains to conciliate his Mahommedan colonies [in the west] two years since again in rebellion,

but now on better terms with his border subjects, and returning to their allegiance. The pirates, whose presence in the south has moved some at home and abroad to prophesy the speedy downfall of his dynasty, have risen, it is true, from the command of a few vessels to that of a formidable fleet in the last four or five years; but they have never taken a place of political importance, and the remnant that escaped our men-of-war last autumn have tendered their submission, and are dismissed to their homes."-(P. 90-92.)

On the 25th of February 1850, a few weeks after the above opinion was expressed, the Emperor Taou-kwang died, after a reign of nearly thirty years, and was succeeded by a son not quite twenty years old. The immature age of the new Emperor was not a favourable circumstance at a period so critical; and he has not since shown much wisdom in dismissing from his counsels such men as Keying and Muchangah, who were the longchosen ministers and friends of his father. His reign has hitherto been a troubled one. In a month or two after his accession, the province of Kwangse, west of Canton, became the theatre of a rebellion against the Imperial authorities; and the leader was said to have the disposal of fifty thousand men, and to display banners inscribed with "Extermination to the Tartar, and restoration of the Ming (or native) Dynasty." The mountainous country occupied by the rebels is naturally so strong, that they seem able to retire at will into positions where they can set the Government forces at defiance; and

as the copper-mines which supply the Imperial mint lie in that quarter, it is likely enough that no small proportion of it now falls into the hands of the insurgents. Last autumn, the aspect of affairs had grown so serious, that the Governor-general of the two provinces (Seu) had to quit Canton in person with a large force; and at the commencement of the present year, the Emperor's troops had suffered severely in a contest with the rebels; and the inhabitants of Canton were becoming apprehensive that a continuation of such warfare would place their tempting city in some jeopardy. When we consider the it is evident that what would constitute enormous extent of China, however, a fatal rebellion in most countries, is but a small matter in the Celestial Empire; and even should this revolt prove ultimately successful, (which is probable enough,) no decisive results are soon to be looked for.

Providence ordained the original dispersion and seclusion of the different branches of mankind, in order that each nation might work out for itself social, religious, and political institutions of its own; so that in the latter days, when a remarkable development of the locomotive agencies once more reunited the race, nations might profit by the experience of their neighbours as well as by their own,— that the various failures and successes of humanity throughout four thousand years might all be turned to account, and that Truth might at last emerge from amidst the thousand shades of error. The fulfilment of that beneficent design seems now drawing near to its accomplishment. The present aspect of the world bespeaks the gradual demolition of the barriers which nations have so long reared against their fellows, and the finger of Providence points to a consummation more glorious still. The Temple of Humanity is enlarging,-the walls of partition are being broken down,-and the nations are gathering together into the same courts, preparatory to the still distant worship of the same God.

The three great empires of the world, the British, the Russian, and the Chinese, the Anglo-Saxon, the Slavonian, and the Mongolian-within the last few years have been rapidly

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 established 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.

Η

THE funeral bell has tolled, and the hybrid Parliament is numbered with the things that were. Perhaps it is as yet too early to commence an elaborate biography, or to weigh accurately against each other the merits and the demerits of the departed body. A decent interval must be allowed, not for grief-for there are few, if any mourners-but for reflection, ere we essay so formidable a task; and, in the mean time, more pressing duties force themselves upon us. The character of the last Parliament is of less importance to the nation than the composition of that which is to come. In 1847, we could tolerate a make-shift House of Commons-in 1852, the issue has become more awfully important.

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There is yet a breathing time-a very short one-before the action actually commences; and we shall attempt to use it profitably: for it is of the utmost importance that every elector in the kingdom should be made aware of the true nature of the coming struggle, which is not one of parties, but emphatically one of principles. It is now plain beyond contradiction - indeed it is hardly denied that an intimate league has been formed between Popery and Democracy-that the champions of the intolerant faith have united with the leaders of the movement party, to make a combined and general assault upon our institutions, civil and religious-and that all minor differences of opinion have been amicably adjusted. The Radicals are willing to aid the Papists in their attacks upon the established churches -the Papists are ready to second the Radicals in their schemes of organic change. It is long since we foresaw that such an alliance must necessarily be formed-indeed, we believe that every one who has watched the course of public events with an observant and unprejudiced eye, must have noted various symptoms which were significant of that dangerous coalition. It was not before the power of the Conservative party, as arrayed in the House of Commons, that the Whig Ministry fell. They

were the victims of their own expediency-they pandered to their own ruin. They had not the moral courage to resist innovation of any kind by a manly declaration of principle, and an appeal to the support of the people. Lord John Russell never seemed to know when he had firm ground beneath his feet. He gave

way at every assault, and was ultimately driven into a morass. At the close of 1850, much of the Protestant sympathy of the country was with him, and he might have retained it had he chosen to act boldly or wisely. He did neither; for he was afraid to forfeit the support of the Papists in Parliament, and believed that he might conciliate them by the introduction of a measure which was simply a miserable sham. In this attempt he totally failed. He disgusted the nation at large, and the Papists were clamorous against him. In like manner, while pretending to resist the onslaught of the Radicals, he intimated that he was himself prepared to lay a scheme before the country which would certainly secure the acquiescence of all who wished for a reasonable reform. He brought in his bill, which alienated from him the support of the great majority of the electors, whilst it did not by any means satisfy the requirements of the chiefs of the Radicals. The fact is, that, under Lord John Russell, Whiggery has changed its character. The old Whig, in times when men were not ashamed of bearing that party denomination, now so greatly and so justly degraded, differed not much, in many important points, from the modern Conservative. He was strictly constitutional in his notions; and professed himself always ready to maintain the equable balance of power. But the Russellite Whig is entirely a different being. He piques, or professes to pique himself, on the fact that he is a member of the "great Liberal body;" and, accordingly, whenever he can do so conveniently, and especially when in opposition, he fraternises with the Radicals. To secure Radical support, and to keep office, was the great aim