"The country about Tongchoo foo, for feveral miles, is level and fertile. Some of the English gentlemen were fupplied with horfes, to ride about in the neighbour hood. The horfes were ftrong and bony. The breed does not feem to have been improved by care. Mules bear a greater price than common horfes, as fubfifting on lefs food, and capable of more labour. Many of the horfes were spotted as regularly as a leopard. Such were fo common, as to remove the fufpicion of any fraud by artificial colouring. The race of those spotted horfes is fuppofed, among other means, to be obtained by crofling thofe of oppofite hues. The faddle furniture differed as much from the neatnefs of what is made in England, as the cattle themfelves from Arabian courfers. The riders met feveral Chinese on horfeback, who, on approaching, alighted in civility to the ftrangers. This is a mark of refpect thewn here always to fuperiors, and the cuftom has been extended to other parts of the Eaft. The Dutch governor and counfellors of the Indies exact, in imitation, that kind of homage from all perfons refident in Batavia. It appeared indeed, from feveral inftances, in Java, Sumatra, and Cochin china, that China gives the ton to the countries bordering on the Chinese feas. The diftinction of yellow colour, for example, by the Emperor, is affected by every fovereign in the eastern part of Afia. "The mixture of eaftern and western customs, is to be feen fometimes in China. Thus in the neighbourhood of Tong-choo foo, the feafon of the harveft gave occafion to obferve, that the corn is fometimes thrashed with the common fail of Europe, and fometimes preffed out by cattle treading on the fheaf, as is defcribed by Orien tal writers. A roller is likewife moved over it by the Chinese. For thefe operations a platform of hard earth and fand is prepared in the open air. A machine has been always ufed here for winnowing corn, exactly fimilar to that which has been introduced, within this century, it is faid, in Europe. It is probably a Chinese invention. "Indian corn and fmall millet formed, in this place, the principal produce of the autumn crop. There were few inclofures, and few cattle to make them neceffary. Scarcely any fields to be feen in pasture. The animals neceflary for tillage, or for carriage, and thofe destined to ferve for food, were mostly fed in ftalls, and fodder collected for them. Beans, and the finer kind of ftraw cut fmall, compofed a great proportion of the food for horfes. The roots of corn, and coarfer ftems, are frequently left to rot upon the ground for the purpofe of manure. "The houfes of the peafants were scattered about, inftead of being united into villages. The cottages feemed to be clean and comfortable: they were without fences, gates, or other apparent precaution against wild beatts or thieves. Robbery is faid to happen feldom, tho not punished by death, unlefs aggravated by the commiflion of fome violent affault. The wives at the peafantry are of material affiftance to their families, in addition to the rearing of their children, and the care of their domeftic concerns; for they carry on most of the trades which can be exercifed within doors. Not only they rear filkworms, and spin the cotton, which laft is in general ute for both fexes of the people; but the women are almoft the fole weavers throughout the empire. Yet few of them fail to injure their healths, or at least E 3 their their active powers, by facrificing, in imitation of females of fuperior rank, to the prejudice in favour of little feet; and tho the operation for this purpofe is not attempted at fo early a period of their infancy, or followed up afterwards with fuch perfevering care, as in the cafe of ladies with whom beauty can be come an object of more attention, enough is practifed to cripple and disfigure them. "Notwithstanding all the merit of thefe helpmates to their hufbands, the latter arrogate an extraordinary dominion over them, and hold them at fuch a distance, as not always to allow them to fit at table, behind which, in fuch case, they attend as handmaids. This dominion is tempered, indeed, by the maxims of mild conduct in the different relations of life, inculcated from early childhood amongst the loweft as well as higheft claffes of fociety. The old perfons of a family live gencrally with the young. The former ferve to moderate any occafional impetuofity, violence, or paffion of the latter. The influence of age over youth is fupported by the fentiments of nature, by the habit of obedience, by the precepts of morality ingrafted in the law of the land, and by the unremitted policy and honeft arts of parents to that effect. They who are paft labour, deal out the rules which they had learned, and the wisdom which experience taught them, to thofe who are rifing to manhood, or to thofe lately arrived at it. Plain fentences of morals are written up in the common hall, where the male branches of the family affemble. Some one, at leaft, is capable of reading them to the reft. In almoft every houfe is hung up a tablet of the ancestors of the perfons then refiding in it. References are often made, in converfation, to their actions. Their example, as far as it was good, ferves as an incitement to travel in the fame path. The defcendants from a common ftock, vifit the tombs of their forefathers together, at ftated times. This joint care, and indeed other occafions, collect and unite the most remote relations. They cannot lofe fight of each other; and feldom become indifferent to their respective concerns. The child is bound to labour and to provide for his parents' maintenance and comfort, and the brother for the brother and fifter that are in extreme want; the failure of which duty would be followed by fuch deteftation, that it is not necessary to enforce it by pofitive law. Even the most diftant kinfman, reduced to mifery by accident or ill health, has a claim on his kindred for relief. Manners, ftronger far than laws, and indeed inclination, produced and nurtured by intercourfe and intimacy, fecure afliftance for him. Thefe habits and manners fully ex plain the fact already mentioned, which unhappily appears extraor dinary to Europeans, that no ípectacles of diftrefs are seen, to excite the compaflion, and implore the cafual charity of individuals. It is to be added, that this circumstance is not owing to the number of inftitutions of public benevolence. The with, indeed, of the Perfian monarch is not realized in China, that none should be in want of the fuccour administered in hospitals; but thofe establishments are rendered little neceffary, where the link which unites all the branches of a family, brings aid to the fuffering part of it without delay, and without humiliation. "It feldom, indeed, happens that the infirmities of men, or the weakness of children, render them utterly incapable of making fome re return of industry for the subfiftence they receive. In the manufactures carried on within doors, very material affiftance may often be afforded, with little exertion of ftrength; and abroad, the foil is light, and tillage eafy. Oxen are ufed for ploughing in this part of China, being too cold for buffaloes, which are preferred where they can be reared. Cattle are yoked by the neck, inftead of being fo by the horns, as upon the continent of Europe." "The reader will obferve, that the names of the Chinese mentioned in this work, are, independently of the additions of their qualities, all of one fyllable; as is every word in the Chinese language. The additions are the more neceffary, as a name implies no diftinction in fayour of the family which bears it. There are but one hundred family names known throughout the empire; and the expreffion of the hundred names is often ufed as a collective term for the whole Chinese nation. Individuals, how ever, occafionally affume, at different periods, or under different circumftances of their lives, other appellations expreflive of fome quality or event. Each family name is borne by perfons of all claffes. I Identity of fuch names implies, however, fome connection. All who bear it, may attend the hall of their fuppofed common ancestors. A Chinese feldom, if ever, marries a woman of his family name; but the fons and daughters of fifters married to husbands of two different names, marry frequently; thofe of two brothers bearing the fame name, cannot. Tho names. always do not denote diftinctions, and tho no hereditary nobility exifts in China, pedigree is there an object of much attention. He who can reckon his ancestors to a diftant period, as if diftinguithed by their private virtues, or public fervices, and by the honours conferred upon them in confequence, by the government, is much more refpected than new men. The fuppofed defcendants of Confucius are always treated with particular re gard; and immunities have been granted to them by the Emperors. The ambition of an illuftrious defcent is fo general, that the Emperors have often granted titles to the deceased ancestors of a living man of merit. Indeed, every means are tried to ftimulate to good, and to deter from evil, actions, by the reward of praife, as well as by the dread of thame. A public register, called the Book of Merit, is kept for the purpose of recording every ftriking inftance of meritorious conduct; and, in the enumeration of a man's titles, the number of times that his name had been so inferted, is particularly mentioned. For faults, on the other hand, he is fubject to be degraded; and it is not deemed fufficient that he fhould affume only his reduced title; but he must likewife add to his name the fact of his degradation." "In China there is lefs inequality in the fortunes, than in the conditions, of men. The ancient annals of the empire teftify that, for a long period of time, the earth, like the other elements of nature, was enjoyed by its inhabitants almoft in common. Their country was divided into small equal districts; every diftrict was cultivated conjointly by eight labouring families, which compofed each hamlet, and they enjoyed all the profit of their labours, except a certain share of the produce referved for public expences. It was true, indeed, that after a revolution, deplored in all the Chinese hiftories, which happened prior to the Chriftian era, EA the the ufurper granted all the lands a way to the partners of his victories, leaving to the cultivators of the foil a final pittance only, out of the revenue which it yielded. Property in land alfo became hereditary; but in procefs of time the most confiderable domains were fubdivided into very moderate parcels by the fucceffive diftribution of the poffefLions of every father equally among all his fons: the daughters being always married without dower. It very rarely happened that there was but an only fon to enjoy the whole property of his deceafed parents; and it could fcarcely be increafed by collateral fucceffion. For the habits of the country, as well as the dictates of nature, led moft men there to marry early. It was reckoned a difcredit to be without offspring. They who had none adopted thofe of others, who became theirs exclufively. In cafe of marriage, fhould a wife prove barren, a fecond might be efpoufed in the lifetime of the firft. The opulent were allowed, as in moft parts of the Fait, to keep concuLines without reproach. The child ren of fuch were confidered as being thofe of the legitimate wife, towards whom they were bred in fentiments of duty and affection; and they partook in all the rights of legitimacy. "From the operations of all thofe caufes, there was a conftant tendency to level wealth: and few could fucceed to fuch an accumulation of it as to render them independent of any efforts of their own for its increafe. Beides, wealth alone confers in China but little importance, and no power: nor is property, without office, always perfectly fecure. There is no hereditary dignity, which might accompany, and give it pre-eminence and weight. The delegated authority of government often leans more heavily on the unprotected rich, than on the poor, who are lefs objects of temptation. And it is a common remark among the Chinese, that fortunes, either by being parcelled out to many heirs, or by being loft in commercial fpeculations, gaming, or extravagance, or extorted by oppreffive mandarines, feldom continue to be confiderable in the individuals of the fame family beyond the third generation. To afcend again the ladder of ambition, it is neceffary, by long and laborious ftudy, to excel in the learning of the country, which alone qualifies for public employments. "There are properly but three claffes of men in China. Men of letters, from whom the mandarines are taken; cultivators of the ground; and mechanics, including merchants. In Pekin alone is conferred the highest degree of literature upon those who, in public examinations, are found moft able in the fciences of morality and government, as taught in the ancient Chinefe writers; with which studies, the hiftory of their country is intimately blended. Among fuch graduates all the civil offices in the state are diftributed by the emperor; and they compofe all the great tribunals of the empire. The candidates for thofe degrees, are fuch as have fucceeded in fimilar examinations in the principal city of each province. Those who have been chofen in the cities of the fecond order, or chief town of every diftrict in the province, are the candidates in the provincial capital. They who fail in the first and fe • cond claffes have ftill a claim on fubordinate offices, proportioned to the clafs in which they had fucceeded. Thofe examinations are Car carried on with great folemnity, and apparent fairnefs. Military rank is likewife given to thofe who are found, upon competition, to excel in the military art, and in warlike exercises. "The great tribunals are fituated, for the fake of convenience, near the fouthern gate of the imperial palace at Pekin. To them, accounts of all the tranfactions of the empire, are regularly tranfmitted. They are councils of reference from the emperor, to whom they report every bufinefs of moment, with the motives for the advice which they offer on the occafion. There is a body of doctrine compofed from the writings of the earlieft ages of the empire, confirmed by fubfequent lawgivers and fovereigns, and transmitted from age to age with increafing veneration, which ferves as rules to guide the judgment of thofe tribunals. This doctrine feems indeed, founded on the broadeft bafis of universal juftice, and on the pureft principles of humanity. "His imperial majefty generally conforms to the fuggeftions of those tribunals, One tribunal is directed to confider the qualifications of the different mandarines for different offices, and to propofe their removal when found incapable or unjuft. One has for object, the prefervation of the manners or morals of the empire, called by Europeans the tribunal of ceremonies, which it regulates on the maxim, that exterior forms contribute not a little to prevent the breach of moral rules. The most arduous and critical, is the tribunal of cenfors; taking into its confideration the effect of fubfifting laws, the conduct of the other tribunals, of the princes and great officers of state, and even of the emperor himfelf. There are feveral fubordinate tribunals, fuch as thofe of mathematics, of medicine, of public works, of literature and hiftory. The whole is a regular and confiftent fyftem, established at a very early period, continued with little alterations through every dynafty, and revived, after any interruption from the caprice or paflions of particular princes. Whatever deviation had been made by the prefent family on the throne, arifes from the admiffion of as many Tartars as Chinese into every tribunal. The opinions of the former are fuppofed always to preponderate. Many of them, indeed, are men of confiderable talents, and ftrength of mind, as well as polithed manners. The old viceroy of Pe-che-lee, is of a Tartar race. "The estimated population of Pekin was carried in the laft century, by the jefuit Grimaldi, as quoted by Gemelli Carreri, to fixteen millions. Another miffionary reduces, at least that of the Tartar city, to one million and a quarter. According to the best information given to the embafly, the whole was about three millions. The low houfes of Pekin seem scarcely sufficient for fo vaft a population; but very little room is occupied by a Chinese family, at leaft in the middling and lower clatles of life. In their houfes there are no fuperfluous apartments. A Chinese dwelling is generally furrounded by a wall, fix or feven feet high. Within this inclosure, a whole family, of three generations, will all their refpective wives and children, will frequently be found. One fmall room is made to ferve for the individuals of each branch of the family, fleeping in different beds, divided only by mats hanging from the ceiling. One common room is ufed for eating. "The prevalence of this cuftom of |