the executive and judicial government of the French and British empires respectively; so there are in Peking a number of very large Yamun or Public offices, each similarly charged with a specific department in the government of the Chinese Empire. And as we in England have a Privy Council and a Cabinet Council nearer the Sovereign, and exercising the general control over the above departmental or sectional Offices and Boards; so there are over the sectional Yamun or Public offices at Peking a Nuy kö or Inner Council, and a Keun ke choo, a "place of military movements," or Strategical Office. The first mentioned, the Inner Council, consists of a large (but not unlimited) number of members; is methodically organized; performs important but somewhat routine functions; has its records; is the oldest; is still the highest in rank; and was originally the first in practical power. The second, the Strategical Office, notwithstanding its somewhat military name, closely parallels our Cabinet, in its composition out of a few of the most influential mandarins in the Capital; in the comparatively informal nature of its procedure; and in its virtual exercise of the highest legislative and executive duties, under the immediate eye of the Sovereign power. As, however, all public business is as a general rule more methodically and systematically conducted in China than in England, so we find that the Chief Council in the state has a small building in the Palace for its meetings; has records, and carries on a correspondence by means of confidential clerks. I have just said "eye of the sovereign power." I make use of the term sovereign power, instead of sovereign in order to preserve the parallelism instituted between the British and Chinese governments; for here we arrive at a point where that parallelism can strictly speaking no longer be maintained. In England the ministers carry on the legislation and the administration, directly controlled with respect to the former, unceasingly watched and questioned with respect to the latter, by the houses of parliament. Nothing analogous to these exists in China; where the Emperor is the absolute legislator and administrator, as well as in his own person the highest criminal court in the Empire. And I shall presently show that the theory and practice of succession to the throne is such as often to secure a virtual exercise of these functions; an exercise limited only by the mental and physical powers of the man. What the District Magistrate is in the District, and the Governor in the Province, that and more is the Emperor in the Empire-more particularly, in so far as he legislates, which they do not. I must, however, mention a public office peculiar to China, which is specially charged with one of the functions performed by our parliament. This is the Too cha yuen, literally, Court of general Inspection, but commonly called by foreigners the Censorate. It consists of a large number of members whose duty is to inspect or watch the proceedings of all the other mandarins, provincial and metropolitan; and to make reports to the Emperor, pointing out their misdeeds and failures and recommending remedies. The check on these officers, who are called "the eyes and ears" of the Emperor, is curious and efficient. He puts them in the places of the mandarins who have failed, gives them full powers, and says; "Now you succeed or " I may add that this practice not only acts as a check against malicious attacks, but, where the censor really understands the business he reports on, leads directly to its efficient transaction. CHAPTER II. THEORY AND PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE NORMAL I HAVE above endeavoured to describe summarily the machinery of government; I shall now try shortly to show how the several parts come to be where they are, in other words how the authorities, from the Emperor to the police inspector, attain their positions. The reigning Emperor of China is absolute because he is, in the eyes of his people, the Teen tsze, the Son of Heaven. By this no physical sonship is meant, but simply, that the Emperor is the chosen agent and representative on earth of that supreme ruling power or providence of which the Chinese, from the most ancient times to the present day, have always had a more or less lively conception under the name of Teen, or Heaven.* As such representative of this supreme Heavenly or Divine power, the authority of the actual monarch is, by a logical consequence, unlimited except by divine principles. But the idea of a divine right * The first Catholic missionaries, in rendering the word God, availed themselves of the existence of this early belief, by using the word Teen, giving, however, a greater personality to the conception by adding to that word, a second, Choo, or Lord, and thus creating the appellative, "Teen Choo,-Heavenly Lord" or "Lord of Heaven." Some Protestant missionaries have thought that Teen alone would be the best rendering. The religious insurgents use as frequently as any other the term "Teen Foo, Heavenly Father;" and in one of their books recording "a descent of God into the world," they represent Him as saying, " Teen she wo,-Heaven 'tis I." The object is evidently to say to all Chinese who read the books:-" The power which you fear as Heaven, that very power am I—the founder and watchful protector of the Tae ping dynasty." to the sovereignity by birth has never been known to the national mind. The Chinese have an authentic political history for 4,200 years back a history never full, but even in the oldest times in a large measure pragmatical, or descriptive of the causes which have led to dynastic changes. Now, from the earliest periods of this history, it has been distinctly taught, both by example and by precept, that no man whatever had a hereditary divine right to the throne, not the eldest son, nor even any son, of its last occupant.* In spite of the power and influence that at his decease is in possession of his family which naturally strives to maintain its position, this principle has always been able to assert for itself more or less of a practical operation. And in modern times it is not positively known, during the reign of any one sovereign, who will be his successor in the exercise of the Divinely delegated power. Both in theory and in practice the primary claim to the successorship is given by the death-bed or the testamentary nomination of the reigning sovereign; but it is by good government alone that the nominee can fully establish his divine right. When by good government, in accordance with the divine principles, as laid down in the national Sacred works,† he has given (or preserved) to the people, peace and plenty, and, as a consequence, established himself in power by his hold on the national esteem and affection; then only will they consider him, and (from his similar education) then only will he consider himself, the veritable "Fung teen, the Divinely appointed," the Son of Heaven. Natural affection has almost always led to the nomination of a relative, mostly a son; but * Court flatterers and short sighted or weak Emperors have, indeed, attempted to change or overturn this principle, but they have never been able to obtain for their views anything but a temporary and very partial currency. There have at all times been found patriotic and self-sacrificing mandarins to oppose a successful resistance by word and deed. + Above all, in that known in Europe as the Historical Classic. Were any occupant of the throne to hold language avowedly contrary to that book, it would be equivalent to declaring himself an usurper; not the Son of Heaven. C six out of the seven emperors of the present dynasty* have not been the eldest sons of their fathers; while the memorable fact is ever present to the national mind, and to the mind of the sovereign as one of the nation, that the two great historical musters, the revered ancient monarchs, Yaou and Shun, passed each over his own son, because accounted unworthy, and nominated a stranger. The principle that no man is by birth entitled to reign over them, is better known to the 360 millions of China, than it is known to the twenty-seven millions of Great Britain and Ireland that they are entitled to be tried by their peers. I have said that the successor to the throne is not considered by others or by himself the Divinely appointed,† unless he gives peace and plenty to the empire. So true is this that the disasters of war, pestilence, and famine-even earthquakes and storms of extraordinary violence, are but ways by which Heaven declares that the occupant of the throne is not its chosen representative, or that he has ceased to be such;-that it is about to withdraw from him the "Teen ming, the Divine commission." All nature animate or inanimate is based on one principle or law, the "Teen taou, or way of Heaven." So long as the occupant of the throne rules with the rectitude and goodness which are the chief features of this law, both man and nature gladly submit, and peace and plenty prevail. When he violates this law, the passions of man and the powers of the elements alike break loose. A sincere repentance, and prompt return to conformity with Heaven's laws-the only true principles of government-may yet still the tumult; but, with their con The present family obtained possession of the throne in 1644. The Chinese expression is similar to our occidental one of " Sovereign by the Grace of God." But with the Chinese their term has a living meaning which the occidental one has ceased to have-in England at least. A Chinaman will often derive hope in times of adversity and affliction by turning to the beneficent ruling power the "laou teen or old Heaven;" an expression which is then, in his mouth, very like that of "le bon dieu" in the mouth of the common Frenchman under similar trials. |