Respecting these privileges, which affect the punishment of offend ers who themselves possess, or any of whose near relatives possess, them, sir George Staunton, in a note to his translation of the Penal Code, correctly remarks, that “excepting the first and seventh classes, it can be scarcely supposed that this classification has any existence in practice; and, in fact, the first and seventh classes must, gencrally speaking, comprehend all those who have any claim to be ranked among the others." We confine ourselves therefore to stating who are the persons comprehended in these two classes. And first, of those who enjoy the privilege of imperial blood and connection: these are, all the relations of the emperor descended from the same ancestors; all those of the emperor's mother and grandmother, within four degrees; all those of the empress, within three degrees; and lastly all those of the consort of the crown prince within two degrees. The persons who possess the privilege of nobility arc, "all those who possess the first rank in the empire; all those of the sccond who are at the same time employed in any official capacity whatsoever; and all those of the third, whose office confers any civil or military command." In this number are included all persons holding any of the five titles of feudal nobility-kung, how, pih, tsze, nan, which we might render by duke, count, baron, baronet, and knight; the two last, tsze and nan, being of inferior consequence, are hardly admitted into the ranks of the nobility, while the three first, kung, how, and pih, take precedence of all officers of the government who, although standing in the first of the nine ranks, may be without such titles.

The arrangement in China of all official persons and employés into nine ranks, or orders, each distinguished by a particular ball of stone, glass, or metal, on the top of the cap, is already well known to all who have any acquaintance with Chinese customs. But for the information of such as have not that knowledge, we subjoin a list of the distinguishing marks of each rank, to which will be hereafter added brief tables of precedences, both civil and military. It may be here mentioned that each of the nine ranks is subdivided into two classes, principals and secondaries, but without any alteration in the distinguishing balls or knobs.

For the 1st rank, the ball is of red precious stone.

For the 2d rank, the ball is of red coral.

For the 3d rank, the ball is of blue precious stone.

For the 4th rank, the ball is of dark blue or purple stone.

For the 5th rank, the ball is of crystal.

For the 6th rank, the ball is of opaque white or jade stone.

For the 7th rank, the ball is of

For the 8th rank, the ball is of worked gold.

For the 9th rank, the ball is of

Officers who have not entered the course of the nine ranks wear the same dress as those of the ninth rank. There are other insignia of rank in addition to these balls or cap-knobs; but as they appear less conspicuously, we pass them over, and turn from these preliminary

remarks to a consideration of the means employed by the sovereign for the government of his people; which, as we have before said, are either purely executive, or of a mixed legislative nature: there is in China no purely legislative institution, resembling, in the remotest degree, the parliaments, congresses, senates, and houses of assembly, of western nations.

Note. In our next and subsequent numbers, we hope to continue our remarks on this subject. in two or three separate articles: the first may perhaps treat of the supreme government; imperial councils, six supreme tribunals, office for colonial affairs, the censorate, the hamlin college, &c.: the second may comprise the local public offices at the capital; the imperial household, officers attached thereto, &c.: and a third may comprise all the provincial and colonial governments

ART. III. Notices of modern China: introductory remarks on the characteristics, the present condition, and policy, of the nation; the penal code. By R. I.

[The judicial form of trial before an impartial jury, is one of the most simple, and at the same time most efficient, modes of ascertaining the truth, which the wisdom of man has ever devised. But when witnesses cannot be brought to the constituted tribunal, it is then expedient to take their depositions, which (unless the character of the witness is known to be bad,) are always received as good testimony. Still more worthy of credit, however, are those documents which, without their authors designing that they should appear in a court of justice, were written and signed long before it was known that the subject to which they refer would be submitted to a judge or jury. Of the nature of this last kind of testimony are our correspondent's papers, which we now have the pleasure of submitting to our readers. They have been collected with much care; and afford probably the best kind of testimony, concerning the present character and condition of the Chinese, which under existing circumstances, can be adduced. We expect that his papers will be continued through several successive numbers.]

"WITH all its defects and with all its intricacy, the code of laws" (of China), says sir George Staunton in his preface to the translation of the Ta Tsing leuh le, "is generally spoken of by the natives with pride and admiration; all they seem in general to desire is, its just and impartial execution, independent of caprice, and uninfluenced by corruption. That the laws of China are, on the contrary, very frequently violated by those who are their administrators and constitutional guardians, there can unfortunately be no question; but to what extent, comparatively with the laws of other countries, must at present be very much a matter of conjecture; at the same time it may be observed, as something in favor of the Chinese system, that there are very substantial grounds for believing, that neither flagrant nor

repeated acts of injustice do, in point of fact, often, in any rank or station, ultimately escape with impunity."

The foregoing observations will serve equally well as a preface to the following papers, the object of which is to show how far the laws of China are really enforced and observed. They will, so far, form a sequel to sir George's very valuable work; but the writer has, in the present instance, the much humbler task, to compile from the translations of others, but still translations from the Chinese original documents, as often as they can be found appropriate to his design. He will, however, introduce extracts from other writings, and reflections of his own, whenever they may tend to throw light upon the manners or institutions of the Chinese, or to suggest matter for future inquiry; for whatever serves to elucidate the manners of a people is of utility in examining into the nature of their laws; and these last can only be sound and effective, when consonant with the institutions and customs of the people.

The theory of the Chinese government is undoubtedly the patriarchal. The emperor is the sire of the whole empire; his officers are the responsible elders of its provinces, hundreds, and tithings, as every father of a household is of its inmates. This may, to be sure, be the theory of all governments; but it has in China been systematized by Confucius, and acted upon more consistently, and for a longer period, than any other system of government in the world. Besides being prompted by natural instincts, this theory is inculcated by a general system of education in China, which, aided by the absence of external influences, has succeeded in introducing an extraordinary uniformity of character throughout the extensive region in which it operates. If then the theory of government be natural and good, but the practice bad, the fault is most likely to be found in its earliest springs of action,-the education of the people; for the wellbeing of every government depends upon the moral character of the governed. A certain conventional morality is found to be nearly the same in all civilized countries; because it is founded upon necessity; but in most countries that morality has been found insufficient of itself to support the laws and maintain their just execution, and religion has, therefore, been summoned to its aid.

China alone, of Asiatic empires, has tried the experiment of dispensing nearly with religion as a political engine. The absence of

a state religion, for the ethics of Confucius can scarcely be styled religion, has probably contributed to the stability of the empire, and may have occasioned the unimaginative insipid character of the people; or this last may, as is more generally believed, have been the cause why the Chinese have little or no religion. Be it as it may, these two circumstances, the want of religion as an essential part of the machinery of the government, and the absence of all enthusiasm amongst the people, are the characteristics which chiefly distinguish China aud its inhabitants from the other large empires of Asia. Has then the absence of a state religion and enthusiasm caved China from anarchy and bloodshed? By no means, as the

following pages will testify. She has succeeded in reducing a larger portion of territory and of population under one rule, than almost any other modern nation; and that rule, although despotic, as the amplification of paternal authority must needs be, is more mitigated than that of other Asiatic states,-which she resembles, nevertheless, in all her leading characteristics. She has attained, in a high degree, the civilization of luxury; yet her institutions are defective, her rulers corrupt, her men without honor, and her women slaves. Her moral civilization is nearly the same now as in the time of the Assyrians; it is Asiatic and not European. To how many causes soever we ascribe this distinction, we must conclude the principal one to be her want of a prevailing, or at all events of a pure, religion, and that religion, Christianity. "For Christianity is the summary of all civilization: it contains every argument which could be urged in its support, and every precept which explains its nature. Former systems of religion were in conformity with luxury; but this alone seems to have been conceived for the regions of civilization. It has flourished in Europe while it has decayed in Asia, and the most civilized nations are the most purely Christian."*

The absence of a religion of the state is, however, by no means the principal cause of the integrity and stability of the Chinese empire, whatever be its influence on the uniform and vapid character of its inhabitants: but these she owes chiefly to her isolated locality and her peculiar language, which cut her off from communication with other large empires. What was in the first instance accident, is now made a principle of safety by the government, which endeavors to introduce the character of isolation into all its departments; especially since the frontiers of the empire are threatened by the approach of other powerful nations. As combination of the knowledge of individuals is necessary to promote improvement amongst a community, so is the combination of nations to advance general civilization; but China, by shrinking from communication with the rest of the world, stood still, whilst Europe passed her in the career of knowledge. It is not that she has experienced no revolutions, and that each revolution has not partially reformed the abuses of the state; but she has never felt a moral renovation like that of the introduction of Christianity into the west, or of the printing press into Europe. The Mongol and Mantchou dynasties, especially the latter, have probably produced the most effectual reformations in China. It has usually been taken for granted, that the Tartars in China, like the Goths in Europe, were mere barbarians, who brought nothing but courage and energy of character into their new possessions, and that those qualities were soon merged in the character of the conquered people. This is probably a mistake with regard to both of those races. The general similitude of the Chinese form of government, with that of the Mongols in the rest of Asia, renders it probable that that people imposed their laws to a considerable extent upon the Chinese, or at all events infused their spirit * Chenevix on National Character, vol 1, chap 4.

into the Chinese code: if indeed, they did not both imbibe their legislation and their ethics from the same source.* Tytler's Univ. Hist. (Family Library,) vol. 4, p. 80.

It is not meant by this to insinuate that the Chinese are in the same state of civilization now, with the Mongols at the time of their conquest of China, but that the former were at that time little advanced in legislation beyond their conquerors, and just as likely to receive improvement from the latter as to impart it. We must guard on the other hand against the belief that the Chinese have since that period, made any considerable progress in the science of legislation, unless what they owe to the present Mantchou dynasty, or that their moral civilization has ever been greater than at present, both of which notions the accounts of the Jesuits might lead to suppose. That they have advanced in the arts of luxury is undoubted. Modern embassies and other sources of information have gone far to correct the flattering descriptions of the Roman Catholic missionaries; but we find many Europeans arrive in China with preconceived opinions upon the country taken implicitly from Du Halde, and who, before they have landed from their ships, are ready, like the elder Staunton, to give a description of the manners of the people which their sons will be obliged to rectify.

The descriptions of the Roman Catholic missionaries mislead, not only by their exaggeration, but because they judged China with reference to Europe, as both countries were then; whereas China has since altered her position but little, whilst Europe has risen prodigiously in the scale of civilization. They thought too, most likely, to correct the Europe of their day, by holding up China as a pattern for many virtues and for many of its institutions-and in this they only followed the example of many, if not of most, modern writers of ancient history. Rollin's history of the ancient Egyptians or Assyrians for example, and the Jesuits', or the abbé Raynal's history of China, are in many cases convertible, and whole pages might be transferred from one to the other, with a very little verbal alteration. It is not solely because there is a remarkable resemblance between the great Asiatic and Egyptian empires, which is undoubtedly the case; but also because the perpetual attempt to dignify their histories, has led each historian to imagine nearly the same theory of a perfect monarchical government for the nation which he describes. They drew their materials in part, moreover, from native historians, who, besides having the same propensity with our own, wrote in general under despotic governments, of times anterior to their own, and they flattered the dead,

* Robertson's Charles V., sect. I. This amazing uniformity, (in the feudal system of all the states of Europe,) has induced some anthors to believe that all these nations, notwithstanding so many apparent circumstances of distinction, were originally the same people. But it may be ascribed, with greater pro bability, to the similar state of society and manners to which they were accustomed in their native countries, and to the similar situation in which they found themselves on taking possession of their new domains."

See that part of his account of Macartney's embassy, written at Tungchow on his way to Peking.