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First circuit. The officer at the head of this circuit possesses certain political and judicial powers, united with military authority and the direction of the water ways; his authority extends over five departments, viz:

Kwangchow foo, comprising 14 heën.

Leen chow, an independent chow, comprising 2 heën.

Leyaou ting, an independent ting, having no subordinate districts. Shaouchow foo, comprising 6 heën.

Nanheung chow, an independent chow, comprising 1 heën.

Second circuit. The officer at the head of it possesses political and judicial authority, combined with military powers; he governs four departments, viz:

Hwuychow foo, comprising 1 chow and 9 heën.

Fuhkang ting, an independent ting.

Chaouchow foo, comprising 1 ting and 9 heën.

Keaying chow, an independent chow, comprising 4 heën.

Third circuit. The officer at the head of it possesses civil authority, without military powers, over 2 departments, viz: Shaouking foo, comprising 1 chow and 12 heën.

Loting chow, an independent chow, comprising 2 heën.

Fourth circuit. The officer of this circuit has civil and military authority over two departments, viz:

Kaouchow foo, comprising 1 chow and 5 heën.
Leenchow foo, comprising 1 chow and 2 heën.

Fifth circuit, The officer of this circuit possesses civil authority, combined with military power, over two departments, viz: Luychow foo, comprising 3 heën.

Keungchow foo, comprising 3 chow and 10 heën.

From these details, it appears that the whole province is divided into 5 circuits, comprising 15 departments; viz: 9 foo, 2 ting of the class called independent, and 4 chow of the same class; and that these departments are subdivided into 88 districts, viz., 2 ting and 7 chow of the subordinate class, and 79 heën. To the number of these, we must add the two independent ting, which are not subdivided; and also the four independent chow, which although subdivided into heën districts, yet have also a portion of their territory not under the government of heen magistrates, but directly subject to the higher magistracy of the chow. Thus Nanheung chow, though having but one heen dependent on it, yet consists of two districts, one that of the heen, and the other a district surrounding the seat of the chow magistracy, and directly subject to it, without the intervention of a heën magistrate. The total number of districts is therefore (88 and 6) 94. But we must observe that the two ting not independent, being of very small extent, and with hardly any municipal peculiarities, are often popularly regarded as parts of the much larger heen districts by whose territories they are surrounded; this however is not in point of fact the case.

With respect to the division into circuits, we must remember, however, that it does not prevail throughout the country, there being in most of the provinces, some departments not included in any circuit. The officers of the circuits have control sometimes over the collection of duties on silks, teas, &c., and over the preparation of salt and other articles of governmental monopoly.

Mantchouria contains three provinces, Shingking or Moukden, Kirin, and Tsitsihar. The Chinese system of government has been in part extended to the first; and it is therefore divided into foo, chow, ting, and heën, but it has also a military government; the other two provinces are entirely under military control. The heads of the military governments are tseängkeun, generals; subordinate to whom are foo-tootung, lieut.-generals; tsungkwan, overseers; showwei, commandants; and heeling, assistant commanders. All military towns without distinction of size are called ching, with the exception, however, of a few towns in Kirin which are called ting. Each of the three Mantchou provinces has a tseängkeun and subordinate officers. The tseängkeun and subordinate officers exist also in some of the provinces of China; but there their authority is only over the military, and they cannot interfere in the direction of civil affairs; while in the Mantchou provinces the entire government is in their hands, except in the province of Shingking. The power also of the tseängkeun in a province of China Proper is for the most part confined to single important cities. The place of their residence, which is generally a chief city of a foo or department, they denominate ching. In an unrestricted sense all walled towns are called ching. Attached to each of the military cities of Mantchouria is a portion of territory, sometimes very extensive, under the government of the military officer who resides in the city. There are no minor subdivisions of this territory, which maintains but a small population.

The Chinese colonies, Mongolia, Soungaria, Eastern Turkestan or Little Bukharia, and Tibet, must each be spoken of separately. Mongolia, the habitation of nomad tribes, averse to agriculture and commerce, possesses few large collections of houses. Small portions of it bordering on China Proper, having been peopled from thence, are now included under the government of its northern provinces. The rest is divided among various tribes, each under the rule of its respective hereditary prince. The numerical power, and consequently the territorial extent, of these several tribes are quite various; some forming only small baronies, while others constitute extensive principalities, which formerly existed as distinct and powerful nations. The few Chinese authorities that reside in Mongolia are military, and the places of their residence are denominated ching. The principal divisions of Mongolia are four: 1. Inner or Southern Mongolia, between the desert of Cobi and the great wall; 2. Outer Mongolia, on the north of Cobi; 3. The territory around the Kokonor, on the west of China and northwest of Tibet; and 4. Ouliasoutai, west of Outer Mongolia, on the Russian frontier.-Inner

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Mongolia comprises 24 aimak or tribes, arranged under six chulkan or corps; the tribes are divided into standards of about 2000 families each; and each tribe comprises from one to six or seven standards. Outer Mongolia consists of four loo or provinces; the number of standards included in which is eighty-seven. In the country around the Kokonor are various tribes similarly divided into standards; the territory which they occupy forms one province under the government of a tseangkeun, and attached to the province of Kansuh. Of Ouliasoutai, the fourth division of Mongolia, lying on the west of the Kalkas, the population is scattered, and the government is therefore entirely military; the only recognizable division of the country is into the two provinces Kobdo and Tangnoo Oulianghai. Both tribes are entirely composed of mountain nomads, and are under a tseängkeun, at the head of an army of observation on the Russian frontier. Great care is taken with all the Mongol tribes to prevent any of them encroach. ing on the territory of another; but within their own territories, they seldom rest long in one place.

Ele forins one government, comprising two provinces, Soungaria and Turkestan. At the eastern extremity of each province are some districts, formerly Mongolian, which have received the Chinese form of municipal government, and been incorporated in the province of Kansuh; but a concurrent military jurisdiction, subordinate to the head government at Ele, is also exercised therein. In the rest of the two provinces, the government is entirely military; at the head of it is a tseängkeun residing at Ele; and subordinate to him are other military officers, and also civil residents with military authority. Their residences are called ching; the principal ching or cities, have surrounding cantons or districts, sometimes including several ching. There are three cantons in the northern province of Soungaria; and eight in the southern province of Turkestan.

Tibet is divided into two provinces; the eastern province is called Tseën Tsang, Anterior Tibet; and the western How Tsang, Ulterior Tibet. Each of these provinces was formerly subdivided into two parts; but they are now divided into cantons, Anterior Tibet containing eight, and Ulterior Tibet, seven cantons. They are under the government of two lamas whose measures are subject to the approval of two Chinese ministers. Little beyond this general description of the country is at present known.

We have thus roughly traced the several parts of this vast empire; in the system of political arrangement there are doubtless many things to admire; the machinery is good, but an exposure of the practical operation of the government for which this machinery has been arranged would display multiplied and glaring faults. It is, however, foreign to our present subject to enter on a consideration of these faults, and we must defer withdrawing the veil from them until a future period.

ART. II. Notices of ivaern China: duties and carcer of the great officers of state; Totsin, Sung, Hengăn, Na Yewching, Changling, Le Heungpun, &c.

THE duties of the officers of government, as indicated in the penal code, are so minute and often so contradictory, as to make it almost impossible to fulfill them strictly; we find accordingly, that few or none have ascended the slippery heights of promotion without frequent relapses. Degradation, when to a step or two lower only, and temporary, carries with it of course, no moral taint in a country where the punishment awarded for bribery is graduated according to the amount of bribe received,* without any reference to moral violation; where the bamboo is the standard punishment as well for error in judgment or remissness, as for crime,t only commuted to a fine in honor of official rank; where, as a distinction in favor of the imperial race, the bamboo is softened to the whip, and banishment mitigated to the pillory.‡

Our materials furnish few cases, as might be expected, of great enormity amongst the highest class of officers, to which the inquiry is at present limited. One case will suffice to show that they may continue to oppress for a long time before their misrule attracts the emperor's notice. Chang, one of the conductors of lord Amherst's embassy was banished to Tartary about the year 1818,|| probably for incapacity and bad government in the situation which he held of judge of Shantung,§ which we are told is the second judgeship in importance in the empire.¶ His successor shared the same fate in 1820, charged with suppressing upwards of 1000 cases in his court; with having imprisoned and implicated in prosecutions, upwards of 1300 innocent people; and finally with having employed a convicted criminal with forty people under him, in the police, who distressed the guiltless by extortion and other injustice. Several instances will be mentioned hereafter of punishment of officers of the highest rank for occasioning or failing to put down insurrections; and a long catalogue of atrocities will be recorded of the lower officers and police, when they are noticed more fully. A great amount of malversation must necessarily be found in the lower departments of the government, and in this, as in all countries, especially in Asia, the weaker are often, no doubt, made to suffer for the misdemeanors of their superiors; but it is peculiar to China perhaps to acknowledge the latter principle, and incorporate it into their code. "In all cases of officers of government," according to section 28, "associated in one department or tribunal, and committing offenses against the laws as a public body, by false or erroneous decisions and investigations,

• Staunton's Penal Code, sec. 314. Penal Code, sec. 7.

ind. Gleaner. April. 1820. p. 300

+ Penal Code, sec. 8.

Ind. Gleaner, Oct. 1818, p. 182.
Ellis' Embassy, vol. 1. p. 320. 2d ed.

the clerk of the department or tribunal shall be punished as the principal offender; the punishment of the several deputies or executive officers, shall be less by one degree, that of the assessors less by another degree, and that of the presiding magistrate less by a third degree." We find the same principle again in sections 52

and 419.

The foregoing principle is seemingly incompatible with section 40 which declares, "all officers of government are considered by law to be responsible superintendents of such charges and departments of affairs and public justice as may be placed under their authority and control," which is nearly rendered impracticable again by the 48th section, which takes from the superintending official the power of nominating his juniors for whom he is to be responsible. These contradictory precepts render it easy to select any one member of a tribunal as may be safest and most suitable with the prevailing interests, whenever it is necessary to make an example as a check upon malversation.

66

The above principle is stretched to its utmost bearings, as will be frequently shown, but nowhere more than in the constitution of the security merchants and linguists, who act as police over the foreigners in Canton, and who are daily made responsible not only for the negligences or connivances of their superiors, but also for occurrences which they could not possibly foresee or control. It is to be remarked too with respect to the foreigners, that in the public edicts respecting them, they are rarely or never threatened with the penalty of the law, and never made actually amenable for sinuggling or other infractions; but always some one or other of the governmental officers. I have omitted," says Mr. Lindsay, in the report of his voyage,"to mention that on the morning of the 10th, we heard that official orders had been received from the tsungtuh (governor of Fuhkeen), announcing the degradation and dismissal of Chin tajin, vice-admiral of Minngan, and two other naval officers on account of the entrance of the Lord Amherst; and that a successor had been appointed to Chin in the person of Lin talaouyay, who had filled the inferior office of tsantseäng at Amoy, and was one of the officers assembled to give us audience there. This circumstance in itself is very expressive, and it is difficult to feel much respect for a government which, seeing itself powerless to enforce its orders on a small merchant vessel, feels itself compelled to throw the blame of its own weakness on, and endeavor to support its credit with the public by the punishment of, its subordinate officers."

Whilst the inferior classes of officers are saddled with the blame of most of the real abuses of the empire, and often too with the penalty, the higher do not entirely escape. They, on the contrary, are harassed with trifling and unimportant complaints and penalties, whilst their real malversations, unless very flagrant, are not exhibited to the public. The prime ministers stand in China, as in all despotic governments. on a dangerous pinnacle, which is based

Lindsay's Report. p 42. parliamentary edition.

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