Chinese. In 1851, the value of this had risen to near 100,0002., but the piracy
which arose out of the rebellion in China had reduced it in 1854, to less than one-
fourth part of this amount.
The articles exported from Cochin-China are various, but not of great value. They
are the following, namely, rice and pulses, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamoms, areca
nuts, gamboge, eagle-wood, cotton, cane sugar, timber, dying drugs, Tonquin varnish,
dried fish, esculent swallows’ nests, ivory, elephant and rhinoceros hides, and elephant
and buffalo bones, with bay salt, gold and silver. Prom China there are imported,
porcelain, paper, tea, dried fruits and confectionery, raw and wrought silk, and toys.
From the western world Cochin-China receives, woollens, iron, and opium, through
Singapore. I t has little commercial intercourse with Siam, the native productions
of the two countries being nearly the same, and much jealousy subsisting between
their governments.
The government of Cochin-China is a patriarchal despotism, on the model of
that of China, but more arbitrary, and far less enlightened. “ The power of
the king,” says M. Lefevre, “ is absolute and without restriction. He can make
all laws that seem proper to him, for he is the sole legislative authority. He
cannot, however, entirely abrogate the ancient laws, on account of the respect
which he believes himself bound to show to the memory of the kings his ancestors
; and because these laws have acquired a sacred character, according to
the opinion generally received by the nation, and against which the most absolute
power could not struggle. But he is able, in many circumstances, to mould them to
his own laws, and to elude them in a thousand ways, without expunging them from
the Code.”
The nobility of Cochin-China is purely official and personal. As in China, it is
composed of two classes, a civil and a military. The first, the most important, is
composed of nine different orders, beginning with a clerk or scribe, and ending with
a minister of state. The king clothed in yellow, (the royal colour, but in countries
exclusively Buddhist, the restricted one of the priesthood,) immured in his palace, and
surrounded by eunuchs and women, carries on the supreme administration through
a council or cabinet, consisting of six ministers, one for the examination of candidates
for office, one for finance, one for ceremonies and customs, one for war, one for
justice, and one for public works. “ The power of all the officers of government,”
says M. Lefevre, “ is so restrained and so limited, that they are always in dread of
being found in fault, and of losing their places. The duration of their administration
in the same post does not go beyond three or four years. They cannot
exercise any important functions in the quarter where then- parents reside. They
take a wife or buy lands in the country under their jurisdiction. Any one
can accuse the mandarin before a great tribunal erected for this purpose, and
called Tam-phap. Justice is there done in all complaints brought against them.
Thus a magistrate has to felicitate himself if he goes out of office without being
accused.”
The revenue of Cochin-China is derived from the following sources : a capitation
tax, levied on the heads of families ; a land-tax, assessed according to the quality and
extent of the land, sometimes paid in money, but for the most part in kind ; imposts
on foreign trade, and corvées. All persons in the service of the state, civil and
military, are exempt from taxation. Of all the taxes, the corvées are by far the most
onerous, for they include every male inhabiatant of the age of 19 and upwards. No
one has ventured to state the money-value of the whole revenue, which must, from
the nature of a great part of it, be unknown even to the government itself.
The laws of Cochin-China are in principle the same as those of China, but in
practice more arbitrarily and less skilfully administered. In matters of evidence
they permit the use of torture. The chief punishments are imprisonment, fetters,
the wooden ruff or collar, which prevents the wearer from lying down horizontally;
but above all, flagellation by the bamboo, which is universal, both for domestic and
public offences. Fathers and mothers inflict it on their children, husbands on their
'Wives, and every officer, civil and military, on all below him. I t is evident that no
¡dishonour is attached to the punishment. The offender receives the punishment
lying down, and held in this position by assistants. During my own visit to the
country I saw several examples of it inflicted in this fashion. Capital punishments
are inflicted for murder, treason, robbery, adultery, and, occasionally, for official
malversation; but they do not appear to be frequent. “ The police,” says M.
Chaigneau, “ is exercised by the chiefs of villages. They can also impose a slight
fine, inflict a few strokes of the rattan, and even, in certain cases, condemn to the
cangue or wooden collar. Severity is almost inevitable in the midst of so numerous
a population. Should the person convicted consider himself unjustly condemned,
he can appeal from the jurisdiction of the village chief to that of the chief of the
Huyen, and from this again to the governor of the province. When the penalty
is small, the judgment of the governor of the province is final; but in all affairs
of consequence, whether civil or criminal, an ultimate appeal lies to the royal
council. I t can scarcely fail but that an affair brought before the last tribunal
especially if the accusation be of a capital nature, should not be judged with the utmost
impartiality. The eyes of the master are at hand. Besides, the most scrupulous
precautions are taken, in order that the life of the accused may not be exposed to
danger, through the ignorance or prejudices of the judges. The documentary
evidence is reviewed with the most strict attention ; the witnesses are heard anew •
all is weighed and discussed gravely and deliberately. In fine, at the moment of
pronouncing sentence, the judges are forbid to communicate. Each considers the
case by himself, and signs and seals his vote. These votes, placed on the council
board, without being opened, are jointly put under the seal of the council, and
carried into the interior of the palace, where the king takes cognisance of the affair.”
Death is inflicted by decapitation with the sword, and, sometimes, it is certain, by the
trampling of elephants.
The Cochin-Chinese have a regular army, disciplined in imitation of an European
organisation, which they owe to the French officers who, from 1790 to 1801, effected
the restoration of the dethroned King Gialong. This army consists of infantry and
artillery with, elephants, but no cavalry, Cochin-China furnishing no horses fit for
this purpose. When I visited Cochin-China, in 1824, the army consisted of the
Koyal Guard, amounting to 15,000 men, and the line, to 40,000. Each of these has
its quota of artillery and elephants; the latter amounting for the entire army to
800 in number. Besides this regular army, each province has its militia or constabulary
force. The artillery, as has been found to be the case with other Asiatic nations
following the tactics of Europe, is the most effective part of the force.
The marine of Cochin-China is levied from the inhabitants of the coasts, and like
the army formed into companies, regiments and divisions. The vessels of war
consist of corvettes, carrying from 16 to 22 guns,—of large row-galleys of 70 oars
carrying one large gun with many swivel cannon, and of small row-galleys of about 40
oars, with swivel guns and a cannon of four or six pound calibre. The total number
smaller a°tr 500 ™ $ 9 t0 ^ “ ! 2°° I °f the galley8’ at 100 ; and of the
Cochin-China possesses several fortified places, constructed on technical principles
f°n ! ^ engmem; and the fortification of at once the most regular and extensive m Asia, next, probably, tHo uFeo, rtht eW ciallpiaitmal iins
• co.urage of the Cochin-Chinese soldiery, however, does not correspond
wi h their specious organisation. The character given of them by M Lefevre
amounts simply to this, that, “ in spite of their cowardice, they are somewhat
faint-hearted than the Chinese, whom,” he states, “ they have often beaten”—it
may be presumed in collisions on the frontier of Tonquin ’
to 1^ iSt°ryn°f the of Cochin-China is but very imperfectly known
W oUJ T r ; ?nqum long formed the most important part of the Empire. The first
i! ] Ci ? of any apparent authenticity is obtained from the annals of China ■ £ iS h f r s t s ** W * V ‘?d th* * w r » eiore Lhiisk 2 1 4 , when they planted colonies among the people of Anam t h e n a
rude race. That an early conquest by China took plfce seL sP sufficiently ^ S e d
H , Uof theH man ander°sP, tl a0wa sb, yw trhitet ePn0 °laPnleg uoafg eA, naanmd > costubmye n oofn et hoef ?CShifneiseo mTha£t tElm
b?00me a Province of the C h in e s e em p ir eX e so d o s e t
ttc rm c e ofymen itS
's s s s e i s i . a ?pe“f t t e
under the Mongols • one i n 1 ¿n« . I k 9 r1elci°o<luost °f Tonquin; one in 1280,
the last terminated'in a on j anf one in 1540. All of these were baffled; but
consider itself nominallv as W^ . 6 bingl?om of Anam consented to
on his accession an investiture fmmthp °fChma> the kmg consenting to receive
nially an emb«asasyy wwiitmh ttrriibbuuttee. Tt vhi s arraCngheinmeesen t esmtilple sruobr,s iasntsd. to send him trien-