3*6 T R A V E L S ' I N CHINA -
alone, by the ftri£t maxims o f ftate, leads to office, and office
to diftinction. Property, without learning, has little weight, and
confers no diftindtion, except in fome corrupt provincial governments,
where the external marks o f office are fold, as it!
Canton. Hence property is not fo much an objedt o f the laws
in China as elfewhere, and confequently has not the fame fecu-
rity. In the governments o f Europe, property feldom fails to
command influence and to force dependence: in China, the
man o f property is afraid to own it, and all the enjoyments it
procures him are ilolen.
Sometimes, indeed, the higheft appointments in the ftate are
conferred, as it happens elfewhere, by fome favourable accident,
or by the caprice o f the monarch. A ftriking inftance
o f this kind was difplayed in the perfon o f Ho-tchung tang, the
laft prime minifter o f the late Kien-long. This man, a Tartar,
happened to be placed on guard in the palace, where his youth
and comely countenance ftruck the Emperor fo forcibly in paf-
fing, that he fent for him to the prefence; and finding him
equally agreeable in his converfation and manners, he raifed
him rapidly, but gradually, from the luuation o f a common
foldier, to the higheft ftation in the empire. Such fudden
changes, from a ftate o f nothingnefs to the fummit o f power,
have frequently been obferved to be attended with eonfequenoes
no lefs fatal to the man fo elevated, than pernicious to the
public : and thus it happened to this favourite minifter. During
the life o f his Old mailer, overwhelm, in his later years, he is
faid to have poffeffed an unbounded influence, he availed him-
felf o f the means that offered, by every- fpecies o f fraud and extortion,
tortion, by tyranny and oppreffion, to amafs fuch immehfe
wealth in gold, filver, pearls, and immoveable property, that
his acquifitions were generally allowed to have exceeded thole
any fingle individual, that the hiftory o f the country had
made known. His pride and haughty demeanor had rendered
him fo obnoxious to the royal family that, at the time we were
in Pekin, it was generally fuppofed, he had made up his mind to
die with the old Emperor, fbr which event he had always at hand
a dole o f poifon, not chufing to ftand the fevere inveftigation
which he was well aware the fucceeding prince would diredt to
be made into his minifterial conduit. It feems, however, when
that event actually happened, the love o f life, and the hope o f
efcaping, prevailed on him to change his purpofe and to ftand
the hazard o f a trial. O f the crimes and enormities laid to his
charge he was found, or rather he was faid to have pleaded,
guilty. The vaft wealth he had extorted from others was con- ’
fifcated to the crown, and he was condemned to fuffer an igno--
minious death *.
But
* The-circumftances attending the downfal o f this minifter are cUrioiis, andfhew,
in its- true light, the defpotic nature o f the Chinefe government; ntfttvithftandiftg'
their falutary laws.. Tfie new Emperor, determined on his ruin» makes a public declaration
wherein, after apologizing for not abftaining agreeably to the laws o f the
empire from all a&s o f innovation, for the fpace o f three years after his father's1
death, he obferves, that the crimes and excefles o f Ro-tchiing-fafig are of fo horrid £
nature, as to preclude him from ailing towards him with any pity Or indulgence.
He then exhibits about twenty articles o f accufation againft him, the principal of'
which are,
Contumacy towards his hither (the late Emperor) by riding on horfehack to the
vei;y door of the hall o f audience, at Tuen-min-yuen.
Audacityy under preten.ee o f lamenefs, in caufing himfelf to be carried to and from
the palace through the door fet apart for the Emperor.
3 d 2 Scandalous