provinces, under the name o f infpedtors. Jealous o f each
other, they let no opportunity flip o f making unfavourable reports
to their fuperiors. Notwithftanding which, with all the
precautions taken by government in favour o f the fubjedt, the
latter finds himfelf mod dreadfully opprefled. It is true, for
very flight offences preferred agaihfi men in office, the court
diredts a public reprimand in the official G aze tte ; for thofe o f
a more feriouS nature, degradation from rank; and every officer
fo degraded is under the neceffity o f proclaiming his own
difgrace in all MS' public orders; not only to put him in mind
o f his paft condudt, but likewife to (hew the people how watchful
the eye o f government is over the adtions o f its fervants.
The laft ftage o f public degradation, which amounts to a fen-
fence o f infamy, is an order to fuperinteud the preparation o f
the Emperor’ s tomb, which implies that the perfon fo fen-
tenced is more fit to be" employed among the dead than the living.
Tchang- ta-gin, the late viceroy of Canton, was condemned
to this degrading fervice *.
The viceroy o f a province can remain in that office no longer
than three years, left he might obtain an undue influence.
No fervant o f the crown can form a family alliance in the place
where he commands, nor obtain an office o f importance in the
eity or town wherein he was born. Yet with thefe, and other
precautions, there is ftill little fecurity for the fubjedt. He has
no voice whatfoever in the government, either diredtly or by
* Among the various cuftoijis o f China, particularized in the accounts of the two
^dahpmedan travellers in the ninth .centufy, this remarkable One is noticed, affords
ing, with the reft, equally iingular. and peepliar tA^is.natioji^an irrefragable p^oo£
<>f the authenticity o f thefe two relations.
reprereprefentation;
and the only fatisfadtion he poffibly can receive
for injuries done to him, and that is merely o f a negative kind,
is the degradation or the removal o f the man in power, who
had been his oppreffor, and who perhaps may be replaced by another
equally bad.
The ingenious Mr. Pauw has obferved, that China is entirely
governed by the whip and the bamboo. T o thefe he might
have added the yearly calendar and the Pekin Gazette, both o f
which, as engines in the hands o f government, contribute very
materially to affift its operations. B y the circulation o f the firft
is kept alive the obfervance o f certain fuperftitions which it
iij apparently, the ftudy o f government to encourage. The
fecond is a vehicle for conveying into every corner o f the empire
the virtues and the fatherly kindnefs o f the reigning fove-
reign, fhewn b y punifhing the officers o f his government, not
only for what they have done amifs, but for what they may have
omitted to do. Thus, if a famine has defolated any o f the provinces,
the principal officers are degraded for not having taken
the proper precautions againft it. This paper, in the fhape o f
a fmall pamphlet, is publilhed every fecond day. The miff
fionaries have pretended that immediate death would be the
confequence o f inferting a falfehood in the Imperial Gazette.
Yet it ig famous for de.fcrihing battles that were never
fought, and for announcing vidtories that were never gained.
The truth o f this obfervation appears from feveral proclamations
o f Kaung-Jhee, 'Tchien Long, and the prefent Emperor,
warning the generals on diftant ft.atiops from making falfe re-,
gogtsj