superior rank at court in consequence of this alliance,
Their education is usually directed J®, military igjigspits,
and their weapons ; the bow and scimitar ; but many of
them are acquainted with the history and geography o f
their own country. They hold the Emperor in the greater
veneration, as considering him descended from Kublai-
Khan, the conqueror of Ghiha in the tblifeejith century.
His descendants being in the fenrteenth century o^p^It
led from the throne of that empire, fled into g h e ^ sn tey
of the Man-choos in Eastern Tartary; and fr@m„theij- in?
termarriages with the natives, sprung the Bog-doi Khans,
who, in the last age, entered Ghina£and formed the present
dynasty: a dynasty hitherto most fhrtinlatei^t^lbpr
first reigns, the last not yet terminated in., 17^.3, hay.é
continued one hundred and forty-nine yeatsj thejldPg-
est perhaps of any .four, in an Uninterrupted succession,
that are remembered ; except, indeed, those of the last
four reigning princes of the ancient monarchy of Frah.ce,
which continued one hundred and eighty-threeyyears 5
tho the last sovereign, and best likewise of his race, was
cut off by an,untimely death. But the four Chinese
reigns, tho over a people whose subjection was completed
only in the course of them, and who are not yet
perfectly reconciled, were not only long, but almost beyond
example, prosperous. The first indeed, tho began
in a minority, had all the vigour and exertion of a new
dynasty; and those which succeeded, were equally rér
markable dor wisdom, firmness, and acfiyityh iTbe last Visit; to the
isfJuillispt fikewise:. by its victories. That yearhwhich *
in the British annals is justly termed the glorjoUad 7 59, ~
was .glorious «Iso to Ghen-JLungv He completed in that
year, theeonqpest of the Eleuths. whD posséssed a great
portion of what formerly was called Independent Tartary.
The chart, No. I . of the folio volume, marks the
presentextent of the^Qminions of the Emperor, according
to the limits acknowledged by the Hussian maps.
p|t|h»f those eropiresrpontains a swfaeeofiabcmtfour millions
ofxquare miles, vor nearly one-eleventh part of the
terrene,globe, and equal to two-third parts o f Europe,
Th^estyvo .great empires join atsomeoftheir extremities;
and,together, form not much l ^ th^nl one-fifth,portion,
o f the earth,; but in the <^leulationjif*the Russian tend-
tories, axe included that vastiand inhospitable tract,
bounding on the frozen Sea. and bearing a great proportion
\ to the remaining habitable part of that empire.
Whereas, «II the Chinese dominions. are in situations fit
and desirable for men. Most of them lie in the happiest
part of the temperate rzoi^e, under fifty degrees of nnrth:
latitude* A small part only extends to the southward
within the tropics.: the wfiple empire capable of, and
much o f it actually abounding in, the most useful productions,.
«« well as rich in the arts of dvifotiddife.
The Ihppenor -dividfes his time according to the sea-
sons ; the winter in :his. Chinese, the summer in bis