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complied with it, and that he, the Emperor, saw it done. This imperial assertion it was not, of course, prudent for Sir George to take further notice of, than to plead his extreme youth at the time, and a treacherous memory.

The family now on the throne have never been popular with the Chinese; it is well known that it is of Tartar origin, and the continual attempts to engraft the customs of that nation on those of China have never ceased to vex the prejudices and mortify the national pride of this haughty people. The present Emperor is a man of a weak understanding, with all the caprice and insolence which weak men in so high a situation may naturally be supposed to possess. It is painful to reflect, that through all ranks of this great empire, a well managed deception is considered as the perfection of education, and that to deceive with address is the only touchstone of polite manners and good breeding. His imperial Majesty has taken good care that the court of Pekin should peculiarly excel in this truly national as well as courtly accomplishment. Kia king is merely respected by his subjects as their neither beloved as the father of his people nor considered in any other light than a link in the imperial chain, which from the remotest periods has bound them to the doctrine of perfect and passive obedience to the "Celestial Dynasty."

emperor,

but

The recollection of the rebellion of 1810, the substance of which is recorded in your first volume, is still rankling in the minds of the Emperor and his favourites, as well as of the remains of the party who fostered it, and who are at this time possessed of considerable in. fluence at Pekin. Some of them loudly expressed their opinion, that the Prince Regent of England was too powerful a prince not to take revenge on the Emperor for

the affront offered to the embassy, and that next year another embassy, backed with English ships of war of immense size, would enter the gulph of Pe che lee to enforce more respectful treatment. It is quite certain that after the refusal of Lord Amherst to perform the ceremony, all ranks of people from Pekin to Canton seemed to contemplate the members of the embassy as beings of a far superior order to what they were before considered. The haughty insolence of the Mandarins was changed to the most assiduous and respectful attention; the edicts of the Emperor were more than literally obeyed; and had his Imperial Majesty conferred the highest and most conspicuous honors on the embassy, he would, in all probability, have failed in procuring it that universal and marked respect, which the dignified rejection of the degrading Ko tou so evidently obtained for it.

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The decisive, gallant, and judicious conduct of Capt. Murray Maxwell, whose broadside at once silenced the batteries and insolence of the Viceroy of Canton, must not here be lost sight of. On the final departure of the embassy, that person was the very first to pay his court to Capt. Maxwell, and actually ordered out the same men who fired at the Alceste, on that vessel attempting to pass up the river, to present arms to Capt. M. and his officers, as well as to make the forts salute the embassy. The conduct of Capt. Maxwell * well known at Pekin; but the same haughty court, which could not dispense with a single tittle of ceremony, gravely pocketed the open affront of a British frigate battering about at pleasure the imperial forts; and the very man who was the cause of the insult, seemed to be sent from China as him whom the "Emperor de

was

*Captain Maxwell fired with his own hand the first gun in this affair. See Mr. Macleod's interesting Narrative of the Voyage of the Alceste to China and the Yellow Sea.

lighted to honor." That after literature which have come into our

this the Chinese are to be accounted the high-minded and noble nation which many writers are found of describing them, will, I think, be scarcely conceded.

The established religion of China is that of Baudhism, but a toleration of all religions is permitted; so long as the sectarian does not intermeddle with the affairs of the state, he is perfectly safe in the exercise of his profession. The disciples of Buddha in China are of course subject to the same absurd dogmas and deplorable delusions as his followers in India: but Baudhism is inculcated in a much milder manner in China; and though the Chinese are in general attentive to the offices of devotion, yet they give themselves very little trouble in strictly practising its precepts. The religion of a Chinese does not affect his heart, nor does he suffer his understanding to startle at its mysteries or question its orthodoxy; it is enough for him that it was the faith of his forefathers, and it is his glory to resist innovation and change, whether in matters spiritual or temporal. Voltaire and his followers have been fond of holding up this people as an example to Europeans, probably from the great indifference they shew in matters of religion, and what is a most natural consequence, the tolerant spirit of their government towards all sects; and this alone was sufficient to ensure them the encomiums of the infidel philosopher.

The literature of the Chinese,* so highly vaunted by former wri ters, has lately, and with reason, begun to be questioned. Imperial libraries, composed of millions of volumes of illustrations of Confucius and books on religion and divination, may bespeak a nation of writers, but is no proof of sound learn ing. The late specimens of Chinese

See Asiatic Journal, Vol. I. No. 1., for specimens of Chinese poetry.

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hands, present us with no fresh materials to form a more favorable judgment of this part of their na tional character; and till other proofs arise, we must be compelled to take the number of their books as the only attainable standard of the quantum of their literary merit. But the Chinese cover a thousand defects by the decorum of their manners and a strict propriety of public behaviour; in appearance they are indeed a tion of sages.' The populace or mob of China have no characteristic vices, or even indiscretions; the same continuous line, both of physiognomy and of action, marks their proceedings on all occasions; there is no "people in China, all are the subjects and the property of the "Son of Hea ven." This acquired command of passion and of feeling prevents, in a great measure, the frequent occurrence of flagitious crimes, and to that may be ascribed the general mildness of their laws. But the Chinese code is not that of a free people: despotism, in its purest meaning, is the letter and spirit of every act of the legisla. ture, supported by one single, though mighty pillar, viz. that progressive submission which rises from the bosom of the meanest family to the imperial throne.

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Those who have written on the character of this people, especial ly Voltaire and the Abbé Grozier, have been disposed to think more favorably of them than perhaps the present or future ages will do; but those writers spoke from very deficient sources of knowledge, they judged entirely from the appearance of things and from report, and in no place are appearances more deceitful than in China. The experience of the embassies of Lords Macartney and Amherst begin now to open the eyes of the world at large; and though there is much hidden from our view, we plainly see that the inhabitants

of the "celestial empire" are neither so great, so wise, or so powerful, as themselves and their eulogists have pretended. To a contemplative mind the state of China will ever be most interesting. The obstinacy with which she rejects every opportunity of improvement that offers; the pride and selfsufficiency with which she arrogates to herself the pre-eminence above all nations, while she is in reality debased below them, affords a melancholy picture of the vanity of human nature. The notion that the earth is a plain, in the centre of which China is situated, and that all other nations, kindreds, and tongues surround her as tributaries, is still religiously believed in, from the Emperor down to the lowest subject.

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Although the policy of sending

out the mission at all has been questioned, I certainly conceive it to have been a measure highly expedient The causes which led to it are so accurately described in the first volume of the Asiatic Journal, page 24, that I need not here enter into them. The impression on the public mind is, that it was on a scale rather too magnificent; this is perhaps correct. But, upon a review of all the circumstances which have at~ tended it, the conclusion may justly be drawn, that, though its effects may be remote, yet they will be beneficial, and that the objects which the embassy had in contemplation are in a train of being duly accomplished.

YEN KWANG. From the "retired Stone on the Brook."

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal. SIR,-The speeches contained in your two last numbers on the subject of the Mandamus, Colonel Bryce, and Captain Earle, doubtless proceed, in the worthy proprietors, from an ardent desire to save the money of the Company; but I conceive there are often periods when economy becomes cruelty and bad policy. With respect to Capt. Earle, I know him to be a most worthy and unfortunate man, who served with great credit all the severe campaigns of General Goddard; and like too many other meritorious officers, would gladly have returned to the service, had he not been precluded by the new regulation of 1796; and so far from not allowing him £300 per annum, I would vote for that sum being continued to his wife. As for Colonels Bryce and Salmon, they were both * Auditor Generals in

*We believe Col. Bryce never held the appointment of Auditor General, Col. Salmon was Military Auditor General in Bengal.-Ed.

India, consequently well suited for the situations they respectively occupy at the India-House. My reason for addressing you, Sir, is with the ardent hope that all minor considerations may give place to one of great importance, and affecting the vital interests of the Company; I allude to the great deficiency of European officers with our native cavalry and infantry, the latter in particular, it being without ensigns, so that, for the three establishments, it appears no less than four hundred cadets are required to complete the several corps with junior officers. I wish to impress this circumstance upon the minds of my brothers and sisters of the proprietary, as being of far more import than the creation of two new officers, which, to my own knowledge, were long wanted at the India House. Every officer who knows the service, must lament that our Sepoy regiments should be thus incomplete with European

officers, and nothing but severe disasters in India, arising from impolitic economy at home, can open the eyes of many proprietors. In fact, our native military establishments are incompetent for the extensive country under our own government, not reckoning the large detachments with the Nizam, the Peishwa and the Berar Rajah. New corps should be raised in their stead; for I maintain, without fear of contradiction, that unless two regiments of cavalry, and four of infantry for Bengal; two of cavalry, and four of infantry for Madras; two of cavalry, and four of infantry for Bombay, be speedily raised, the India governments will soon find that their respective territories will be more devastated by the incursions of Pindarees, and from their repeated success, by inevitable war with all the Mahratta states, and will consequently suffer greater loss of revenue than the maintenance of this increase of our military establishment. Let us no longer hesitate on the score of economy, but send out the required number of cadets to fill up actual vacancies, and to make up for the vast number of officers necessarily employed upon the general garrison, and cantonment staff, in addition to those ab

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sent upon furlough. Compared with the vast extent of territory they are to cover, the wonder is that our forces have hitherto protected it: but the time is now come when we must no longer follow the old regime; for the wider we extend our territory, the more we shall find it expedient to maintain a chain of posts from Agra to Poona. Messrs. Hume, Lowndes, and other gentlemen, will, I hope, see the propriety of an immediate increase of our native troops in the moderate proportion I recommend; for if not done, I venture to predict, my worthy brothers and amiable sisters will soon be without dividends. Our officers ought to receive a new brevet promotion, so that active men may be employed to command divisions with suitable rank. These points are of far more importance than twopenny savings, and will, I hope, obtain the notice of the proprietary. That fine corps, the Bengal native artillery, should also have its full complement of officers in like proportion as the infantry, in order to act with efficiency on service.

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To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal,

SIR,--In the eloquent sentences in which your last number announced to our countrymen in India the death of the Princess Charlotte, allusion is made to Claremont having been built by the first Lord Clive soon after his return from India.

The original site was built by Sir John Vanburgh who inhabited it himself; it was afterwards purchased by the Duke of Newcastle, in 1715, who added much to the

extent and magnificence of the park and house.

On the death of the Duke the domain was again to be disposed of, and Colonel (afterwards Lord) Clive, who was then on the point of returning for the last time to India, purchased it, and under the direction of the celebrated architect Browne, the house was completely rebuilt, and the park and grounds new modelled under his

superintendance at the cost of €100,000.

On his final return from India, Lord Clive passed many of his so litary moments at this magnificent place; but the charms of its exquisite scenery, the caresses of his friends, the acquirement of high rank and of almost unbounded riches, had no effect in relieving his mind from the fatal effects of despondency and gloom, and the conqueror of India suddenly enshrouded his glories and his name on the 23d Nov. 1774.

Claremont afterwards passed into the several hands of Lord Galway, the Earl of Tyrconnel, and Mr. Charles Rose Ellis, from whom it was purchased in 1816, by the country, for Prince Leopold and his illustrious Consort.

Since writing the above I have looked into a History of the County of Surry by Manning and Bray, and am induced to send you an extract from that work, which exactly agrees with my account of Claremont, but enters more into detail.

Claremont Park is situated near the vil. lage of Esher, about five miles from Kingston and seventeen from London, Sir John Vanburgh, so well known for his particular style of architecture, bought some land here, and built a low brick house, for his own habitation, upon it. The spot he chose was in low ground, without the advantage of prospect. Thos. Holles Pelham, Earl of Clare, bought it of Sir John, and was created Duke of Newcastle, August 2, 1715.

He made

it his habitation, and added a magnificent room for the entertainment of large companies, when he was in administration. He increased the grounds by further purchases, and by inclosing parts of the adjoining heath, and it now contains about four hundred and twenty acres; the other part of the estate contains about

edged by a winding bank, with scattered trees, that led to a seat at the end of the pond. On a mount in the park he erected a building in the shape of a castle, and called it Claremont, from his own name, by which the place has been known ever

since. Sir Samuel Garth has mentioned

it in a poem printed in his works. Mr. Whateley, in his "Essay on Gardening," speaks of part of it with much approbation-" where you may wander with secure delight," and saunter with perpetual amusement.

After the death of the Duke, it was purchased by Lord Clive, the conqueror of India.

When setting out on his last voyage, he gave directions to Mr. Browne, so well known for his taste in laying out grounds, but who used to consider himself as of still greater skill in architecture, to build him a house and model the grounds, without any limitation of expense. He performed the task much to the satisfaction of his lordship, who did not regard the cost, which is said to

have been more than £100,000. Browne

had been often employed to alter houses, but this is said to be the only complete one he ever built. It forms an oblong square of forty-four yards by thirty four. On the ground-floor are eight spacious rooms, besides the hall of entrance and the great stair-case. In the principal front, a flight of thirteen steps leads to the great entrance, under a pediment supported by Corinthian columns, The situation is well chosen, commanding various views of the water and plantations in the park. Whilst Lord Clive was owner, he was at the expense of varying the line of the turnpike-road, in order to add a few acres to the park, in effecting which he cut through a hill to the depth of thirty-feet, or more, the doing of which helped to raise a high causeway over some low ground, to take off what would have been a steep ascent. This ends near the seventeenth mile stone from London. The ground so gained has been planted, and the trees and shrubs grow luxuriantly. Lord Clive died in the year 1774, after which this estate was sold for, perhaps, not more than one-third of what the house and alterations originally cost. It was purchased by Viscount Galway, an

sixteen hundred acres in several farms. The Duke adorned the park by many plantations, under the direction of Kent. One of Kent's most common designs at Claremont was a small lake, Irish Peer, of whom it was bought by

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