being much struck with the beauty and fertility of the land, he eventually settled.

As the Chinese, contrary to the practice of almost all nations, have rarely, if ever, sought to conquer other countries, their annals for many ages furnish nothing remarkable; and although they date the origin of their imperial dynasties (excluding those of the fabulous times) two thousand years before the Christian era, we find that the country was long divided into several states or independent sovereignties. Twentytwo dynasties of princes are enumerated as having governed China from 2207 B. C., to the present day. the reigning emperor being the fifth monarch of the twenty-second or Tai-Tsin dynasty. What may be termed the authentic history of China does not begin till the time of Confucius, who flourished about five centuries before the Christian era, and who must be regarded as the great reformer of China. He endeavoured to unite in one great confederation the numerous states which harassed each other by mutual wars, and constructed a moral code for the government of the people. He forbore to dive into the impenetrable arcana of nature; neither did he bewilder himself in abstruse researches on the essence and attributes of a Deity, but confined himself to speaking with the most profound reverence of the First Principle of all beings, whom he represented as the most pure and perfect Essence, the Author of all things, who is acquainted with our most secret thoughts, and who will never permit virtue to go unrecompensed, nor vice unpunished. It is not until в. c. 248 that Chinese history begins to be at all developed. Che-Hwang-te, the founder of the Tsin dynasty, in that year succeeded to the throne, and the petty princes of China, as well as the Huns who inhabited the immense plains beyond the Oxus, speedily found that they had a warrior to deal with. Whenever these princes ventured to meet him they were infallibly defeated, until he completely subdued all the states, and consolidated the empire. Having provided for his power within the empire, he next turned his attention to its regular and efficient defence against foreign invaders. The very desultoriness of the attacks of the Huns made it difficult to subdue them. When he could meet and force them into a pitched battle, he never failed to give an excellent account of them; but they were no sooner dispersed than they rallied; no sooner chastised in one part of the empire than they poured furiously down to repeat their offences in some other.

1

Whether the monarch himself, or his able general, Mung-Teen, conceived the grand idea of surrounding China—as it was then limited-with a wall, it would now be no easy matter to ascertain; certain it is that the wall was erected under the superintendence of the general.

This perfectly stupenduous monument of human skill and industry (which is one thousand five hunded miles in length, thirty feet high, and fifteen feet thick on the top), could only have been completed by an absolute monarch. The emperor of China had only to will and be obeyed. He ordered that every third man throughout the empire should aid in the vast work. Like the Israelites in Egypt, and like the native builders of the vast pyramids, the builders of the great wall of China were but slaves, whose slavery only differed from that of purchased slaves, in that it was but for a time they were purchased, and that the price paid for them was not in cash or merchandise, but the sic volo, the absolute will of the emperor. A curious calculation has been made, showing that if this wall were pulled down, and a new one made of the materials, twelve feet high and four feet thick, it would be of sufficient length to encircle the globe. By the stern exercise of his power, the emperor had this mighty wall, with embattled towers at convenient distances on the top, completed, and the towers garrisoned, so as to serve at once for watch towers and fortresses! But though he was a spirit ed prince, and had a chivalrous desire to protect his empire from the rapine of its barbarous enemies, his reign

was by no means free from cause of censure: for we find he ordered the destruction of the whole body of Chinese literature, in the disgraceful hope of destroying all traces of Chinese history previous to the commencement of his dynasty! The works of Confucius were alone secreted, by some man of well-directed mind, and were found, years after the emperor's death, by some workmen employed in repairing a house.

On the death of Che-Whang-te, his son Urh-she, less politic or less powerful than his father, found it impossible to prevent new outbreaks among the princes who had been reduced to the position of mere nobles and lieutenants of the emperor. Whether leaguing against the commands of the emperor, or assailing each other, they filled the land with strife; entire cities were in some cases destroyed, and the annihilation of the empire seemed at hand; when there arose in the land one of those men of iron nerve and hand who never fail to appear during great revolutions, and always precisely when the myriad-evils of anarchy can only be put an end to by a man who possesses the talents of the soldier joined to the will of the despot. Lien Pang, the man in question, was originally the captain of a band of robbers, and notorious in that character alike for his boldness and success. The distracted state of the country opened the way to his joining the profession of a leader of free lances to that of a robber, and, at first in alliance with some of the princes, and subsequently in opposition to all of them in succession, he fought so ably that he subdued the whole empire, changed his name to that of Kaon-te, and ascended the throne, thus founding the Hang dynasty. Though thus suc cessful within, he was greatly annoyed by the Huns; and so far was his usual success from attending him in his endeavours to free the empire from them, that he bought their quietness with many and costly presents, which on his death and the succession of his son was changed to a stipulated annual tribute,

During several years there were no events worth recording in the history of China; but, in the reign of Woo-te, the empire was assailed by a succession of misfortunes and calamities. Owing to a long continuance of heavy rains the Hoang-ho river burst its banks, sweeping away every thing in its path, and causing a destruction, not only of property but also of human life, that was truly terrible. During the same reign the cultivated lands were left completely bare by the invasion of a vast army of those destructive creatures, locusts; and a fire occurred in the capital which burned property to a frightful extent, and was only extinguished after it had consumed a great portion of the city, including almost the whole of the imperial palace. To counterbalance these great national calamities, this reign had one piece of good fortune of the highest consequence. The Huns had made their appearance again in vast numbers; they were completely routed in a great battle, by the Chinese under their general, Wei-sing, who took many thousands of prisoners, together with the whole of the tents, stores, and baggage of these nomadic plunderers. So thoroughly humbled were the Huns on this occasion, that for very many years they did not again make their appearance; they even paid homage to the emperor, Senen-Te, against whom, however, they broke out as fiercely as ever towards the close of his reign.

In the first year of the Christian era Ping-te ascended the imperial throne. He only reigned about five years, and being a weak prince, was even during that period rather the nominal than the real emperor, for both he and the empire were completely ruled by Wang-mang, a prince of great energy, who, on the death of Ping-te, took actual possession of the throne, of which he had long been the virtual owner. Many princes espoused the cause of the displaced dynasty; but though they perpetually made war upon the able usurper, he kept possession of the throne during the remainder of his life. Wang-mang died A. n. 23, and was succeeded

by Hwac-yang-wang; he died in A. D. 58, and was succeeded by KwangWoo. This reign is chiefly remarkable on account of the introduction into China, from the neighbouring country of Eastern India, of the Buddhist religion. In the year 89, and the reign of Ho-te, the Tartars, who as well as the Huns and the Cochins, were the perpetual pest of China, again made their appearance. They were worsted in several encounters, and many thousands of them perished. They were driven, broken and dispirited, to the Caspian, and only then escaped owing to the fear with which the mere prospect of a long voyage inspired the Chinese. For several years after this event the affairs of China were in a very pitiable state; the Tartars, returning again and again, added by their ravages to the distress caused by bad seasons; and just under those very circumstances which made the rule of a vigorous and able man more than ever desirable, it, singularly enough, chanced that reign after reign fell to the lot of mere children, in whose names the kingdom was of course gov erned by the court favourites of the existing empress; the high trust o. the favourite arising naturally more from the empress' favour than for his fitness or integrity. Drought, famine, plague, and the frequent curse of foreign invasion, made this part of Chinese history truly lamentable.

In the year 220, the empire was divided into three, and with the usual effect of divided rule in neighbours between whom nature has placed no boundary of sea, or rock, or impracticable desert. In the year 288, the emperor Woo-te succeeded in again uniting the states into one empire. He died about two years later, and was succeeded by Hwuy-te, who reigned seventeen years, but was guilty of many cruelties, and consequently much disliked. The history of no fewer than one hundred and thirteen years, terminating A. D. 420, may be summed up in three wordsconfusion, pillage, and slaughter. Either native generals and native armies fought, or the fierce Hun and still fiercer Tartar carried death and dismay throughout the empire. Years of bloodshed and confusion at length inclined the more important among the native competitors to peace, and two empires were formed-the northern and southern-the Nan and the Yuh-chow..

Lew-yn, or Woo-te, emperor of the southern empire, though he was far superior in the wealthiness of his share to the prince of the north, was originally the orphan of parents of low rank, who left him in circumstances of such destitution, that his youth was supported by the actual charity of an old woman, who reared him as her own son. As soon as he was old enough he enlisted for a soldier, and subsequently made his way to the empire by a succession of murders upon members of the royal family, including the emperor Kung te, who was the last of the Tsin dynasty. Lew-yn, or Woo-te, compelled that unfortunate monarch publicly to abdicate in his favour. The prison of deposed kings is proverbially synonymous with their grave. The case of Kung-te was no exception to the general rule; he was put to death by poison. Woo-te died in 422; his son, Ying-Yang-Wang succeeded him, but was speedily deposed in favour of Wan-te. This prince issued an edict against the Buddhist doctrines, which in the northern dominions, where the prince just at that time was possessed of far more power than his southern brother, proceeded still more harshly. All Buddhists were banished; the Buddhist temples burned, and many priests put to death or cruelly tortured and mutilated.

Wan-te, learned himself, was a great friend and promoter of learning. Several colleges were founded by him, and his exertions in this respect were the more valuable, as they were imitated by the prince of the north. Wan-te having sharply reproved his son Lew Chaou, for some misconduct, and threatened to disinherit him, the son brutally murdered him at the instigation of a bonze or priest, who represented that act as the only