provinces, and many villages, giving away about eighteen thousand volumes, of which six thousand were portions of the scriptures, amongst a cheerful and willing people, without meeting with the least aggression or injury; having been always received by the people with a cheerful smile, and most generally by the officers with politeness and respect. We would here record our grateful sense of such long-continued and repeated manifestations of Divine goodness, to his unworthy servants, and pray that His blessing may descend on the seed sown, and make it bring forth an abundant harvest.

CHAPTER XX.

SUBSEQUENT OCCURRENCES.

RESTRICTIVE POLICY OF THE CHINESE -EXCLUSION OF FOREIGNERS ANGER AT THEIR INTRUSION- -EDICT AGAINST THE HURON-APPEAL TO THE BRITISH AUTHORITIES-COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE ENGLISH -DISAPPROBATION OF OUR BOOKS-THREAT OF STOPPING THE TRADE -LATE VOYAGE OF GUTZLAFF-TUNG-SAN BAY-DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY AND ITS INHABITANTS-BARREN REGION-EXTENSIVE VALLEY-MOUNTAIN RIDGE-DESERTED VILLAGES-INTESTINE BROILS CHINESE TEMPLE 1 FERTILE SPOT-POPULOUS CITY-RAVENOUS LABOURERS CHARACTER OF THE MANDARINS. -TSIN-KANG DISTRICTEAGERNESS FOR BOOKS VISIT TO AMOEY ANXIETY FOR MORE LABOURERS.

THE Chinese government is characterized by restriction and exclusion. Though they boast of their emperor, as the "Son of Heaven," and consider" all within the four seas," as subject to his dominion; affecting to believe, that all besides "the flowery nation" is barbarity and meanness, depending on the Chinese for the necessaries of life, and existing only by their permission, yet they are afraid of every petty horde on their borders, and suspect every foreign nation of having designs on their country. They anticipate nothing but disaster from the reciprocation of kind offices, between their own countrymen and strangers, and as for the mutual exchange of intelligence, it must, in their estimation, be "evil, only evil, and that continually." They care not to be made acquainted with our discoveries in

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the arts and sciences; while they would doubly deprecate our obtaining any knowledge of the weakness of their government, the discontent of their people, the poverty of their resources, the inefficiency of their defences, the navigation of their rivers, the direction of their roads, the fertility of their soil, or the secret of their manufactures. In short, any statistical, political, commercial, or general information, relative to the inteterior, falling into the hands of foreigners, would be regretted by them, as leading others to covet and overthrow their country: they have, therefore, resolved to keep to themselves as much as possible.

This restrictive policy leads them to exclude all foreigners from the interior of the empire, to order off all vessels from any other than the authorized port, to disapprove of strangers landing elsewhere than in Canton, to prevent their proceeding far in land, to require them to depart as soon as possible, and to provide that shipwrecked mariners be forwarded, by the most expeditious means, to Canton, without being allowed to loiter in the districts where they may be cast on shore. Formerly, a few foreign literati were entertained at court, for the purpose of calculating eclipses, correcting the calendar, and teaching mathematics, as well as with the view of completing a geometrical survey of the country but as the Chinese think that they can manage these things alone, they abstain from employing any foreign adherents, and exclude strangers, as much as they can, from the country; in order that they may keep native information from leaking out, and foreign opinions from creeping in.

Notwithstanding their prohibitions, however, they are astonished and exasperated to find, that the Catho

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lics still secretly maintain their footing, and increase the number of their adherents in the country; while Protestant missionaries are perpetually attempting to diffuse their principles, by landing on the coast, and deluging the maritime districts with Scriptures and tracts. This has called forth the expression of imperial disapprobation on various occasions, and edicts have been published, denouncing such proceedings, in the most unmeasured terms. One very severe proclamation was issued in the year 1812, in which the diffusion of Christianity was declared a capital crime; and yet, in the very teeth of that order, Dr. Morrison and his brethren have been carrying on their operations, for a quarter of a century. When the Honourable Company's chartered ship, the Amherst, went up the coast, proclamations of various kinds were issued; and the most furious edicts have followed each successive voyage in the same direction, which, if collected, would fill a volume. No sooner had the enterprise, described in the foregoing pages, been concluded, than a dispatch arrived from Peking, addressed to the viceroy of Canton, expressive of the emperor's high displeasure, and requiring the governor to take measures to prevent such proceedings in future.

To those who are not familiar with Chinese edicts, the language of such proclamations may appear alarming. In the preamble the emperor says, that "immediately after the attempt of the Amherst and other vessels, to penetrate into the inner waters, he issued orders to all the civil and military officers, to be on their guard, and ward off, and obstruct foreign vessels, without suffering the least remissness." The stranger, on reading this, and imagining that commands are as

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punctually obeyed in China, as in Europe, would expect to find, that the strictest care was taken to discover foreign vessels on the coast; and that a force was everywhere provided, sufficient to ward off all attempts at intercourse; but when the author prosecuted his voyage, several years after the expedition of the Amherst, he found no such watch kept up, or guard maintained; while the vessel anchored at various ports, and the travellers went on shore, rambling through the villages, and conversing with multitudes of people, frequently without being discovered, much less impeded by the mandarins.

In the course of his proclamation, the emperor declares, that "the restrictive laws must be eternally obeyed, so as to render the dignity of the empire, in the highest degree, impressive, and effectually prevent future evils." On reading this passage, the uninitiated would be ready to conclude, that the laws of China are like those of the Medes and Persians, unalterable: and that henceforth the efforts of Christians to spread among the Chinese the knowledge of salvation, will be entirely unavailing; but the apprehension of the unchangeableness of the present state of things may be allayed, by considering, that the laws of China have been altered, and are altering every year. When a regard to self-interest on the one hand, and spirited remonstrances on the other, urge them, the celestials do not scruple to swerve from their eternally restrictive laws; and when the perseverance of foreigners has convinced them, that it is of no use any longer to hold out, they have been known, of themselves, to propose terms of accommodation. It is only for the propagators of Christianity to persevere in their efforts, to enlighten