Sal fall by you on ay day,

so lives lithe sal alle that lede. In my saithe south y say, herknes alle of a tyme, That sal be after neueyers day; lat clerkes se the neexte prime. The terme es werde, soeth to say. and twelve es comen after nigne. To led him forth a lange waye,

his wonyng stede es on yond alf Tyne. On south alf Tyne sal he wone;

wyt thou wel it sal be swa; Fra suth sal blessed brether comen, and dele the lande even in twa. Wen domes es doand on his dede, sal na mercy be biside, Na naman haue mercy for na mede, na in hope thair hevedes hide. Bot soffid sal be mani of stede,

for res that thai sal after ride; And seen sal leauté falsed lede in rapes sone after that tyde. Fra twa to three the lande es liest, bot nameli sal it fra the twa; The lion thare sal fare to fexit, the lande til the bare sal ga. "Well glalli wald y understande to telle theem hou so moxist be, Welke of theem sal weld the lande

وو

for wele thou spake of the three."

"A T. biside an L.y fonde,

chese thi seluen sege and see; An E.s the thred

wyt hope and hande the baillifs be. Bot nou of theem hat loves the lede, that es so bald that dar habide, That theem ne sal reu, yif I can rede, on ay friday on est half Clide. For wel thai wen hour lande to winne, to fele that may finde biforin; Thai sal be blenked are thai blinne,

thair foles that haues ben forthorin; Many be dampned to daye tharinne, that riden heech wyt hond and horin, Wen yonge sal falle for ald synne, and lose the lyf and be forthorin. Wrange werkes wil away,

it sal be als God haves sette; Of thair biginnyng can y saysal na frend of other reue.

Dougty sal daye on the feld,
to wyt theem be never so wa;
And falsed under halles held,

in frith sul men the foles ta.
Leauté men haves ben ful seld;
it sal be sett wyt mirthes ma,
And marchant have the werld to weld,
and capman wyt thair packes ga.
And than sal reson raike and ride,
And wisdome be ware es best;

And leauté sal gar leal habide,

and sithen sal hosbondmen af rest.

A BURLESQUE BILL OF FARE. From MS. Ashmole (Oxford), No. 826, fol. 179.

A BILL OF FFARE SENT TO BANKES Y Imps. 4 ffancies, 2 boyld and 2 rosted. 2. A large dish of carrett doucetts. 3. 4 dyshes of andyrons. 4. 6 pelican chickins. 5. Six birds of paradice.

6. Two phonxes, a cock and a hen. 7. Foure paire of elephants petti

THE

RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

ART. I.-The Tartars in China.

DE BELLO TARTARICO HISTORIA; in quá quo pacto Tartari hac nostrá ætate Sinicum Imperium inuaserint, ac ferè totum occuparint, narratur ; eorumque mores breuiter describuntur. Auctore R. P. MARTINO MARTINIO, TRIDENTINO, ex Provincia Sinensi Societatis IEsv in Vrbem misso Procuratore. Antverpiæ, ex Officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti. M.DC.LIV. Small 8vo.

BELLUM TARTARICUM, or the Conquest of the Great and most renowned Empire of CHINA, by the Invasion of the TARTARS, who, in these last seven years, have wholy subdued that vast Empire. Together with a Map of the Provinces, and chief Cities of the Countries, for the better understanding of the Story. Written originally in LATINE by MARTIN MARTINIUS, present in the Country at most of the passages herein related, and now faithfully translated into English. London, Printed for John Crook, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the sign of the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1654.

12mo.

HISTOIRE DE LA CONQUESTE DE LA CHINE PAR LES TARTARES: contenant plusieurs choses remarquables: touchant la Religion, les Mours, et les Coutumes de ces deux Nations. Ecrite en Espagnol par M. de Palafox, Evesque d'Osma, et traduite en François par le Sieur Colle. A Amsterdam. Chez Jean Frederic Bernard, 1723. Small 8vo.

IT

was the middle of the second half of the thirteenth century, when a European traveller is first known to have placed his foot within the limits of the Chinese empire. This was Marco Polo the Venetian, the relation of whose adventures became after his return the delight of the middle ages. At this moment, the Chinese monarchy, after having been long held by a native dynasty, with frequent alternatives of peace and civil war, had fallen beneath the arms of the Mongol Tartars, and was ruled by the celebrated Kublai Khan. The dynasty of the Mongols in China had lasted more than a hundred years, when, in the latter half of the fourteenth century, the Tartars, enervated by the luxuries in which they had learnt to indulge, were driven out by an insurrection of the Chinese, and for nearly three centuries the empire was governed by a race of native I.-4

22

princes known as the Ming dynasty. Early in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese navigators first reached the Chinese shores, and unfortunately their conduct in general was of such a character as to give the Chinese so low an opinion of Europeans that they were soon proscribed from the continent. They found the Chinese seas infested with pirates, with whom they seem to have entered into a sort of rivalry in their depredations. One of the most interesting of the old voyagers, Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese, who had exercised for some time the profession of a pirate in the eastern seas, was shipwrecked on the coast of China, seized, and carried with his companions to Pekin, and condemned to slavery in the city of Quan-si. While they remained there, the empire was suddenly invaded by the Tartars; Pekin and Quan-si were both captured, and Pinto and his companions fell into the hands of the invaders, who, soon afterwards obliged to retreat, carried the Portuguese away with them. A few years after this, the Portuguese succeeded in forming their settlement at Macao, and in establishing a limited trade with the Chinese.

China began now to be somewhat better known to Europeans, and in the latter part of the sixteenth century Jesuit missionaries found their way thither, and set about the work of conversion with considerable success. They soon learnt that Christianity was not unknown in China. The Nestorians had penetrated into that country at an early period, and the Gospel appears to have made considerable progress in the far east before it had been extinguished in the greater part of western and southern Asia by the conquests of Mohammedanism. Marco Polo and other travellers of the thirteenth century speak of native Christians in Cathay, the name by which China was then known to Europeans; and one of them, William de Rubruquis, was informed that the Nestorians then possessed fifteen cities in that country, and that they were governed by a bishop. In the century following, the Arabian traveller, Ibn Batuta, informs us that there was a Christian population in one of the divisions of the Chinese capital. The Christians were probably reduced and dispersed during the revolutions which have since so often and so terribly ravaged the country, but their faith seems still to exist in a corrupted form, and it may perhaps have more to do than people suppose with the rebellion now existing.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the empire of China began to be threatened by the increasing power of the Mantchou Tartars, who occupied the country on its extreme

northern border, The wars which resulted were carried on with various fortunes, until at length the native dynasty again succumbed to a race of Tartar conquerors. It was in the middle of the sixteenth century that some of the Jesuit missionaries returning to Europe brought the intelligence of this extraordinary revolution. One of these, a Jesuit of Trent, who names himself in Latin Martinus Martinius, compiled in that language a relation of the events as far as they were then known, in the year 1654, and gave it to the public; and the great interest which it excited throughout Europe is proved by the circumstance that within the same year translations of this book appeared in Italian, Spanish, French, and English.

In the year 1620, Wan-lie, who had occupied the throne of China nearly fifty years, left the empire to his grandson, Hi-tsong, engaged in a war with the Mantchou king, Tien-ming, which had been provoked by the insolence of the Chinese mandarins on the frontier. The Tartar prince had, in 1616, marched an army across the frontier, and captured the great city of Kaiyuen. A written declaration of the causes of this invasion, which he sent from that place. is supposed to have been concealed from the Chinese monarch, and a scornful reply was given by the local authorities. One of Tien-ming's causes of complaint was the death of his father, treacherously slain by the mandarins, and in his rage at the new insult offered to him, he swore that, in allusion to the customs of the Tartars, he would celebrate the funeral of the murdered king with the slaughter of two hundred thousand Chinese. Though the war was confined to a small tract of territory, which affected but little the integrity of the empire, yet in 1618, having captured several towns of note, Tien-ming caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor of China in the city of Leaoyang, the capital of the province of Leaotung. Next year a vast army was raised against the usurper, but a very sanguinary battle ended in the entire rout of the Chinese. The Jesuits looked upon that defeat as a providential punishment on Wan-lie for the persecution of the Christian missionaries and their converts which marked the latter years of that monarch's reign. The victorious Tartars now carried their devastations up to the walls of Pekin, which was saved only by their anxiety to secure the plunder they had already collected.

Such was the state of things when Hi-tsong ascended the throne. Fortune seemed to smile on the commencement of this emperor's reign, for the cruel atrocities perpetrated by the Tartars wherever