THE MISSIONARIES.

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Kanghi's long reign must undoubtedly be placed his relations with the Christians who, in the persons of the Roman Catholic missionaries, had penetrated into the interior of China and established themselves at the capital and in the chief cities of the Empire. It has been already seen how, after passing through several vicissitudes of fortune, the Jesuit fathers obtained permission to reside in China and to preach their gospel to the people. Kanghi personally had benefited by their instruction in a peculiar and exceptional degree. The more important part of his education had been entrusted to their care, and his Christian tutors had placed at his disposal much of the lore of Europe. The intercourse he held with them during his earlier days led him to regard with a friendly eye a race from whom he had nothing to fear, and from whose superior knowledge and exceptional attainments he might expect to derive many advantages and to obtain much assistance in the task of government. The Christian missionaries, the representatives of the Church of Rome, were therefore employed in numerous capacities. As the price of the privilege to preach their religion they were required to make themselves as useful as they could be, and to give their word to think no more of a return to their native country. This company of excellent and high-minded individuals gave the required promise, and devoted their lives to the work they had voluntarily accepted. Few instances are there of a worldly sacrifice more nobly performed and undertaken than this dedication of the Jesuit missionaries to a lifelong exile. in a strange land; and well would it have been for the prospects of foreign intercourse if the Dutch and the Spaniards, as other exponents of European civilization, had more closely imitated their example.

It is not in accordance with the human character for the representatives of an existing system to feel or to evince. much sympathy for one coming in a foreign guise and asserting views of a conflicting nature to everything they have been in the habit of accepting as true and indisputable. The intensity of national antipathies becomes inflamed when the subject in dispute is the one upon which we all feel most strongly, the question of religious belief. The philosophical

calmness and political sagacity of Kanghi led him to tolerate the presence of men whose ethics he could appreciate with an academic pleasure, and whose services he knew as an administrator were highly valuable. But what commended itself to the judgment of an intelligent prince found very little favour in the eyes of a people antipathetic to the foreigner and incited by an official class jealous of possible rivals, and discontented at the spectacle of many of their favourite posts being filled by Europeans. The reign of Kanghi was marked throughout by the conflict of these two elements. Thanks to the staunch support of Kanghi and to his enlightened tolerance, the Jesuits more than held their own. The antiforeign party was compelled to conceal the full bitterness of its venom, and to await with such patience as they could muster the time when the Emperor should grow tired of his favourites. For more than fifty years the Jesuits remained prominent among Kanghi's trusted councillors. They were employed as envoys, and as astronomers, as doctors, and as geographers. Their maps served to bring under Kanghi's eye the full extent of the territories he ruled, the artillery they constructed contributed to give him the victory over his enemies, and their medicines saved on more than one occasion the life of their benefactor. Kanghi's sympathy had been gained by his respect for their persons and their character, but his undeviating support was secured by the practical work they did for him-work which he felt there were none others to do so well, if at all.

In the year 1692, after a long discussion, during which the anti-foreign party spared no effort to thwart the personal views of the Emperor, and to impose restrictions on the persons and practices of the Christians, the Tribunal of Rites agreed upon an edict in favour of the strangers. Permission was given by this proclamation, which received the sanction and warm approval of Kanghi, to the missionaries to perform their religious rites, to burn incense and to preach their doctrine in the churches which they had already erected. It was also permitted to all persons to attend those services. The proclamation of the Tribunal of Rites in the year 1692 became the charter of Christianity in the Chinese Empire, and

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

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the faithful execution of its provisions was rendered the more certain by the recovery in the very same year of the Emperor Kanghi from a bad attack of fever by means of the medicine and attention of the French missionaries after his life was despaired of by his own doctors. Eight years after this incident Kanghi, who had previously allowed the missionaries to reside within the precincts of the palace, gave them permission to build a church adjoining their place of residence. Not merely did he grant them the site for the proposed building, but he presented each of the missionaries with the sum of fifty golden crowns, or more probably taels, to enable each to subscribe that amount towards the cost of construction. Such princely generosity and consideration have rarely been equalled.

The position of the Christian missionaries was, therefore, not only secure, but also of considerable influence and profit during the greater portion of Kanghi's reign. This unprecedented success-for elsewhere in Asia Christianity made but slow and fitful progress-encouraged the members of the Jesuit order to believe that in the dense masses of China they had found fit and willing subjects to receive the great truths of the simplest and most beautiful of inspired religions. Had there been danger in the path they would not have held back from the adventure, but the very friendliness of Kanghi offered a further inducement to them to attempt it. Every year was marked by the arrival at Canton of recruits for those who were spreading the truths of Christianity, and it became the order of the day at Paris and at Rome to seize the opportunity afforded by the presence on the throne of Pekin of a sovereign sympathetic in his views, and of an exceptionally just cast of mind. The policy was intelligible and would have been sound, had there been any real leaning towards Christianity among the Chinese. As there was none, but only a contemptuous indifference towards "the men from over the sea," this undue haste and precipitance in snatching at what seemed a prize provoked dangers that might have been averted by a more cautious and circumspect manner of proceeding. Kanghi's friendship alone enabled them to hold their ground, and with each succeeding illness after the

year 1710 it became clearer that no great confidence could be placed even in its much longer continuing. The death of Kanghi, it was feared on the one hand, and confidently expected on the other, would mark the term of Christian prosperity and security in the country, and particularly at the capital.

The predominant feeling of hostility towards the Christians arose not so much from antipathy to their religion as from jealousy of their thinly-veiled assumption of superiority. This sentiment had naturally most force among the officials, who believed that they were ousted from many high posts and offices by the men whom Kanghi's caprice had protected and rewarded. There was a certain amount of truth, too, in their allegations, for some of the highest offices in the state were filled by Christians, which necessarily curtailed the number of places available for the numerous body of the Chinese civil service. The intensity of this feeling was naturally very much increased by each fresh arrival, and although Kanghi remained staunch in his favour, it was clear that the Christians were exposed to many perils, and that unless his successor proved equally sympathetic towards

*

* In 1702 an attempt was made to hamper their movements and to check their liberty by a provincial official, the Viceroy of Chekiang. The edict of 1692 gave the Christians the right to use the churches already built, but said nothing about the construction of new ones. Christian emissaries established themselves at the convenient harbour of Ningpo, and naturally presented a request for permission to build a church. They based their demand on the Edict of 1692, but the Viceroy rejected their petition, saying that there was nothing in it allowing the building of new churches. The matter was referred to Pekin, when a decision was given in favour of the Christians on the grounds that "they have never been the cause of any trouble to the Empire, nor ever committed any reprehensible act, and that their doctrine is not bad.”—Mailla, vol. xi. pp. 305-7. Kanghi's own opinion of the Europeans may here be appropriately quoted :-" Europeans, whom I employ even in the interior of my palace, you have always served me with zeal and affection, without any one having been able up to this to cast the slightest reproach upon you. There are many Chinese who distrust you, but as for myself, and I have carefully observed the whole of your conduct, in which I have never found anything irregular, I am so fully convinced of your uprightness and good faith that I publicly declare that you are deserving of every trust and confidence."—"Lettres Edifiantes,” tom. xviii. p. 92.

FOREIGN RELATIONS.

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them all the good work of the previous century and a half would be destroyed.

It was becoming clear also towards the commencement of the eighteenth century that the question of the relations of the Chinese with foreign countries was one that could not be restricted to matters of religion. The Jesuits and their companion orders came to convert a people, who regarded them in return with a certain curiosity, and their efforts with a philosophical scepticism and amusement; but other nations came to trade and to establish themselves in the seaports of the Empire. Canton had already heard the thunder of English guns, the Dutch had played their game of ambition in Formosa and Japan, and the Spaniards had established a powerful, defiant, and inhuman authority in the Philippines. The China seas were covered with the vessels of strange peoples, whose engines of war made them appear as terrible as the unscrupulous nature of their acts showed them to be false of faith and regardless of the manner in which they attained their ends. The question of holding commercial and political relations with such nations as these was, therefore, one of a very different nature to allowing a few useful individuals to reside in the chief city of the Empire. Even Kanghi treated the two matters as being on a totally distinct footing, and his good-will towards the Jesuits did not dispose him to deprecate any the less the development of his commercial relations with European countries. The Manchus were the more inclined to adopt a policy of isolation, because, being themselves a foreign dynasty, they were apprehensive lest some of these formidable Western peoples should seek to imitate what they had accomplished.

In 1716 the trade between Canton and the Philippines had attained considerable dimensions, and the export of rice in particular is stated to have been very large. An Imperial edict, issued early in the following year, prohibited the export of rice, and forbade Chinese vessels to sail for foreign ports. This proclamation, of course, gave fresh courage to all who were secretly inimical to foreign intercourse, and petitions to the throne became frequent for the dismissal of the foreigners, and for the breaking-off of all intercourse with the outer