to be the prime of Manchu power, and it certainly beheld the thorough and complete consolidation of the Tartar authority. Its exceptional brilliance was enhanced and rendered the more conspicuous, not only by a succession of unsurpassed military exploits, but also by a series of literary and administrative achievements unequalled in Tartar, if not in Chinese, history. His attention to his people's wants, and his zeal in promoting what he thought were their best interests, showed that he desired to appear in their eyes as the paternal ruler, which is the salient characteristic of a Chinese Emperor. That he was almost completely successful in realizing his objects there can be little doubt, and it was by general consent more than by palace flattery that the title of Magnificent was attached to his name. Certainly the magnitude of his exploits, as well as the splendour of his court, justified its application to his name and rendered it appropriate. Keen Lung had abdicated because he would not consent to his reign figuring in history as being of longer duration than that of his grandfather Kanghi. He also had ruled throughout a complete cycle, and the events of these two long and important reigns mark out a period of almost unprecedented achievement in the annals of any country. In no case that can be called to mind had a greater exploit been successfully performed and satisfactorily maintained. The authority of the Manchus, which appeared likely to be overthrown and obliterated before the vigorous onslaught of the * This Emperor has been described in the following sentences by a European missionary who had frequent opportunities of seeing and conversing with him :-"This prince is tall and well-built. He has a very gracious countenance, but capable at the same time of inspiring respect. If in regard to his subjects he employs great severity, I believe it is less from the promptings of his character, than from the necessity which would otherwise not render him capable of keeping within the bounds of dependence and duty two Empires so vast as China and Tartary. Therefore, the greatest tremble in his presence. On all the occasions when he has done me the honour to address me, it has been with a gracious air that inspired me with the courage to appeal to him in behalf of our religion. . . . He is a truly great prince, doing and seeing everything for himself" ("Lettres Edifiantes," tom. xxiv. p. 110). PINNACLE OF MANCHU POWER. 733 Chinese commander Wou Sankwei, had been triumphantly asserted; and the sovereignty of the Emperor had been established and made good over remote tributary kingdoms and indifferent vassals. The Emperor Kanghi had accomplished a great deal, but he also left much either undone or for those who came after him to complete. Keen Lung, on the other hand, succeeded in everything he undertook, and his success was never partial, but decided and unequivocal. Those who succeeded to his throne had but to retain what he had won, to maintain intact the authority he exercised, to be able to boast with truth that they swayed the destinies of the most wonderful Empire of a homogeneous race that the world had seen since that of Rome. When Keen Lung released his hold upon the sceptre the Manchu power had reached its pinnacle. A warrior race, supported by the indomitable courage of a great people, and by the unlimited resources of one of the most favourably situated of countries, had been able to set up its unquestioned authority throughout the Middle Kingdom and the dependencies, which from a remote period were included under the vague and uncertain term of tributaries. From that post of vantage, and by means of those powerful elements of support, it had succeeded in establishing its undisputed supremacy throughout Eastern Asia, from Siam to Siberia and from Nepaul to Corea. There remained no military feat for the loftiest ambition to accomplish when the aged Keen Lung retired into private life, leaving the responsibilities and anxieties of power to his son and his descendants. Well for those later rulers of the Manchu race would it have been if they could have retained peaceful and undisturbed possession of the great Empire to which they succeeded; but a long period of decadence was to follow this century and a half of unexampled vigour and capacity. With the disappearance of the great Keen Lung the stern qualities necessary to the preservation of a widely-extended sway take their departure from Chinese history. With his death the vigour of China reaches a term, and, just as the progress had been consistent and rapid during the space of one hundred and fifty years, so now will its downward course be not less marked and unequivocal, until in the hour of apparent dissolution the Empire will find safety in the valour and probity of an English officer. But the respite secured by the genius of Gordon has profited China but little through the blindness and lethargy of the ruling powers at Pekin. END OF VOL. I. LONDON PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, |