"Limatow (Ricci) came to China in the first year of Wanleh. I will not touch upon what the Chinese did at that time, as I am in no way responsible for it. But then you were very few in numbers. In fact, there were only one or two of you, and you had not your people and churches in every province. It was only in my father's reign that these churches were raised on all sides, and that your doctrines spread with rapidity. We then saw these things clearly enough, and we dared say nothing on the subject. But if you knew how to beguile my father, do not hope to be able to deceive me in the same manner.

"You wish that all the Chinese should become Christians, and indeed your creed demands it. I am well aware of this, but in that event what would become of us? Should we not soon be merely the subjects of your kings? The converts you have made already recognize nobody but you, and in a time of trouble they would listen to no other voice than yours. I know as a matter of fact that we have nothing now to fear, but when the foreign vessels shall come in their thousands and tens of thousands, then it may be that some disasters will

ensue.

"China has on the north the empire of the Russians, which is not to be despised; on the south there are the Europeans and their kingdoms, which are still more considerable; and on the west there is Tse Wang Rabdan, whom I wish to keep back within his borders lest he should enter China and cause us trouble. Lange, Ismaloff's colleague, the Czar's ambassador, solicited that permission should be given the Russians to establish factories for commerce in all the provinces. His request was refused, and trade was only allowed at Pekin or at Kiachta on the frontier, in the Khalka country. I permit you to reside here and at Canton as long as you give no cause for complaint; but, if any should arise, I will not allow you to remain either here or at Canton. I will have none of you in the provinces. The Emperor, my father, suffered much in reputation among the literati by the condescension with which he allowed you to establish yourselves. He could not himself make any change in the laws of our sages, and I will not suffer that in the least degree there shall be cause to

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reproach my reign on this score. When my sons and grandsons are on the throne they may do as shall seem good to them. It matters not to me in the smallest what Wanleh did

on your account.

"Do not imagine in conclusion that I have nothing against you, or on the other hand that I wish to oppress you. You are aware how I used to act in your behalf when I was only a Regulo. What I do now, I do in my character of Emperor. My sole care is to govern the Empire well. To that I apply myself from morning to evening. I do not see even my children or the Empress; but only those who are engaged in the public administration. This will continue as long as the term of mourning, which is for three years. When that is over I shall, perhaps, then be able to see you more often."

There is no contesting the ability shown by the Emperor in this speech, which summed up the formal indictment against the Christians as the propagators of a religion incompatible with the constitution and customs of China, and from his point of view much in the argument cannot be gainsaid. The persecution of the Christians, of which the letters from the Pekin missionaries were so full, did not for a time go beyond the placing of some restraint on the preaching of their religion. No wholesale executions, or sweeping decrees passed against their persons, attended its course or marked its development. Yung Ching simply showed by his conduct that they must count no longer on the favour of the Emperor in the carrying out of their designs. The difficulties inherent in the task they had undertaken stood for the first time fully revealed, and, having been denounced as a source of possible danger to the stability of the Empire, they became an object of suspicion even to those who had formerly sympathised with their persons if not with their creed.

Yung Ching was still engaged in dealing with these difficult questions with his relatives and his alien subjects, when his attention was called away by reports from several of his viceroys on the subject of great floods which had carried destruction to the crops throughout a large part of Northern China. The provinces of Pechihli, Shansi, and Shensi in particular suffered greatly from this cause, and many

thousands of persons were compelled out of sheer want to take refuge in Pekin. Yung Ching devoted all his energy and resources to the task of alleviating the prevalent distress and of mitigating the public misfortune. Large supplies of rice were brought from the south at the expense of the State, and when the Emperor learnt that owing to the peculation of minor officials rice of a very inferior quality was being distributed, he immediately took steps to put an end to these malpractices, ordering, under penalty of death, that none save the very best rice should be purchased and supplied to those in want. About the same time the amount of taxes leviable on the important cities of Nankin and Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi, was greatly reduced in compliance with a petition made on the ground of their excessive character. Yung Ching showed in both these matters that he kept his people's best interests very much at heart. His sincerity in these acts of public charity was demonstrated by his emphatic refusal to allow a statue to be erected in his honour, and by his grave rebuke of those who suggested such a useless expenditure during a time of great public want. At one period during this time of famine as many as forty thousand persons were fed daily for more than four months at Pekin alone.

The suffering from this cause had scarcely been allayed, when one of those terrible visitations of nature, which come at long intervals to startle the world into a general feeling of insecurity, carried wholesale destruction throughout the metropolitan province of Pechihli. As if to afford some counterpoise for the too bounteous favours showered on them by Providence, the northern districts of China have for many centuries been liable to the frequent recurrence of earthquakes on a vast and terribly destructive scale. None, however, of which any record has been preserved equalled in its terrific grandeur that of the year 1730. More than one hundred thousand persons in the capital were overwhelmed in a moment, the suburbs were laid in ruins, and the havoc extended for a wide distance round the country. In several places the ground opened, and from the fissures issued forth either a thick smoke or jets of black water. During a period of ten days, from 30th of September to 10th of October, 1730,

AN EARTHQUAKE.

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the shocks were repeated at frequent intervals, and terror reigned supreme among a superstitious people.* The Emperor himself feared to remain in the interior of his palace, and camped out with his court and family in tents specially erected for their accommodation. Even the splendid pleasurehouse of Yuen Ming Yuen, which Yung Ching had erected near his father's palace at Chang Chun Yuen, was so seriously damaged that for a time it was thought to be uninhabitable. Large sums were drawn from the Treasury for the alleviation of the public necessities, and as much as fifteen millions sterling is stated to have been distributed before the exigencies of the occasion were considered to have been met, or before Yung Ching's feelings of humanity rested satisfied.

Yet notwithstanding these terrible visitations and afflictions the general state of the country continued to be most prosperous. A full exchequer and a contented people were accompanied by their necessary concomitant and consequence, an increase in the population. In Yunnan and Kweichow in particular this increase was so great as to attract much notice, and to raise no inconsiderable alarm on the score of the rice supply. A partial remedy was applied to the evil by the distribution of large tracts of waste lands among the poorer classes. Yung Ching seems to have attached great importance to the growth of the population, which he evidently regarded as a permanent feature in the condition of his country rather than as a passing phase in its social history. It was in view of that evil that he issued an edict offering special rewards to such widows as did not marry again, and to bachelors who preserved their state. To the former he decreed that there should be erected in their native town at the public expense a triumphal arch, and to the latter, who had devoted themselves to the performance of their filial duties, he gave titles of honour. By this latter means he also enhanced the merit

The superstition of the Chinese is an admitted fact, although their general character is at variance with the idea implied. A proof of it may be found in the statement of a competent observer that "Hope is half a Chinese faith; his cult is to him as a lottery; he will pay his last farthing to a soothsayer to predict good fortune."

f the

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of that filial obedience which is not only the corner-stone of Chinese social life, but also the very foundation on which Chinese sovereignty rests.

These endeavours to check in a simple and natural way any excessive increase in the number of his subjects did not blind Yung Ching to the claims that the aged and infirm had upon the care and consideration of the State. Imitating the example of his father he issued doles to those who had exceeded the allotted space of man's life. These were divided into three classes-those above seventy, those above eighty, and those who had exceeded ninety years. He also encouraged the Empress to institute a similar system of relief for women who had passed the seventieth year of their age. From these instances it may be recognized that Yung Ching had formed a high ideal of the duties of a paternal ruler, and he was employed, to use his own words, from the rising to the going down of the sun in performing the numerous and varied duties of his onerous position.

Although Yung Ching had from the first shown but scant favour to the foreigners, yet in the second year of his reign he allowed an envoy, who had been sent by the Pope, to come to his capital. Beyond according him a favourable reception, and giving expression to several platitudes as to "all religions being calculated to do good," Yung Ching did not commit himself to any promise on the subject of his policy towards the Christians; and we have already seen how fully made up his mind was on that point. In the following year a Portuguese embassy under the charge of Don Alexander Metello, which had been despatched in consequence of communications made in the reign of Kanghi through the instrumentality of Antony Magelhaens, arrived in China, and as its origin was due to the initiative of the Chinese themselves the Emperor felt obliged to receive it in audience. While the Pope's legate had come to discuss matters of religion, Metello confined his attention to the more practical questions of commerce. His gravity of demeanour and general tact made a favourable impression at a court where the etiquette reflects by its severity the polished taste of a people of culture; but of practical results, even for the Portuguese, this costly embassy produced