desire for personal rule was keen, he lacked either the will, the application, or the method to accomplish his desires, and to give the bark of State the direction he might wish it to take. Taoukwang had the inclination to play the part of an independent sovereign, and even persuaded himself that he did so with effect; but in reality he was, more than most rulers, swayed by the counsels of powerful and self-seeking ministers, who sometimes made him the victim of their machinations.

Several of these ministers were men of note and ability, of whom much will be heard during the later stages of the reign; but at this point only the four principal need be named, Hengan and Elepoo, Keying and Keshen. While Hengan was the most reckless and ambitious of them all, his influence was exerted rather in private affairs and matters of the Court than in public business. Elepoo, on the other hand, was neither an intriguer nor ambitious. Without any special gift, he might have remained in the obscurity of incapacity, but for his one great quality of honesty, the rarest of all possessions at the Manchu Court. But both Keying and Keshen were men of more striking ability and influence. Keying was a Manchu in blood, and a member of a family famous among the ruling race both for wealth and for its descent and connections. He had passed all the examinations, and before his appearance at Court had amassed considerable wealth in the capacity of Superintendent of the Customs at Shanhaikwan, the important town at the eastern extremity of the Great Wall. As Taoukwang's most capable minister, he was able for many years to exercise a salutary influence over the councils of the Empire, although his advice was not always heeded as it deserved.

But of all Taoukwang's advisers, Keshen was the most remarkable for address and natural capacity. He came of Mongol race, being a member of one of the tribes which had joined the Manchus at an early period of their career, and which in return had been allowed certain privileges. In all his characteristics, as well as in the trained intelligence which made him pre-eminent, the genius of Keshen was that of a pure Chinese rather than of a Tartar. No emperor brought

into contact with him failed to feel the fascination of his bearing, or to pass a compliment on the clearness of his understanding and the subtlety of his resources. There were many other ministers of note besides these four at the Court of Taoukwang, but the ability of those named may suffice to show that the new ruler had no lack of men capable of giving him sound advice; nor must it be supposed that, because they were unable to avert many national calamities they were necessarily incompetent or unpatriotic. The affairs of foreign countries attracted the larger amount of the Chinese Government's attention during Taoukwang's reign, and we must therefore be prepared to perceive some deficiency in method through want of practice in the way of dealing with strange and better equipped peoples. Excuses may fairly be made for a people claiming, and exercising the rights of, a position of pre-eminence, when suddenly called upon to encounter other States that not only disregarded its pretensions, but that undoubtedly possessed greater power. The illusions which had been successfully maintained against a body of missionaries and a few traders were destined to be hopelessly shattered when brought into contact with a Government that thought only of its dignity and of supporting the just rights of its subjects. If allowance be made for the critical turn events took during the first twenty years of Taoukwang's reign, it will be seen that his ministers were not personally to blame for the unpleasant results that followed, however unpleasant they were, if the old ideas of the Chinese can be considered as having been in any way worthy of perpetuation.

The theory that the country is happy which has no history has been converted to the use of showing that the early years of Taoukwang's reign must have been prosperous because they have left no record. The fact seems to have been, on the contrary, that they were marked by numerous disasters and by much public suffering, all the deeper and more serious because they did not admit of mention. On one point alone was it possible to feel that times had improved, but even in this matter the sense of satisfaction required large qualification. The secret societies were dormant, if not extinct; on

the other hand, the discontent of a large section of the people had been substituted for the machinations of a small clique. The scarcity of work and want of food entailed still wider dissatisfaction, and a people accustomed to regard the Government as the agent and representative of Heaven had little hesitation in arriving at the conclusion that its own wants reflected the shortcomings of the ruler.

The first year of Taoukwang's reign beheld the arrival at Pekin of a Russian mission, which, if it did not partake of the formal character and importance of an embassy, was rendered remarkable by the character of its chief, and by the considerable addition it furnished to Western knowledge about the Chinese Empire. Although the Russians had been treated on terms of inferiority by the Chinese, who assumed in their official correspondence the tone, as they expressed it, "of an elder brother," they had succeeded in establishing a not inconsiderable trade from Kiachta, and also in obtaining one great concession in the right to possess a college at Pekin. Periodically, once in ten years, the residents are changed; and the students, having acquired a knowledge of the Manchu and Chinese tongues, return to Russia to be utilized as interpreters on the frontier, and their places are taken by fresh scholars. The vastness of the distance from Siberia to Pekin, and the occasionally strained nature of the relations between the two Governments, frequently resulted in the prolonged stay of this small foreign colony in the Chinese capital; but, if allowance is made for all the attendant circumstances, it may be said that the stipulations of the arrangement were fairly, if not rigidly observed. In 1820 a relieving mission, under the guidance of Mr. Timkowski, crossed the Chinese frontier, and proceeded in due course to Pekin. The exact character of the relation between the two Empires may be gathered from the fact that while the conductor of the mission was allowed to reside in the city and to go about the streets in comparative liberty, and when he had completed his task to return in safety to his own country, he held no official position, and had consequently no dealings with the Government. His principal charge, indeed, was to place at the disposal of the descendants of the garrison of Albazin, which

RUSSIANS AT PEKIN.

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had surrendered as prisoners of war to Kanghi in the seventeenth century, the sum allotted by the Czar for their support.

It might have been thought that in this institution lay a sure and excellent means of obtaining information concerning the progress of affairs in China, or at least at the capital. Such has not proved, unfortunately, to be the case, and knowledge lies under no obligation to the Russian college at Pekin. Whether because its members have been unlettered, or afraid to imperil their position by making inquiries, or by revealing what they knew, the result is clear that the world is none the wiser or the better for the exceptional privilege the Russians have enjoyed during two hundred years.

Although Taoukwang's attention was at this early period of his rule directed to these strange nations, who were every day obtruding themselves more and more on the attention of his Government, he sought during the first years of his reign to banish the subject from his mind; and the better to effect his object he ordered the dismissal of the Portuguese officials employed in the astronomical department and in the rectification of the Calendar, whom even the distrustful Kiaking had spared from the general penalty of expulsion which he had passed against the Christian missionaries. The question had, however, by this time got beyond any such remedy as attempting to ignore the foreign traders who came in increasing numbers to the one port of Canton; and all Taoukwang's studied indifference, and resolve to exclude them from his presence, could not avail to arrest the course of events, or to prevent the approach of that complication which he had most desire to avert.

Affairs at Canton fortunately continued to progress in a favourable manner, although the arrogance of the Chinese officials had been greatly increased by their successes in the encounters with the representatives of the English Government, both in the matter of the Macao occupation and in the general regulations of trade. Yet the existence of a good understanding did not prevent the occurrence of some difficulties or the outbreak of disputes which easily assumed an angry tone. In 1821 trade was suspended, if but for a

few hours, and only the firmness of the Company's representative, Mr. Urmston, succeeded in thus, promptly bringing the mandarins to reason. But no satisfaction was ever given for an attack lon a boat of the man-of-war Topaze, wherein fourteen Englishmen were wounded. This was not the only instance of open attack on English vessels, and in no case was it found possible to exact reparation.

Nor were the English alone in their naval complications with the Chinese. The relations of the French with China, which had once promised to be of a most friendly and intimate character, had dwindled away to nominal proportions and utter insignificance. In 1802 the flag of the Republic was hoisted at Canton, but was very soon hauled down, and for nearly thirty years French intercourse with China absolutely ceased. In the year 1828 the French merchantman, Le Navigateur, was compelled by stress of weather to seek shelter on the coast of Cochin-China, and the crew were obliged in their distress, and on account of the unfriendly attitude of the native authorities, to sell both their cargo and ship, and to take passage in a Chinese junk for Macao. On the journey the Chinese formed a plot for their murder, and the design was carried out. The massacre was accomplished within sight of the haven whither they were bound, and only one sailor escaped by jumping overboard. His evidence served to bring the criminals to justice, and in the following year seventeen of the murderers were executed. The tragedy served one useful purpose. It enabled the French Government to establish a right to place a commercial representative at Canton.

The grievances of the merchants consisted principally in the heavy dues exacted from them, by the Hoppo and his agents, for the right to trade. Among the most deeply felt of these was the cost of the permit to proceed from Canton to Macao, without which the journey could not be undertaken. This passport, or chop, as it was called, cost in all between seventy and one hundred pounds; and seeing that in these days no ladies or children ever visited Canton, but that the merchants always left their families at Macao, this costly and rigorous imposition was felt very keenly by the European