in which the Portuguese had come into occupation of Macao has been previously explained; but when the nineteenth century commenced the descendants of Da Gama had lost their national enterprise, and were in very deed as in name no more there than the tenants of the Chinese. Yet the position of Macao was so advantageous that it presented a standing temptation to all interested in the commerce of the Chinese seas to wrest it from the feeble hands of those who held it. Immunity from danger, so far as the Chinese were concerned, seemed to be certain from the weakness and inefficiency of their fleet; but it was different with those other Europeans who felt the inducement and possessed the power. While the French conceived the undertaking, the English had executed it; and, as it had proved in other parts of Asia between these two rival peoples, the victory was to the swift as well as to the strong. During the year 1802 Macao was occupied by an English force and squadron; and it was only evacuated as one of the minor details of the Treaty of Amiens. Macao was thus regarded as a European possession, and probably not the least thought was given to the breach its occupation by an armed force involved of the sovereign rights of China. The brief time that the English squadron remained there in 1802 prevented an angry discussion; but when the operation was repeated six years later, the wrath of the Chinese, as will be seen, could no longer be controlled.

The pretensions of the Chinese are only to be supported by a mighty and efficient power. Without that they must invite many difficulties, and bring down upon

the country a multitude of calamities.

It was only in the natural course of things that when first a sense of weakness was felt, the arrogance of the Emperor should have become more apparent. To Kiaking the presence of Europeans on his coasts in increasing numbers appeared in the light of a danger, in consequence of the ill-concealed disaffection among large sections of his own subjects. Had his Government felt strong in its own resources, it could have afforded to regard the foreign traders at Canton with unaffected indifference; but the Tartars, goaded into irritation by their own fears at the aversion of the Chinese, resorted to a policy of petty provocation in their dealings with the races of Europe. The course they adopted was one well-defined and clearly arranged, for the express purpose of heightening the glory of the rulers of China, and of hindering all relations with the "outer barbarians." In so far as it succeeded it served the purpose for which it was framed, and obtained that sort of popular approval which is never refused to measures that have the tendency to show that one race is the superior of another. But when it proved in the end impossible, it was seen to be the cause of much national misery and misfortune.

The antipathy to the inhabitants of a strange and unknown world, natural to the human mind, was in China fomented for its own purposes by all the acts at the disposal of the ruling caste. The ill-will of Kiaking increased with his personal embarrassments. It was bad enough in his eyes that the peoples of the West should be permitted to plant their feet at any time

within the borders of the Empire, but it was intolerable that they should be witnesses of the disunion spreading within the realm, and of the scant respect paid to even the person of the sovereign. For the popular discontent had reached such a pass that Kiaking could no longer consider himself safe in his own capital. In 1803, when his illustrious father had not been dead more than four years, the Emperor was attacked in open day, while being carried in his chair of state through the streets of Pekin. The attack was evidently well planned, and the plot almost succeeded in attaining its object. Kiaking stood in imminent danger of murder, when the striking devotion of a few of his eunuch attendants foiled his assailants, and saved his life at the price of several of theirs. This outrage produced a great sensation, and the public mind was much affected by so flagrant an insult upon the person of the chosen son of Heaven. Chinese Emperors, indeed, had before that fallen victims to the assassin; but if so, it had been in the interior of their palaces, and not in the open way of the people.* The national sense of decorum had incurred a grave shock.

The discovery was made that this attempted assassination was part of an extensive plot with ramifications into the Imperial family itself. A series of inquisitorial investigations took place, which had as their outcome the disgrace and punishment of many of the Emperor's

* Pauthier mentions an incident in connection with this attack to the effect that only six persons, out of the crowds in the street, showed the eagerness faithful subjects should have felt to assist their sovereign.

relatives; but even this summary proceeding failed to restore confidence to the heart of Kiaking. He never allowed himself to forget the narrow escape he had had; and while he often expressed surprise * at their turpitude, he never afterwards permitted his kinsmen to pass out of the range of his suspicion.

Of

The peculiar feature of this conspiracy was its originating, perhaps, and certainly its extensively developing, under the auspices of one of those secret societies, which, in the form of fraternal confederacies and associations, have always been a feature in Chinese life, but which have acquired during the present century an importance they could never previously claim, both in China itself and among Chinese colonies abroad. these the first to attract notoriety, and to be marked out for the disapproval of the Government, was the society known as the sect of the White Water-lily, or the Pe-leen-keaou. Whether because it was as a matter of fact incriminated in the plot of 1803, or whether, and more probably, the Government availed itself of that event as an excuse to denounce and punish the members of a society which it both disapproved of and feared, the fact is certain that the members of the Water-lily association were accused of holding unorthodox opinions, and of meditating treasonable practices. The province of Shantung was the immediate scene of their appearance and outbreak; but although the Water-lilies

*He is affirmed to have declared that "even a bird of prey does not devour its own young; how, then, could it be supposed that his relations would be so abandoned as to commit such a horrible deed."-Gutzlaff.

threatened to be dangerous, they very soon lost their significance, and disappeared in the more formidable and extensive confederacy known as the Society of Celestial Reason,* which at a still later period was merged into that of the Triads.

Although the designations were frequently changed, and sometimes with the express object of misleading the authorities no name was taken or at least publicly revealed, there seems little doubt that the Water-lily+ sect was the originating society, and that all the subsequent orders sprang from its members. The escape of the Emperor, and the summary punishment of those leaders of the conspiracy who were captured, did not lead to the collapse of the Water-lily band, and, although proscribed by name, their operations continued, and their daring was remarkable. We have seen the financial embarrassments of Kiaking, and that the escheated property of Hokwan served but to minister to his sonal pleasure, and not to the alleviation of the difficulties. of government. The dissatisfaction of the seditiously inclined grew rapidly, and before the Emperor's advisers had realised the extent of the discontent, many of the

per

The Theen-te-hwuy, or the Cælesto-Terrestrial Society. According to Dr. Milne's paper in the "Transactions of Asiatic Society," vol. i. p. 240, its main object was to establish complete unison and unanimity in reason between Heaven, earth, and man, whence the European name of Triad.

There seems every reason to believe that the name Waterlily was chosen on account of the popularity of that plant. M. Huc says, "The poets have celebrated it in their verses, on account of the beauty of its flowers; the doctors of reason have placed it among the ingredients for the elixir of immortality; and the economists have extolled it for its utility."-Chinese Empire, vol. ii. pp. 309–10.