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might be sent from Russia to supply their place. Thus originated, in 1715, a Russian Mission in the capital of China, consisting of ten members, who were changed about every ten years. Its functions were both religious and political, down to 1860, when a political mission was constituted, distinct from the ecclesiastical. Several of the Russians at Peking have been men of great linguistic ability and research. They have translated important Chinese books, and published original Works on China, Thibet, and the northern regions of Asia;-many of them of the greatest value.
By the Treaty of Nertschinsk it was provided that the correspondence between the two empires should be carried on in Russian, Manchu, and Latin. Latin was specified because the Chinese on their part em- ployed the services of Roman Catholic missionaries, but it is not now made use of; and Manchu has also given place to Chinese. Young Russians, however, intended for service in China, are required to study both Manchu and Chinese, before they leave their own country.
At Irkutsk, in Asiatic Russia, there is a faculty of Asiatic languages and an extensive Chinese library. At Kasan, in European Russia, four Chairs for the Tartar and Mongolian languages were appointed in 1838, but have since been transferred to the Uni- versity of St. Petersburg. There the present pro- fessor of the Chinese and Manchu languages and literature is W. Wassiljeff, who was in Peking from 1840 to 1850. With him, to exercise their students in the practical use of Chinese, there is associated a Mr. Pestchuroff. Those students who wish to join the government service in China and Japan, must
complete their curriculum in the university, and pass a special examination in Chinese and the Mongol family of languages.
I have thus given a brief sketch of what has been done in Europe up to the present time for the pro- motion of Chinese studies. The chief merit must be assigned to France, for though its scholars have not achieved more than those of Russia, the love of literature and science has been more conspicuous in them. The interest of Russia in Chinese has grown more directly out of its political relations. During the last sixty years English sinologists in China have not been in the rear of those of France or Russia, but much less interest has been shown here at home in the Chinese language and literature than in either of those countries. The time has come for Great Britain to occupy in this respect a new position, and I am pleased to think that the constitution of the Chinese Chair here will contribute to hasten ou this better state of things, which is now required by our relations with China, political, re- ligious, and commercial,--all of them very different from what they were forty years ago.
Politically, the stake of Great Britain in China is not inferior to that of Russia. Dr. Morrison pleaded in 1825 for the study of Chinese in Eng- land, because of the contignity of the British pos- sessions in the East to China. This reason still exists, and in greater force. While Russia has been approaching China from the north, we have been doing so from the west; and it is plain that, as time moves on, the points of contact will become more numerous and important. Routes into all the pro- vinces of China on the west will be opened at no
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