Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 665

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A New History of China.

DEC.

and adore as well as he. If he did not understand that what he defined was God himself, he was very ignorant; since as you yourselves confess, the syllables che and shen signify that sovereign good which contains and com- prehends all others: which is an attribute that cannot be given to any crea- ture, what advantages soever he may have, but only to God alone.'

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Of the wit of the Chinese, and of their principal books, our au- thor writes with much accuracy, and the chapter is worth reading. The work of Mencius comes last, in his review of classical literature: in this work "there appears a wonderful deal of wit, subtlety, and eloquence; the discourses are pertinent, the sentences grave and mo- ral, and the style lively, bold, and persuasive."

The structure of the government is minutely described, and also the capital and its buildings. The bribery and rapacity of the offi- cers were as notorious in Magaillans' time as they are at present. "If we consider the natural inclination and insatiable avarice of the Chinese, there is very little money in China; but if we consider the riches it possesses within itself, there is not any kingdom that may compare with it."

He says the covetousness of the Chinese is such, and their laws forbidding the export of specie so rigid, that the money which they have 'rammasked together must needs be immense, and so much the more because whatever once enters, is never carried out again.' He denies the existence of paper money, though he admits that there have been certain tickets signed and sealed with the ‹king's seal.'

! With the following extract, which will show what ways and means there are in the empire for steamers, we conclude our notice of this "new history.'

"The fourth of May, in the year 1642, 1 departed from the city of Hang- chow, capital of the province of Chěkeäng, and the twenty-eighth of August of the same year, I arrived at Chingtoo, the capital of the province of Sze- chuen. During these four months, I made four hundred leagues, all the way by water, counting the windings and turnings of the rivers; yet so that for a whole month I sailed upon two different streams, though during all the other three months, I kept the grand river of Keäng, which is called the son of the sea. During this tedious journey by water, I met every day with such vast quantities of timber trees tied one to another of all sorts of wood, which if they were fastened together, would make a bridge of several days' journey. I sailed by some of these that were fastened to the shore, above one hour, and sometimes for half a days swimming with the stream. Now the most i wealthy merchants of China are they that trade in salt and wood, there being no other commodities for which they have a more considerable vent. This wood therefore is cut down in mountains of the province of Szechuen, upon the frontier of China, to the west: and after they have caused it to be