954- 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



and silks. I remember asking one 

 • of the great officers of the court, 

 ■who tvore a silken vest beautifully 

 embroidered, if it was the work of 

 lii.s lady, but the supposition that 

 his M'ife should condescend to use 

 her needle seemed to give him of- 

 fence. 



" Their manners indome^ tic life are 

 little calculated to produce that ex- 

 traordinary degree of filial piety, or 

 affection and reverence towards pa- 

 rents, forMhich they have been emi- 

 nently celebrated, and to the salu- 

 tary effects of which the Jesuits have 

 attributed the stability of the go- 

 vernment. Filial duty is, in faft, in 

 China, less a moral sentiment, than 

 a precept which by length of time 

 has acquired the efficacy of a posi- 

 tive law; and it may truly be said 

 to exist more in the maxims of the 

 government, than in the minds of 

 the people. Had they indeed, con- 

 sidered filial piety to be- sufficiently 

 strong when left to its own natural 

 influence, a precept or law to en- 

 force it would h;ive been superflu- 

 ous. The first maxim inculcated in 

 early life is the entire submission of 

 children to the v, ill of their parents. 

 The tenour of this precept is not 

 only " to honour thy father and 

 thy mother, that thy days may 

 be long in the land ;" but to labour 

 for thy father and thy mother as 

 long as they both shall live, to sell 

 thyself into perpeiual servitude for 

 their support, if necessary, ftnd to 

 Consider thy life at their disposal. 

 So much has this sentiment of pa- 

 rental authority gained ground by 

 precept and habit, that to all intents 

 and purposes it is as binding as the 

 strongest law. It gives to the pa- 

 rent the exercise of the same unli- 

 mited and arbitrary power over his 



children, that the emperor, the com. 

 mon father, possesses by law over 

 his people. Hence, as among the 

 Romans, the father has the power 

 to sell his son for a slave ; and this 

 power, either from caprice, or from 

 poverty, or other causes, is not un- 

 frequently put in force. 



" A law that is founded in reason 

 or equity, seldom requires to be ex- 

 plained or justified. The govern- 

 ment of China, in sanctioning an act 

 of parental authority that militates 

 so strongly against every principle 

 of nature, or moral right and wrong, 

 seems to have felt the force of this 

 remark. Their learned men have 

 been employed in writing volumes 

 on the subject, the principal aim of 

 which appears to be that of impress- 

 ing on the minds of the people the 

 comparative authority of the empe- 

 ror over his subjects, and of a pa- 

 rent over his cliildren. The rea- 

 sonableness and justice of the latter 

 being once established, that of the 

 former, in a patriarchal govornmentj 

 followed of course ; and the extent 

 of the power delegated to the one 

 could not in justice be withheld 

 from the oiher. And for the better 

 allaying of any scruples that might 

 be supposed to arise in men's con- 

 sciences, it was easy to invent any 

 piece of sophistry to serve by way 

 of justification for those unnatural 

 parents who might feel themselves 

 disposed, or who, from want, might 

 be induced to part with their chil- 

 dren into perpetual slavery. "A 

 son," says one of their most cele- 

 brated lawgivers, " after the death 

 of his father, has the power of sell- 

 ing his services for a day, or a year, 

 or for life ; but a father, while living, 

 has unlimited authority over his son; 

 a father has- thoreforc the same 



right 



