CHINA. 



of the ISth century, a number of Christians, of the Greek 

 church, who had followed the army of Genghis-Khan, en- 

 tered China along with the Tartars under Kublai khan ; 

 and received from that emperor a grant of a space of 

 ground, within the walls of Pekin, for the purpose of 

 erecting a church. Marco Polo, the celebrated Italian 

 traveller, who visited China about this period, accompa- 

 nied three missionaries of the Dominican order, who were 

 sent from Venice to Pekin, at the express desire of Kub- 

 lai Khan ; but, whether from a want of encouragement or 

 of zeal, they returned in a short time to their native coun- 

 try with no small degree of wealth, acquired chiefly by 

 trading in their progress through the East. About the 

 middle of the IGth century, Francis Xavier, at the head 

 of a company of Romish missionaries of the order of Je- 

 suits, reached the island of San shian on the coast of Chi- 

 na, where he died in 1552 ; and, after a communication 

 was opened with India by the Cape of Good Hope, a 

 number of Romish priests passed into China to propa- 

 gate the faith. In this view, they took care, in the first 

 instance, to render themselves useful to the government as 

 interpreters, astronomers, mathematicians, and mechanics ; 

 and, in general, f.und means to acquire wealth and re- 

 spectability The Portuguese particularly, who hold the 

 highest stations in Pekin, are in possession of good estates 

 and country seats ; and the French Jesuits, before the 

 dissolution of their society, were a very rich and power- 

 ful body in China. These missionaries, however, espe- 

 cially the Portuguese, are said to be extremely jealous and 

 illiberal towards each other ; and it was in a great mea- 

 sure owing to their frequent dissensions, that the Chris- 

 tians in China have been so severely persecuted. The 

 roost inveterate of these contests took place between the 

 Jesuits and the Dominicans ; the former of whom, by as- 

 similating their opinions and practices in a great degree 

 to those of the Chinese sects, and by professing, that 

 they were come only to restore the ancient religion of the 

 country to its original purity, when fir^t delivt- red by their 



freat philosopher Confucius, began to gain immense num- 

 ers of followers, who were half Christian and half Pa- 

 gan in their sentiments and manners. The Dominicans, 

 upon their arrival in the country, at once condemned these 

 compromising arts, excluded these mixed proselytes from 

 tli i u-rbrr of Christian converts, and prohibited their fol- 

 lowers among the natives from observing any of their an- 

 cient rites, especially from practising that fundamental 

 national duty of sacrificing to their deceased relatives in 

 the hall of Ancestors. The Franciscans adopted the sen- 

 timents of the Dominicans ; and represented the conduct 

 of the Jesuits to the Pope in such a point rf view, that 

 he sent out a bull to Ch'na, forbidding all the Catholic 

 missionaries to permit the union of any idolatrous cere- 

 monies with those of the church. Bui the Jesuits, whose 

 sup nor talents and useful services had secuitd the pro- 

 tection and favour of the reigning sovereign Kang-hee, 

 treated the injunctions of the Pontiff with contempt, and 

 continued to make converts according to their own plan. 

 Tl) y obtained a grant uf land from the emperor for the 

 purpose of building a church at Pekin ; and received a 

 di^p- nsntion from the succeeding Pope in favour of their 

 proceedings in the conversion of the Chinese. Repre- 

 sentations from the Dominicans and Franciscans were 

 again transmitted to Ki.nic, representing the Jesuits as 

 the greatest enemies to the Christian faith ; and these 

 were followed by contra-remonstrances on the part of the 

 Jesuits, with an attestation from the emperor himself, 

 bearing, that the ceremony of paying homage to the dead, 

 as practised by the Chinese Christians,, was uot of a re- 

 3 



ligious but of a civil nature, and a duty which the politi- Religion, 

 cal constitution of the empire rendered indispensable. V """Y"^^ 



These disputes were at length carried so far, and the 

 mandates of the Pope requiring the Chinese converts to 

 desert those ceremonies which the government regarded 

 as an essential law of the country, became so threaten- 

 ing and imperious, that the emperor at last conceived his 

 authority to be attacked, and interdicted the Christian 

 faith from being taught in his dominions. His son and 

 successor, Yong-tching, began his reign with imprison- 

 ing, banishing, and putting to death the missionaries 

 and their adherents in great numbers, and permitted only 

 a few, whose assistance was needed in regulating the ca- 

 lendar, to remain in the metropolis. In spite of these 

 persecutions, which have been xenewed in every reign, 

 and which particularly prevailed in the year 1785, num- 

 bers of new missionaries are occasionally making their 

 way into the country ; and two young men, under that 

 character, requested and received permission to join 

 Lord Macartney's embassy, and to procetd with him to Mhsi 

 Pekin. There are two kinds of missions in China ; one ries. 

 which is approved by the government, and resides at 

 Pekin, and which the Chinese now find essentially ne- 

 cessary in transacting many of their most important 

 public affairs ; and another in the empire at large, which 

 the government docs not avow, but which the mandarins 

 are sometimes backward to detect, lest they should be 

 punished for not having been sufficiently watchful to 

 prevent the first entrance of the missionaries into the 

 country, and are therefore not always very much dis- 



Eosed to question any one publicly respecting his 

 lith. Both of these missions are often highly useful in 

 a political view to the nation, with which they are con- 

 nected ; and we quote the following sentiments of M. 

 De Guignes on the subject, as of no small importance 

 in more respects than one. " The mission of the interior 

 costs very little to support it. Men will not easily be 

 found more virtuous and disinterested than those indivi- 

 duals, of whom it is composed. Deprived of all the 

 comforts of life, subjected to every species of privation,, 

 and exposed every day to the risk of being put to death, 

 nothing but the desire of acquiring information and pro- 

 pagating the Christian faith, could make them despise 

 tne evils which they endure. I speak here without pre- 

 judice ; I relate what 1 have myself witnessed; and I 

 feel myself constrained to speak the truth. The French 

 government, by supporting missionaries, who pervade 

 the va*t empire cf China, has always the power of pro- 

 curing useful information, with respect to commerce, the- 

 situation of places, and a thousand other important ob- 

 jects. I am not the blind admirer of all missionaries ; 

 but I know many of them, whose attainments ore. very 

 extensive, as their writings also sufficiently prove ; and 

 it cannot be denied, that we owe a great deal to those 

 laborious and indefatigable men." ' With regard to the 

 mission at Pekin, its utility is sufficiently demonstrated 

 by facts ; and a person must be utterly blind nut to ac- 

 knowledge the importance of having one, duly authorised, 

 at this capital. A similar establishment would be pur- 

 chased with heaps of gold by a rival nation ; and it 

 w><uld give any thing in the world to have the power of 

 employing these means at its pleasure. As long as- 

 China shall remain shut against Europeans, the nation 

 who shall preserve some individuals at Pekin, may ac-- 

 count herself fortunate. By their means, she may be 

 able to kn iw, to prevent, to undertake every thing. I. 

 speak from known facts, but of which the details cannot 

 be divulged. It is then, I repeat, of the last importance, , 



