THE GREAT WALL. .39 



purposes. The mountains, inaccessible by nature, 

 are nevertheless crowned by a wall as formidable as 

 that which bars the valleys. 



What could have been the object of this gigantic 

 work ? How many millions of human hands must 

 have laboured at it ! What a vain expenditure of 

 national strength ! History records that this wall 

 Avas built, upwards of two centuries before the birth 

 of Christ, by the Chinese sovereigns, to protect 

 their empire from the inroads of the neighbouring 

 nomads ; but we also read that the periodical 

 irruptions of the barbarians were never checked by 

 this artificial barrier, behind which China ever lacked, 

 and even now lacks, that sure defence of a nation — 

 moral strength. 



The Great Wall, however, which the Chinese 

 estimate to be about 3,300 miles long, and which is 

 continued on one side into the heart of Manchuria, 

 and on the other a long way beyond the upper 

 course of the Yellow River, is very inferior in those 

 parts more remote from Peking. Here it was built 

 under the eyes of the Emperor and his chief officers 

 of state, and is therefore a gigantic work ; but in 

 those distant localities, far removed from the super- 

 vision of the superior government, the celebrated 

 Great Wall, which Europeans are wont to regard as 

 a characteristic feature of China, is nothing but a 

 dilapidated mud rampart, 21 feet high. The mis- 

 sionaries Hue and Gabet mention this fact ^ in the 



' See Hue's ' Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie,' &с. Paris, 

 1850, vol. ii. p. 28. 



