MR. braman's address. 7 



or Turks, has been constantly oppressed by lieutenants of a 

 distant lord; the sole object of both being that of extorting as 

 large a revenue as possible from the hard hands of the peas« 

 ant." 



The origin of China is traced to a remote antiquity. It 

 has enjoyed a great degree of internal tranquillity and freedom 

 from foreign wars, possesses a very favorable climate and soil, 

 and supports a vast population. Agrciulture is the principal 

 employment. In some respects it receives particular attention 

 and encouragement from the government. Its inhabitants are 

 industrious, persevering, and frugal in their habits, and are 

 accustomed to some agricultural practices of a superior char- 

 acter. Why has not the art so long practised, under so many 

 circumstances favorable to its progress, reached a greater de- 

 gree of perfection ? The same nation to which is assigned 

 the priority in the invention of the art of printing, and of the 

 mariner's compass, use a plough of the rudest model. It is 

 doubtful whether it has received any considerable improve- 

 ment in its structure for 4000 years. It is so unlike the fine 

 pattern to which American ingenuity has shaped this indispen- 

 sable utensil, and seems so unfitted for useful work, that if it 

 should happen to be found to day, among the articles for ex- 

 hibition, without a label, its nature aud purpose would exer- 

 cise the New England art of guessing as much as most prob- 

 lems that are submitted to the operation of that peculiar facul- 

 ty. If any, or a part, of that ingenuity had been expended on 

 the culture of the earth, -i^'tV-oh has been employed on some 

 of those puzzling and useless trinkets which excite the wonder 

 of other nations, the agriculture of the Chinese would 

 have attained to a point far beyond its present state of ad- 

 vancement. For the slow progress which has been made, more 

 than one reason could be assigned. The tyrannical exactions 

 of the government are one. Staunton asserts that the manda- 

 rins make use of every possible effort to extort money from 

 those under their control. It is the declaration of Barrow 

 that, if a man, by any species of employment, has reached a 

 condition of affluence, he is obliged to conceal the evidence of 

 his condition, lest by exposure to the notice of the officer, to 



