131 
Fimpire, bears witness to the gradual deterioration of the 
porcelain, silk, and other ingenious manufactures of the 
Chinese. J.T. Cooper, in his Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, 
says that he observed, wherever he went, Chinese art visibly 
on the decline, and the state of the imperial public buildings 
shows how great is the contrast between the present and 
former governments. The network of canals and public 
works connecting Hankow with Shasu is a monument of the 
ancient industry and declining vigour of the Chinese race, now 
falling into decay. 
The modern Persians dwell in vastly inferior houses to those 
of the Persians who built Persepolis and conquered Babylon. 
Respecting Dr. Schliemann’s supposed discovery of the site: 
of Troy, we are told that ‘‘ of these five towns, the two wnder- 
most were by far the most advanced in civilisation, which fact, 
as well as the presence of numerous stone implements in all 
the strata, side by side with tools, arms, furniture of all sorts, 
in copper, lead, and the precious metals, runs counter to all 
ideas of archeology of the approved Scandinavian school.” 
In Afghanistan, again, and in Swat, Dr. Leitner has dis- 
covered marvellous relics of the former Bactrian civilisation 
existing in what is now a desolate country. We read of 
““ colossal idols, caves, and other records of the existence of a 
race of men unknown either to history or tradition.”* At 
Bamian, in Afghanistan, near Kaffiristan on the river Kun- 
duz, and again at Kaffir-kote, on the river Indus, in tho 
Punjaub, of ruins of a castle, like many to be seen on the 
summits of inaccessible mountains in these countries. ‘‘ But 
where;”’ Wood asks, “‘ are now those giants of the earth, those 
sons of Anakim’s generation? ‘Gone for ever, and a moral 
catastrophe, antecedent to Alexander’s invasion, seems to have 
blighted science, and thrown backward the intellect of man.” 
The former civilisation of Khiva, and Bokhara, and Central 
Asia generally, far surpasses, it is needless to say, the present 
condition of these countries. Sir Peter Lumsden bears wit- 
ness to this. ; 
The history of Spanish America, again, reinforces this 
melancholy tale of retrogression. Asa recent writer says{ of 
Peru, ‘I call it (¢.e., the Spanish conquest) untoward, because 
there was under the Incas a better government, better pro- 
tection for life, and better facilities for the pursuit of happiness 
* Wood's Journey to the Source of the Oxus. Te Abid, pil. 
t Peru; Incidents of Trave? and Exploration in the Land of the Incas. 
By E. George Squier. Macmillan, 1877, p. 573 
