THE ASIATIC FLAW. 493 



strength. The face was that of Hyperion ; the legs 

 were shrivelled, and hideous as those of a satyr. In 

 Asia human laws have been still more fatal to the 

 human progress. In China there is no slavery, and 

 there is no caste ; the poorest man may he exalted to the 

 highest station ; not birth but ability is the criterion 

 of distinction ; appointments are open to the nation, 

 and are awarded by means of competitive examina- 

 tions. But the Chinese are schoolboys who never grow 

 up ; generals and statesmen who incur the displeasure 

 of the crown are horsed and flagellated in the Eton 

 style, a bamboo being used instead of a birch. The 

 patriarchal system of the steppes has been transferred 

 to the imperial plain. Just as a Chinese town i$ 

 merely a Tartar camp encircled by earthen walls ; just 

 as a Chinese house is merely a Tartar tent, supported 

 by wooden posts and cased with brick, so it is with the 

 government, domestic and official, of that country. 

 Every one is the slave of his father, as it was in the 

 old tent-life ; every father is the slave of an official 

 who stands in the place of the old clan chief ; and all 

 are slaves of the Emperor, who is the viceroy of God. 

 In China, therefore, senility is supreme ; nothing is 

 respectable unless it has existed at least a thousand 

 years ; foreigners are barbarians, and property is in- 

 secure. In this one phrase the whole history of Asia 

 is contained. In the despotic lands of the east, the 

 peasant who grows more corn than he requires is at 

 once an object of attention to the police; he is reported 

 to the governor, and a charge is laid against him, in 

 order that his grain may be seized. He not only 

 loses the fruit of his toil, but he also receives the 

 bastinado. In the same manner if a merchant, 

 by means of his enterprise, industry, and talents 



