Ch. xii. China and Japan. 211 



vigilant cultivator, and stigmatize with disgrace 

 the man whose lands are neglected.* 



In a country, in which the whole of the govern- 

 ment is of the patriarchal kind, and the emperor 

 is venerated as the father of his people and the 

 fountain of instruction, it is natural to suppose 

 that these high honours paid to agriculture would 

 have a powerful effect. In the gradations of rank, 

 they have raised the husbandman above the 

 merchant or mechanic;! and the great object of 

 ambition among the lower classes is to become 

 possessed of a small portion of land. The num- 

 ber of manufacturers bears but a very incon- 

 siderable proportion to that of husbandmen in 

 China;! and the whole surface of the empire is, 

 with trifling exceptions, dedicated to the produc- 

 tion of food for man alone. There is no meadow, 

 and very little pasture; neither are the fields cul- 

 tivated in oats, beans or turnips, for the support 

 of cattle of any kind. Little land is taken up for 

 roads, which are few and narrow, the chief com- 

 munication being by water. There are no com- 

 mons or lands suffered to lie waste by the neglect 

 or the caprice or for the sport of great proprietors. 

 No arable land lies fallow. The soil, under a hot 

 and fertilizing sun, yields annually in most in- 

 stances double crops; in consequence of adapting 

 the culture to the soil, and of supplying its defects 

 by mixture with other earths, by manure, by 



* Lettres Edif. torn. xix. p. 132. 



f Duhaltlc's China, vol. i. p. 272. 



X Embassy to China, Staunton, vol. ii. p. 544. 



p2 



