100- CHINA. 



stitution, and availed themselves of it accordingly, by invading and 

 conquering the empire, and conforming to the Chinese institutions. 



Besides the great doctrine of patriarchal obedience, the Chinese had 

 sumptuary laws and regulations for the expences of all degrees of 

 subjects, which were very useful in preserving the public tranquillity, 

 and preventing the effects of ambition. By their institutions, like- 

 wise, the mandarins might remonstrate to the emperor, but in the 

 most submissive manner, upon the error of his government; and> 

 when he was a virtuous prince, this freedom was olten attended with 

 the most salutary effects. No country in the world is so well pro- 

 vided with magistrates for the discharge of justice, both in civil and 

 criminal matters, as China; but they are often ineffectual, through 

 want of public virtue in the execution. 



Revenues.. .The public revenues of China Proper (says Staunton) 

 are said to be little less than two hundred millions of ounces of sil- 

 ver, which may be equal to about sixty-six millions of pounds sterling, 

 or about four times those of Great Britain, and three times those of 

 France before the late subversion. From the produce of the taxes, all 

 civil and military expences, and the incidental and extraordinary 

 charges, are first paid upon the spot, out of the treasuries of the re- 

 spective: provinces where such expences are incurred ; and the re- 

 mainder is remitted to the imperial treasury at Peking. This sur- 

 plus amounted in the year 1792, according to an account taken from 

 a statement furnished by Chow-ta-Zhin, to the sum of 36,614,328 

 ounces of silver, or 12,204,776/. A land tax was substituted in the last 

 reign to the poll tax, as better proportioned to the faculties of indi- 

 viduals. Most imports, and all luxuries, are likewise taxed; but the 

 duty, being added to the original price of the article, *is seldom dis- 

 tinguished from it by the consumer. A transit duty is laid likewise on 

 goods passing from one province to another. Each province in Chi- 

 na, which may he compared to an European kingdom, is noted chief- 

 ly for the production of some particular article ; the conveyance of 

 which, to supply the demand for it in the others, raises this duty to a 

 considerable sum, and forms the great internal commerce of the em- 

 pire. Presents from the tributaries and subjects of the emperor, and 

 the confiscations of opulent criminals, are not overlooked in enume- 

 rating the revenues of the public treasury. Taxes, such as upon rice, 

 are received in kind. The several species of grain, on which many 

 of the poorer classes of the people principally subsist, are exempted 

 from taxation ; so is wheat, to which rice is always preferred by the 

 Chinese. 



Military and marine strength. ...China is at this time a far 

 more powerful empire than it was before its conquest by the Eastern 

 Tartars, in 1644. This is owing to the consummate policy of Chunt- 

 chi, the first Tartarian emperor of China; who obliged his heredi- 

 tary subjects to conform themselves to the Chinese manners and 

 policy, and the Chinese to wear the Tartars dress and arms. The 

 two nations were thereby incorporated. The Chinese were appoint- 

 ed to all the civil offices of the empire. The emperor made Peking 

 the seat of his government ; and the Tartars quietly submitted to a 

 change of their country and condition, which was so much in their 

 favour. 



According to the information given to the gentlemen of the English 

 embassy by Van-ta-Zhin, who was himself a distinguished officer. 



