2 ERRONEOUS NOTIONS ON CHINA. [Cuar. I. 
often been issued from the press, professing to give 
a faithful and true account of the history of the 
Chinese from the earliest ages, and their earliest 
kings down to Taouk-wang and the present day, of 
the arts, sciences, religion and laws, and the social 
and moral condition of the people; whose authors, 
with true Chinese “ Oula Custom,” stand manfully 
by what the writers of other days have told them ; 
and faithfully hand down to posterity, by the aid of 
the scissors and the pen, all the exaggerations and 
absurdities which have ever been written on China 
and the Chinese. 
This celebrated country has been long looked 
upon as a kind of fairy-land by the nations of the 
Western world. Its position on the globe is so 
remote that few— at least in former days — had 
an opportunity of seeing and judging for them- 
selves; and besides, those few were confined within 
the most narrow limits at Canton and Macao, the 
very outskirts of the kingdom, and far removed 
from the central parts or the seat of the govern- 
ment. Even the Embassies of Lord Macartney and 
Lord Amherst, although they went as far as the 
capital, were so fettered and watched by the 
jealous Chinese that they saw little more than their 
friends who remained at Canton. Under these cir- 
cumstances much that was gleaned from the Chinese 
themselves relating to their country, was of the 
most exaggerated description, if not entirely fa- 
bulous. They, from the highest Mandarin down 
to the meanest beggar, are filled with the most 
