= 
Perfeétion of the Chinefe Governments 
ly cured of my violent fit of gran- 
déur. Iam _ now endeavouring to repair 
my affairs as well as I can, but I cannot 
hdéld my head fo high. They are perpe- 
tually afking me at the club, «* What my 
sitety fet down in miy old fhop, com- 
pleat! 
tother end of the town friends would: : 
have faid in fuch and fuch a cafe?” and 
as I go to church on Sundays, I fome- 
times hear the neigbours faying, ‘* Aye, 
there goes the man that got the prize.”” 
Wheretore, Sir, for the benefit of all 
fich unfortunately lucky men as myitelf, 
hope you will give this a place in your 
Magazine. I am, Sir, your very hum- 
bie fervant, : Davip Dip. 
‘Whitechapel High-ftreet, 
_ March 10,1798. 

For the Monthly Magazine. : 
HAVE been lately occupied with the 
erufal of the recent accounts of 
China, by Sir GEorGE SraunToN, and 
Mr. ANDERSON. ‘The firft is too ver- 
bofé; but both are interefting. Some’ 
‘confiderations naturally arife, of high im- 
portance to human fociety. 
I do not find that I have difcovered 
from either works, the ftate of pro- 
perty in China; though no topic can be 
more interefting. Are the eftaces large, 
or finall? Is the inheritance firm and ie- 
eure? Thefe are queftions not anfwered. 
We only know that there is no hereditary 
nobility—and that large eftates, if fuch 
exift, can beftow no fort of influence, or 
political power. There is no church and 
ftate: there is no property government— 
Yet I have heard of fome diftant coun- 
tries, not far from’ Terra Incognita, in 
which it is faid, that church and ftate 
muft: fiand or fail together; nay, the 
clergy gravely foaff, CHURCH and late, 
while the French were content with a 
lefs prepofterous order of words, / Htat 
at PEglife. 
Inthe farne countries, it is faid, that 
property is the natural and juft, founda- 
tion of power ; and that a man will ferve 
his country in proportion to the ftake he 
has im its welfare. Good heavens! what 
fools thefe Chinefe are! ‘Their’ govern- 
ment is a government without church and 
ftate, agovernment in which property is 
a political cypher—fuch a government 
cannot ftand a dozen years. 
. Ithas ftcod five thoufand years: and 
has feen all the eminent empires and re- 
publics’ rife and fall. 
What is the caule of this unaccount- 
ably myftery? ; 
165 
There is no myftery. The plain caufe 
is, that the government of China is, 
founded on the model of that of heaven, 
in which there isno church and ftate, no 
property government. 
Pray explain the emperor :— 
He indeed 1s no deity, except in power. 
He may bea tyrant; but a country, con- 
taining three hundred millions of fouls, 
is fo wide, that his tyranny is compara- 
tively fmall, and felt only by a few rich 
people round him, a few ambitious men, 
who chulé to trample the flippery ice of 
fortune. 
Setting the emperor afide, I fay the 
government of China refembles the pe-- 
petual ariftocracy of heaven,. in that ra- 
cical point, that it is regulated by minD 
only. . 
It is a mere LITERARY government , 
in which the {kiltul, (a perpetual and in- 
defeafible law of nature) conduct and 
guide the ignorant. 
Their {chools and colleges, inftead of 
ripening fools into eloquent fenators, or. 
pedantic clergy, are dedicated to inftruc& 
youth in the united pra€tical fciences of 
morals and politics. A man is promoted 
in eéxaét proportion to his merit and 
knowledge. ‘Che examinations are pub- 
lic: and no influence is, or can be wfed. 
‘There is.a‘rabbinical fable of a re- 
bellion in heaven. It is impoffible. Pure 
incorporeal minds muft feel their own 
gradations. 
greateft genius are always the moft mo- 
deft ; becaufe they are moft con{cious of 
the abilities of others, and of their own 
defe&s. An angel muft fee, by one 
giance of intuition, whether he be inferior 
or fwperior, in the grand progreflive fcale 
of exiftence. Ya + 
In China, government is as it ought 
to be, a province alloted only to TRIED 
SKILL. A man proceeds, in proportion 
to his learning and juftice, from a {mall 
office toa greater. A Chineie will laugh 
at the idea of alloting even the meaneft 
fhare in government to a raw college ftu- 
dent, or a templar. 
I repeat, therefore, that the amazing 
duration of the Chinefe empire, its uni- 
verf{aj cultivation, itupendows population, 
unexampled prefperity and ‘happinefs of 
its “inhabitants, its contempt of foolifh 
wars, &c.* in fhort, every thing the 
* No foreign conqueft hes’ ever affeQed 
the internal government’of China,’ becaufe 
it is founded on simpy, is regular as the uni- 
verial laws of morality, immatable as truth,’ 
eternal ag fincere. 
ex2GZ 
Even on earth, the men of . 
