1799.] Proceedings of the National Infittute, 4th July, 1798.° 218 
government any other than the moft anti- 
republican forms. 
In his fecond memoir, intitled: A zew 
enquiry into the defpotifm of right and ef- 
fential fad in the Government of China, 
Citizen DesAaLLeEs, atter having fhewn 
that de{potifm is the concentration in one 
fingle perfon of all the powers which the 
focial compact requires to be effentially 
divided and communicated, proves, that 
in China, the three powers are referred 
by the law to the hereditary fovereign: 
+e proves afterwards, that there, as every 
where elfe, this hereditary fovereign has 
almoft always abuled it, fo that if we di- 
vide the forty centuries of the duration 
of the Chinefe empire into three parts, it 
would appear that about 1500 years have 
been confecrated to the nullity (#ulli¢) 
of their monarchs, 1500 years to their 
crimes and unprincipled oppreffions, and 
{earcely 1000 to philanthropic tolerance, 
-happinefs and virtue. 
Citizen Ra@perer, ftruck with the 
great phenomenon which the Chinefe na-_ 
tion prefents, viz. the ftability of its go- 
vernment, in {pite of its immenfe popu- 
lation and territory, thinks, on the other 
hand, that the honour of it does not per- 
tain to defpotifn, but to inftitutions 
really republican, which, under appear- 
ances of oppreffion and even of fervitude, 
in China, furmount the powers of del- 
potifm. Thefe inftitutions are that of the 
choice of magiftrates, and that of the pa- 
triarchal authority, which laft is very 
different from paternal authority. The 
author makes it appear, that in China all 
magiftracies are really elective, that all 
the Chinefe are equally free to arrive at 
the moft eminent, that no one obtains 
them unlefs by gradual promotions from 
college to college, the refult of public 
examinations, in wich the emperor has 
no concern; that the Mandarins, who 
have all been educated in the fame 
common fchools, all inftruéted in one and 
the fame doétrine, all drawn without di- 
ftinStion of origin, from the body of the 
nation, all armed, by the ufages of the 
country, with many means of refitting 
oppreffion, muft neceffarily be, and are 
all in reality, interefted to fupport the 
people againit defpotifm, and not to ferve 
as an inftrument of defpotifm againft the 
people. 
The organization of families appears to 
our colleague to be a fecond barrier againft 
the abufes of every fpecies of public 
power. ‘In Europe,” fays he, ‘* where 
the paternal fyftem is adopted, wherever 
a hundred thoufand heads are united to- 
gether, twenty thouland fathers of fami- 
lies are to be governed; in Chinay where 
the patriarchal fyftem is adopted, wheres 
ever there are a hundred thoufand  indi- 
viduals, the government has only to take 
charge of two thoufand perfons, from 
which difference mut refult the double 
advantage of rendering a great people 
more ealy to govern, and yet more difh- 
cult to opprefs. In effect, wherever a 
thoufand heads of families can arm at 
leait fifty thoufand individuals, there mut 
either be frequent and terrible commotions 
againft- power, or great management on 
the part of thole who exercile power to- 
wards the fubjeéts.”’ 
The labour, of which we have juft 
given an account, having obliged our 
colleague to beftow his refearches for 2 
long time on the language and writing of 
the Chinefe, this has led him, in ancther 
emoir, to compare the advantages and 
inconveniences of the two fyftems of writ- 
ine adopted in all civilized nations ; fym- 
bolical writing, or the reprefentative of 
ideas, which is that of the Chinefe; and 
alphabetical writing, or the reprefentative 
of founds, which is that of the Europeans; 
and, en this occafion, he draws a parallel 
between the Chinefe and the French writ- 
ing. Whichever of thofe may be entitled 
to pre-eminence, much may be gained, 
accerding to the author, by ftudying the 
principles of the Chinefe language at a 
time whenall men’s minds are turned to-. 
wards periecting the means of communi- 
cation between nations. He thinks that 
writing, like articulated language, and 
the language of action invented by Lr- 
FEE and SICARD, may become a real in- 
ftirument of analyfis, and that it may be 
“poflible to eftablith between thefe three 
means of communication, fuch an accord- 
ance, that one may ferve as a fuppiement 
er controu] to the other. The refearches 
of Citizen R@DERER have likewule often 
given him occafion to furnith obfervations 
proper tomark the influence of figns upon 
ideas, and to fet in aclear light the full 
importance of the queftion propofed on 
this iubject, by the National Inititute. 
Citizen VILLETERQUE, agreeing with 
Citizen RG&DERER as to the influence of 
figns upon ideas, and perfuaded that it is 
onty by diminifhing the too frequent ap- 
proximations in language, by means. of 
better conceived definitions, that we can 
add to the evidence of fuch apprexima- 
tions as are defigned to maintain the ana- 
logy of ideas with the faculty of genera- 
lizing, has endeavoured, in a memoir en- 
titled, Ox Philofophical Experiince, to feize 
‘ and 
