bly adore where we cannot comprehend. Enough is understood to urge the claim of the Chinese upon our Christian benevolence, for imparting to them that saving truth, of which they are now almost totally destitute. Many will consider the conversion of the Chinese a hopeless task, and all efforts tending to that end as futile, and therefore unadvisable. The Nestorians in the seventh and eighth centuries did their utmost to spread Christianity in the northern provinces of the empire; they made converts, and established churches, but their conquests were only temporary: there is not now left a vestige of their labors. The Roman Catholics, their successors, enjoyed many advantages for subjecting China to the pope; their emissaries were numerous; some eminent men spent their lives in the service; they had access to the throne; they numbered some most illustrious personages amongst their converts; their zeal and bigotry were boundless; they impressed the Chinese with a favorable opinion of their talents and virtue, and yet they did not prevail. It is true they still number thousands of converts; but does not the proscription of their religion, the dispersion of their flocks, the scanty supply of teachers and those far inferior in talent to their predecessors, prognosticate the final extinction of their order in the empire? These facts are too true to admit of contradiction; they prove clearly one important point, viz: that the Chinese will not have to pass the same ordeal with the barbarians of Europe, who were first converted from paganism to a spurious Christianity, in order to pave the way for their reception of the pure gospel. But if it be urged that protestant missionaries have been equally unsuccessful, it ought to be remembered that none have hitherto enjoyed the privilege of passing through China to disseminate the divine truth of the gospel; and that had this been the case, the number of registered converts must necessarily be small. For the Roman Catholics, who confound conversion with a change of rites and ceremonies, and who baptize indiscriminately all applicants, can multiply the number of their converts almost at pleasure; but the protestant faith, identifying regeneration with conversion, requiring a radical change of heart and life, a transition from darkness to light, from vice to the virtues which adorn the gospel, on this account will always find a smaller number to embrace those doctrines, until the divine Spirit be poured out as in the apostolical age and several subsequent periods of the Christian church. Still the jealousy of the government, the dread of innovation, and the apathy of the people themselves, may be urged in defense of our indifference to the welfare of millions. We allow that these obstacles are great, but by no means that they are insurmountable. Relying on our skill or on any human aid, it is true we should find success as impracticable now as did the apostles in their times, when they had to meet the bigoted Jew and the haughty Greek, both as hostile to the humbling doctrines of the cross, as any member of the Board of Rites at Peking. But what are these hindrances before an 35 VOL. IV. NO. VI. almighty power, before a Savior, who has all authority in heaven above and earth beneath? For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." What a divine power must that doctrine possess which without the aid of human arm could triumph on the very spot where the Savior of the world had been crucified amidst the acclamations of an infuriated multitude? If God had not promoted his own cause, how could the idolatry of ancient Greece and Rome have been subverted? Interwoven as it was with the whole economy of the state, celebrated by the poet and orator, sanctioned by venerated antiquity, supported by all the influence of powerful rulers, and themselves fulfilling the duties of pontifex maximus, embellished by the highest efforts of the existing arts,-nevertheless it fell to ruins to rise no more. And the conversion of many barbarous tribes in the middle and north of Europe, whose fierceness exceeded that of the savages of New Zealand and North America, is this not equally wonderful? The exhibition of such facts and on so large a scale should shut every mouth, when the practicability of the conversion of China is questioned. There are also divine promises clear and extensive enough to remove every doubt, and to create in the believer, a cheerful and unshaken confidence in the speedy accomplishment of them all. He who holds the seeptre of the universe, and directs the suns and planets in their several orbits, has power and wisdom to effect the grandest ends. It is only the want of that faith by which we honor the great God, who has pledged his own word for the accomplishment of his work, that renders us weak and indolent. Whenever an implicit reliance on divine assistance fills the breast, mountains of difficulties are leveled to plains, and we run and faint not in the arduous work of spreading the gospel. Whatever may be the present political state of the empire, the access that may now be gained to it is doubtless easier than at any previous time. And if the openings, how small soever they may be, are only improved upon, there is no doubt that ground will be gained. It needs few words, but many and energetic works, to expand the sphere of our operations, and to avoid that preposterous system of timid, trembling policy, so injurious to a good cause. Let us neither despise the day of small things, nor fear for that cause, which can bear the utmost scrutiny, which has even been brought before the magistrates of this country, and hitherto has not been condemned. Shall we then shrink from duty, or shall we fear to argue the great cause when called upon, and confess our blessed Redeemer before this wicked world? No, as long as there remains one spark of grace in our hearts, let us take courage in our God, wrestle by prayer, and overcome by patience. Some hints in regard to the great work may not here be out of place. The first, the indispensable requisite at the present moment, are preachers of the gospel, and writers and translators of Christian books: men who count not their lives dear to them in the cause of God. There are neither the dangers of New Zealand, nor of the wilderness of North America, to be encountered; nor have we to suffer from a pestiferous enervating climate, which has swept into the grave so many of our fellow-laborers in other parts of the world. We have to do with a semicivilized people, who, so far as their prejudices are concerned, are the most accessible of all the Asiatics. Their literature facilitates our efforts to convey religious knowledge to their minds. They are susceptible to reason, and may yield to the force of conviction. We trust the number of those who are preparing for this work will soon be very great. We may be thought censorious if we express a wish to see none in the field but men entirely devoted to the work; but though there may not be immediate personal danger, yet we think the cause rather injured than promoted by challenging the aid of men not prepared to give all to the blessed work. To live and to die in the sacred cause must be our watchword. At the same time we may be prudent in the choice of means for accomplishing the great object; we may avoid any errors of our predecessors, and always press forward with the more vigor when there is the more resistance. A hard task that truly, and unless we be endowed with the Spirit of grace from above, it cannot be done. But a mind much conversant with the glories of eternity, humbly acknowledging the salutary power of the cross, and having deeply drunk from the all sufficient love of the Savior, is capable of greater things than these. May this inestimable gift be granted to all who profess to be missionaries to the Chinese. - In our intercourse with the people we must disprove that we are barbarians, and prove that we are destitute of all those selfish motives which are prevalent among the natives, self-styled men of the celestial empire. Gladly would we allow them that title, for it is the prerogative of heavenly minded men to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven,-if they were not notoriously earthly minded, and destitute of all the graces which should adorn the saints. We may give to their sages all due honor but yet convince them that they have never shown the way to heaven, and that all who follow such guides are groping in the dark with regard to futurity. Their history plainly reveals, that the maxims laid down in the classics have never been observed, that it is vain to found hopes on human doctrines, that the revelation of God as taught in the holy Scriptures, the redemption by Jesus Christ, and his meritorious life, death, and resurrection, can alone lay a sure ground of hope that we may escape the wrath to come. Such doctrines, though at first disagreeable, will doubtless gain upon their hearts; and the more we preach Christ crucified, the deeper will be the impression, and the better the confidence of escape. Thus armed with divine weapons, and encouraged by divine providences and promises, we expect a glorious day for China. The ordering and sustaining of the grand design to evangelize China we trust solely to the hands of the Lord our God; yet desirous on our part to use every means, "which God and nature have put into our hands, under his approbation," to hasten that blessed period. No political revolution, no miscarried enterprise, will dampen our zeal, nor weaken that energy which must move the great work. Centuries elapsed ere China was remembered by the church of Christ; but having now come up into remembrance before God, let us be joyful in the Lord, and be animated by trust in his almighty power. Great hopes may be entertained from well directed zeal and perseverance; let us remain steadfast in faith. And may the Almighty crown our work with the triumphs promised to the gospel in these fatter days. ART. V. Structure of the Chinese government: China Proper; heads of the provincial government: 1. civil government; administrative department (comprising territorial and financial, and judicial branches); literary, gabel, commissariat, and commercial departments; officers on the Yellow river, &c.; various subaltern officers: 2. Military government; designations of military and naval officers of the Chinese forces, &c. HAVING, in the course of our hasty view of the structure of the Chinese government, considered both the general and local courts of the metropolis, we come now to speak of the system of government in the provinces; and first of those of China Proper, the government of which differs widely from that of the other parts of the empire. The officers at the head of a provincial government, are a tsungtuh, or governor (literally director-general), and a fooyuen, or lieut.governor (literally, controler), who is also called seunfoo, circuitcontroler, because it was formerly his duty to make the circuit of the province. The tsungtuh has always the direction of two or more provinces, or else of two or more high offices in the same province. Thus there is one tsungtuh over three provinces, four over two provinces each, one over two provinces who is at the same time fooyuen of one of the two, and two over single provinces who exercise the functions both of tsungtuh and fooyuen. The fooyuen has always the direction of a whole province, either independently of, or in subordination to, a tsungtuh. There are twelve such officers who are, and three who are not, thus subordinate; while in three provinces the duties of the office of fooyuen are performed by the tsungtuh. The duties of the tsungtuh consist in the general control of all affairs, civil and military, in the province or provinces under his government. Those of the fooyuen consist in a similar control (but, except where there is no tsungtuh, in an inferior degree), and in the special direction of the administrative department of the civil govern ment. The departments of the civil government are five, administrative, literary, gabel, commissariat, and commercial: of these, the administrative department is subdivided into territorial and financial, and judicial branches. The officers at the head of these two subdivisions, called the two sze,' or commissioners, are the pooching sze (commissioner for regulating government), who is often, but erroneously called treasurer, and the nganchă sze (commissioner of judicial trials). The literary department is placed under the direction of an officer appointed by the emperor from among the members of the Hanlin academy, who is called tetuh heŏching, the commander and director of learning, (or simply heoching, director of learning), of whom there is one in each province, with a single exception where one is appointed for two provinces. The gabel and commissariat departments are mostly under the direction of officers called taou or taoutae, who will be spoken of hereafter: but there are several exceptions to this, which will also be detailed in their proper place. The chief officers in what we may call the commercial department are keëntuh, or superintendents, who are appointed wherever necessary, to receive the revenues in important commercial places, maritime coasts, large manufacturing districts, or general thoroughfares. They are nominated usually from among officers of the imperial household; and, equally with the fooyuen and heŏching, are subject merely to the control of the governor, in cases of difficulty: where there is no tsungtuh, the fooyuen exercises control over them, as he also does, in fact, over all parts of the government. It is necessary to observe, that the commercial department is not an essential part of the government; although there are few provinces in which there are not some commercial superintendents. These officers are under the direction of the Board of Revenue. The military government (we are at a loss for a more general name,) is to be understood as sometimes including the direction of naval forces also; for the Chinese make hardly any distinction between their land and sea forces. The coasting navigation of their vessels is committed to the pilots; and the official designations in both services are the same. The highest officers of the military and naval government are called tetuk, commanders (or, as we may render it, commanders-in-chief). Of these there are sixteen, twelve of whom are confined to the military branch strictly speaking, but have |