SOME OBSERVATIONS
UPON THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE
WESTERN BARBARIANS,
PARTICULARLY OF THE ENGLISH;
MADE DURING A RESIDENCE OF SOME YEARS IN THOSE PARTS,
By AH-CHIN-LE,
MANDARIN OF THE FIRST CLASS, MEMBER OF THE
ENLIGHTENED AND EXALTED CALAO.
TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE INTO ENGLISH,
By JOHN YESTER SMYTHE, Esq.,
OF SHANGHAI,
AND
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED OUT OF CHINA AND IN OTHER THAN CHINESE.
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM,
678 BROADWAY.
1876.
COPYRIGHT.
J.B. SWASEY.
1876.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
This Translation of the Work of Ah-Chin-le is trustworthy as to the meaning of the Text—though the literal translation has not been, in many cases, attempted.
Preserving the Spirit of the Author, the Translator has desired to be intelligible in good, readable English. Where it is impossible to give the precise thought of a mind so differently cultured, the nearest English is given. It is hoped that the inherent difficulty of the task may excuse errors of grammar and style.
The Translator has been so absorbed in his Author, that he fears he may have often slipped in his Syntax, and been rude in his manner. However, with whatever faults, he hands the volume to his Countrymen—thinking that they may be as much interested in it as he has been; and may derive as much amusement. If it do not commend itself for its Wisdom, it may, at least, for its novelty—that is, as a genuine expression of intelligent Chinese opinion, concerning the "Civilization of the Western Barbarians, and particularly of the English."
The Author's own Preface explains the Origin of the Work, and its claims to consideration.
The Retreat,
Shanghai, China, 1875.
J.Y.S.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Ah-chin-le, Mandarin, and member of the exalted Calao, to the Illustrious Wo-sung, Mandarin, First class, President of the most Serene, the grand Council, Calao; virtue, health, and the highest place in the Hall of your Sublime Ancestors! Trained from my youth for many years in the school of the Foreigners [Fo-kien], so as to be versed in the languages of the chief Barbarians of the West, and particularly of the English, afterwards perfected in the latter at our port of Shanghai, and sent by your Illustrious command upon a private mission with the Imperial Embassy to the outside Barbarians of the far West to curiously seek into the state of those Peoples, and report upon the same to your Illustrious mind—that being so informed exactly, your Wisdom might, in those matters appertaining to the Western Barbarians, enlighten the Son of Heaven (our Celestial and Imperial Majesty [Bang-ztse] most renowned and exalted) when, in Council, things touching those outer Barbarians should be considered: these, my poor words, in so far as to your Illustrious Wisdom it has been thought proper to make general, are now produced: that the happy subjects of our Central, Flowery Kingdom, may understand more perfectly the condition of those outside Barbarians, respecting whom so very little is known, and may the more cautiously guard the Sacred Institutions [Kam-phfe] of our Celestial Land—wise, peaceful, powerful, and teeming with an industrious and contented people, before the Western Barbarians had so much as the rudiments of learning.
Ah-chin prostrates his poor body before your Illustrious Benevolence, and craves forbearance that these, his unworthy Observations, are not better ordered:—the circumstances of travel, fatigue, agitation of mind, hurry and confusion, have been unfavourable for that due ordering of the same which a respect for your Illustrious Wisdom required—in this particular the precise Report, submitted to the Exalted, the Calao, through the hands of your Illustrious Greatness, is more perfect. These are minutes, rather, jotted down and fastened for better reordering, if, at another time, it should be judged fit. May the Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Chang-ti] keep your Illustrious mind and body!
AH-CHIN-LE.
Note.—These Observations now following were made in England, and refer chiefly to the English Barbarians, who pride themselves upon being the most powerful and most enlightened of all the outer Barbarians, and, in fact, of any People in the whole, immense World.
Ah-Chin.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
OBSERVATIONS.
OF THE RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ENGLISH.
The worship of the supreme Lord of Heaven [Chang-ti], is not unknown to these Barbarians, though degraded by many Superstitions.
The purity of the divine and original Worship (as with the vulgar in our Celestial Kingdom) is too simple. About 500 or 600 years after our Confutze, in the time of the Romans, there appeared in an obscure province of their Empire a new Sect of devotees, who asserted that they had among them a Son of Heaven. This Son they called Christ; and those who adopted this new deity were called Christians. This was nearly 2000 years [met-li-ze] ago. The Sect increased and spread. One of the Emperors of the West adopted the new god, and enforced the worship of him upon the subjects of the Empire.
All the Western Barbarians derive their knowledge from the Romans; whose power, indeed, they over-turned, but whose civilization they imitated. Particularly, the Bonzes (Priests) of the new Superstition, joined to the Chiefs of new powers (which arose upon the ruins of the Roman Empire), preserved some remains of the ancient Learning, and enforced the new Superstition. What little of letters remained was almost entirely with the Bonzes. This event was much the same as the introduction from the Hindoos into our Central Kingdom of the worship of the Hindoo god, Fo; and, curiously, these events happened at about the same time.
It is to be observed that in our Illustrious Kingdom there is a tendency to superstitious observances. We have several Sects [pho-ti]; but our Literati merely tolerate and do not worship. A simple and pure homage to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Hoang-chan-ti] is an act of the Wise: and even the Sects make their Spirits subordinate to Him. The Western Barbarians, however, dishonour the true worship by strange "rites"—even by incredible superstitions, when the intellectual culture is considered. It is not long since, in the monstrous credulity of the people, directed by the Bonzes, it was believed that the Devil (Chief of the Evil Demons) would enter into an individual—generally some old, ugly, and friendless woman—and, by her, turn the milk sour, drive the cattle mad, torture children, shrivel up the limbs, blast with the Evil Eye; and even plague with disease and with horrible death! And these wretched women, and sometimes men, themselves often fancying that the Devil was really in them, were seized upon, dragged through mud and mire, fearfully maltreated, and put to death by the horrible torments of fire, upon this wild accusation: and this terrible scene was not caused by a maddened rabble of the common sort, but under the lead of the Bonzes, and according to the Laws of the Land.
The great, central figure of idolatry is the Pope, who sits enthroned in Rome; and is, generally, a very old man, not always remarkable for wisdom nor virtue. He claims to be the sole vicegerent of the Christ-god, and only visible divine Head—all who do not worship him are really not true worshippers. Yet, there are many Sects of this Superstition; and in England, the Sovereign is held to be the true Pope and Head! The English Pope now worshipped is therefore a woman—the Queen! Such a thing seemed to me to be too wild—a phantasy—I could not comprehend. I knew that this Sect—the Roman—had long ago followers in our Flowery Kingdom; and our annals show was tolerated: not, however, for the Superstition, but for the Bonzes, who were masters of some useful knowledge. Personally, I never knew any native devotees of the Superstition—in fact it has steadily diminished in repute, and its few and scattered adherents are very obscure. So I was, and am still, puzzled by this extraordinary Sect. I have read the Creed; a sort of verbal incantation, made by devotees in the temples.
One day, I begged of a good-natured, large-bellied, Priest to explain to me; and ventured to ask him if the Creed was really an Article of Belief, or only a formal and meaningless Invocation—like some of the mummeries [phin-zi] of our Superstitious Sects. He looked surprised; but when he saw that he was thus accosted by a "Heathen Chinee" (as these Barbarians always contemptuously call the inhabitants of our Central Land), he merely said: "Why, you have in China our Missionaries to enlighten your darkness; have you never met them?" "No; I have heard of them at Shanghai; but they do not speak our tongue, nor do we understand them; and their teachings, even if understood, would attract no attention from the Literati, who would consider them as unworthy of notice as any other Superstition." "How so? our Religion is no Superstition; it is the true and only true Religion, revealed by God himself to his chosen people, and miraculously preserved for all believers." "I bow before your Illustrious mind and body; but we have, and have had from time immemorial, just such pretensions; they are as old as history." "I will not argue; but look at the excellency of our divine religion!" "Where shall I look? If you mean the excellency of certain moral principles, there is nothing peculiar to your Sect in them. They have been taught in our schools for thousands of years—they are excellent; they show the divine in man—man is of the divine; morality comes of that." "But look at your frightful vices; at your Pagan worship—see the effects of idolatry!" "I bow to your Illustrious mind." I saw my effort to obtain any reasonable explanation was fruitless; I made my obeisance and left. What an illustration of ignorant and superstitious conceit! Vice, thousands of miles beyond sea, so dreadful; the vice at hand, defiling every corner, unseen! The only true Religion of this Priest will not see, or, seeing, he will not believe that it is Vice—or, at any rate, idolatrous—pagan Vice! I could not believe, at first, that the Superstition was more than a Form, kept up merely for the advantage of the Priests. The sharp intellects of the Barbarians, applied so fruitfully to useful arts, seemed stultified, if I held to their actual belief. I doubted the honesty of the Priests; I knew the bad character of many of the Bonzes of our Superstitious Sects. Now, better acquainted with the imperfect civilization of the people, I am not moved by these ignorant and bigoted displays. Poverty, vice, and drunkenness; crimes of violence and fraud, are rife among the Barbarians. The Temples, ordered and maintained by the Queen-Pope, are, for the most part—especially in great cities—empty. The Sects of the Low-Caste people, despised by the High-Caste, are far more zealous worshippers, though not better Christians. The funds raised to support the great Temples and the Priests, are nearly all absorbed by them, and the Temples left ruinous. The lowest Castes do not worship, but curse the Sovereign Lord. Yet, our Illustrious Kingdom is called Pagan—Heathen—words implying every degradation; and our people fit only to be turned over to the endless torments of Evil Spirits!
Like our Confutze, the principles of morality and general benevolence are taught in the sayings ascribed to Christ. Yet fighting in the most brutal manner is allowed in the Schools, although the teachings of Christ, commanding Charity and Peace, are conned over in the daily lessons; and horrible Wars for the subjugation of other Peoples, incessantly waged! Still, if we may believe these Barbarians, all true religion and virtue are possessed only by them! The education of the people has been disregarded; and now, when the wisest of their great men has, with great difficulty, caused a decree to issue for the teaching of the neglected masses, at least, in some rudimental learning, the purpose is likely to fail. The Priests demand that the Superstition shall be taught, and those of one Sect insist that they shall lead; denouncing a differing Sect. Each Sect denounces every other: and, so far is the contention carried, that the teaching of the people is lost sight of; the special Superstition of a Sect being held by its adherents far more important than merely "Secular" teaching! It must be understood, that though, commonly, there is but little real reverence for the Supreme Lord, and less benevolence, yet, such is the hold which the Bonzes have got of the imagination (by means of the devil and hell, which are greatly feared), that they are a power. Their demands, therefore, as to the education of the people, will be respected; and the matter be left, largely, in their hands. This, owing to the bitterness existing among the Bonzes of the Sects, will cause the whole attempt to fail—to fail, as a general measure. The Lowest orders, for whom the design was chiefly devised, do not hold the Bonzes in esteem, and will not be so readily led by them, even were the Priests themselves in accord. The Sects and the Priests not only fight upon this subject; they are usually at strife upon any matter wherein their coöperation is desired. One leading rule of the Sacred Writings commands, Peace. In respect of all who differ from them, these Sects say that the true meaning is, War! Each Sect dislikes and denounces every other; and the members of all damn to everlasting torments the whole human race but themselves! This place of eternal torture in "fire and brimstone" [Zan-tan-li] is called Hell [Tha-dee]!
In the ceaseless conflicts of the Sects, the most dreadful crimes have been committed. The chief events recorded in the annals of the Western Barbarians for many ages, and even to this time, have been only bloody wars, massacres, and vile intrigues, springing out of these conflicts: horrible crimes, again and again repeated, and under circumstances too dreadful for belief. And when I have looked into the causes of these shocking events, there seemed to be no more involved than the manner of interpreting some obscure word or phrase in the Sacred Writings; which to a wise man would be unimportant, however interpreted, or if never interpreted at all!
At this moment, the best intellects among the English (who boast that they are superior to all other Barbarians), are hotly disputing as to the proper mode of wearing vestments, of holding or of not holding candles, of standing and posturing, and other matters equally important, when the Priests officiate in the Temples. The most trivial thing in the Superstition is esteemed of such consequence, that an error respecting it may be fatal to the "soul" [pan-tzi] in the future life! Some of the most learned fear the words and "missives" of the poor old man, who sits in Rome (already referred to), and is worshipped by most Christians out of England (and by very many in it) as the only delegate of the Christ-god. They fear this Pope—fear that by his connection with the Evil One he will "play the devil" among them. And though of precisely the same Christ-god Superstition, merely because of a difference of opinion as to the visible "Head" of that Superstition, really believe that this poor old man (called by the larger portion of Christians, with profound worship, Pope, Holy Father) may, by his wicked devices, allure into his worship, and bring under his power, the English Barbarians; to the everlasting destruction of their souls!
This notion of an Evil-one, universal among all the Barbarians, I never well comprehended. We have in our Flowery Kingdom Sects which believe in good and bad Spirits; although our Literati smile at such things; that is, in the vulgar forms. But the Christians assert that the Devil is too strong with men for the Supreme Lord—and the English Sect say that the Pope is a very child of the Devil! To be sure, their Sect is the feeblest of all, and merely separated from the great Pope-sect upon points not touching the superstition itself, and really on selfish and personal grounds. They know that the Pope justly claims a direct and regular succession from the Christ-God; that he and his adherents, forming the vast majority of Christians (as all the sects call themselves) are believers with themselves in all the main "dogmas" [ka-nti] of the Superstition; yet, none the less, they are the children of the Evil-one, and fit for Hell. And not the vulgar only, but the learned actually have a horror that the Pope may be again worshipped in England. A calamity too terrible for contemplation!
The Pope-worshipping Sect repay this hate with an equal abhorrence, and send the English heretics to the awful Hell, with the same satisfaction.
All the Western Barbarians worship this new Christ-God, but, like our devoters of Fo, divided into many Sects, as I have already intimated. The benignant Fo, teaches his idolatrous devotees how to differ without hate. But, these Christians are always at strife, bitter and irreconcilable; not as to essentials, even within the Superstition itself, (to say nothing of genuine morality), but as to things trivial and absurd. One will say, "Be baptised or be damned to the eternal Hell!" But another says, "Baptism is only a symbol, one may be saved without it." Then, "What is baptism?" Some say "The Priest must immerse in water;" but another, "No, the Priest must sprinkle the face only." Yet another, "Water is itself nothing, Priest nothing, unless before either, the baptism of the 'Holy Spirit' have occurred." To perfect the "rite," all say that the Priest must offer proper "Incantations," and generally in the Temples before the Idol. The contestants damn each other to everlasting torments for not being truly baptised.
All the Sects say, "You must believe in Christ or be damned;" but do not agree as to what this Belief is, and go on damning each the other for not having truly believed.
It is impossible, however, to make intelligible the countless vagaries of the Sects. They all fight under the same Christ-God, whom they all address, among other titles, as the "Prince of Peace" [Tchu-pe]. They all profess to follow His precepts, one of which is to love all men, even enemies (not friends, one of these angry disputants once said). These revered Precepts are written in the Sacred Books, and all the Sects swear their oaths upon these, and resort to them for the unchangeable rules of belief and practice. They all declare that the Sacred Writings are so plain that a man, "though a fool, may understand," and so clear, "that he who runs may read." Yet, they curse each other to the eternal torments for interpreting erroneously. The truth is, that the Books are most obscure, and differences of interpretation are inseperable from their use; the terrible thing is, that Superstition has made these differences so important. The Sacred Writings are contradictory, and teeming with things indifferent, meaningless, or trivial. Written at widely different periods, by many hands, long ages ago, in an obscure and barbarous dialect, for different objects, their true meanings cannot always be rendered. But few, even of the Priest-class, can read them at all in the original. They are mainly Records of the Laws, customs and wars of an obscure and terrible race, here and there interspersed with Invocations to the Gods of that race, and with their Proverbs, or words of wisdom. This tribe, called Jews, revolted from their masters, the Egyptians, and fled into a desert region lying west from the Hindoos. The man who led them in this revolt was learned in the laws and customs of Egypt, and upon these he founded his own system. He declared himself to be directly called by Jah (Jehovah) to be their High Priest and Judge—that they were to obey him who received from Jah immediate instructions—that, in fact, to disobey him was to disobey Jah. That he was to lead them forth to found a new State, and that the power to announce the will of Jah alone resided with him and his successors, in this High Priesthood, and that they could only be successful over their enemies and prosper, by an implicit obedience to Jah, by the mouth of the High Priest.
This event took place in our dynasty, Shang; and our annals, referring to the Western Barbarians of the ancient times, make mention of some things—obscure movements of tribes, and of the great works performed by the Egyptians; and of a servile race, condemned to toil on these structures: and, possibly, this revolt of the Jews may have been contained in these references. However, the whole matter would have been lost ages ago, nor have left a trace, but for the singular circumstance that the ancient records of these Jews have in a good measure escaped destruction. This happened not by any chance; but from the fact that the High Priest, pretending to be the very mouth of Jah, made all his utterances Sacred; and the Priesthood, inscribing and preserving the Jewish "Rites," worship and institutes of all kinds, guarded these writings with extreme care; which the reverence of the Superstitious people enhanced. Thus these Institutes of the Jews, declared to be by the Priests the very will of Jah, came to be "Holy" [Kan-ti]—inviolable! Now, the Barbarians regard this preservation of the Jewish Records as an evidence of their divinity, and a clear warning to man not to disregard them; and when they assert (as, by the High Priest, they constantly do), "Thus saith the Lord-God-Jah," they accept the declaration, and bow before it, as the very word of Jehovah! But we know that similar "Sacred Writings" are common in the East, and that these pretensions of the Priests are as universal as Superstition itself; in fact, form the chief features in it.
The new Christ-God was a Jew; and, though, singularly enough, in the words ascribed to him, in those parts of the Sacred Writings assigned to him and his immediate followers, there are bitter denunciations of the spirit and of the letter of much in the old, Priest-made part; and he distinctly says that his office is to give new and reformed rules; none the less, his immediate followers, being Jews, naturally looked upon him as Great High-Priest, speaking as did their ancient High-Priest (High-Priest and Christ-God)—the very "mouth-piece" [Mu-te-pi] of Jehovah! Adding to the High-Priest a Messiahship; for they believed him to be the mysterious Messiah of their Sacred Writings, foretold by their wise Seers long ages before! The great High-Priest who should deliver them from all their enemies, and lead them to a universal dominion! Very few of the Jews themselves, however, adhered to this opinion: in fact, Christ was put to a shameful death by them as an Imposter [Kon-ti-fe]. And by the Jews, in general, he was and is still considered to be a misguided fanatic. The Romans at this time held the Jewish province, and continued to do so. Meantime, the followers of the Christ-God, as I have said, spread by degrees, after his death, into other Roman provinces. New Superstitions were often greedily received; the Western Barbarians had always readily adopted new gods, and new Superstitions. This idolatry was, however, held in contempt by the learned; but it slowly spread among the lower orders, and penetrated to Rome itself.
The Roman soldiery, in some instances, made it conspicuous; and, after some generations, a Roman Emperor, thinking he saw some miraculous evidence of its divine force (in the workings of his own dark imagination), forced this new Superstition upon his Empire. That Empire embraced the Western world. The Barbarians who succeeded to them adopted, largely, their laws; their worship, and their religious rites. Thus, these Western Barbarians are Christians; and, though they detest the Jews none the less, hold to their "Sacred Writings" as the very words of Jah—whom they also worship! This they do because they follow the few Jews who accepted Christ as Jehovah, rather than the whole people who rejected him!—follow the few who accepted Christ as the Messiah-God promised in the "Sacred Writings;" and hold with them that these are the only Revelation of the will of Jehovah to man! By Jehovah meaning the only Supreme Lord of Heaven!
The remarkable thing is that this enormous pretension is not ascribed to Christ, but is obscurely announced in certain writings of the early Christian Jews. Thus these Western Barbarians, scoffing the name of Jew, accept of his ancient and ferocious god, and adopt the barbarous rites of a blood-thirsty and obscure tribe of the desert, make the records kept by the Priests of the tribe Sacred, and curse to Hell the whole Jewish race for not accepting the interpretation of a few of their number—the few, and only a few, worshipping Christ as the true Christ-God. That is, these Barbarians better understand the subject than the people into whose hands the matter was entrusted by Divine wisdom.
When one considers, then, the foundation of the great worship of the West, one wonders not at the Sects and strife. Founded in dark and cruel institutes of ignorant antiquity, the attempt to engraft a better system failed, because in this attempt the Priests were still Jews, who, adoring Christ, adored him as Jehovah and a Jewish High-Priest. What follows becomes more intelligible, but not less astonishing. The new worship has its divine Revelation from Jah, interpreted by its Priests, who introduce Christ as their great High-Priest, and the Christ-Jehovah of the new worship. All are damned to the everlasting Hell who do not believe these Priests, worship this new god, and accept as the very Divine Word these Jewish writings. This superstition suited the dark imaginations of the Barbarians, and was, in truth, not unlike their own, and may have had a common origin.
The intellectual activity of succeeding ages has been mainly devoted to these Sacred Writings; and the disputes, as to the meaning, never-ending. Every word has been criticised. Sects have been formed upon a syllable—appearing and disappearing. Now one would madly starve, another feast. Some fanatics would live in caves, some on inaccessible mountains; some tortured themselves, and held women to be unclean unless they married Christ. Some would only shout their invocations, others would only commune with the god inside. Some would kneel, others would stand. Sometimes a sect more wild than usual would organise vast bands of warriors, all wearing a symbol to show that they were Christians—usually a cross (because the Jews put Christ to death by hanging him upon a cross); and, placing Priests at the head, would rush to distant parts to root out pagans. These dreadful slaughters of distant tribes were called Crossades (from the symbol referred to). Some Sects destroyed society by another fanaticism; they forced men to live in caves or in dark stone chambers, shut off from all cheerful life, and from all intercourse with women; where they should constantly make invocations, lash themselves with thongs, and half-starve themselves; having skulls to hold before them, and awful paintings of Hell and devils to horrify them,—if perchance they may propitiate the Christ-God, Jah. Women also being driven into similar, horrid imprisonment in stone vaults, where the whole life is spent in invocations and sufferings, without so much as seeing any man.
These and numberless other things grow out of the interpretations, ever-changing, of the Sacred Writings; which, to the dark imaginings of Priests and devotees, seem ever to give such utterances as fit to their feelings. To the Priests they are an unfailing arsenal of power.
For many ages nearly all the Books written—mainly by Priests—were in respect of the Sacred Writings; called commentaries, homilies, disputations, doctrines, invocations, sermons; endless in name, and nameless.
This Literature is less in repute than formerly, and immense collections of huge writings are now rotting away in the dismal alcoves of Libraries [Buk-sti], as great stone buildings for keeping Books are called. This Literature is rarely looked at now, excepting by the Priests and antiquaries [ol-olphoo]; much of it is obsolete in form, or in the Roman—not now so much in vogue as formerly. A large portion of the writings, and a larger portion of the "speeches" [phi-lu-tin], however, are devoted to the same subject; but the style is modern, and less obscure, though not less deformed by a dark and irrational superstition.
To my poor mind, were all these innumerable productions of gloomy and bewildered intellects—misled and crazed by a monstrous Idolatry—swept for ever away, nothing would be lost—nothing, unless the most astonishing monument ever builded by man. However, it is doubtful whether to lose even this is not better than to have anything left of so monstrous a Pretension.
Whilst thus the Barbarian brain wasted itself in this wretched work, and piled up its ponderous tomes of useless, and worse than useless, Literature—holding knowledge in general as vain, and Science, when, in Priestly interpretation, not according to the barbarous Sacred Writings, as a thing to be accursed—activity of body, during the same ages, did its dreadful work. Directed by the Priests, one Sect denounced another as damnable, and the stronger attempted to destroy the weaker by "fire and sword." New contentions would arise, to be crushed out by bloody execution; only to spring up again, to be again extirpated. Every Sect as it appeared would fight for supremacy. All worshipped the Christ-God, and sought the same Sacred Writings; and all invoked His aid, and pointed to those Writings for their authority—to exterminate a weaker Sect; to deliver over whole provinces to rapine, slaughter, burning, destruction; cities in conflagration; women, children, as well as men, not merely slain, but put to death with tortures unspeakable; massacres, by treachery and surprise, of thousands and tens of thousands! To such work was the activity of body largely directed by Priests and the savage chiefs. For ages these atrocities were perpetrated. History has no parallel of horror; human nature seemed to have become possessed by the Devil of the Superstition, and exceeded its diabolism [pau-di-ki]. In the name of Christ, fire, slaughter, and rapine, spread over the whole immense world. Wherever the Priests of this dark superstition became powerful, everything which opposed them perished. It was a cardinal principle that men could be saved from the dreadful Hell only by the aid of the Priests, and by accepting of their interpretation of the Sacred Writings. The system erected by the Priests was called the Church, and none could be saved unless they were in the pale of Holy Church—unless they, in the manner directed by the Priests, performed all the rites of worship. These not merely were directed to the worship of the Sacred Writings, the Christ-God and Jah, but to the mother of God and to the Pope. In England, by and by, the Priests threw off the Roman Pope, and set up the English Sovereign, for the time being, as Pope, and put men and women to death by fire and torture for still preferring the older Idol.
Nor is this madness, this fanatical fury, wholly expended. Education has not yet raised these Western tribes into the enjoyment of a rational worship—of a rational morality—of a life, calm, tolerant, and beneficent. They have never attained the civilisation of our Central Kingdom, and to the wisdom of our illuminated Confutse.
There is morality to be found among them, and a few worship, purely and simply, the God of Heaven, and look with untroubled hearts upon the senseless superstitions. The masses are, however, still held in them; and the High Castes either hold to the prevailing idolatries, or pretend to do so. This old Jewish Worship, with its rites and pretensions, fastened upon tribes by Priests and the Roman power, is still dominant in the West. In England to-day it is the same superstition, only the Queen is Pope, instead of the Man at Rome. For this the English are damned, as worthy of Hell-fire, by Roman Pope worshippers; and the English return the curse. A constant Bugbear [Do-nki] to the English mind is, that the more powerful Roman Pope may get into England again; then, what horrors! Nor does this frightful chimera alone alarm the lower people; the most learned Englishmen, and their wisest, exert their minds in writing and in preaching against this terrible thing.
To me this seemed strange—incredible. The English Barbarians are, in general, sharp enough; they are learned in many things; they can see the absurdity of Eastern superstitions; they denounce the Roman-Pope worship as worthy of hell; but they worship a Queen-pope at home, and the same Christ-Jah-god and "sacred writings" which the Romans worship. They believe, as do the Roman-pope worshippers, that all who do not worship the sacred writings and the Christ-Jah-god, and accept of the Priest-Church, will inevitably burn for ever in fires of Hell; yet, because of the separation as to Pope worship, each regards the other sect with a hatred only appeased by sending each the other to the dreadful Hell! How incredible that the human mind—the active and skilled human mind—should alarm itself and others for fear of the worship of a Pope—a man: and really think the condition of the human soul would be hopelessly wretched—if it mistook the right object of worship—the idol of Rome, or the idol of England! The intellect truly employed would be directed to the overthrow of the superstition and its objects of idolatry altogether. The Roman or the English Pope—the Roman or the English sect—what matter? Both alike indifferent and worthless to an intelligent worshipper of the Supreme Lord of Heaven (Hoang-chan-ti). His worship is elevating, supporting a clean morality, tolerant, benevolent—a morality found wherever man is found; debased, more or less, as man be debased, or as he may be sunken in vicious or cruel superstitions.
To restore a pure worship is to help on a better civilisation among the Barbarians. Nor would a respect for the morality ascribed to Christ do other than help in the same way. The misfortune is, that that morality has been overlaid with Jewish and Priestly additions and inventions. There are some of the English literati who dare to teach a purer worship, discarding the superstition in its grosser pretensions; but they are not listened to.
It is difficult to understand what is accepted as true by the differing Sects—but their differences may be disregarded—and I will refer to what all the Sects of the Great Superstition subscribe to, aside from the matter of Pope.
One, only God: in three parts—each part a very God!
1. The Judge and destroyer of mankind; for all are damned to Hell! This is the Jewish Jah.
2. The Son, begotten of Jah upon an immaculate virgin. Sent to mediate with Jah and appease His fierce anger, so that some may escape Hell—that is, those few who have "believed in" and worshipped the Son, the Father, and other things. For as to what is to be believed, form the points of endless contention, as I have hinted.
3. The Holy Ghost, or Comforter, whose function I have never comprehended. It appears to be a divine Effluence, entering into the devotee, to warm, exalt, and enlighten him; especially to comfort him and to support him in his dire conflicts with "the flesh, hell, and the devil" (as the Superstition reads). It is an "awful mystery" in the rites, and has crazed many a worshipper; for those who fancy themselves to be in the possession of this Effluence feel like gods, and conduct themselves as scarcely accountable to mortal control; though others feel an absorption, as they say, into the divine nature—a notion like that of some of the fanatics of the Hindoos and of the East.
As powerful, indeed more powerful over men, is the terrible Satan—Devil, Evil One. There are many names and shapes. This monster was once (according to the superstition) chained down in hell-fire, for having raised a rebellion against Jah, who, however, let him loose again, and gave him wings to fly from his fiery prison to the world, where he should wage war with Jah, in a covert way, by his craft drawing away mankind from Jah to his worship and to his designs; that, however, he should never prevail to overthrow Jah, and the only result would be to increase the number of the countless devils of low degree already in Hell, by adding to them nearly the whole human race!—for to that torment all go who do not worship in spirit and in truth, according to the superstition. This awful strife between Satan and Jah always proceeds. The Priests say that, for "some wise purpose," Jah suffers Satan to succeed in his snares; and his victims continually fall into the everlasting place of Fire, prepared for the devil and his victims. The Priests say that this wholesale destruction of mankind was a thing predetermined by Jah, and that he created the Devil to accomplish the work; but they do not explain why the torments should be everlasting; as men are themselves short-lived, one would think a reasonable superstition might have limited the fire-torture to, say, twice the length of mortal life!
Our Literati will readily recognise some parts of this horrible superstition—perhaps the main features, as Oriental—going back to the dimmest dawn of tradition, and to the early and grotesque forms of the human imagination, dark and uninstructed. The Hell, however, is a terrific expansion of the horrible, suited to these Strange Barbarians.
Besides these great deities, there are Arch-angels, Angels, Saints male and female, Spirits good and bad—the latter Imps of Satan (whatever the word may mean), who enter into human beings, and take on the human form: in this disguise, called Ghosts, Wizards, Bogies, Witches. However, good people can tell these devilish Imps, and avoid them (so they be good, that is, true worshippers of the Idols of the Superstition); for the smell of brimstone sticks to them, and the tail and cleft-hoof—inseparable from devil-imps—will always show somewhere to the good. But, if unawares the Imps catch them, they are only to say Christ, or Jehovah, or call on some Saint, and the Imp will at once vanish like a vapor!
It will be seen that this Superstition is as populous with gods and spirits as are any in the East, and some of the forms more frightful and ridiculous.
There are dissentients—some, who, not dissenting to the chief gods, yet conjecture that the good and bad spirits merely symbolize good and bad propensities in human nature. But real objectors are few and timid, afraid of punishment—if not here, then after death. For the Superstition so long rooted has engrafted its terrors in the very blood, and men are born with the Horror in them; they can never free themselves from it. A few, however, do dissent; but, like our Literati, they do not care to oppose vulgar ignorance openly, nor is it safe; they feel a contempt, but repress its too-marked expression. "Why render themselves uselessly odious?" they say. The Priests, very likely, often disbelieve much of what they say; but not unlikely their emoluments (livings) have some effect upon their conduct, though not upon their private convictions. In our Flowery Land there is a maxim: "A common man's brain is in his belly."
I have had a High Bonze say to me, when I have suggested some objections, "Oh, we do not know anything about such things; the morality is good, and we need a devil for women, children, and the common people: it is safer to let things alone."
"But," I have rejoined, "Is it quite well, in the long run, to teach falsely?"
"I do not say it is well to teach falsely. I said, I do not know—who does? Men more learned than I believe strongly, men wiser than I have "gone to the stake and perished by slow torture of fire," made martyrs (we have no such word) of themselves, rather than deny these things. They were probably right. I simply take things as they are."
"But," I replied, "surely misguided fanaticism, of which the world is full, is proof of nothing whatever, unless of the sincerity of the madman—not always of that."
"My dear Ah-Chin, you are very quick, and no fool (I beg pardon), but you do not understand it. The Superstitious parts are mere forms; and as to the horrors, as you call them, I think them indispensable; they are better than the Police." (The Police are the officers who arrest offenders in the streets and public places.)
The Bonzes who talk in this way are, usually, what are derisively termed "hunting and fishing" Bonzes, not remarkable for strictness of conduct, though quite as likely to stick to the Temples, like our Bonzes; they are not likely to pull down the roof which shelters them. The Superstition is less revered than formerly, and its wilder parts are less obtrusive. Its pretensions are not moderated in terms, but the practice is more moderate. Sects do not put each other to death, at present, though so much of the old bitterness remains that no one can say what horrors might follow upon unexpected changes. Gradually wise men endeavour to drop out of sight the Jewish and Priestly creations, and, inculcating morality, take the Christ-God as symbol of Charity, and his moral precepts as the basis of a moral Philosophy; or (to be less offensive to the Superstition) Christian Philosophy. In this way they seize hold of what is true in the Great Idolatry, and endeavour to ignore the grosser parts altogether. They hope to bring about a rational worship without violence, by a gradual disuse and forgetfulness of the irrational, and are willing to yield something to ignorance, if they can by that means, in the end, enlighten it. They allow to Christ an exalted character, large in the divine faculty, and divine as man is divine in possessing that faculty—to say, the moral. In this, much as we see in our exalted Confutze, who lived and taught long before the period ascribed to Christ, and from whom the Western tribes, doubtless, received their moral notions.
The religion of Wise men is the same at all times and everywhere. Wherever some intellectual culture exists, men will be found who understand and practise the rules of morality; and wherever this is general, there is the higher civilisation. This higher civilisation, resting upon a general morality among a people, has for its base a rational recognition of the Sovereign Lord and man's dependency and accountability to Him; Father of men; and Himself the source of this morality. He, in this faculty, reveals Himself, and shows to man his sole claim to a divine relationship.
This higher civilisation does not mistake intellectual achievement as its title to enlightenment. The sharp and active brain is quite consistent with the base and low; and may be indifferent to superstitions and degrading idolatries. But the moral faculty, active and large, at once refines and exalts the intellect; then men are truly wise, and degrading superstitions die.
The object, then, to which the true worshipper aims, everywhere, is to bring man out of a debased into an enlightened recognition of the Supreme Lord and of this simple relationship; to teach that the human race form one family, united indissolubly to each other, and to the Supreme Lord, by the divine moral faculty, to which the intellect is subordinate; that by this they may be all truly enlightened, and worship simply and truly, with grateful and serene trust, the Supreme Lord and Father of all. This worship can never be other than beneficent. It is only the expression of gratitude; the desire for better wisdom, for still larger charity, a well-doing and serene life, at peace with itself and all beside.
To a civilisation resting upon this simple and direct worship and morality, few barbarians have any perception; their pride and gross superstitions have made it impossible.
The temples are often very grand and beautiful, built of hewn stone, with lofty domes, towers, bells, and spires. The priests are very numerous, and divided into many ranks. The lowest are the curates, who do the "dirty" work, as the English phrase it. They are but little better than beggars, though mentally often superior to those who half-starve them, whilst the higher ranks (by whom they are hired) live luxuriously.
The Sacred Writings say that Christ was Himself a mendicant, and that his first followers were but little better; that he denounced, in bitter terms, all pride and luxury; that the true object of life was not to think of oneself, but of others; to give to the poor, help the distressed, and the like. In truth, this benevolence and the moral precepts of Christ (as I have already said) are its salt [pho-zi].
I have, in the temples, heard a High-Caste Priest eloquently exalt this benevolence, and pointing out the divine charity of the Master (as Christ is often called),—heard him say, "My brethren, give to the poor, help the suffering, do good whenever you can, give your all to Christ."
I have said, "This is excellent; I will talk with this benevolent Bonze." On one occasion I did so. The High-Caste had dined; I was ushered into his presence; the fruits and the wine were still before him. I approached and bowed low before him, and dared to ask, "Is your illustrious body well?" He slightly nodded, and waved me to a seat. I expressed my admiration of his benevolent morality, as shown in his exalted invocation in the Temple. "Oh, that was of course; we do not rely upon morality." I begged pardon, but did not understand. He added: "Morals are well, in their way. Charity is a good thing, if the purpose be sanctified; but nobody is saved by his goodness." He saw my bewilderment. "Oh, I deplore your darkness; I grieve over the errors, too fatal, even in our Christian land." I could only bow. He continued: "When will the darkness of superstition give way, in the East, to our glorious religion? When will the worship of Christ spread over the whole benighted world?" I ventured to hint that I had called to speak my thought of his noble benevolence. "Oh, yes, we must give. But the true worship—knowledge of, and belief in, the Redeemer—ah! that is the only means of salvation; those are the vital things." I said, "The poor are everywhere, and need help." He looked at me suspiciously for a moment, and then brightened; he saw I had not come to ask for anything. "Yes; the Scriptures say, 'The poor ye will always have with ye,' and we cannot alter it." "I am told that your Low-Caste Priests are good men, and do nearly all the work. I know one of these who is very kind. Your benevolence is like our Confutze, who had a tender regard for the poor and distressed."
"Ah, our divine Master taught charity; but one must go higher than that." "Pardon my poor mind, but do you not really give to the poor, in your temples, as your exalted Wisdom taught?" "Ah-Chin, you mistake; but one must overlook your darkness of mind—no offence—Society takes all I can spare, and I give to Curates from my revenue." "Society? I do not comprehend." "Well, no; you know nothing of the incessant calls. We must visit and receive visits; keep up equipages, servants; then there are always poor relations, and the poor Curates (these are the 'poor relations' of our order)." "But the Curates are poorly paid, I am told, and deserving." "The Curates are well enough; but more fuss is made than need be. I was a Curate, Ah-Chin, myself." "Your illustrious did not need aid, perhaps?" "Well, yes; I got Curate-fare—cold shoulders of mutton, and other colder shoulders." I saw that there was something which I was not to understand. "Pardon, but the Society is not to be put before the Christ-God?" "I beg, sir, you speak not in that way. I pardon much to your darkness. Do not again profane our blessed and holy religion."
This alarmed me; I did not know what portended. I bowed very low, and humbly craved permission to take my leave. I really feared punishment—perhaps of the Cangue, or pan-tsee. I afterwards knew, no more than the reproof of the High-Bonze was imminent; though, had the common people caught a pagan Chinee who had dared to speak, in their notion, disrespectfully of their Idols, he would be fortunate to have no worse treatment than a ducking in a horse-pond [phu-it-mu-dsi-wo].
What but slow progress is to be expected when a people—even the Literati—are so superstitious? for the errors there, make obstacles everywhere. It is but just now that nearly the whole population of the province of Ireland (one-third of the kingdom) have been relieved from maintaining the English Idolatry, though they detested it.
The intolerance of the devotees prevents better men from reforming abuses, even in the Temples. If a Priest dare to moderate the excessive absurdities of the Superstition, he at once endangers his Living, and is likely to be degraded and driven forth to neglect and poverty.
I, myself, knew a Wise Priest of rank, who very innocently published some comments upon the Sacred Writings, wherein he showed that the statements as they stood were simply impossible. Now, as I have said, the Sacred Writings are worshipped; and to doubt that they are the words of Jah is horrible—formerly punished by death, now by degradation, excommunication, and loss of revenue. This poor man did not express any doubt; he merely pointed out an error, which might be there somehow, and which he thought, in his simplicity, should be removed or explained. But the Canon [ban-gwo] of the Superstition allowed of no comment of that sort as to the Word of Jehovah! and cursed out of the Temples, with his Priest-robe torn off, and his money stript from him, the daring blasphemer [zw-an] must go!
This is an astonishing Canon; for if one allows that four thousand years ago Jehovah spoke words which were then inscribed—if one allows that the Jewish Priests kept annals and chronicles, and down through different ages preserved and added to their histories—if one allows that the followers of Christ after his death recorded some things concerning his life and his teachings, and that other followers wrote letters upon these matters—yet, one must also allow that all these writings were written at different periods, for different purposes, and in different and scattered records; all in obscure and unknown tongues; that they have been copied, re-copied, translated—that there are various versions—that, in respect of their meaning, and even of their right to be called a part of the Word, the highest and best cannot agree! Yet, through all the changes of great periods of time—through darkness, and wars, and every sort of ignorant credulity—through everything! every word of this huge collection of Obscure and Ancient Literature, and of an Obscure and Barbarous People, remains exactly as originally delivered by Jah! "Oh, certainly," says his devotee, "because He has preserved them." "Yes; but when a statement is absolutely impossible—as where 'the water covered the whole earth.'" "Oh, the Word does not deal with Science." I think not; Jah was not a god of science—he was, in fact, just as ignorant as the Jew-Priests who pretended to speak his Word!
Yet this inconceivable Canon goes further, and declares that this Word is the absolute, and only, and perfect Revelation of the Deity to man; that it contains the only TRUTH, and is the only way by which man, under damnation already, can have any hope, however small, of escaping the everlasting fire of hell! Upon this Canon all the Sects of the Western Barbarians erect their Idolatries—they call them Churches; but, as we have seen, they are for ever fighting as to the meaning of these very Sacred Writings!
Another Canon is, that Christ is the very God (Jah), and that the Holy Ghost is also the very God. And to deny this Canon is to go to Hell! Nor does it at all matter that one has never heard of this, nor that he could have never heard. The whole race of man before Christ was born, to this very hour, are either burning, and will surely burn, in everlasting fires of Hell, unless they have believed in this Canon! And Jah contrived that all this should be exactly so; though he did also plan from all time that his Son, Christ, should go down to the world and get himself put to death; and thus the great Jah, appeased by the sight of his Son dying on a cross, should be so far softened that some would escape Hell! Only a very few; because no one could escape unless he knew, and believed, and accepted, and was born into the very blood of this son! A mystery so incomprehensible, that Christians do not pretend to solve it, and are always trembling for fear that they may not have been born again!
How, under these circumstances, as Jah cruelly neglected to let the Heathen know that they could be saved—(indeed, they suspect no danger)—the good-hearted devotees of the Barbarians employ Bonzes to go over the great Seas to the Heathen, to carry them the glad tidings! These delegates from the Barbarians are called Missionaries, and the Temples and devotees are full of prayers and invocations for the Salvation of the Heathen! by which is meant the worship of the Barbarians duly adopted in our Central Kingdom, and in other regions of the wide world not under the sway of these Idolaters!
But our Flowery Kingdom, from so long ago as dynasty Whey-Song, has known of these missionaries; and we know of some now amongst us. They are harmless enough, and quite fully understand how to adapt themselves to circumstances, and draw the money necessary to their support. The Bonzes of the Roman Sect are the wisest, and care for nothing very idolatrous; if a convert will go so far as to be baptised [Wa-shti] they are quite content. They seek to be useful, and keep the obnoxious features of the Superstition out of sight.
There are also some Jews in our Central Kingdom. They have been known in some provinces from a time long before the supposed birth of Christ.
Another Sect of the region of the Western Barbarians (in the Eastern parts), who worship a god named Mohammed—a Sect merely an offshoot of the Jews, from whom they adopted the most part of their superstition, and equally fierce and intolerant—penetrated into our Flowery Land soon after its rise. It was about six hundred years ago that they established a slight hold amongst us, and are still to be found—never here in their weakness exhibiting any of the savagery of strength. In a large portion of the Western regions they were for ages as cruel and destructive as the Christians, and, in fact, waged wars with them for absolute mastery, during which all the horrors usual to those dreadful Barbarians terrified and maddened mankind. Finally, these two Sects, Christian and Mohammedan (so styled), divided the whole region of the Western Barbarians among themselves! and from that time have been less quarrelsome with each other, than have the Sects of the two great divisions in their intestine conflicts.
Thus, it will be acknowledged that the Barbarians are well disposed sometimes towards us,—or at any rate the devotees of their Superstition are,—and we must gratefully thank them for their sincere anxiety for the salvation of our souls; for our bodies that is another matter. They think us ignorant, even of the ordinary rules of morality. They do not know that before Greece or Rome had appeared in history, our worship of the Sovereign Lord and our moral precepts were established, purely, simply, and that our annals show that the Grecian and Roman culture largely borrowed from ours, though not the Superstitions. These were derived, probably, from some source common to the Western Barbarians, likely Egyptian, and though modified by habits of tribes, retained more or less of those original traits which appear in all.
The Temples are numerous, though often quite deserted except by the Bonzes and their servants. The same revenues are taken by the Bonze whether there be any worshippers or not, and sometimes the prayers are said or sung to empty forms (seats)—not more empty than the prayers.
Next in rank to Curates come Rectors, who enjoy good Livings [mo-tsi], and have fine houses and gardens. The other higher ranks, are Arch-Bishops, Bishops, called Lords [tchou], who live in stone palaces, and have great revenues; but Society robs them of the larger portion of this revenue,—a barbarous injustice,—leaving the poor Lords quite destitute. I was told this; but I never happened to meet with a starved Bishop.
These Tchou-Bonzes intermarry with the High-Castes, perform the marriage ceremony for them, wait upon the Queen with invocations to the gods—baptize royal infants; that is, sprinkle them when eight days old, in the Temples with invocations, with many ceremonies, after which they are safe from the devil and the dreadful Hell; these are the chief duties of their exalted office. As great lay-lords (that is Lords not of the soul but of the clay—lay), they sit in the great Law-making Council; where their function is, to see to it that no law be made which in any way can injure the temples, or their own revenues and powers. One does not see that they are remarkable for the practice of the virtues which they teach; nor that they are meek and lowly followers of the Lamb (Christ-god); or that they very often "wash the feet of the disciples"—although they are commanded in the Sacred Writings to do these things; and also to succour the distressed, give to the poor, and other like acts of charity. I should have been pleased to see a Bishop kneeling and washing the feet of some devotee! but I never did. They discharge those duties which they owe to Society with honourable punctuality: keeping up neat equipages, sleek horses, and pious servants; and wearing the garb of their order with a scrupulous exactness, even to the shoe-buckles.
They quote the example of the Christ-god, who, when on the world, made from common water good wine; and are very choice respecting this article. As to charity, they are so robbed by Society, that, what with gifts for the Heathen, and poor relations (for whom they are also expected to get good Livings in the Temples), they have but little to spare. Then, too, "Charity begins at home" (the Sacred Writings declare), and he who does not take care of himself, and those who are dependent upon him, "is worse than a Heathen" (This is again from the Sacred words). For those poor and benighted creatures, sunk in dreadful idolatries, indeed, something must be put into the Missionary box!
The different Sects quarrel as to particular modes of Worship in the Temples. Some will have candles lighted, to please the idols; others say, they do not need candles, and are offended by the smell. Some say, You should make Invocations kneeling; others say, standing. Some say, one should face to the East, others say, to the North. Some say, you should pray aloud; others say, silent prayers are more acceptable. And very sharp quarrels and new Sects arise upon these matters. None are allowed to worship in Temples but devotees of the High-Caste Sect. All others must worship in Temples not dignified by a loftier name than Conventicle, Chapel, or the like.
I will state, briefly, what is the ceremony of Idolatry in the great Queen-pope Sect. She is worshipped in the Invocations, and receives, with her children, a place in the prayers.
When the great bells sound from the high, stone towers, the High-Castes go, richly dressed, into the Temples, uncover and bow the heads to the Idol, in silence—making Invocations, silently. By the command of the Jewish Sacred Writings the Seventh day (so, continuously, for ever) is devoted to the grand Worship in the Temples. This is a marked thing among the Western Barbarians—this devotion of one day in every seven to the Worship of Jah—as ordered in the Sacred Word. It is declared to be Jah's day—Holy-day. And it is so sacred, that there is danger of Hell to him who
"Does any work or play
Upon the sacred day,"
as the mongrel verse-makers of the Superstition have it! And the Priests vehemently denounce all who do not worship upon that day.
Some object to so great strictness; and the quarrel, as usual, is bitter between the strict and the not-so-strict Holy-day worshippers.
Those not-so-strict think that the poor, who work six days, should be allowed to go to the places of amusement on the seventh, and enjoy harmless recreations. The strict say they should be punished for desecrating the day by their neglect of worship; yet the poor cannot go in dirt and rags to the Temples. The High-Castes go there in rich attire, and would be incommoded by the poor—indeed, the High and Low Castes never mingle, not even in their worship. In truth, not many of any rank attend upon the Priests in worship. The devotees are mostly old women and older men, a few young people attracted by opposite attraction of sex, children and servants; a few pauper children may be huddled into a dark corner for fear of offending the idols.
The Priests face the Idol, and make Incantations, which are repeated, age after age, without any alteration; no Priest dare to make any the least change; the wrath of the gods would follow.
One peculiarity is, that the most abject confessions are made, by Priests and devotees, of heinous offences—making eternal punishment fitly their due. They beg for pardon and that salvation (meaning deliverance from the awful Hell) may be granted, not for any good in them, but wholly for the sake of the Son—the Christ. On my first attendance in a Temple, when I heard these fearful confessions and looked upon the fine women; the carefully dressed worshippers, I thought, "How dreadful, these High-Castes such wretches—incredible!"
I afterwards discovered that the sins [ly-ie], the offences confessed, were merely ecclesiastical (we have no term like it); nobody ever really confesses any wrong which he may have committed.
The grand act of worship is, however, the Creed (here again in our Flowery Land we have no term)—an Invocation and Declaration wherein all swear, under the awful penalty of eternal burnings in Hell and torments of Satan for ever, that they believe and worship all points of the Superstition with thankful hearts and undoubting minds. Repeating after the Priest, all standing, facing the Idol, uncovered, with eyes downcast and deep abasement.
The Incantations do not differ from the Invocations, only they are droned out in songs, more dismally, perhaps. The burden of both is to deliver the true worshippers from "the wiles of the flesh and the devil"; to overthrow, if possible, this awful demon, and to save sinners, of whom the worshippers declare themselves, in a hundred different ways, to be chief, "miserable offenders" [ka-nt-lm-mbi]. These, and lofty exaltation of the Christ-God and of the Father Jah, who, when He had given his word that nothing could save man from Hell, graciously allowed the Jews to crucify the Son, that in the Son's sufferings He, Jah, might let off some of the sufferings of mankind. Possibly some of the present worshippers might be among the lucky saved. For this salvation endless praises are to be Sung in the Temples below; and for ever and for ever in the great Heavens, through the infinite eternal worlds without end.
A Hymn of Praise in which all join ends the act of worship. The Priest blesses the people and invokes the mercy of the gods; and they, making due obeisance to the idols, retire in silence or to the music of the great organs.
A special act of worship, or Incantation, is always made to the Triune-god, that is, the Three-in-one, called Holy Trinity (Threenity). To omit this would, in the opinion of devotees, be so terrible a thing that no one would dare to stay a moment, fearing that, like Korah in the Sacred Writings, the very world would open itself and swallow them up. This three-in-one seems like a Hindoo god.
The Bonzes attend upon the sick and the dying, moderating their fears of damnation by insisting upon the most abject devotion to the Superstition, and intimating that, if they heartily grieve over their offences, and with undoubting minds believe in all the points of the Creed, then they may receive the Sacraments—that is, Sacred Meats; which having received, the devil and Hell may be set at defiance. These Sacred Meats are symbols of the very body and blood of Christ—a shocking rite, borrowed wholly from the old, savage Jews, who held that a Sacrifice must be offered up to appease the wrathful Jah on almost any occasion, and who sometimes even devoted human victims.
The Bonzes, in general, perform the Marriage Ceremonies, which they will have to be a Sacred rite in their Superstition, though some Sects think otherwise. However, the High-Castes do not consider a Marriage without a Bonze safe; some evil to the children, or other calamity, might ensue. Thus the Bonzes, for their services in this matter, obtain consideration and good fees [tin-tin].
After all, however, with the lowest Caste the Superstition is not much more than a Fright; its morality does not touch them, nor those things which refine. They have only a dim and low idea of the Sovereign Lord—debased, in so much notion as they do have, by the Jewish debasement. The devil-and-Hell part is familiar to them, and, in truth, fits well to the origin of the Barbarous tribes, and to their rude and savage character. As I have said, the Upper Castes consider this portion of their Superstition the really valuable part, in practical use. All evidence in the Courts, and every sanction, touching important interests or statements, rest upon this hold upon the fears of the common people. "Oh" (as an Englishman once said to me), "we must keep the devil and his hot place in our service, I tell you, Ah-Chin; or we should have 'the devil to pay' in good earnest!"
It is very difficult to change the Superstitions of a people, because rooted in their fears; and, in a matter wherein the imagination has chief power, and nothing can be known, even honest men of wisdom fear radical changes; they prefer to bear inconveniences, and dread the effect of new doctrines upon ignorant masses.
Priests, and the varied interests, and large establishments and revenues—in fact, a great portion of the whole community—are concerned in maintaining the Superstition, on selfish grounds, or think that their own interests are involved. The higher orders regard the Established condition of things in Worship and in the State as too Sacred to be touched. They denounce all who endeavour, in any faint degree, to suggest reforms, as "infidel" [un-ti-dsi]—a term of deepest reproach—agitators, who covertly would overthrow "our Temples, our Idols, and the Queen-Pope herself."
But they cannot wholly suppress the Thinkers; [kog-ti-te] (as the reformers are called); and these honestly think that some revision may be made with safety and advantage. They are sneered at by the larger part of the literati, and by all the priests, as Tinkers. A tinker is one who mends and patches, not a real artisan; and the majority will have it that nothing in England requires mending or patching. They are also stigmatised, sarcastically, as members of a Mutual Admiration Society. A society where the members laud everything written or said by any other member; and where, as the members think, all true wisdom alone illuminates the surrounding darkness. I suspect this society is a mith [pho-gti]; that the true sense of the sarcasm is, that the Thinkers overrate the value of their published thoughts, and that wisdom will not die with them. Certainly, some of the thoughts which I have seen in books, though not so gross and hateful as the Idolatry, are quite as useless. Only one thing I do respect them for—they do not subscribe to the pretensions of the priest; and are really influencing the people by giving them hints of value. They do act upon the upper classes, at least, with a reforming effect.
I have not referred to obscure sects, of which there are many. Some of these shout and howl; some keep absolute silence; some lash themselves into a sort of phrensy, and fall down in fits, fancying that they are possessed by the Holy Spirit. Some will only be baptised by going into a river, and there, under the Incantations of the Priest, be violently plunged all over in the water, both women and men. Still, all of these, and many others, hold to the Sacred Writings and the other Idolatries: the main points are alike in all.
The Roman Pope has many devotees among the English Barbarians; and was, not long ago, the Great and only Head. But a vile and cruel king, who wished to enjoy a woman and divorce his wife, with whom he had lived for many years, and by whom he had children, quarreled with the Roman Pope, because he would not suffer this bad thing to be done; and the English Barbarians, who disliked a foreign Pope, and the fierce chiefs about this king, even some of the priests of English birth, urged him to proclaim himself to be Pope in England, and to seize upon the revenues which the Pope had received from the English, and all the lands and properties of great value, which before-time had been given to the Temples and to the Priests. This was done; this king seized upon the wealth, and threw down the worship of the Roman Pope in England, and declared himself to be the new god in England—the Pope! And the English Barbarians worshipped, and have continued to worship, this new Pope accordingly. And some who could not honestly worship the new idol, and dared to adhere to the Roman, were burnt to death! Indeed this new idolatry was not introduced into England without terrible consequences. Massacres, burnings, imprisonments, wars, horrible crimes—persecutions, destruction of families, robbing, plundering—not even to this day have all the evil consequences ceased; though this bad ruler made this change in this particular of the great Superstition more than 300 years ago.
Thus, our Central Kingdom may see how powerfully Idolatry and Superstition are entrenched among the English Barbarians. A System interwoven with the very texture of their civilization; supporting, and, in turn, supported by the State; mixed up with customs and traditions, and endeared by its connection with family interests; rich in its possessions; powerful in all the Halls of Learning, and in its influence upon the fortunes and dignities of men; boasted of for its learning, for its history, and for its refining and reforming teachings; the English Church (as those Barbarians call their grand Idolatry) seems likely to stand for many generations. Yet agencies are, slowly, at work, which will remove the dark and horrible, and leave the simple and true. The Benevolence of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven never tires; and the pure worship and less corrupted morality will make way.
I hope I may be pardoned for the time which I have given to this subject; it is one worthy of deep attention. Besides, a little study of the literature and manners of the Western tribes, fastened upon my mind the impression that their History was mainly an account of the rise and progress of the Christ-god Superstition; and that, hereafter, whoever shall have the pleasing task of writing of their better civilization, will find it to be his main purpose to show the decline and extinction of that Superstition.
To wise men who worship the Supreme Lord only, and accept of His simple and direct Morality, there is, in all the broad and immense world, but a single family, ruled by Him. When this family recognises and worships Him, in direct and true sincerity, and practises the few and perfectly simple rules of His benevolent Morality, then it is an enlightened, civilized family.
The Western Barbarians do not understand nor practise this Benevolent Morality; until they do, their civilization will not be really better than a Barbarism.
We are not to suppose that a perfect morality will ever obtain, because man, being two-fold in his nature—divine and bestial—will now be ruled by the one, and now by the other part. The object of all education (discipline) is, therefore, to teach man how he may order these two parts. There is no antagonism [ha-tsi] between them, only it is indispensable that the divine part should rule.
That this may be, the intellect must be cultivated, not in difficulties, but in habits of thinking, of looking, or seeking out; of seeing the beauty, the order, the grandeur of the whole divine world. Thus employed it delights in itself; it feels the Mind like a bright thing, flying out to the great seas, and upwards to the everlasting stars. It loves to hear, to see, to look at and into everything. It can never cease to employ this delightful mind, thus stimulated in early youth, to exert itself; but it must be exerted innocently, benevolently.
That the subordination of mind and the animal may be secured, the Supreme, the Moral Faculty must, from the earliest years, be touched by wise fingers. Ah, how it responds, this divine part; how it, in the pure and warm glow of unselfish youth, recognises and worships with filial love its Father, the Sovereign Lord!—perceives the moral order and harmony, and loves to be orderly and obedient—early perceives that the true business of life is to preserve this order, and enjoy this peace.
Thus Man, a moral-minded animal, is first of all to be taught to understand his own nature, and to develop his distinguishing faculty. This done, the bestial part rises not above its office. It, too, performs its proper and useful end; and man is not a divided, but a whole and happy being.
All education, therefore, rightly considered, aims to this Integrity [Kom-fu] of a man—this secured, there are no limits to the mere objects of study or of examination.
Our Literati, directed many thousands of moons ago, by our exalted Confutze and Menzie, who, themselves were imbued with the ancient Wisdom, are familiar with these simple things. The Western Barbarians, mainly devoted first of all to the bestial part; to the enjoyment of the appetites and the passions; sunk in gross Superstitions, only by a few minds begin dimly to see.
OF THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE ENGLISH.
Before commenting upon the Government, it is useful to speak of the geography and history of the English Barbarians.
The Kingdom consists of the following: England with Wales and Scotland, forming one large island; Ireland, separated by a channel of the seas, lying West; and several small groups of islets, scattered about the Coasts. It lies Westerly from the great, main Land of the Barbarians, from which it is separated by a narrow course of the seas. England and the Main Land form the region designated Europe. The whole Kingdom surpasses not in area or population some of our Celestial provinces: the extent being in the English square miles some 110 thousand [Si-re], and in people some 32 millions [Ken-ty]. In such narrow limits there are no rivers—only small streams, which, near the sea, owing to the flux and reflux of the great waters, become broad and deep.
In our Science and in our Annals the whole region and people are known as one only—but the different petty tribes are distinguished in our waters by the forms and colours of the flags, shown upon the masts of the Barbarian vessels. The English are less in people and in lands than many others; but by their fierceness in war, and the multitude of their big ships, they esteem themselves to be the most powerful of all.
The first account of them is recorded by one of the Romans, who, in our dynasty, Han, crossed the narrow sea from a Roman province, and entered into the island. It was then a Wilderness, and among the forests lived a few savages, clothed in skins. Sometime after, the Romans conquered the country, and established a Roman province—their dominion lasting four hundred [qua-cet] years—contemporaneous with our dynasty, Hewhan.
During the dynasties, Han and Hewhan, the various tribes surrounding the Roman provinces, grown more populous and better acquainted with the Military art, crowded, more and more, upon the Romans; and, gradually, destroyed their power. They were forced to leave England.
On their departure, and for several ages after, down to our dynasty, Song, the history of the Country is merely a tale of ceaseless struggles among the different savage tribes from the Main Land, to plunder and subdue it. The civilization disappeared. Nearly all signs of the Roman occupancy became obliterated; and the knowledge of letters would have been lost, but that the Priests who accompanied some of the savage chiefs had among them some of the Roman learning. These Priests and chiefs had adopted the worship of the new Christ-god.
At length, one of these invading tribes having fairly mastered the country, and established a show of regular authority, the germs of knowledge began to grow. The victorious tribe had lands also on the main parts; fierce and warlike, it endeavoured to extend its power; and repeatedly made assaults upon others of the Barbarians of those chief parts. In these, the remains of the Roman civilization were considerable, and the knowledge of letters more common.
The position of the English, and their need of communication, made vessels indispensable; and they learned to build and to sail many ships. However, but little progress in civilization was made till our dynasty, Ming; when the Sovereign, then a Woman, called by the Barbarians, Queen, sent the first Embassy to our Central Kingdom—bearing gifts, and humbly approaching our Illustrious, begging permission to trade at one of our ports on the sea.
From that time to the present, the annals of these Barbarians are but little more than records of plundering expeditions into distant regions; of their fierce slaughters; their cunning or bold stratagems to extend trade, and establish dominion for the sake of trade and plunder. To obtain trade, by means fair or foul; to get strongholds abroad and subjugate others—these have been the great objects of the rulers and the people.
By their ships, manned with the most ignorant and debased, taught only in the work of sailing and fighting; stimulated by love of plunder, in which the meanest have a share; the very name of these Barbarians has become terrible in all the distant seas.
They first appeared within the waters of our Central Kingdom, in the dynasty Tsing, but did not venture then to assault our unoffending people; and only, by cunning and with low prostrations and humility, sought to traffic, in such way as should be acceptable to our Illustrious. Further time was looked to and greater force before showing their fierceness!
They have since seized nearly all the maritime parts of the Hindoos, and, penetrating the country with savage bands, have slaughtered the inoffensive people, and robbed the treasuries of Princes and the Temples of immense riches. They have, finally, subjugated the chief provinces of the Hindoos, and yearly bear away from them the ancient revenues.
Throwing off disguise, in our celestial seas, these Barbarians at length discovered their true character. To save our people from the effects of a dreadful poison, to which the lower orders had become habituated, our Illustrious prohibited the importation of this thing, called by the English, Opium (Zle-psi). But these disregarded the just request; wished to pour upon us enormous amounts for the sake of the gains which the bad traffic yielded, and which was monopolised by them; and, when nothing else would serve, assaulted our unoffending people, fell with fire and sword upon our province of Quang-tun, and, rushing upon other maritime parts with their great ships, armed with prodigious cannon, threatened to burn and destroy. In our peaceful Kingdom we had no need of such things; we had no means to meet these destructive engines, contrived by Christ-god worshippers; and our Illustrious, to save further dreadful mischiefs to our unprotected people, granted trade to these selfish and cruel Barbarians! Yet this benevolence of our Illustrious only served to encourage additional demands; and we all remember how, coming with more ships, swifter with steam, and greater guns and men, these impious defiers of the Sovereign and Heavenly Justice have more recently fallen upon the Northern provinces, and slaughtered and robbed our people, our palaces, and even the precincts of our Illustrious himself! Who, awaiting and appealing to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, doubts not the due chastisement of crime, which, in due time, shall heavily fall!
Meantime, in all other parts of the great Outer Seas, these English visited the coasts with their fire-ships, and compelled the natives to trade, either by fraud or by open war. In the great Sea towards the sunset, they, in this way, settled upon many Lands; and, in the course of some generations, their settlements in those regions, wishing to trade with others beside the English (which these would not allow) revolted; drove away the armed bands which were sent to subdue them, and formed a new power.
In this way, about 100 years ago, the Barbarians, called American [Mel-i-kan], arose. Their ships are known in our Central Kingdom by a flag, named "Starry," because of the Stars [Zen-ti] which are painted upon it. These people are ardent for trade, but not so mad and reckless; and not aggressive in their intercourse with others. They are not so domineering and haughty—humbly submitting themselves, in general, to the Son of Heaven, making tribute, and seeking his Illustrious protection to their trade and to their ships in our Central Waters.
During these events, the English Barbarians also sent their poor people and criminals into the Lands of the far South Seas, to make new places for their poor to toil in, to get rid of them, and to make safe, distant places, to keep their criminals in; subduing the tribes in those parts—thus making more trade. And in this way, and with their many big ships and cannons, they boast that they will bring the whole immense world, either to be tributaries, or to be completely subjective. And they please their devotees, because they say that this subjugation will "Convert" all the Pagans to the worship of the gods of their Superstition—and this great boon will abundantly compensate for all the wrongs and atrocities committed! In fact, they impiously pretend that they are commanded to subjugate the Heathen World, that it may be saved from the dreadful Hell!
The domestic events have not been important; though the Barbarians themselves think everything to be important which happens amongst them. They fancy that "Civilization and Progress" (famous words with them) depend upon the petty disputes arising—sometimes as to their Superstition, and sometimes as to some trifling thing in their Customs. One of the main events, is the story of a son of one of their Sovereigns, who drove his father out of the Kingdom, and rëestablished the Government in such manner, that, ever after, when the matter is referred to, one shall say Glorious [Twang-ba]. As well as I can understand, the things done were, that whereas, before, the Sovereign had been allowed to worship the Pope, if he wished (but in secret), afterwards he should not, but be the English Pope, solely. And, instead of a native dynasty, a foreign, and very base and stupid one, hateful to the English, was fastened upon them. These events, an outside observer sees, were followed by long-continued discontents, and civil war—wherein innocent persons suffered in their persons and their property; and very many were exiled, and very many were brutally massacred and put to death—not because of any other offence than adhering to the ancient Laws, and to the Sovereign whom this base son had dethroned! Yet, of this event, when one speaks of it, one shall say, Glorious!!
The form of government has not changed; but the power has, during these periods, past into the hands of the Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. In the time of the Queen, who sent the humble petition to our Illustrious, the English Sovereign was Master—being Pope and Ruler; that is, High Priest and Sovereign. But the people, increasing and growing richer in ships and merchandize, began to feel the intermeddling of the Ruler. Previously, the people had been too poor and too few to be accounted anything; and grew up into an improved condition without notice. They now disliked to be taxed, and began a struggle with the Sovereign to limit his power in this thing—for they said, "If he can take a penny (a small coin), at his own goodwill and pleasure, he can take all." Now this is an absurdity—yet, it looked sound; and, at any rate, became the ground of the fight between the well-to-do people (the Middle-Caste), and the Ruler. This would make his will absolute; the other would make its will absolute! The Sovereign who first had this opposition seems to have been a fool, and the next, a knave—but neither had sufficient sense to arm soldiers enough to compel obedience, as was done on the Main Land—consequently, after a good deal of wretched fighting between the Sovereign helped by nearly all the High-Caste, and the next Caste in the Aristocracy and well-to-do people, these last succeeded, and put the Sovereign to death. As is always the case, during a civil war, fanaticism arose. It based itself upon two points—the right of the people to rule, and the right of the gods of the Superstition, without any Pope, to be worshipped. This was a departure from the original dispute only in part; because some had vehemently denied the whole notion of Pope-worshipping; and as the Sovereign was English Pope, this pretension embittered the strife. Now, the Aristocracy (High-Caste) upheld the Pope; but the Second-Caste and the people, opposed; and these, at length, for the time, carried all before them; destroyed the King, overthrew his worship as Pope; and established the gods of the Superstition, with such severity of worship (especially as to the rites and as to the Seventh-day), that, Society completely changed. Even the name of the State was changed! The point, of the Rule of the people, was in this vindicated; for the name of the State was—Commonwealth; and of the Ruler—Protector. Now, this so radical change was not real. It was the expression of that extreme agony into which Civil War hurries. The strong passions sway—the strongest rule. And the very able military man who organized the troops into the ways of an invincible army, though of the Aristocratic, High-Caste connection, happened to have adopted the most severe notions of the great Superstition; looked upon Christ-god merely as the Jah of the Jews; wished to make the Sacred Writings the law of the Land; and to get himself proclaimed to be the High Priest and ruler of this new Jewish State! This remarkable man, with his invincible troops, could not absolutely do this—but he did completely overawe and rule the State, causing himself to be declared Protector of the Commonwealth!
With the death of this strong man, there being no successor to his ability, repression soon relaxed; the Aristocracy came out of their seclusion; the gloom of fanatical worship brightened in the natural love of rational life. Society rebounded from the low depression; ancient feelings, habits, sports, reasserted themselves. Communities do not radically change, at once—such a thing to be beneficial, must be cautious. A tree, though misshapen, may not be plucked up by the roots violently, and forced into uncongenial soil; to improve its beauty and use, a different method must be sought: only, if the tree be actually dying, possibly, a complete and radical change may save it—at any rate it is the sole chance!
The troops, wholly devoted to their late great General, found no one on whom they could rely; and another portion of the Army in the far North, was induced actively to assist the Aristocracy. These, joined by the middle classes, who had wearied of the too gloomy worship and severe rites, hastened to recall a Son of him whom they had not long before put to death, and place him upon the Throne. They declared him to be Sovereign-pope: they restored the old form and name of government; and rescinded nearly everything done by the Commonwealth. In this Restoration (as the English call it) is another event, considered by them, of great importance. In this Restoration (a natural effect of the fanaticism largely charged to the greater ignorance of the lower castes) the High-Castes again became predominant. They again took influence and power everywhere, and retained the fruits of the civil struggle in their hands. They had aided the resistance to the arbitrary will of the Sovereign; and they now grasped and enjoyed the power wrested from him. They, alone, could impose taxes. No Sovereign would again dare to tax the people (that is, the High-Castes) without their consent. But they would levy and raise taxes when they pleased. Thus holding the Purse of the State they had become supreme.
On the death of this Restored one (who turned out to be so base that the common people often deplored the loss of the late great General), a brother reigned. This man, as I have said (wishing to worship the Rome-pope) was driven out by his son, forming the epoch, Glorious. The present Queen is of the dynasty then established; and during this period the absorption of power by the High-Caste has gone on. Taught by the Slaughter of the late King, his successor feared; and the new dynasty was compelled by the Aristocracy to submit to those limitations of power, which effectually placed authority in their hands. To secure this authority, the Sovereign was not allowed any money to keep troops; and, if, on any pretence, troops were raised, they were immediately refused pay, and forced to be disbanded upon the least suspicion that they would be used to strengthen the Sovereign. The aristocracy had continued to strip him also of all private revenue; and had, in fact, reduced him to a dependency upon them for his daily subsistence [Bran-te].
Thus, the High-Caste, acting by the forms of the Grand Council, seized power.
It is proper to explain the substance and form of this Council.
It is divided into two parts—Upper House, and Lower House.
The Upper are the Lords [Cheang] of Lands and Lords of the Temples—(High-State Sect.)
The Lower are lords, brothers, sons, nephews, relations, and devoted servants of the Upper; and are far more numerous.
No rule can be made, nor law, without both these bodies consent to it. This they do by asking each one his opinion, and a majority decides. Everything of importance must originate in the Lower House, and first be settled there. Then, the will of the Lower House is communicated to the Upper House, and it is ordered to ratify it. The members do so, and the Sovereign (or somebody requested thereto by him) approves (as the English politely phrase it); and the thing, so approved, is a new Law. Now, no Sovereign dares not approve—it might cost him his head. The last one, many years ago, who thought he might risk it, soon gave up the attempt, and died in a madhouse.
It will be seen, that the power in the Lower House will necessarily fall into the hands of any one who can obtain adherents enough to his opinions to secure a majority of members. The most ready debater [Qu-iztsi], the coolest and self-possessed, who has made himself master of the wishes of the majority; or, who, to these things, or with only a part of them, has great wealth and influence—one, in fine, who knows and divines what is wanted, and has the ability to lead;—directs and orders the measures which are to be adopted. This man, who controls the Lower House, governs the State. He nominates those who shall assist him in the government, being the same who aid him in managing the House. Thus, the Lower House governs by its delegates.
All these men, who are really a Committee [ty-gi-te] of the House for the ruling of the Kingdom, act in the name of the Sovereign, and receive the ancient titles of office from him. The ancient forms are preserved; and these men, obeying the House, profess to obey the Sovereign—in fact, the Sovereign is pretended to be the source of honour and of authority; and the very Laws which have been made against his wish are declared to be his Laws!
Thus, both the Sovereign and the people are amused. The one, by the respect shown to him, the emoluments and influence of his high office, and of his Pope-ship; the others, by some semblance of political [in-tri-gsi] power. This consists in calling together a few of the people of second and lower caste, to choose a new member for the Lower House—but this is quite a comedy, [sham-li] for the most part. It gives the ignorant Barbarians a notion of self-importance, and tickles them with the fancy that they really have a part in the government of the State.
Whilst these changes in the ordering of things at home were in progress, the usual fierce and bloody expeditions of these Barbarians had not been suspended.
The Americans had succeeded in establishing their independent power, but not till they had waged a second war with their late masters, scarcely less important to them than the first. For the English, still looking upon them with disdain, insisted upon the right to stop any of the vessels of the Americans upon the high seas, and to seize and carry away to their own ships any one whom they pleased. They would do this, and force the victims of their insolent cruelty to fight for them in their horrible war-ships.
The American Barbarians resisted this outrage; and, forced to fight a bloody war, vindicated their just cause; so that never since have the English, or any other Barbarians, dared to board or outrage the ships or the sailors [mer-tsi] of the Americans.
This stubborn and brutal barbarity, love of plunder and traffic, have involved the English during the present dynasty in numberless wars beyond seas. They have internally avoided great commotion, although the low castes have occasionally perished in surprising numbers by famine and disease. In Ireland the depopulation has exceeded anything recorded. The poor people of the Northern parts also, driven away from their homes, have nearly disappeared, unless in the armed bands sent over the sea. With these, the poor and despised Irish are in great numbers also; and, indeed, the strength and ferocity of the armed bands depend upon these, the most degraded and lowest caste of the Barbarians. In this way, the most turbulent and ignorant have been drawn off, trained to use of arms, and used to spread and maintain the terror and power of the English. Many of the low-castes have been shipped away in great ships to distant parts to form new settlements, and to add to those already begun. By these means, and from the increase of riches from trade, and from plunder of remote regions giving employment to the low orders, great disorders have been avoided. The plunder of the vast treasures of the Princes of the Hindoos, and the trade which has been forced upon them, and upon others, have contributed to this end. The result of increased wealth has been, however, mostly to the gain of the High-Castes; who, holding the Lands, have found in the enormous increase of value in these an additional strength. The numbers of the rich have increased; and these always look to the Castes above, and draw away as far as possible from those below. The poor remained uneducated, and fell more completely under control. If one of their order benefited himself, he had no ambition higher than a desire to stand well with those above him. Thus Wealth, always joining itself to the Higher Castes, made the power of the Aristocracy [Fo-hi] quite complete, and the obedience of the common people assured. Of this High-Caste the Sovereign is merely the ornamental top.
The learning of the Romans made but little advance, until very lately. The great Schools had some of the High-Caste within their walls; the mass of the people remained ignorant, fierce, and brutal. The laws continued to be in a most dreadful state; the prisons, foul dens of disease, cruelty and crime; the administration of Law, and disposal of offenders, savage and barbarous in the extreme.
The learning took mostly a fantastic [pa-ntsi] form—pedantic, busied with the mere shells of words, and names of things. It busied itself chiefly with the old languages of the Romans and the Greeks. A man who could repeat aloud from memory the modes of a Greek word was a man of profound learning. Of our Central Kingdom, of the wisdom and knowledge of the great East, they knew nothing; but nursed an intolerable conceit in admiration of the trivialities of their own ignorance, and by disdaining to understand a civilization of which they knew nothing—branding it as idolatrous, dark, Pagan!
Still, gradually, intercourse and larger acquaintance with the main parts, revived the love of Roman art; and the Roman civilization once more revived. Roman architecture, sculpture, learning, laws appeared. The style of public buildings, houses of the High-Castes, Bridges, took on the Roman forms. The Literati became more numerous; and, with the increasing riches, larger numbers became instructed. A long, bloody and disastrous War, which ended only a few years ago, moderated the intolerant selfishness of the Barbarians. It left them so crushed down under the weight of innumerable taxes, that it began to be seen that these interminable Wars beyond Seas, were not paid for by the gains of trade, nor by acquisitions of territory. This moderation was strengthened by the better and increasing knowledge: and Wars are not, in general, so eagerly waged.
The oldest child of a Ruler succeeds—male first, and failing him, a female. The direct descent from the eldest always succeeds, to the exclusion of the younger.
It is justly claimed that this is an element of stability; though it contains a foolish omission. For there is no recognized authority which can set aside an heir in the direct Line for however good cause. Thus the danger of a violent succession is always imminent—and of this the English history has many examples. In our Flowery Land, this danger is averted by the wise customs of the great Calao.
In my Report, I have explained at length the rules which govern in transactions with foreign tribes; and shown the maxims needful for our Illustrious, in all negotiations and dealings with the Western Barbarians. As trade (particularly by the English) is the grand object, I have pointed out how to deal in this matter, in such way as to yield no more than is convenient, nor sooner than is expedient.
The Committee who govern, preserving ancient forms, administer through them, in the name of the Sovereign. These forms assume three great divisions, one of them being two-fold: spiritual, referring to the great Superstition; and the other temporal; this is quite nominal, for the "temporalities" always touch matters spiritual in some way.
The First is the Executive.
The Second is the Parliament.
The Third is the Judicial.
The Executive—that is that which executes—has two parts. Spiritual, (the ghostly, the unknown,) performing all things concerning the Sovereign-Pope, the Temples, the worship, the Bonzes. Temporal, ordering the military forces by land and by sea, seeing that the laws are obeyed, and ruling the Hindoos and other distant peoples and settlements. Also arranging all matters with other Christ-god Barbarians, and with all foreign peoples.
The Law-making, called Parliament, or place of talking [Ba-ble]. This is the Grand Council already referred to, divided into the Upper and the Lower House, together really forming one, where all Rules and Laws are made. Here rests the Supreme Authority; and this body is controlled by the Committee, as before explained.
The Upper House is composed of Lords, who sit there in right of birth, except the Spiritual Lords, who are the great Bonzes (called Bishops) of the Superstition. Formerly, this Upper was, next after the Sovereign, most powerful, and often over-ruled, and even dethroned him. But the greater intelligence has reduced its influence, and made innoxious its mischievousness. Even its aristocraticalness could not blind the Lower House to an Imbecility inherent in its very constitution. Born Law-makers! The proportion of idiots, worn-out and selfish roués (we have no similar word), narrow caste-bound egotists, at last, wearied even its congeners, and they left to the Lords [Tchou] the ancient Forms, but deprived them of all real power. This might not have happened, but that from the very nature of things the number of Peers (as a Lord is called, who has the hereditary law-making right) who are active and young is inconsiderable; and, for the most part, these prefer out-door sports, pleasures of wealth and travel, to sitting among the elders to be snubbed for youthful inexperience. The result is that all warmth, life, and interest, all generous disinterestedness, are unknown by these venerable egotists. They are sufficiently amused with hereditary titles, with the respect shown to their rank, and with the playing at Law-making. They are too conceited to see that they are "puppets," and too small to despise the honours which conceal their insignificance. Are they not exalted above and separated from the "common-herd"? [kou-tong].
They are completely engrossed with the trivialities of their rank (High-Caste). They wait upon the Sovereign like menials, tricked out in furs, feathers, and robes, and jewelled chains, stars and garters, sparkling in gems, silk hose, and the very shoes resplendent with precious stones! On great occasions they are allowed (and this permission must come from the Sovereign) to place upon the head a golden and jewelled "circlet," named coronet. With this head-gear glittering about their brows, they receive the respectful reverence of the people, and feel a greater exaltation than the gods. "Ah," as the Barbarians say, "who would not be a Lord!"
A special Superstition attaches itself to this head-ornament. That worn by the Ruler is called a Crown. When he places it on in public, the trumpets give a mighty sound, all the people bow in humble homage, and Nature is supposed to arrest the wheels of her majestic course to join in the rapturous shouts of delight! The act is rooted in the Superstition, and one of its most cherished things.
The highest ambition of a subject is to be permitted to take Rank and wear this bauble. There is no mean service to the Ruler, no intrigue, no sacrifice which may not be done or suffered to get this privilege—the right to shine in this coronet. And such an ambition is so honourable, that success condones every contemptible thing by which it is secured. Men are blinded by the glare, and overlook the mean being below: in his Coronet he is unimpeached and unimpeachable!
Nor is this ambition confined to the Lords temporal; the High-Caste Bonzes will not be remiss in those duties to the Sovereign and to his family, in those to "Society" and to the exalted Lords, upon whom they have to attend on all occasions of baptising and marrying and feasting, to give the blessings [fihu-lsi] of the gods of the Superstition—in nothing remiss which shall help them to secure the peculiar head-gear given to those of their order whom the Sovereign raises to the lordly rank called Bishops. It is called a mitre. Ages ago, in the obscure days of the Superstition, poor and miserable, the chief Bonzes were distinguished by a head-covering like two bits of board, united or mitred together, typical of the two-fold nature of their office. Thus arose the Mitre, now a resplendent and costly bauble, more lofty than the coronets, and showing the superiority of spiritual (priestly) dignity!
In these coveted distinctions, the Sovereign finds the source of nearly all the power really enjoyed; and by an artful use and distribution of coronets and mitres, often covertly manages the machinery of government to his own wishes. An unscrupulous and able man may make himself respected! I forgot to say that another jewelled symbol of priestcraft is bestowed with the mitre, so comical that one might suspect it originated in the love of coarse humour common to the Barbarians—but its true origin was in the same early and poor days of the Superstition, when the highest Bonze was only a "Keeper of the Sheep;" that is, his duty was to keep the poor devotees together and save them from the idolatrous pagans. The Christ was said to have called his despised followers "Sheep without a shepherd," and to have requested the chief of his followers "to feed his sheep." Thus it came about that these chief men took a staff, crooked at one end (similar to that used by a veritable shepherd), as typical of their duty.
With the mitre is, therefore, handed a costly Crosier—crooked and crossed staff—to enable the Lord Bishop to pull in the wandering sheep, or to catch hold of any which may have slipt down into deep holes, or other rough places! "Fancy a Lord Bishop catching sheep!"—said a jocose Barbarian to me once.
The crowning of a new Ruler is a grand ceremony, in which all the wearers of the little crowns (coronets and mitres) attend; and no Ruler is a Ruler unless he be CROWNED, with all the superstitious rites. To this I may refer elsewhere. At present, I may mention that the history of all the Barbarians, and notably that of the English, is a story very often of the wars, assassinations, plots, and cruel deeds done to seize the Crown: for whoever could contrive to clap this thing upon his head was at once King! In the eyes of the superstitious invested with a sort of divinity! This feeling is well expressed by their greatest poet: "What a divinity doth hedge a King!" This is, doth encompass and protect a King.
When the Law-making Houses meet, the custom is for the Sovereign to attend in all his State, and open the Houses. That is, to swing open the grand doors of the Upper House for the Lords, and especially for the Lower members; who, on this occasion, are admitted to enter in and listen to the Gracious Speech. The rush of the Low-members is frightful, for the Doors are only opened for a very short time. The speech itself is nothing—merely some polite phrases as to the health and happiness of "our beloved Lords and gentlemen" (as the form is), and some Incantation to the gods of the Superstition, "on the prosperity and successful trade of our subjects." The great Lords sit like gods, effulgent, exalted; whilst the Low-members crowd like school-boys, and as rudely as school-boys, below. This is another thing by which the childish Lords are amused with a notion of power.
The present Sovereign rarely opens the Houses, but delegates some great Lords to do it for her. And the ceremony is far less. The Crown and the Crown Jewels are, therefore, so rarely seen, that the divinity of the Ruler is in danger; for the Superstitious reverence and pope-worship attaches to the Crown. These Crown Baubles are, by the present Ruler, kept imprisoned and guarded in a huge stone castle, so strong that no force but of nature can throw it down, and are cautiously shown to the admiring and dazzled few who are allowed by the guards to see them, at "a penny a-peep" (as an American Barbarian said in my ear, on the day of my seeing them). In this he referred to the fee [tin] which is exacted before admission, and which (I was told) went to the privy-purse of the Queen to buy pins. The Barbarians boast that these glittering gewgaws cost more than all the Halls of Learning!
The Judicial is the remaining great division of administration. In this the Laws are explained and applied. No law is, by this department, ever made. It has no such function. None the less, it really makes new laws, and unmakes the Statute Law (that is, the Law enacted by the great Council of Law-makers) just as it pleases. In fact the chief business of this department is to unmake the Laws, and the chief business of the Council is to make them over again. And between the two, of the making of Law there is no end, nor any possible understanding. Were not the Barbarian body and mind very tough, they would infallibly perish beneath the weight of this inscrutable and ponderous contrivance. No one is benefited by it, but the innumerable officers who manage it, and the Lawyers, who fatten upon the fees [tin-tin] which it wrings from all the unfortunates who have to attend upon it. These Lawyers form a special and very exclusive Caste; often at dispute among themselves upon points of personal concern, and as to the emoluments and offices which appertain to the Caste, but always united (and so-called Brothers) as to everything outside, by which they can more effectually conceal and mystify the nature of their order, and the more adroitly plunder the uninitiated. This is the Caste which opposes every inquiry into abuses and every attempt to reform the administration; which shouts the loudest praises to the Superstition, puts in force all the terrors of the Caste and of the Law (as by them expounded) to destroy any one who does not adore the glorious event, and declare the Constitution and the Laws, the Crown and the Altar (meaning the Superstition), the most perfect of all human wisdom—indeed, Divine. I have explained the Glorious event. To the Lawyer-Caste glorious in fees and means of plunder; in abuses which, had the reforms introduced before that event been perfected, would have been swept away; reforms which that event postponed, and the subsequent wars and civil dissensions made not only impossible, but still more difficult in the future. In another place I propose to refer to this department—the Judicial—when speaking of the Courts of Justice wherein the Laws are expounded and applied: because, as in these the daily course of the life of a people may be studied, I wish to look curiously into them. It will be readily seen, however, that for a stranger to find, beneath the thick and manifold wrappings and ponderous obscurities of the Lawyer-Caste, where Justice lies smothered, is no easy task.
The present Ruler is of the so-called glorious dynasty, and is more wise and virtuous than her ancestors, who were remarkable for obstinacy, meanness, stupidity, and debauchery. If one had a virtue, it was so misdirected by narrowness of mind as to be worse than vice. The best man of them was the most mischievous Sovereign, and the wisest thing done by any of the dynasty was to keep away from England. When they did nothing they did well; their activity was disastrous.
The Queen now reigning is esteemed by the Aristocracy because she leaves them to do as they please, and gratifies them by bestowing upon them and their devoted supporters coronets. She only demands for herself and her numerous children ample provisions; if in these she be gratified, she cares not to vex herself or her Lords by any disputes. She is very benevolent, filling the great palaces with poor relations, where they are supported—not by her. On the marriage of one of her royal children her munificence is unequalled; but she asks her devoted Lords to tax her subjects to pay for it!
Her allowances are, with wise policy, made very ample, that a splendid Court may be kept up, to give places to the aristocracy, and to gratify the love of display. In this the Lords are generous; it costs them nothing, the taxes upon the people cover the expenses. There are murmurs that the crown is never shown; that Royalty is hidden from view, and that the reverence of the people wanes; that the allowances designed and heretofore used to maintain a grand Court of respect and honour are misdirected, and get into the private pocket of Royalty for merely personal objects. But he who should dare openly to say this, unless of a very High Caste, would assuredly have his ears cropped [ku-tof.]
The reign has not been without bloody wars; one of which was to uphold a sick Turk (an outside Barbarian, who hates the very name of Christians, and calls them dogs), and whom the English Barbarians themselves despise. Yet, they rushed with great ships and armed bands to attack another Christ-god tribe, who threatened the sick Turkish chief; because, as they thought, their trade was best secured by helping the Turk! This foolish war cost thousands of the lives of the English sailors and armed bands, but what is far more consequential to the Barbarians, many millions [li-re] of gold. It ended in nothing at all; for the great tribe which lost in the war some ships and some forts, taken by the English, have now rebuilt them more strongly than before, and again threaten the sick Turk more than ever!
When the American Barbarians had a domestic contention—some of them wishing to deliver a poor people held in slavery, by a custom in some of their provinces, from the cruel wrong—the English Barbarians sided with those who wished to keep the slaves. They did this notwithstanding that always before they had almost quarrelled with the American tribes for allowing this very thing! Now, however, because they did not like to have that people great in ships, and because they thought it would be safer for them and better for their trade, to have the American tribes broken to pieces, insidiously aided those who fought to hold the slaves, in every way they could without open war. But the slave-holding tribes were overpowered, and the slaves set free. Presently, the American Barbarians demanded that they should be repaid some of the monies which this treacherous conduct had cost them—the lives could not be repaid. The English Barbarians, fearing the American tribes—very valiant, and having many ships—finally submitted to pay a heavy penalty for their wrong doing!
Lately, also, the English Barbarians have stood silent and seen another tribe on the Main Land (which aided them just before in the War for the Turk, and, in fact, saved them from being shamefully beaten) completely overthrown and mercilessly sacked by another tribe—when a kindly word would have saved great suffering. But it does not displease the English Barbarians to see another tribe weakened—and their trade was not touched in this war—in fact, perhaps they had more to gain by pleasing the strong tribe which came out victorious.
The English themselves complain that, lately, they have not distinguished themselves by their usual glorious expeditions; that their war-ships and their fierce warriors are getting out of use, and that the late Committee of Government, made the name of England inglorious. This feeling at length got possession of the Lower House, and a new Committee appeared. These say that the attempt to carry on affairs with other tribes, upon the moral rules of the Christ-god worship, although the tribes are devotees, is absurd. That the late Committee, who had some slight notion of correct moral precepts, and thought possibly one might venture to trust the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, were peace-at-any-price men, milksops (a term of reproach equivalent to milkmaids) [kin-e-suk], and that, in their hands, the English Lion had been muzzled—made an object of contempt! (This blood-thirsty beast is the admired symbol of English power.)
This new Committee are pledged to seize the very first occasion which may offer to exhibit the British. Lion (as he is styled) with his muzzle off, his claws sharpened, and his frame well fed and strong. The taxes are raised and the most exact attention is devoted to all needful things to perfect this beast to the standard of his ancient might. And the present Government—Committee—watch with keen eyes for that opportunity, when they shall suddenly let spring this monster! It is supposed that the angry growl [heuien-ro] will sufficiently alarm; if not, the terrific roar [Zuung-luu] cannot fail! The only drawback to this ferocious pastime will be found in those members of the Lower House, who, themselves bearing a good weight of taxes without the emoluments of office, may oppose the majority and reduce the arrogancy of its temper. None the less, in the present brutal conceit of the Lower House and of the lower orders, a war may at any moment break out, if for no other purpose than to show other Barbarians that the British Lion is still a Lion in full vigour! The idea of a dull, toothless, blind old brute, which even a jackass (as one of the Barbarian fables has it) may kick with impunity, is too intolerable!
The morality of the present Loyal Court is said to be admirable—when you can once find the Royal residence. But this is quite a myth. There is, in this reign, no Loyal Court, only a domestic circle—a Royal Family—not kept up with so much splendour as some of the homes of the High-Caste. It is said that no suitor of an improper moral colour may approach any Princess, unless he be a cousin of the Queen, when the blood sanctifies the taint, and all is clean. If a real cousin be not of these suitors, one as nearly related among the poverty-stricken princes of the Barbarians from the Main Land as can be had, is selected. He must profess to worship the great Superstition of the English Sect, and detest the Roman Pope—at least, in public. His poverty is no objection—that is more than counterbalanced by the Illustrious obscurity of his race—that is, some family which ages ago contrived to live by plunder, and by making itself safe within the walls of stone castles, among steep rocks and hills. A family whose descendants feel more pride in these, now, old and ruinous wrecks of former insolence, than in any other possession—and whose alliance is acceptable to the English Queen! The poverty of these petty chiefs is, however, removed; nor do they marry a Princess of the English Queen unless they be paid for it. It is not the Queen who pays; the occasion is seized upon to obtain that provision to which I have referred.
And the paltry chief, and his new, royal bride, know poverty no more; they, and their children, and children's children, are provided for by the Lower House, who tax the people for this privilege, so much valued by them!—this privilege of succouring and enriching the worn out, useless and decaying chiefs of foreign Barbarians, who have any, the remotest, trace of kinship to the Royal House of England!
The more considerable events, therefore, in the present reign, as the Barbarians think, have reference to these marriages of Royal Princesses, births, christenings (baptizings), deaths, and the like among them. The Low-House readily takes these opportunities to profess its homage and devotion. The Queen follows the Sacred Writings with great exactness, which commands "take care of those of your own blood"—indeed, her devotion to this precept is, perhaps, more noticeable than her devotion in general.
Her Illustrious presence is rarely known among the people. When she does appear, she is hardly more than respectfully and silently worshipped. She does not attract the love of the people—though she is (as a sly Barbarian youth of the Low-Castes once said to me, sarcastically), very dear [chean]. (A pun [phu-nsi] on the word; which may mean beloved, or very costly).
When, as rarely happens, to honour some Show wherein the Royal presence may bring money to a Charity, the Queen appears, surrounded by Royal guards, and in State, there is always to be seen a gigantic servant, dressed in the scarlet of the Royal household, seated immediately behind the Sacred Person, to watch over and rescue her from any danger. His body and mighty strength are always ready to be interposed! This favourite servant, it is said, assists her Illustrious, when, among the hills of the Far North, she visits the great, high rocks, and climbs the sides of mountains—his strength is so ready, trusty, and invaluable!
To her, and to her subjects, a great loss was inflicted when Death destroyed the youthful Consort of the Queen, when she was still young. He was one of ancient family among the petty Barbarian chiefs to whom I have referred; was near in blood to the Queen, and by her greatly beloved, it is said. He was never allowed any power in the State, and was a subject of the Queen, though her husband. It is whispered that he did not quietly submit to this condition of things—but it would not be worth the notice of a wise man to attend to this gossip. I could never learn that he was of any use; but, none the less, the Barbarians exalt him very highly, and have built lofty monuments to his honour. I said use—I forgot—he gave a very numerous brood of princes and princesses to the English Barbarians. Of these they are very proud—not because they do, or can ever do, anything useful, but because it adds to the number of the High-Castes, and around them very many poor members of that caste can cluster, and live upon the cast-off clothes and other second-hand things of these exalted!
On the whole, we may desire the long continuance of Her Illustrious' reign. If her will were law, distant plunderings would cease; and her influence is better than may generally be looked for. She cannot prevent, but she may moderate those expeditions despatched to subjugate the Heathen, extend trade, and bring under the dominion and worship of the Christ-god distant tribes. Great guns, fire-arms, gunpowder, and a poisonous liquor called Rum, would, perhaps, under other sovereigns, even more frequently be sent to prepare the way for the Prince of Peace (as the Christ-god is often styled).
Some respect for Justice and some regard to the rights of others have been shown under the influence of this Illustrious; but, as we have seen, this, the most honourable distinction of the present reign, is likely to be obliterated. The old predatory instinct of the English Barbarians again comes uppermost, and though caution and fear of taxes may make the Committee of Government tardy and unwilling to attack (unless some weak tribe, where victory would be sure and its glory conspicuous), yet, such is the prevailing temper, that blood-letting seems needful to cool those fierce and haughty Barbarians.
A ferocious war may be looked for; nor is it by any means incredible that the war-ships of these Christ-god worshippers and their murdering bands should again be directed against our peaceful Central Kingdom!
SOME PARTICULARS OF THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION.
The whole country is divided into districts, in general governed, like our Provinces, in the Sovereign's name, by viceroys and governors.
The heir to the Crown, if he be the son of the reigning Ruler, is Prince of Wales—a title bestowed upon his eldest son by an ancient king; and which, at the time, gave the administration of that Province to this son. The eldest son of the Queen now enjoys with this title also that of Duke of Cornwall. These lofty designations confer no power, although they carry with them high distinction and great revenues.
The Aristocracy in the case of the heir, as in that of the Sovereign, watch jealously anything which looks like intellect. They do not stint personal respect and ample revenues, but take care that upon coming to the Crown, the new Sovereign shall be a "puppet."
He is, whilst heir, not allowed to take any kind of share in government, but is surrounded by flatterers, flunkeys [pluc-ngi], idle young people of both sexes, and, from mere want of useful business, falls into every sort of sport and pleasure. He must, indeed, be strong in morality and in character, if, upon coming to his high office, he be not reduced to the selfish imbecile and puppet, desired by the High-Caste. Lucky if he have not become absolutely contemptible by his vices!
Ireland is governed by a High Viceroy, whose chief employment is to amuse the Irish with shows—the real power being in the hands of the General of the armed bands. Anciently, the Provinces were administered by Vice-roys, who possessed authority; but the pettiness of the Island and swiftness of communication have now concentrated all actual administration at the Capital city. The Provincial governors, however, keep up some show of the ancient order, and, nominally, command the Provincial Militia. This is a merely nominal force, composed of butcher-boys, farmer-lads and the like, who do not know how to handle a fire-arm, nor how to fight, unless in the Barbarian pastime of the Ring: a combat wherein the young Barbarians, two being pitted against each other, try each to hit the other a terrible blow directly in the eye. This, done with the hand doubled up, nearly destroys that organ. He is victor who succeeds in hitting both eyes of his antagonist, and fairly blinding him! This, a common and admired sport, is greatly esteemed by the English Barbarians, and considered an admirable training. It develops the ferocity and brutality required to make good soldiers (plunderers), and the powers of endurance indispensable in the distant forays. Even in the Halls of Learning, it is thought to be a manly science, fitting the young Aristocracy to match any man in personal conflict, and enabling him to be self-possessed and ready to fight his way through the world. As, in general, the lowest orders are badly fed and reduced in strength, and, though well used to brutal fights, yet are not trained to the Science, the young Aristocrat is expected "to pummel the brute" upon the slightest occasion of disrespect.
The provincial Magistracy are mainly employed in keeping the Lower-Castes in order, and especially in punishing trespasses upon the lands, or upon the convenience of the Higher-Castes. The most common form of trespass is that called Poaching. The High-Castes own all the lands, and the Low-Castes, who till the soil, are the ancient slaves—slaves no longer under any law, but nearly as much so by custom. Very poor, but little better than beggars, and really beggars in large numbers, and hungry, the temptation to knock over the abundant nearly tame creatures (birds, fowls, hares, and the like) everywhere around them in the fields and copses, is too strong to be resisted. To do this is to be a Poacher—a criminal most detested by the High-Caste; for he presumes to think, in some cases, that the right in these free creatures is not absolutely vested in the High-Castes. Yet this sort of property is most rigidly preserved, by the penalties of severe punishment, to the use of the High-Caste—for his sport in the shooting of them, rather than for food. The Poacher, who is merely tempted by hunger, and who abjectly begs pity and promises reformation, escapes in some instances lightly; but he who presumes to question the right to this wholesale appropriation feels the full wrath of the Law.
Petty civil and criminal offences may be tried by the Provincial Magistracy; subject, however, in cases involving any interests of importance, to revision at the Capital.
There is a sort of Provincial (and yet Metropolitan) Court called Convocation [Kal-ti-se]. In this, things touching the Christ-god Superstition are determined. If a Bonze has not worn, or has worn improperly, his neck-tie, or his surplice [ro-bsi]; if the table before the Altar (Idol) has been placed out of square; for things of this sort—or if a Bonze be accused of departing from the ordered rendering of some word in the Sacred Writings, or of having said something contrary to the orders of Convocation or of the rites—for these and other things respecting the great Idolatry, Convocation sits. It is composed of High Bonzes and a few delegates of High-Caste devotees, whose duty is merely to ratify the decisions of the High Bonzes—these regulate everything.
This High and Lofty Court was anciently styled Star Chamber, because exalted above mere mortal interests, and only concerned with the preservation of the Idolatry. Formerly it worshipped the Sovereign as Pope of the Superstition more devotedly than is the fashion at present, and burnt people to death for refusing to do so. Now it refrains from this severity, and is content (or tries to be) with depriving a Bonze who doubts, of his living, and all honours and emoluments.
It still convenes in the old hall of its former glory. A venerable moss-covered pile, vast and gloomy, with lofty towers and turrets of rock, with hewn cells and deep dungeons. Here may be seen, fixed to the rock, the rings and chains, worn and rusty with age, where the victims of superstition suffered beneath the decrees of this ancient Court. Slow and proud, along the dark stone corridors, and beneath the dusky arches of this great prison-palace, the High Bonzes and the devotees walk in state. Ushered with pompous ceremonial, and with the grand incantations to the gods and devils of the Superstition, into the lofty and obscure hall of the Star-Chamber, the Convocation sits. In deep alcoves around are stored the ponderous volumes, containing all the mysteries and terrors of the Superstition. In these are the horrid imaginings of fanatical Priests and devotees; the dogmas and canons of the Superstition; the dreadful arsenal, whence were drawn those frightful weapons of superstitious terror, whence issued the chains and bolts, and scourges, the faggots and the flames. One hears the groans of the tortured, the steps of the jailers, the clashing of the chains, when, in these long and resounding aisles and arches, the winds moan, the distant footsteps fall, or the old casements in the ruinous towers shake and rattle.
Nor is the arsenal wholly useless now; the weapons are not all rusty; anathemas may yet be found to terrify, and restraints to punish. Heresy [pho-phi], as any doubt concerning the Queen-pope and the Superstition is called, drives the culprit from Society, deprives the Bonze of all preferment, of his employment, and turns him ignominiously adrift, to live or to starve.
Convocation watches over the Sacred Writings, to see that no change, not so much as of a syllable, be made; not trusting to Jah, who may have himself, perhaps, grown indifferent to the matter. A curious thing, showing how irrationally men will act in respect of an irrational system. For the notion is that this Word of Jah (the Sacred Writings), being his Revelation (Word), have always been by Him exactly preserved through all the ages and the changes of languages, and of transcription, and of everything to this hour. Why is it to be supposed, then, that He will suddenly lose his power to preserve, or will be indifferent to preserve?
Punishments in the ordinary Courts are not very remarkable, only there is one so characteristic of the English, so comically barbarous, that I will try to describe it.
The offender is stripped naked to the waist, tied up with his hands widely extended, and with his face to a strong post; then a man takes a large strong cat, kept hungry and savage for the purpose, and placing the creature at the back of the neck, draws it forcibly down the naked back. Of course the cat holds on with teeth and claws. This is repeated till the culprit faints, when the cat is removed. The back of the man is washed with vinegar and salt, and he revives, perhaps to undergo the infliction again. This astonishing mode of correcting offenders is called flogging with the cat.
I may also make a remark upon another feature of criminal punishment. The crime of treason, not only insures the death, but the horrid mutilation of the culprit; and, not satisfied with this, reaches to the innocent wife and children. All the estates, titles, honours, properties of the offender are sequestrated to the State, and his blood is attainted; that is, made incapable of giving honour and employment to his offspring! Thus the innocent are disgraced, and reduced, not merely to beggary, but, as far as possible, placed in a condition of hopeless misery!
The Idolatry and Sacred Writings are, no doubt, responsible for this impolitic injustice and cruelty. For Jah is constantly made by the Priests to say, that he visits the sins of the father upon his child even to the tenth generation! A natural development of the moral sense would fall short of this vindictiveness; and in this false and horrible wrath, taught in their Sacred Writings, the fierce Barbarians are encouraged to outdo themselves!
The greatest of all the Courts, and which chiefly controls the others, is the High and Mighty Court of Chancery. It has many names—as Court of Equity, of the King's Conscience, and others—assuming as many styles and jurisdictions as the ancient Proteus of Egypt; who, as the Priests said, could take any form, or no form, be fire, or cloud, or invisible air. So this Court, feared by the Barbarians with a paralyzing dread, takes on any shape! It stands for the King's conscience—which, as the conscience of a Pope-king, must be a doubly divine thing. For, as remarked elsewhere, "Divinity doth hedge a King!" We, I think, should fear that this conscience would be as uncertain as the man. Its function is, therefore, to decide with Equity; to relieve against the inexorable hardness of the ancient rules; and give relief in cases of mistake, accident, and fraud. This looks admirable, but it is all sham (phu-dgi).
Not the least attention is really paid to equity, but only to the decrees of the Court as recorded. A Suitor petitions for redress. The petition is not examined to be determined upon the matters therein stated. First—The Petition must be in all respects in due form, according to the recorded rules. Second—The matter of it must be such as the Court will consider, and such as may come before the Court. Third—Are the Parties in the Jurisdiction, and are all the parties who may be interested, duly notified and present; or, if not present, accounted for. Fourth—Are the matters for the Court only, or must it be assisted by some petty judges to ascertain the facts. Fifth—The petition being at last before the Judge, he may not look into it, unless the Lawyers look into it with him; and, then, no opinion (decree) can be given until the Records are fully examined, to discover if anything of the sort has been relieved. If a similar case be found, then the petitioner is called upon to prove his case as stated in his petition; and, if he fail to prove his exact case (though he may make a stronger show for relief), he is ordered out of Court, and condemned to heavy costs (tin-tin). If the case be proved, then the Judge reserves his judgment. For he must very carefully compare all the cases, examine all the voluminous Records, besides examining the innumerable Papers which have grown up around the Petition during all the proceedings (often spreading over many years), before he dare to order the recording of his decree. For, this done, he has added another Case to the King's conscience; that is, to the highest form of Law and of human Justice!
He dare not do this unless justified by the Records; interminable, stretching backwards to the first King who pretended to have a conscience; obscure, contradictory—he dare not unless justified by the Records—Precedents. If he mistake, grossly, he will be certain to be called to account by the Lawyer-Caste, who make a business of seeking for discrepancies; in fact, he is bewildered—not by the case; that is simple, or was originally, simple enough; but, by the arguments of the Lawyers, the documents overlying and enveloping the case, and by the difficulty of deciding according to the Precedents. Could he merely announce his own judgment, there is no difficulty—but that is the last thing to be thought of—in truth, if reduced to that, he is bound to refuse any relief, however clear it is that equity requires it!
Thus the Judge, old and wearied; a man tottering over his grave, feeble, irresolute, takes the course which maybe looked for—and postpones, and postpones; other like cases accumulate on his hands; he dismisses some, "reserves" others, refers to another judge what he can decently, decides none! Or only those which are petty, or those which are really unopposed, or those exciting no interest.
Meantime, the parties to the Petition are dead, or absconded, or beggared. Years have elapsed; all parties are worn out or impoverished by the enormous expenses—at length, there is no one to pay Lawyers and the Court Officers—the thing lapses—dies. Term after Term (as Sessions of the Court are called), the Case is called. Some poor wretch struggles still to save something of the property tied up in the Court by the Case—he tries to call up from the mass of dusty and forgotten Records, a reminiscence of the lost Petition. In vain—the thing is a wreck, and has wrecked its builders!
The Case lies forgotten amid the interminable processes, affidavits, answers, pleas, replications, rejoinders, motions, applications, notices, subpœnas, summonses, commissions, bills of amendments, and of supplement; documents of all sorts, making up the Case, mouldering away in the stone alcoves of the huge Records; as the poor victims of it lie mouldering in similar forgetfulness! Not, however, without profit to the Lawyer-Caste; for some miscreant of this profession, perchance, discovering the Case, in his searches after means of spoil, sees how he may gain by it. He knows of an estate remotely touched by the matter of the old and forgotten Petition, and he knows quite well that there is really nothing affecting the property; yet, he sees fees and spoil. It is merely to frighten the possessor of the estate by an intimation of a defect of title, and refer to this old Case, never decided. The bandit [khe-te] sets in motion the machinery of the High Court of Chancery. One of its officers summonses the poor man to come into that Court, and answer to the allegations touching his right to possess the house in which, perhaps, he has lived for twenty years! and lived without objection from any source!
Now it does not matter at all that there is no sort of ground for this attack; the moment it is made, the title of the poor unoffending man to his own house is ruined—almost as completely as if by the sentence of the Court he had been deprived of it. The robber who attacks wishes merely to force the owner of the house to buy him off. To secure this spoil he records his summons in the Court, and from that moment no one will buy the house, nor will any one lend any money upon the security of it until that record be removed. If the victim of this oppression be in debt, or have but little money, or but little more than his house, or if he have borrowed money upon his house—in fact, unless he be a man quite rich, he is inevitably ruined! He is ruined, because the lawyer has, by the Record, practically deprived him of his estate. And this is done by a Petition to the Court, making allegations artfully and untrue. Yet, as they are not supported by any sort of evidence, and are merely bare insinuations often of anybody—it does not the least matter—is it not inconceivable that such a thing should be allowed? That merely upon the Record of a Petition, without any evidence, without any character, without any surety for its truth, without any, the least, inquiry, or any, the smallest deposit in Court to cover the expenses to which the summoned party may be put, should it appear he has been wrongfully summoned—this great injustice may be perpetrated, and perpetrated without risk of any punishment! "But surely the Court will immediately dismiss this iniquitous case?" Not at all; the Court cannot be reached; all the endless proceedings and delays already mentioned intervene. The fees and expenses are enormous—the decision far off. The victim cannot get a hearing. He borrows money and employs lawyers—in vain. He can do no more—he is bankrupt. The lawyer who has ruined him gets nothing in such a case, because the victim prefers poverty to gratifying the robber. He gets nothing, because he has no real case, and drops it as soon as he sees he can make nothing out of it. Should the party be very rich upon whom the robbery is attempted, he may fight it out and finally clear his property, and get a decree for some costs (only a portion) against the other party. But this decree is worthless; the party has no property and cannot pay. He has fought for luck, having nothing to lose, but all to gain.
Usually, however, as the Lawyer well knows, the party attacked will hurry to buy off the suit!
In this way, old Causes are Mines, which the Lawyer-Caste work to their own peculiar advantage. They have every facility, both from their experience and from the usages of the Caste. The very Judges of the Courts are of the same Caste, and give every assistance in matters of forms, continuances, motions, dilatory proceedings, and the countless processes by which Lawyers make fees and their clients are robbed.
Thus the Court of Equity, with a mocking irony, becomes a Court of Iniquity! and the very tribunal designed to do more perfect Justice is perverted to the most scandalous use—made an engine the most oppressive and destructive ever contrived for the misery of Society, short of one invented to destroy it wholly!
The Court was originally organised by Priests who had acquired the Roman learning, or some tincture of it, and endeavoured to strengthen their own Class, and to soften the barbarous harshness of the common Law, by erecting this Court. The laws of the Barbarians were savage, in civil as well as in criminal things; and the Priests, more cultured, endeavoured to soften and temper this harshness, or, at any rate, to get more complete control by it. They formed it, and administered it at first, and for a long time. But the Lawyer-Caste have now its administration, and they have not so much respect for the opinions of the general public as had the Priests, and have made the Court a bye-word and a shame [Kri-mi]!
The expenses and fees are beyond belief. A Lawyer who gets one good Chancery Case into his hands, lives upon it luxuriously. I was once shown a Bill of Costs, as these items of fees are styled.
I observed that one would be charged for a thing done and for the same thing not done—in other words, for the doing and for the not-doing. Thus, if one requests a thing be done, the Lawyer will charge for "receiving instructions," "for reducing the same to writing," "for instructing a clerk," and the like—then, having sent away the clerk on another matter, he will charge for taking new instructions and going over the same ground again. Thus, actually charging for the delay and obstruction caused in the affair.
Again, if you ask a Lawyer something, he will presently say, "I must take counsel," meaning he wishes to ask another Lawyer. When the Bill is examined you will find, say, "for being asked and not knowing, 6s. 8d.; for taking your instructions to counsel, 6s. 8d.; for attending upon counsel, £1 1s.; for fair copy made for him, £2 2s.;" and so on. Your simply unanswered question has thus served the following purposes:—If it had been answered at once the fee would have been, say, 6s. 8d.; but as it was not, but carried elsewhere, it has given the first Lawyer five times more of fees, and his brother in the Caste also a handsome sum! One may judge how ignorant the first Lawyer will be likely to be, and how often he finds it convenient to help his higher Caste brother, especially when in helping him he so greatly helps himself! We have some cunning rogues in our Central Kingdom, but such astuteness as this is beyond them!
I once visited this tribunal of Chancery to witness the proceedings—but they are so dull and prolix as to drive one away as soon as possible. The presiding Judge, and all the High-Caste Lawyers, wear wigs and gowns. The lower Lawyers, who are called Solicitors, sit in a sort of well, below and at the feet of the High, and have no badge of distinction. In fact, they are not respected, and only tolerated by the bigwigs (as the High Lawyers are often called) as the jackals who provide them with prey. They immediately act in matters with the victims of the Court, and do all the dirty work, extracting the fees, and the like—the High Lawyers taking the most of the plunder, although, for decency sake, they will not see the victims of their rapacity if they can help it.
The wigs spoken of are very absurd, and make the wearers seem to be engaged in masquerading, or fooling. (We have no term corresponding to the former.) The lappets of thick hair come down over the ears of the Judge, to enable him (as it occurred to me) to take his nap [qu-iz] with less danger of being disturbed.
No one can be a Judge, nor a High-Caste Lawyer, who does not wear the wig. It has a funny appendage behind, like a pig's tail, exactly fitting to fall upon the small of the neck; and is itself a curiously curled "frizzle" of horsehair, selected for uniformity of whitish colour. There is something cabalistic in this thing, which is carefully hidden from the outside world.
If a Judge take it off, all business immediately stops. A Lawyer instantly loses his power of speech if his wig fall off. It was told me in confidence, that the tail (like that of swine) had a peculiar significance, to say; the utter selfishness of the Caste and greed—another whispered a darker thing, referred to the Devil of the Superstition: that, anciently, this Caste struck a bargain with the Demon, and he made it obligatory upon the Lawyers always to wear this chief sign of diabolism! This may be merely the chaff [pti-ni] of these Barbarians. At any rate, something occult is attached to the thing; and a curious respect is shown to it, mixed of fear and contempt, even by outsiders.
The Judge sits so highly exalted, as to be out of the way of hearing the passages occurring among the Lawyers. He is generally half-blind, half-deaf; quite worn out with age, and the ceaseless wretchedness of his Court and the Lawyers, and incapable of vigorously dealing with anything. In this Court the most imbecile is most fit; for nothing is expected but imbecility (so far as the public is concerned), and fees for Officers and Lawyers.
When a Case is on, the Lawyers begin to talk, and to read from the big books, on one side, and then on the other. Neither tries to get at the truth, but each in turn does his best to mislead the Judge. Both read from the interminable and conflicting Records, and both find ample records which fit the precise Case, which each contends for. The poor old Judge, now and again, takes a note of these quotations from the Big Books of records—for he is to decide not upon the equity but upon the records, as we have seen. By the time he has found his spectacles [Qu-iei] he has forgotten the Book, the number, the Recorder's name, and the many other things, needful to find where the record is, and when he is again told, lifting up his wig-pallet, he only hears imperfectly, and mistakes. So, when, perhaps a long time after, he tries to make up a decree to fit the Case, the record to which he turns refers to nothing in the world like what was intended!
Hour after hour, and sometimes day after day, these speeches of the Lawyers go on. For the longer the talk the larger the fees—nobody thinks of Justice! The old Judge understands the trick of the farce going on, perfectly well; in his younger days he was famous for his skill in all the arts of the High-Caste Lawyers, and obtained his present position on that account, and because others wanted to get a formidable rival out of the way; he understands how very little (but fees) is involved in the endless talk and reading, and begins to nod—even, the gods would nod. The Lawyer observes, stops a bit; the unexpected silence awakens the wearied old man—he opens his watery, blinking eyes, fumbles his papers, or takes a pinch of snuff, and says: "Go on, brother Bounce, I'm with you"—meaning he is attending to him; and soon falls asleep again.
Perhaps one of the talking Lawyers is of the High Q.C. I am told that such is the dread of this Lawyer-Caste, that the Sovereign constantly flatters the tribe, and gives to them the fattest [phig-sti] offices. All Judges and the Keeper of the Sovereign's Conscience—this Court—and a great many other most important places, and exaltation to the Highest Caste of Lords [Tchou], falls to them by established rule—in truth, the Caste is chief in the Law-making Houses, and, consequently, in Government itself. The Q.C. is, however, a thing done to many who cannot, as yet, get fees from the public treasure, that they may get them from out-siders more amply. The right to attach these symbols to the name of Lawyer also gives him a silk gown (during the present reign) worked by the sacred hands of Royalty itself! The honoured wearer of this is a Q.C.—that is, Queen's Champion—and binds all its wearers to defend the Sacred Head (Pope) of the Superstition from the machinations of the Evil One, and those of their own order who, sold to the Devil, may possibly be put up by him to plot mischief, not only against the general outside world, but against "Crown and Altar!"
Perhaps, after days of this weary work, one of the Lawyers suddenly discovers that somebody, or something required in the intricate and dubious processes, is wanting; or in some document some erasure is detected; or something to hang a point upon is seized hold of—and at once a wrangle between the Lawyers ensues. The Judge fairly awakes; the whole case breaks down [kei-tz-se]; and everybody, but the poor victims in the case, anticipate more fees. The victims, however, who have already beggared themselves in it, suddenly despair; perhaps the case never again comes on, and the property involved in it wastes away in dark obscurity beneath the gnawing rats, which infest the Court.
Sometimes (as I was told) some poor man, or woman, who had scraped together the last farthings to pay the Lawyers (for they will in no wise act unless paid beforehand, feeling that such service as they render is not likely to be gratefully recompensed, and it being the severest rule of the order never to show any pity for outsiders), being in Court when they see all hope destroyed, and themselves and their children beggared, have fallen down and been carried out of Court with reason for ever gone; or with such a deadly blow that never more do they revive, but soon die, and are buried at the public charge!
You will see wretched creatures trying to look decent in well-brushed rags, darned and patched, with shoes through which the toes protrude, but over which the blacking [di-yte] is carefully smeared—you will see these victims of the Court, like ghosts, flitting about the passages, and watching for the entry of the Judge. One will attempt to address him—but he is conveniently deaf. He knows the victim is there, and though a party may speak, has the right to speak for himself, and the Judge is bound to hear, yet, such a thing is unknown. The mysteries of the Court deny to any sane man the attempt. These poor creatures are insane—or, what answers just as well, have been branded by the Lawyers as Insane. So the miserable wretch, trembling, raises his voice, "My Lud" (meaning my Lord), "My Lud;" here the Court-officer cries out Silence; or, if the man be, for the first time, attempting to call attention to his case, by the time he has got so far as to fairly say "My Lud!" what with the jeering looks of the Lawyers, his own ignorance of the mysteries, and his wretchedness, he either completely breaks down—or if the Judge, seeing a new face, asks him to "go on"—almost at once perceives that the man is only a "poor ruined suitor," and is entirely out of order, and cannot be heard! He says: "You must sit down. Case Hoggs v. Piggs is in order. Mr. Clerk call Hoggs and Piggs." Thus "My Lud" will be as far as any "poor ruined suitor will ever get!"
Besides the numerous, worse than useless, idlers (Lawyers) who fatten upon the industry of others, and the loss inflicted by their voracity and by the other expenses, this Court devastates upon a scale beyond belief. I was told by an English Barbarian that he once tried to obtain one thousand of money from the Court, which the lawyers said there would be no difficulty in getting, as it was clearly his; it would be only a matter of form, possibly some delay. "Well," said he to me, "I instructed my lawyer to go to the Court and get the money. He demanded fifty pounds to cover fees [tin]. To make a short story, he went to the Court, but I never got any money! After I had actually paid in fees more than half of the one thousand, the obstacles had grown to be so insurmountable that I merely dropped the matter." "But," I said, "the thousand—who has that?" "Oh, it is in the Court of Chancery!"
Another honest Barbarian told me that he had spent all his life (he was sixty) studying and endeavouring to awaken attention to the abuses of this Court—but in vain. The attempt seemed hopeless. The Court was entrenched in the very frame of the body politic, and nothing but reconstruction would answer; and that reconstruction is probably only possible after first demolishing!
This man said that a prodigious sum—sixty millions of English money—was directly locked up; and that of property of all sorts, subject to the clutch or injured by the processes of the Court it was incalculable, and, very likely, would represent a tenth of all the valuables in the whole Kingdom!
In my walks and in my travels, sometimes in the city, I would notice many houses, with windows smashed out, the walls tottering, the doors hanging loosely, or wholly gone, the approaches filthy, the whole place a nuisance, injuring and depopulating all about it, or filling the ever-spreading mischief with the vilest population. I have asked an explanation—"Oh, it is in Chancery." In the midst of a village, suddenly one comes upon a vacant space; it is an abomination; everything near catches the infection, all that portion of an otherwise pretty place becomes a nuisance. The character of the village at length suffers; it becomes known as a place ruined by the Court of Chancery. In fine, whenever one sees a wrecked building, or any property marked by neglect and verging to total destruction, the explanation is: "It is in Chancery." And the same thing is often said of ruined men and women: "Oh, they have lost everything in the Court of Chancery!"
To such an extent is the destruction of the Court carried, that the Law-making Houses are forced to interfere, or perhaps the Officers of Health. These may abate a nuisance, and sometimes mere filth and indecencies are removed. But nobody will improve a property to which he cannot have a certain and quiet possession. Therefore, when the evil becomes intolerable, the Law-making Houses make a Law by which a property of this sort is sold, under their guarantee that the buyer shall have perfect possession. This is a thing next to an impossibility; and nothing less than a great public evil too great to be endured, will ever induce the Lawyers who control the Houses to interfere with the legitimate work of the Court.
It is wonderful that the English Barbarians submit to this Court; but one must consider that, after all, it is not so inconsistent with Barbarian habits as it at first sight looks. Plunder is natural to all the tribes, and especially to the English. As nearly all plunder, the thing is normal. Lawyers must live; and the common English Barbarian makes a business to keep out of their hands. The Higher Castes enjoy so large a share of the gains, and are, in fact, so largely interested in preserving the Court, that they do not care to move. Then, to other causes, must be added the stolid conceit of the English Barbarians, who really think everything English so much better than what can be found elsewhere, that, in respect of this very Court, admitting some abuses, yet, after all, "Where else can you find such Judges—men who cannot be bribed?"
On the whole, therefore, with that conceited stolidity of character, more remarkable in the English than in any other Barbarians, they come to regard even the worst of their institutions as better than the best of the rest of the world!
UPON EDUCATION: A FEW REFLECTIONS.
In our Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times long before the Barbarians beyond the great Seas existed, or, at any rate, had any name or place in the earliest records, it has been the established rule that Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour—that there is no nobility of birth. Under the Illustrious, the Son of Heaven, all were equal subjects—children—and that which made one more distinguished than another was Wisdom. This Wisdom, a knowledge of men and things; of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of morality and government, and their proper application to human affairs. The Central idea was to know oneself, and thus to know others—to add to this, technical knowledge, and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals and customs.
The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have no rights of birth. According to their class in the Schools of Examination, they are selected to advise, to administer, to govern in the Provinces, and order the forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the degree of the excellency of their registration in the great Schools of Examination.
But it is very different with the Western Barbarians, where birth gives a right to exalted place in Government! Power, among the English, is wholly in the hands of this hereditary class—called Nobility—elsewhere called Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. Thus, learning has been unimportant, unless as a sort of accomplishment; and been mostly confined to Priests. With them, it was a means of increased influence, and added to the effect of the Superstitious pretensions. Force and fraud being the main agents of Government and sources of distinction, learning was not merely disregarded, but held in contempt by the High-Caste. What learning there was (chiefly confined to the Priests), busied itself with the Superstition, and with the ancient tongues; because with these Superstition had its literary roots.
Still, some grew more inquisitive, especially outside the Priestly order, and learning made some progress. Gradually, there emerged from the Halls of Learning, rules, which (countenanced by some Sovereigns), began to influence Society. For Sovereigns, and the High-Caste, had begun, in some measure, to affect a liking for learning—confined, however, almost wholly to the narrow range referred to. These rules were in fact DEGREES; which conferred upon the possessor a Literary distinction.
The Halls of Learning, which had been in good measure established by Sovereigns, out of plunder, upon the orders of Priests (who would obtain the money through the Ruler's dread of the devil, when apprehending or near to death); these, alone, could confer the degrees. No power accompanied them. They, merely, became requisite to any one who wished to enter upon, what is called, the Learned professions. These are of the Superstition, of the Law, and of Medicine. Soon, in these employments, the degrees became quite Cabalistic; and made these callings mysteries to the rest of the world.
What was intended to be evidence of fitness, was soon perverted to be a form of initiation into an exclusive Society; whose members insisted, not upon fitness, but upon compliance with arbitrary rules. This was made especially the case with the Law, and with Medicine. The degree was supposed to refer to proper qualifications for the practice of Law, and knowledge of Medicine, with its proper use in the healing art. It did nothing of the sort. It gave a presumption (but by no means a true one) that its holder knew something of the ancient Roman and Greek languages: not any presumption that, in the case of Medicine, there was any knowledge of the articles of Medicine, nor of their proper use; or of the human body to which they were to be administered. Nor any, that in the Law, there was any knowledge of the Statutes, laws and customs of the Realm, nor even of its Common annals! Medicine and Law suffered from this Sham; because men naturally used what little they did know; and, as to the Roman tongue, some, and the Greek, less, were in their heads; and the whole practice of Medicine and Law was in their ignorant hands; what could follow, but to muddle these with the useless obscurity and jargon of the unknown forms!
The Priests had also thrown around the Superstition the same jargon, and kept up the requisition for a degree—as if any true morality and worship were necessarily connected with a literature, denounced by themselves as impure and pagan! Notwithstanding these ignorant and selfish abuses, it was impossible to make the acquisition of even such narrow learning wholly useless. It was narrow, and even hurtful, by being perverted to selfish ends, and preventing honest and independent research. Still, it did work upon some minds to better use; and it gradually evolved a better learning, when the Ancient Literature really worked in free and broader channels. The High-Castes are less indifferent to literary attainments; and learning, in a more comprehensive sense, is becoming more esteemed. It is no longer limited to verbal knowledge; to ancient, dead forms—though these are still so paramount that, if a man were to be the wisest and most learned of mankind, and was deficient in these, he could not receive a Degree—he would be unlearned!
Useful, true and honest knowledge, outside the great Halls of Learning, is making some advance; though in them, the old, pedantic, and superstitious notions yet prevail. The new Literati, founders of a larger and truer teaching, endeavour with difficulty to get some respect and honour to attach to the degrees which they timidly register. The High-Caste, in general, disregard this better knowledge, and adhere to the old Superstitions and traditions—regarding that man only as learned who has the ancient badge; though, to any useful purpose, a fool.
The High-Caste also stupidly support the old preparatory schools; and will not, if they can help it, suffer any of the Lower-Caste to enter them.
In these, the barbarous customs continue; if one goes into them, he is at once carried backwards into the dark ages (as even the Barbarians call them); ages, when the Priests had all the Learning—wretched as it was—and when the Superstition coloured and directed everything. Here, the dead tongues are the chief studies, with something of the ancient puzzles as to Lines and Points—for the most part useless—with a style of administration fitted to the savage brutality of those times. The only part of the training cared for by the youths, is that which developes the forces of the body. The disgusting Ring Fight, referred to elsewhere, is a common pastime; and the lad is a milksop [kou-ad] who really avoids the rude crowd, and wishes to study. To be respected he must fight his way, and be feared. If, by chance, some lad of the Lower-Caste be entered, by the foolish wish of the father to bring the son into the polished circle of the High-Caste, he will be polished off (as these young Barbarians say), in a manner never dreamed of. The poor lad will be beaten, humiliated, and driven from the School; unless, indeed, he be strong enough to bully and beat his tormentors!
Very comically, in one part of these brutal fights, when one has got his antagonist completely in his power, and can bruise him as he pleases, the position is called being in Chancery! One of the fittest illustrations possible, of the universality of the judgment which places that Court among things the most repulsive!
The younger in these schools are the Slaves, for the time being, to the older and stronger; in fact, the whole effect of the training is really to make these youths selfish, quick of quarrel, hardy of body, and barbarous; to prepare them for the lives of predatory exploit, upon which fortune and all the best honours depend—learning being subordinate, and disregarded, unless it further the main purpose.
Force is still the god of these Barbarians, and Jah is worshipped because he, in this, fits them. The intellect is improved only that Force may be developed and disciplined to its most effective use.
One sees this everywhere. To invent the most destructive engines of war for the wholesale slaughter of the human species, to add to the swiftness of movement, to the durability and weight of action, to the means of assault and of defence, to bend the mind to uses based upon the idea that the normal condition of man is that of a tiger with man's intellect, to make the beast something inexpressibly dreadful!
The greater portion of the people remain sunk in the grossest ignorance—scarcely knowing (the most of them) much even of the Superstition, other than crude notions of Hell and the Devil. In this, probably, they are not much to be pitied; though in losing the precepts of Christ, and seeing around them the conduct of Christ-god worshippers, they are to be commiserated. They look with the contempt of ignorance upon foreigners, and call the people of distant seas Heathen, only fit for the Hell! As I have said, in another place, some attempts are being made to give this degraded populace, at least, the rudiments of learning. The task is hard, and made nearly impracticable by the stolid indifference of the Low-Castes, and their positive hostility to anything which interferes with their habits. They are very English, not different from their betters, and resent any sort of change as an interference with their individual freedom of action. To make these degraded beings slaves, you must not seize the individual—you must act upon them as a class—and they resent the attempt to teach them. Compulsion will be resorted to. The English Barbarians have a proverb [li-tze], "One may lead a horse to the water, but who can make him drink?" These people may be forced to the springs of learning, but who shall make them drink—unless beer? (This is the common drink, very muddling; used to an astonishing quantity.)
The women are not admitted to the Halls of Learning, though they are to be seen everywhere. Men do not wish them to be educated in those things admired by men—it would, as they think, make brutes of them. In this they are right; yet there is no consistency of idea in the general treatment of the sex, as will easily be gathered from these observations.
A learned woman—that is, one who has acquired the sort of education recognised by the Literati—is disliked by her own sex as well as by the men. The men will not marry her, unless she can buy a husband. This she may be able to do if she have money in abundance.