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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
The Censor, Wang-shĭ-fŎ, has presented to us a paper, concerning the malversations in office prevalent among the clerks and official assistants in the government offices of Chĭh-le province.
page 384 note * Or Pĕ-che-ly.
page 384 note † The treasurer is frequently a judge in civil matters relating to property within his province: the judge takes cognizance chiefly of criminal matters, or “pleas of the crown” as they are called in England.
page 384 note ‡ Fun-fei, “dividing or sharing the fat.”
page 384 note ‖ These are magistrates of inferior districts, possessing, however, in most cases, a jurisdiction much more enlarged and independent than the local magistracy in England individually.
page 385 note * On the death of every sovereign a posthumous title is conferred: that of Kea-king, who died in 1820, is Jin-tsung-juy-hwang-te, “the benevolent ancestor, the profoundly wise Emperor.“ For the Chinese characters see Plate XIII, No. 1.
page 386 note * The Emperor here uses the same expression as is subjoined to the ordinary proclamations of the officers of government, instead of the usual Khin-tsze, “Respect this.” The above is a curious specimen of the pretension to sympathy by which the empire of China is, in a great measure, governed.
page 386 note † Those Chinese at Canton who employ themselves in shooting wild fowl, &c. are mostly belonging to the militia of the province, and have matchlocks in their possession ex officio.
page 386 note ‡ The produce of Kwei-chow
page 387 note * Birth-place of the reigning family in Eastern Tartary.
page 387 note † This is the Moo-ta-jin who met Lord Amherst at Tung-chow. He was then nearly eighty years of age, and filled the office of President of the Board of Rites.
page 387 note ‡ Sung ta-jin, the conductor of Lord Macartney's embassy.
page 388 note * Sung-keun is noted for the boldness of his expostulations with the sovereign, on occasions when he conceives that his age and experience, as well as office, entitle him to give his advice. To this propensity he has been indebted for his frequent disgraces.
page 388 note † President of a board or tribunal.
page 388 note ‡ Guardian of the heir apparent.
page 389 note * A military title, something like colonel. The next below is Tsëen-tsung; the next Patsung. The latter two degrees were attached to the principal boats in Lord Amherst's embassy, one to each.
page 390 note * This is a strong proof (if any were wanted) that the Tartars are always favoured, whenever there is any competition.
page 391 note * It is not difficult to perceive, that this excessive care to provide against local and contingent famines in China springs not so much from any real feeling of affection and kindness towards the people, as from a dread of the usual consequences of such dearths when they are severe. No sooner does a famine take place than revolts are immediately apprehended; and unless the cravings of the populace can be allayed by supplies from the public granaries, these apprehensions are seldom groundless. Taught (according to their paternal notions of government) to consider the good which they enjoy in prosperity as resulting from the care of the Emperor and his representatives, the people very naturally refer the evils which they suffer in adversity to remissness and improvidence in the same quarter, and the government, not ignorant of the danger, is proportionably cautious in guarding against it. Were the lower orders, according to the dictates of a more sensible policy, instructed to refer these inevitable calamities to their real origin, the irregular vicissitudes of the seasons, they would probably bear them with more patience, and not attribute that to their rulers which their rulers have as little power to controul as themselves.
page 393 note * A smaller number is actually inflicted. See Penal Code of China, translated by Sir G. T. Staunton, Bart., Book I. § 1.
page 395 note * When a condemned criminal happens to be the only son of a woman who is a widow, he is sometimes reprieved, when the case is not an aggravated one, on a representation being made. In this case the woman has no son, and therefore petitions for the next nearest relation.
page 396 note * A place at the northern extremity, or commencement of the Grand Canal, where the British embassy stopped on the 22d September 1816.
page 397 note * Rape, or forcible ravishment, is called Keang-këen, and is punished capitally. If the female gives her consent to her dishonour, it is called Ho-këen, or “Fornication by mutual consent,” and is punishable merely with the bamboo, as a misdemeanor.
page 398 note * 5 feet 2 inches.
page 399 note * These junks were seen by Lord Amherst's embassy extending for several miles along the side of the Pei-ho. Were this annual supply cut off by blockading the southern extremity of the grand canal, the capital and its neighbourhood must necessarily be starved.
page 400 note * The three first of these cities are to the south of the Yang-tsze-Keang, and the last to the north of it: their wealth and population are the causes of the canal being greatly crowded in their neighbourhood. There is every reason to suppose that the Keang is navigable by the largest ships as far as Kwa-chow, where it is crossed by the canal.
page 400 note † It is a rule on the canal that all private vessels should make way for the grain junks, and the people in the grain junks frequently abuse the privilege.
page 400 note ‡ Officer who has charge of the government stores.
page 402 note * For the Chinese characters see Plate xiii. No. 2.
page 402 note † In the preceding year (1823) there were inundations not less severe than the present drought.
page 404 note * About 3s. 4d. sterling.
page 404 note † About 2s. sterling.
page 404 note ‡ This gives above 30,000 houses or huts as the number destroyed.
page 405 note * Districts of Kwang-chow-foo.
page 407 note * See Plate XIII, No. 3.
page 408 note * Chinese territory on the Russian frontier, between 85° and 95° long.
page 408 note † For the Chinese characters, See Plate XIII. No. 4.
page 409 note * Those of Confucius and his school. The established faith of China is a Rosicrucian System of presiding spirits or genii, both good and bad, both sylphs and gnomes: the former called Shin, and the latter Kwei. The government religion pays adoration to no “Great First Cause,” and in fact differs but little from atheism. (See No. XXIII, No. XIII, et passim.)
page 410 note * An island close to the coast of Chĕ-keang.
page 410 note † See Plate XIII, No. 5.
page 410 note ‡ The capital, called nearly by the same name in Captain Hall's Voyage to Loo Choo.
page 411 note * Another insulated district on the coast of Chĕ-keang, close to the port of Ning-po.
page 411 note † More literally, “our Saered Lord, or Master.”-See Plate XIII. No. 6.