were originally subject to Persia, but toward the close of the seventeenth century they revolted against their rulers and nearly conquered the whole Persian empire. Nadir Shah restored the Persian supremacy, but on his death an Afghan leader proclaimed the independence of his country, and while the Persians wasted their strength in civil wars, founded a new kingdom at Cabul. The Afghan monarchy continued to prosper until the commencement of the present century, when it was distracted by the wars arising out of a disputed succession. Three brothers, Zemán, Mahmúd, and Sujáh, contended for the crown, and each prevailed in turn, according to the will of the chief vizier, who was head of the Baurikzye tribe. At length Zemán was blinded, Sujáh driven into exile, and Mahmúd placed on the throne. Unfortunately he permitted his son Kemrán to assassinate the vizier, upon which the Baurikzye brothers revolted, and compelled Mahmúd to seek shelter in Herat.

rest.

Under the Baurikzye brothers, Afghanistan was divided into a number of petty independent states, each governed by one or more chieftains of this powerful family; the principal being Dost Mohammed, the ruler of Cabul, whose supremacy was nominally recognised by all the Soon after Lord Auckland had succeeded Lord William Bentinck as governor-general of India, an embassy was sent to Cabul for the purpose of forming a commercial treaty which might open the markets of central Asia to British manufactures. When the Persian court, yielding to Russian suggestions, had determined to advance against Herat, the mission to Cabul was changed from a commercial to a political legation, and a treaty was proposed to Dost Mohammed which it was believed might avert the danger of Russian influence being established on the banks of the Indus. The ruler of Cabul demanded as the price of his adhesion that the territory of Peshawer, recently seized by the king of Lahore, should be restored to the Afghans, and when this was refused he manifested a disposition so hostile to English interests that the envoy was recalled, and a resolution formed to restore Shah Sujáh to his throne by the aid of a British army.

The army of the Indus having surmounted all the toils and difficulties of its march through previously untraversed countries, soon arrived at the capital of Afghanistan, and Shah Sujáh was reinstated upon the throne of his ancesters.

Shah Sujáh's government was not popular, and indeed did not deserve to be so; general dissatisfaction continued to exist, but had not begun to show itself in a dangerous shape when General Elphinstone took the command of the occupying force, in April, 1841. In the following November a formidable insurrection unexpectedly exploded in Cabul; Sir Alexander Burnes, and several other Englishmen, were treacherously massacred, while the most deplorable want of energy and decision was displayed, both by the envoy and the military authorities. The fort in which the provisions for the troops were stored was permitted to fall into the hands of the enemy, without an effort being made to relieve its feeble garrison; and after the means of holding out in Cabul, until relief could be obtained from the other divisions of the army, had been sacrificed, it was resolved to commence a retreat.

The only result from this calamitous war, is the occupation of the

territories of Scinde, which have been formally annexed to the British dominions. These districts command the navigation of the lower Indus, and would possess some value and importance if that river could be rendered available for the purposes of commercial navigation, but in the present distracted condition of central Asia, it does not appear probable that the peaceful pursuits of trade will be found lucrative for many years to come, and it is therefore very doubtful whether the accupation of Scinde will produce such a demand for British manufactures as to defray the heavy expenses which its retention will necessarily involve.

CHAPTER XIII.

HISTORY OF CHINA.

THE Chinese, like the ancient Egyptians, lay claim to a most extravagant antiquity, but their authentic history does not commence till the age of Confucius, who flourished about five centuries before the Christian era. At the time of his birth, China was divided into a number of independent states, which harassed each other by mutual wars, and his earliest efforts as a reformer were directed to unite them in one great confederation. He collected the old traditions of the country, and from them deduced a series of moral and political lessons, designed to form the basis of good government. His main principle was, that outward decorum is both the emblem and the test of goodness of heart; he therefore constructed a titual strictly regulating every relation of life, both public and private, which was gradually received as a standard authority by the nation.

Ching-whang, the founder of the Tsin dynasty, was the first who united all the Chinese under one sovereign; and it is probable that the name China was adopted from that of his family. He is said to have erected the Great Wall, to restrain the incursions of the Tartars (B. C. 240), but this service was overbalanced by his cruelty and inveterate hostility to men of letters. Under the Han dynasty, which arose B. C. 202, the Huns began to invade China and frequently devastated the country; they at length were induced to direct their march westward, and burst like a torrent into the Roman empire, while China continued tranquil. Under the Han dynasty, foreigners came to China for the first time; literature was zealously cultivated, the art of printing invented, and the laws collected into an orderly system. For these reasons the memory of the Hans is still cherished in China; their dynasty ended A. D. 264.

No very important event occurred in the history of China from the extinction of the Han dynasty until the invasion of the empire by the Mongols, under the celebrated Zingis Khan (A. D. 1234). The sovereign who then ruled was cruel and cowardly; town after town submitted to the invaders, and at his death the Mongols possessed the greater part of the country, though the conquest was not completed till the year 1279, by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Zingis. Ze-ping, the infant son of the last emperor, sought shelter in the fleet, but the Mongols soon prepared a navy and pursued him. The Chinese and Mongol fleets met, and after an engagement which lasted an entire day, the former was totally defeated. When the Chinese admiral saw that escape was impossible, he went to the prince, who stood on the deck, and said, "It is better to die free than to dishonor our ancestors by an

inglorious captivity," then, without waiting for a reply, he caught the prince in his arms and jumped into the sea, where they both perished. The Mongols, though foreigners, were wise and beneficent rulers; Kublai Khan constructed several canals, and made every possible exertion to restore the agricultural prosperity of China; his grandson, Timur Khan, extirpated the bands of robbers that infested the country, and both labored to promote commercial intercourse with foreign nations. But on the failure of the direct royal line, the Mongols were so weakened by a war of disputed succession, that the Chinese easily drove them from the country, and placed a native dynasty on the throne (A. D. 1388).

Choo-quen-chang, the conqueror of the Mongols and founder of the Ming dynasty, was the son of a poor laborer. In early life he was destined for the priesthood, but his martial spirit induced him to enlist as a soldier. He very soon became so distinguished for courage and conduct that he was promoted to high rank; his marriage to a lady of great wealth strengthened his influence, and he soon began to be regarded as the leader of a party. So great was the hatred of the Chinese to their barbarian conquerors, that it required only a few months to drive the Mongols beyond the Great Wall; they were pursued in their retreat and slaughtered without mercy. The new emperor was a wise and prudent ruler; his early death was a national misfortune, especially as it involved the country in the calamities of a disputed succession.

The last of the Ming dynasty was Hwae-tsung. Very soon after his accession the king of the Mantchew Tartars advanced toward the frontiers, and issued a proclamation, declaring that he had been divinely summoned to assume the empire of China. There would have been, however, little reason to fear this invasion, had not rebellions in other quarters distracted the attention of the emperor. Bands of robbers infested the roads, and uniting themselves together under favorite chiefs, bade defiance to the imperial army. One of these, named Lè, gained the favor of the populace by promising a remission of taxes; crowds flocked to his standard, and entire battalions of the imperial army deserted to him. Lè no longer scrupled to declare himself emperor; he marched to Pekin, the soldiers intrusted with its defence threw down their arms, and the emperor was abandoned even by his domestic servants. In his despair, he slew his children, and then strangled himself, leaving behind him a written request that the conqueror would be satisfied with the destruction of the royal family, and not inflict any cru elty on the people.

Woo-san-kivei, a celebrated general, was stationed with a large army on the frontiers of Mantchew Tartary, when he received intelligence of these events. He resolved to avenge his master, and punish the usurper; for this purpose he had not only made peace with the Mantchews, but solicited their active assistance. The Tartars gladly assented to a proposal which opened them a passage into China; and acting with a rapidity of which their opponents had no idea, their progress was irresistible. The usurper Lè was defeated in three great battles, but when the general wished to dismiss his allies, they not only refused to return, but took possession of Pekin, and proclaimed a Mantchew prince em

peror. For many years the Chinese in different provinces sternly resisted the domination of the Tartars, but there was no harmony in their councils and no concert in their actions; they were therefore successively subdued, but not until the entire country had been so devastated that it almost became a desert (A. D. 1644). During this calamitous period, a pirate, named Coxinga, kept the entire coast of China in constant alarm; he expelled the Dutch from the island of Formosa, which for a time flourished as an independent kingdom: but after his death, his son submitted to the Mantchews, and this noble island was annexed to the empire of China.

Kang-he, the second of the Mantchew emperors, was very anxious to make his subjects acquainted with the arts and sciences of Europe; he patronised the jesuit missionaries who came to his court, and profited so much by their instructions, as to become himself the author of a clever treatise on geometry. All his wishes, however, to give a new turn to Chinese literature were frustrated; the native men of letters refused to quit the tracks of their ancestors, and nothing new was consequently produced. Equally able in the cabinet and in the field, Kang-he was unquestionably, next to Kublai Khan, the greatest prince who ever sat on the throne of China. He revived the empire, distracted by repeated rebellions, impoverished by long and ruinous wars, and oppressed by vicious administration. When he died (A. D. 1722), peace and tranquillity pervaded all the provinces, and the unruly barbarians on the frontiers had been reduced to obedience.

Yung-ching succeeded his father on the throne, but did not pursue the same enlightened policy. He put an effectual stop to improvement, by banishing the missionaries who had spread themselves over all the Chinese provinces, and only retained a few individuals at court, with whose services he could not dispense. It must, however, be confessed, that the intriguing spirit of the jesuits had given some reasonable grounds for alarm, and that their extravagant assertions of papal supremacy might have infused suspicions of their designing to render the emperor dependant on the pope. In other respects Yung-ching was a good sovereign; he preserved peace during his reign, and by prudent precautions he averted the horrors of those famines that periodically devastated China. He died A. D. 1735, and was succeeded by his illegitimate son, Keën-lung.

The long reign of Keën-lung was almost wholly spent in wars with the various barbarous races on the whole western frontier of China. There is no interest in the record of these savage contests, which were for the most part a series of ruthless massacres. He cruelly persecuted the Christians, whom he accused of treasonable designs without a shadow of reason; and the relentless fury he displayed was eagerly seconded by the mandarins, who had been jealous of the superior intelligence of the missionaries. Keën-lung always thought that he had a just cause when he butchered whole tribes. After the defeat and massacre of the Kalmuks, he erected a stone tablet at Ele, with the following inscription: "The tree which Heaven plants, though man may fell it, can not be unrooted: the tree which Heaven fells, though man may replant it, will never grow."

The fame of Keën-lung extended to Europe, and missions from Hol