gols at the period now referred to, standing on the verge of a settled civilization, and yet clinging with fondness to the pursuits of a more free and independent course of life. We have abundant examples of the same taste in the Normans, who brought under their sway the effeminate inhabitants of France and England, as the Mongols subjugated the Chinese; and it is not less curious and instructive to remark, that, in regions. the most remote, the same causes are followed by the same effects. Among the Tartarian, as among the Scandinavian, warriors, the privileges of the chase were regarded as the sign of birth and the token of ascendancy; and the game laws of our own feudal times we meet with again, scarcely altered in any essential particular, in northern China. No tradesman, mechanic, or husbandman, was allowed to keep any sporting dog or bird. No nobleman was permitted to hunt or hawk within a certain distance of the imperial residence, unless he had obtained a license, by having his name inscribed on the list of the grand falconer, or enjoyed from the Khan a special privilege to that effect. The master of the chase was an important officer in the royal household; and during the great hunting expeditions which occurred every year, the whole court migrated from the capital, and spent many weeks in the wilds of Tartary.

As I am speaking of the Tartars, I will briefly mention one or two other peculiarities in their manners. They brought with them from their nomade state a great fondness for the horse, almost resembling that of the Hindoos for the cow. Kublai Khan had a stud of ten thousand horses and mares, white as snow, whose milk was set apart for the exclusive use of the descendants of Genghiz Khan. With this milk the Emperor made an oblation on certain days to the deities of his nation. The Tartar prince was also fond of artificial gardening, and no small similarity may be discerned between his taste in this respect, and that of some of the powerful monarchs who anciently swayed the wide plains of Mesopotamia. In the neighbourhood of Peking, the Khan had a country residence, where he raised an artificial hill, called the Green Mount, which he planted with all kinds of trees, dug up with their roots, and brought on the backs of elephants from a distance. Another peculiarity was the religious veneration of all the princes of the race of Genghiz Khan for the Altaian mountains. Here they were buried, however distant the spot where they might chance to die and all the individuals who were met on the road, in the course of the funeral procession, were sacrificed to the shades of the departed, under the idea that they would become

his servants in the future world. This reverential feeling for certain mountains, entertained by many early nations, indicates a deep traditional persuasion, that the first wanderings of their tribe commenced from those elevated spots, and that there was the primitive home of their fathers.

Marco Polo describes the South of China, notwithstanding it had been more recently civilized than the North, as far more wealthy and luxurious, owing probably to its greater remoteness from the incursions of the Tartars and Turks. In his journey through the interior of the empire, in the regions watered by the great rivers, and then drained and cultivated, he was overwhelmed by the evidence of riches and populousness, which met him on every side;-the roads thronged with the transit of merchandize; handsome bridges of many arches crossing the numerous streams, roofed over from end to end, their sides lined with shops, and at their extremities a toll collected for the Emperor; and many large and walled towns maintained in prosperity by the activity of their commerce. In Kanbalu itself there were extensive manufactories of silks and gold tissues: jewels, pearls, drugs and spices were imported into it from India; and Marco Polo affirms, that a thousand carriages and pack-horses laden with raw silk entered the capital daily.

Two circumstances are mentioned by this traveller, and confirmed by statements in the native annalists,* which deserve notice, as furnishing a parallelism to corresponding usages in Europe, the establishment of a legal provision for the poor, and the introduction of a paper currency.-Food and clothing were distributed to the necessitous, by officers presiding over that part of the administration. The means of affording this extensive relief was provided in the following manner: The Emperor was entitled to a tenth of the produce of wool, silk, and hemp. These materials were worked up into different kinds of cloth, in houses set apart for the purpose, by artisans, who were obliged to give one day's work in the week to the Emperor. The supply of clothing thus obtained might be considered as raised by a rate on the industry of the community. In like manner the Emperor had large granaries always filled with corn. It is not indeed expressly stated by Marco Polo, that these supplies were procured by tything the produce of the soil. But the analogy of a similar state of society in ancient India, ren

* Marco Polo's Travels, Marsden's Transl. B. ii. Memoires concernant les Chinois, tome derniere. Traité de la Chron. Chin., par le Pere Gaubil, publié par M. Silvestre de Sacy. In the Chronological Table inserted by the Jesuits in the third book of the Scientia Sinica, the antiquity of a legal provision for the poor is implied, by its being referred to the reign of the mythical legislator Yao.

ders it exceedingly probable, that the Emperor did exercise such a right. And at the present day, as we are informed by Mr. Davis, the Emperor is undoubtedly regarded as the ultimate owner of all the land in China, from which he receives a tax of ten per cent.* It is most probable, therefore, that a large amount of food and clothing was placed at the Emperor's disposal by a tax in kind, on the labour and produce of the community, and then dispensed in bounty, according to the necessities of the times. Our traveller says, that twenty thousand vessels of rice, millet, and panicum, were daily distributed to the poor in Kanbalu by the imperial officers. We will not press his words to the strict letter, but it is quite obvious, that there must have been a very extensive administration of relief, systematically conducted. We can hardly suppose such a practice to have been introduced for the first time by the Mongol conquerors. The necessity for its exercise to such an extent must have resulted from the natural consequences of a highly developed state of material civilization existing for centuries. The practice was not confined to the capital; it was adopted also in the other great towns of the empire; and its general introduction can only be viewed as one of the applications of the governing policy of China, to prevent tumult and discontent, by securing, as far as possible, to all classes an unfailing supply of the necessaries of life.

The issue of paper money is considered by Mr. Marsden, the translator of M. Polo, as an artful expedient on the part of Kublai Khan, to draw all the gold and silver out of circulation into his own exchequer. In the Asiatic monarchies, the state, represented by the sovereign, interferes with every thing. The king is to this day, in many parts of the East, the principal merchant in his dominions. In China the Emperor possessed a right of pre-emption, in the case of all articles brought to his capital by caravans of foreign merchants. The particular articles on which he fixed his choice were then appraised by a board of twelve individuals, and paid for in the paper currency; which the foreigners must of course lay out again in the purchase of commodities suited to their own country. It is conjectured by Mr. Marsden, that the articles thus obtained by the Emperor, being the best and choicest that had been brought to market, were afterwards disposed of by him in exchange for gold and silver. It is not probable, however, that the Mongols first introduced this paper currency; for Marco Polo found the use of it diffused through all parts of the Empire. A similar expe

The Chinese, i. p. 179–80.

dient for economising the use of the precious metals had been resorted to by the Carthaginians, and some of the Greek commercial states, at a very early period; and in China, Klaproth* traces back the origin of it to 119 B.C. But to the Venetian merchant the device appeared so novel and wonderful, and to give such an unbounded command of wealth, that he thought his master had really discovered the philosopher's stone. This money was issued at Kanbalu, made of the inner bark of the mulberry tree, and stamped with the imperial seal. To counterfeit it was a capital offence. When worn out it might be exchanged at the mint on a payment of three per cent.; or when gold or silver were wanted for the purposes of manufacture, they might be obtained in return for it.

Marco Polo's pursuits and habits of mind did not lead him to attend particularly to matters of religion and philosophy. The Mongols were adherents of the religion of Foh, or Buddhism; and it is probable, at the period of their recent invasion, the priests of that religion enjoyed considerable influence, particularly in the North of China. Nevertheless, there are several passages in his book which appear to include a reference to the literary sect, or disciples of Confucius. All who occupied themselves with science or philosophy, he classed under the general title of astrologers; but by these he evidently means the class that had charge of the public instruction. He says, for example, that in Kanbalu five thousand astrologers of various kinds were supported by the imperial bounty; and still more distinctly, that in Kinsai, the capital of southern China, there were particular streets, in which were "the dwellings of the astrologers and physicians, who also gave instructions in reading and writing, as well as in many other arts."

The most complete picture of the proper Chinese civilization,of the effects produced on manners and commerce and social economy, by the full development of its peculiar institutions, undisturbed by foreign influences, is seen in Marco Polo's very minute description of the city of Kinsai. Kinsai is the modern Nantcheou, situated at some distance from the sea, with which it is connected by a navigable river. As our Venetian was provincial governor for three years of a district only one day's journey from Kinsai, he had abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted with that city.-It is curious to observe, how great works for draining the low lands in the neighbourhood of large rivers are constantly mentioned among the earliest efforts of

civilization, and how the greatest development of commercial industry has often been found in such vicinities. Babylonia, the valley of the Nile, and, in modern times, Holland, may be referred to, as obvious examples. In the neighbourhood of Kinsai was a great fosse, forty miles in length, to receive the overflowings of the river, on the banks of which it was built, executed, it was said, by the ancient kings of the country. All the internal arrangements of this city appear to have been framed with a direct view to the preservation of the general tranquillity, and the encouragement of a ceaseless industry. A jealous police watched over the whole economy of society, and kept all its movements within the strictly defined limits of the established institutions. Like the towns in Holland, Kinsai was traversed in all directions by innumerable canals, leaving a space for carriages and foot-passengers on each side, and carrying off the refuse of the city into an adjoining lake. A spacious quay, bordering the banks of the canal, stretched along the front of the main street, in which were erected lofty warehouses of stone, for the accommodation of merchants from foreign parts. In the case of disputes between the natives and foreigners, proper officers were appointed to adjust them. A similar institution existed among the ancient Indians.* In some respects these officers resembled our modern consuls, or rather perhaps the Proxeni of the Greek states: and the existence of them implies a widely-diffused and a long-established commerce.

The harbour of Kinsai, twenty-five miles below the city itself, was thronged with ships from Cathay, or northern China, and India. With the latter country a very great trade was carried on. Spices were a principal article of import. The Coromandel coast was called by the Arabs the Pepper coast, from the abundance in which it furnished that produce. Of this article more than two thousand tons, in the time of Marco Polo, were annually landed on the quays of Kinsai.†

At the present day there are no traces of caste in China: all such distinctions have long been levelled by the despotic ascendancy of the state-worship and instruction. But as late as the latter half of the thirteenth century, to which period our present observations immediately refer, relics of their former existence might still be traced in southern China. In Kinsai, twelve of the handicraft trades were considered superior to the rest.

Diodorus Siculus, ii. 42. His authority is Megasthenes.

Travels, B. ii. Mr. Marsden shows, in his note, that this amount exceeds the annual importation of the same article into the port of London, taking the average of the years from 1778 to 1800; and concludes, therefore, that the whole of China must have been supplied from Kinsai.

VOL. III. No. 11.-New Series.

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