To the difference of the fall of rain in the months of September, the difference between the crops of these years is generally, and may with great reason be attributed. It must also be within the recollection of many persons, that the month of August last, was one which gave rise to individual complaint and general anxiety, on account of the threatened failure.

C

III.

TRANSLATION FROM THE CHINESE OF TWO EDICTS:

THE ONE RELATING TO THE CONDEMNATION OF CERTAIN PERSONS CONVICTED OF CHRISTIANITY; AND THE OTHER CONCERNING THE CONDEMNATION OF CERTAIN MAGISTRATES IN THE PROVINCE OF CANTON.

By Sir GEORGE STAUNTON.

With introductory Remarks by the President Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH.

Read 24th February, 1806.

THE following account of the latest example, perhaps, of men punished for preaching religious opinions, is from our learned associate Sir G. Staunton. It is interesting in various respects.-It is an useful lesson to see intolerance stripped of all the disguises which too often familiarize and reconcile her to our prejudices. It is useful to contemplate persecution carried on against Christians, that we may learn to abhor every kind and degree of it when practised by Christians. In this case the utility is the more unmixed, because the example instructs our understanding without the possibility of provoking us to retaliate; often the unfortunate effect of narratives of persecution. The plausibility of the pretences assigned, the consideration and air of equity which characterizes the comparison of the different degrees of guilt of the supposed criminals, are contrivances and disguises, often perhaps unconsciously adopted, to soften the natural indignation of mankind against substantial injustice, which is to be found in the administration of most tyrannical laws.

IMPERIAL EDICT,

10th Year of Ria-King (A.D. 1805).

The Supreme Criminal Court has reported to us the trial, investigation, and sentence of that tribunal concerning Chin-yo-vang, a native of the

province of Canton, who had been discovered to have received privately a man and sundry letters from the European Te-tien-tse (Father Adeodato, a missionary at Peking), and also regarding several other persons, who had been found guilty of teaching and propagating the doctrines of the Christian religion.

The Europeans who adhere to the Christian faith act conformably to the customs established in those countries, and are not prohibited from doing so by our laws. Their establishments at Peking were originally founded with the auspicious views of adopting the western method in our astronomical calculations; and Europeans of every nation, who have been desirous of studying and practising the same at this court, have readily been permitted to come and reside upon the above establishments; but from the beginning they were restricted from maintaining intercourse with, and exciting troubles among, our subjects.

Nevertheless, Te-tien-tse has had the audacity secretly to propagate and teach his doctrines to the various persons mentioned in the Report; and he has not only worked on the minds of the simple peasantry and women, but even many of our Tartar subjects have been persuaded to believe and conform to his religion; and it appears that no less than thirty-one books upon the European religion have been printed by his order in the Chinese character.-Unless we act with severity and decision on this occasion, how are these perverse doctrines to be suppressed? how shall we stop their insinuating progress?

The books of the Christian religion must originally have been written in the European languages, and in that state were incapable of influencing the minds of our subjects, or of propagating the doctrine in this country; but the books lately discovered are all of them printed in the Chinese character, with what view it is needless to inquire; for it is sufficient that in this country such means must not be employed to seduce our simple peasantry to the knowledge and belief of those tenets; and much less can it be suffered to operate thus on the minds of our Tartar subjects, as the most serious effects are to be apprehended from it on the hearts and minds of the people.

With respect to Chin-yo-vang, who had taken charge of the letters; Chin-ping-te, a private of infantry under the Chinese banner, who was discovered teaching the doctrine in a church; Lieut-chao-tung, Siao-chingting, Chu-chung-tug, and the private soldier Vang-mea-te, who severally superintended congregations of Christians, as they have been respectively convicted of conveying letters, or employing other means for extending their sect and doctrine, it is our pleasure to confirm the sentence of the court; according to which they shall severally be sent into banishment at Elee in Tartary, and become slaves among the Eleuths, and previous to their departure shall wear each of them the heavy cangue for three months, that their chastisement may be corrective and exemplary.

The conduct of the female peasant Chin-yang-shy, who undertook to superintend a congregation of her own sex, is still more odious; she therefore shall also be banished to Elee, and reduced to the condition of a slave at the military station, instead of being indulged with the female privilege of redeeming the punishment by a fine.

The peasant Kien-hen, who was employed in distributing letters for the congregation, and in persuading others to assist in their ministry; and likewise the soldier Tung-hing-shen, who contumaciously resisted the repeated exhortations made to him to renounce his errors, shall respectively wear the common cangue for three months, and after the expiration of that term undergo banishment to Elee, and become slaves among the Eleuths.

The soldiers Chau-ping-te, Vang-meu-te, Tung-hen-shen, who have gone astray, and willingly become proselytes to the European doctrine, are really unworthy to be considered as men, and their names shall be erased from the lists of those serving under our banners.-The countrymen Vang-shyning, Ko-tien-fo, Yeu-se-king, and Vu-si-man; and the soldiers serving in the Chinese infantry, Tung-ming, Tung-se, and Chin-yung-tung, have each of them repented and renounced their errors, and may therefore be discharged from confinement; but as the fear of punishment may have had more effect in producing their recantation, than any sincere disposition to reform, it is necessary that the magistrates and military officers in whose jurisdiction they may be, should keep a strict watch over them,

and inflict a punishment doubly severe if they should relapse into their former errors.

Te-tien-tse, who is a European entertained in our service at court, having so far forgot his duty and disobeyed the laws, as to print books and otherwise contrive to disseminate his doctrines, is guilty of a very odious offence.—The alternative proposed by the court of dismissing him to his native country, or of remanding him from the prison to his station at Peking, is very inadequate to his crime.

We therefore direct that the Supreme Military Court do appoint an officer to take charge of the said Te-tien-tse, and conduct him to Ge-ho in Tartary, where it is our pleasure he should remain a prisoner in the guardhouse of the Eleuths, and be subject to the superintendance and visitation of the noble magistrate King-ku, who must carefully prevent him from having any correspondence or communication with the Tartars in that neighbourhood.

The noble officer Chang-foe, who has hitherto superintended the European establishments, having been ignorant of what was going forward in his department, and having made no investigation or inquiries during the time that Te-tien-tse was writing letters, printing books, and spreading his religion, has proved himself insufficient and unworthy of his station; wherefore we direct the Interior Council of State to take cognisance of his misconduct.

In like manner it is our desire that the Council of State take cognisance of the neglect and inattention ascribable to the military commanders who suffered the soldiers under their orders to be corrupted with these foreign doctrines, and then report us the result of their deliberations, in order that we may refer the adjudication of punishment to the proper

court.

The Council of State shall moreover, in concurrence with the Supreme Criminal Court, appoint certain officers to examine all the books of the Christian doctrine which have been discovered; after which they shall, without exception, be committed to the flames, together with the printingblocks from which the impressions were taken.