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    Fr * nt » a » d ! Spain- have existed since- tfie begnmin * of ^ eMtw ^ . The highways ; hewn through the rocks , eease at the S panish-froirtieir , and are speeded by , mule-tracks as rough and tortuous as those ° a <* ° ? riovmg fim aseu But in these-rude territories our tourist fimnd landscape ^ the most SpendTa , and Beauty ; the most enticing : The ladies' of the Pyrenees , he says * , renrinded him-of Georgianloveliness . ., 5 e ~ next visited the secluded Cagots , survivors of the proscribed , raee dwelli ng * n the villages around Bagnferes- de B . gorre . Outlawed by the States exeommunfcat < £ bytfce- Church * they were subjected , in their teadiiw ^ y peffo ^ to ' the contempt of heretics and leper * . Associated ; ethno - logical */ and historically , with the Colhberteof Bas-Portou , the Vaquerw of ^ sturias , the Chuetas of Mayorga > and the Marans of Auvergne ^ they still live in isolation , but have lost the rigour of their ancient dogmas , and , if no longer cursed : with leprosy , meur less than formerly the penalties of schism . A ^ Montaaillard indeedtraces remain of the fanaticism which once denied

    , , them the rites of Christian- worshipand sepulturer though they are now more especially the objects of antiquarian criticism than of religious malignity . TheiB orig in , has-been assigned to the Gothic invaders of Aquitaine , to the Arabs defeated br Martel , to the Albigenses of the twelfth century , to the leprous pilgrims of the Sepulchre , to the Jews , whose descendants continue * oT mhabit ^ Mayorga . No one , in reality , knows what the word " Cagot means though Fauriel , Michel , Ramon , Venuti , Marcu , and Palassou have applied much skill and erudition to the inquiry . Our very sensible tourist , -without pushine his speculations beyond' the horizon of the Chartulaire of the ABBaye de Luc , turns off towards the Mediterranean across the mountains of Catalonia , and the plains of Foix , treats the vexed ' reader to a Barmecide tasteof the dinners of Isehl , of pleasant memory ,, enlarges without

    much purpose on die political aspects of Spain , and' describes the curious mystery-acting of the Trouyeres among the peasantry of Cerdagne and BoussiUon . Here the imagination of mediaeval Europe is still : in play ; -the old moralities keep the stage ; Adam and Eve , the Angels , the Deluge , the Ark , the Jewish wanderings , the initials of Christianity were represented before the English stranger by the Roussillon artists , and it was through this vestibule of middle-age symbolism that he entered Andbrre . Andorra—a name familiar r probably , to few English readers—is one of the smallest , commonwealths in Europe . Yet the state existed ,, almost in its present ^ fbrm * . laa& before the Norman conquest . It was chartered by Charleanagnei and : acknowledged by Louis le Debonnaire , It is a country of pastures , gardens , and fields , wild in aspect along its margin of hills , yet not without idyllic glimpses and vistas of the pastoral allegro ; It is governed ; by

    . 3 Syndic : a plain man , who inhabits a structure less HJte : a cottage tnan a . granary , who dries his vegetables in one room , and keeps the state archives in another . He informed the English tourist that Andorre was happy and prosperous , and scarcely susceptible of improvement . He showed him the ^ apitstf oF tne republic , which had the appearance of an overgrown viltage , waked an * dignified by a college and a palace , built of rough granite . Here the AindbrrSnr assembly sitsy under the presidenee of the Sy-ndic ,- guarding the itecordj ? of the-constitution' ( Charlemagne ' s charters , kept in a chest with six Jceys ) and debating public affairs , From the capital the stranger proceeds to the ecclesiastical city of Urgel , sketching , as he goes , many graphic niis ^ - cellaniesr of character , scenery , and manners * AH this ; part of his book has to the

    the charm of freshness , stimulating and satisfying curiosity . He visited the senate of Andorre , anticipating-the reception of an intruder . J 5 ut the members bowed courteously , and proceeded with a debate on the means « af military defence possessed by their commonwealth . They moved resolu--tibns , cheered , and voted with parliamentary facility . Some of their body—. the aik ^ ey-fceeping . consuls—exhibited to the English visitor the Latin ^ donation oC independence to Andorre under the sign-manual of Charlemagne , aa well as a treaty concluded with Napoleon when the Republic was exactly one th' ous ' and years old . The history and institutions of this primidave commonwealth receive much interesting illustration in the volume before us , which touches ground scarcely better known than the oases of the Zribyan desert ; or the interior paradises of Japan .

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    THE PRAISE OF CHINATJhv CHikm ^ emd their- Rebellion *! Viewed in Connexion with their National Philosophy ; EtMoMi . lueg Uation , and Administration * By Thomas T * ylor Me ^^ J and Elder VP 0 aroiHdtteed , from aw examination of tfcia book , to suspeot ^ the Orientalism ¦ oft Mft ^ MendbwBi- Ete begi n * by avowing his contempt of the French sinologis t * otf Bemusat especially , and by disparaging ihe Chmese Memoirs of I& SW . I * wiU surprise some scholars , indeed ,, to hear that Mr . Meadows velueB'himaelfl a * the first correct exponent of the philosop hy of China , AJie Coniuoian' system , he says , ha « been described frequently ,, but never from tha-iroht point of view . Ostentation ; of this , sort justifies ua in scrutinizing the olmwofitho-inorrjanic moss of statements-and- criticisms presented by Mk Dfeactow toiba ^ considered a- full , or faithftil view of the civilisation and polity of China . 3 *; should be-premised that he labours- under a . theory , wtoicfaite-—tfatttrtlic Chinese possess the beat inatitutions and almost tuo best nkneslitwofl * nation . in the world . In aid of this proposition ,, which , was by

    an » Avwite ^ ftUtttcy- iu the lasttcentury ; propagated , Voltaire , he quotes tJioirptttrikrohalimtitutions , theiu 8 y « teiu » of public oompatitivo examinations , their Homogeneity ,-and the endurance of their uaoe amid revolutions by ttluolt othmvftwtf been * dispersed , ordestroyed . To many minds the pedantio formalism of thm Ghinesw has appeared a- failure . Not so to Mr Ttftwliiniii Ghinto-afterrmiccesBiveconqueate . and diBWiptions , aftor ages ot i | il—lliwiiiHifllil , haw bean bronghfaiuto contact * -with two foueigivpowers , to * HS * ro 0 * &iih . * b « has sueoumbedi . The BngUsh ,, on- one aide , have esto-UfalM 4 tmmm&mm by » feoaei in five > o £ her manlime towns , extorted ^ an iiiiiinw < nmulogi « mey ,. aimoafcaaHiaran » om of tttt . empire ,, and , uMPoaed ' on , ihttQUmmmwiH im »» utuumtf tmdb whidh it hn » declared , illegal ., ^ he Kusewasf owtheiotfaor BjdBi . hHwoj tornilacop ptiovincea from , the Mantchu donoi vium r bwm drinMBkimtfa »« wtooBtoofi 3 io imperial power ,, and : are inooesantly . ennxMMibingr am thw Tantnr Boxdami Thuo the : organization ana . con * - OintMtUN 8 La # smtMoxify' hawio : not enabled ) the empire to maintain its own

    integrity ; They have stiM more signally and' eompletefy ^ ile * to produce political unity . China is- divided * against rteelf ; ' none can tell ' whether the emperor or the pretender enjoys the aflegrance of" the dominant party ; Civilly and socially , every province and every city exhibits barbarism ,, anarchy and- corruption . The people decay under a mass of lifeless academical laws ! The Government of " moral force" ia represented by the brutalities of the , executioner . The natural relations , supposed to be so perfect , under a patriarchal code , are distorted by animal necessities pleaded in excuse of infanticide , and by the prescriptive right- of parents over the lives of their children ,, and of husbands over their wives .

    The truth is that Mr-Meadows is an enthusiast , who dreams of remodelling' the administrative system of England after the type of China . In con * mon with most sociat idealists ^ he occupies-himself with mechanical details , and develops his theory of Civil Service Examination so minutel y , as to p lan the architecture of the Examination Halls , with their five separate suites of apartments , in which the Examiners are to be " comfortably accomodated . " He suggests an ingenious machinery of boxes , bells , and slides , and , having advanced his parallels to this result , lays open a general view of China . Here his love of analogy overcomes his Orientalism ^ and he continually illustrates the description by references to English , counties and cities , eulogising the proas the

    cesses of government ^ they transmit Imperial authority by a graduated series , from the throne to the local bureau . Upon this basis he raises a theory of the history of China , assuming that it has been traced , through authentic records , to an antiquity of four thousand two hundred years . Modern scholarship has thrown much doubt on the origin of the Chinese chronicles , but Mr . Meadows has little respect for scholarship , unless it concur with the tale of Hung-seu-Tsuen . Endeavouring to separate the Government of the Mantchus from the kindred despotisms of Asia , and the despotisms , in some degree kindred , of Europe , he argues that it is a government upheld by moral force , maintaining an army and a police sufficient to subdue the restlessness of faction , but inadequate to quell an insurrection o ithe entire people . What then T is the distinction suggested by Mr .

    Meadows ? Could the Emperor of Russia quell the sixty million subjects of the empire , if they simultaneously revolted ? Could Timour have crushed a universal insurrection of the Hindus ? The Chinese nation is , in fact , under arbitrary control , and , when driven to the point at which humanity refuses to submit , has no other resource than rebellion . Among the results of the patriarchal system , accordingly , is the perpetual presence of insurrection in one province or another of China Proper . Thus , the " cheerful acquiescence" of the people to the Mantchu autocracy has been illustrated by an extraordinary series of provincial conflicts , which have been developed , at length :, into a civil war , shaking and desolating the empire , by the formation of innumerable secret societies , or permanent conspiracies , and by unsuccessful but terrific efforts on the part of the emperors to rule by terror . Mr . Meadows himself , while poeticising the despotism of China , and contradicting R ^ musat and Hue with inconceivable assumption , is forced to admit

    that , up to the period of the English yvar , administrative corruption naa spread to a fatal extent ; that the Examination system had not secured competent or honest ofiicials ; that the public revenue was poor , and the public expenditure enormous ; and that , in 1850 , the Chinese Empire was m a state of anarchy . " Here are the Chinese , " he exclaims , " who have pro onged their existence for four thousand years , and nobody asks , how ? I believe I am the only man living that has given himself serious trouble to investigate and elucidate the causes . " Living or dead , in spite of this burst of exultiner egotism , there have been sinologists at least equal to Mr . Meadows , who , in no fear of Remusat or Julien , talks as though China were his discovery . There are certainly errors in the maps and narratives of M . Hue . J- ^ ere are , no d 6 ubt ,. mechanical inaccuracies in the disquisitions of the able * rencn writers we have named ; but we must warn the reader not to trust Mr . Meadows' account , either of the savant or the missionary . He is quick at confutation ,, but , when a . Western writer alludes to the sensuous tendencies of the Chinese , he covers his acquiescence under a retort upon the West , and is careful not to diacusa the" civilization ? ' of China , as it is illustrated by

    the debased condition of the Chinese women . In sketching the history of Hung-seu-Tsuen ,, " the originator and acknowledge * chief of the present relTgious political insurrection m Chma Mr Meadows writes " authoritatively rather than argumentative ^ . '' He repeats , with surprising simplicity , the legendary incidents of the young man ' s scholastic career , without pausing to settle the points in : depute whether the individual exists at all , whether the same person is recognised in the different parts of China under the same namei whether the insurrection was realfy orig inated by him , whether indeed , he , or any one elae , isr Us " acknowledged clfief . " Hung-seu-Tsuen ' s narrative , including miraculous coincidences and revelations , is set forth in detail to the great jg onfication of the missionaries . M . Hamberg had already published the details , which met with instant repudiation from Oriental writers in England . I ? is not evident to Mr . Meadows that the causes of the evil war lay fur bevond the raniro of this disappointed student ' s mission . If Uung-seu-Sen be an actual personage , possessed of the influence attributed to W it still remains to be proved that the revolt had not been «^«« d brf £ » he preached and declared visioiw agninst the Government of the , MantobWL That Government had , for generations , actedin opposition o to notionj ™ 1 WV - wi referred strancors to the native Chinese ; had sold the honours ministers

    and emoluments of office ; Ead appointed weak and vicious , auu still Zve corrupt and feeble viceroys ; had so consumed ' tho resources oi the lund ,. thato hundreds of men ,, in scattered districts , were forced to adont robbery aa the means ofi life ; had exasperated the f ^/ ^^ j £ S fromone limit to another , of , the ompiro , discontentrand ^ 8 ^ cctl ° " ; f u J £ seu 4 LWi V assuming * him not to-be a myth , pnobably took Vantage , o tuo ferment in-his'own province ; but we suapect . xt will be P ™™^ 1 ?^ 1 j of Mfcntclius retreat to Mantchuria . that there are several protendors ^ sons ^ HeaVenV ' aBpiring to thoimperial' throne . Thepolitioal apeculation ^ of mvmSs ^ e diversified by frngmente of philosophical W ™ Ho fi « J witliout hesitation tlio agp of Taccomsm , aeparates its influence , by posmv

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    ^ g ^ Til- Ii E A 3 >\ B Ev [ No . 380 ; Satttrpat ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 10, 1856, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2140/page/18/