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    Cki;:&sp Religion and Laws, 66$

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Literature In India.—The Following Is An...

    interfered in _rnatter _? of state , and shewn a disposition , which the Chinese irrip _operiy atribute to Christianity , that of perpetually quarrelling with their _neighbours who are not of the same opinion , and making their religion a matter ' . £ state , so that every body must believe as they believe , or-riot be capable of holding any ofHce under the government . The e maxims to the Chinese

    _Mandarins , who are very fond of good humour , and who seize in a moment whatever is ab . urd in their own Bonzes , appeared to be the most ridiculous that could be imagined _.

    " The Christian Bonzes , however , made considerable progress , and in their usual manner excited a spirit of dissatisfaction and quarrel-ing ; and , beirig found to exact a kind of obedience to a

    man living st > me thousand miles off , they were deemed dangerous to the state , and their religion was proscribed . Before that time they were permitted to have churches ; and the crucifix , and the triangular emblem of the trinity , and the _wax-lights , and the wafer-go _$ i , were upon the altars . Many thousand Chine e _, chiefly of the lower classes ,

    embraced the sect , and books on the popish reli g ion were printed in the Chinese language . Several of these books have been lately discovered in a prpvince of China , and , on inquiry , it was found , that even some Tartar soldiers had quitted their original customs , and _embraced the new faith . Strict inquiries were made at the lower tribunals , and the

    whole matter was sent up to the higher tribunal for its final decision . The decree of the lower tribunals was in general confirmed ; and the offending parties were variously treated according to the supposed _magnitude of the crime :

    some were bain hed , others were compelled to wear the ignominious yoke _^ ud the chief Mandarin of the" province , whose office it is to inspect the _morale of the people was , for not having sooner detected thh affair , degraded All the books on- the European religion were ordered to be hurnti • ¦

    ** The Chinese , we see , are ' not freer jronv _absurdity than some European nation ' s . They hafve not yet learned to leave _religion entirely to 'it-self ; They make it 'dangerous by the _interposition of tlie _'stated Yet we" cannot inveigh very- bitterly _againrt them , when we think of tfie manner in which this _sub-

    Literature In India.—The Following Is An...

    ject is treated by many _Rrgh-hmcn . With what contempt does not many a churchman loo ' c upon a _disinter ; and yet both one and the other probably go , the one to church , and the other to his meeting , merely because by accident his father did so before hirri , and he was

    brought up in this habit The law , indeed , allows person ? to have meetings for rel ' gion _, different from _thene of the _established church ; but it makes a great difference between those'who

    _fallow the rule laid down by law and the rule adopted by the ' rfis > ident ,-a difference oftentimes so very minute that a Chine e would assuredly not be able to find it out But every nation has its own peculiar follies . '

    « In affairs of life and death the Chinese are more scrupulous than any other natioH . They rigidly _adheie to the precept given to the father of their empire .- —whoever sheds man ' s blood , \> y man shall his blood be shed . Hence , whenever a murdered body is found the

    utmost _inquiry is made after the murderer ; and that country is by no means favourable to duelling , as in case of a person killed , the surviving duellist , the seconds , and the surgeon ; would all inevitably be put to death . In an affray lately between some Chinese and English sailors , a Chinese "was killed ; the usual

    inquiries were made , and it was found that he was murdered by one or more English . A demand was made in form to the factory for the murderer ; but they , not knowing the murderer , could not comply with the request . This does not satisfy the C hinese The murderer

    is , they say , amongst the English : if he were with us , we should easily detect him ; , if they do not use the proper methods to discover _^ htm , that will not satisfy us , we must either have the murderer , or a man in his stead . This law must _strike us as a very ' extraordinary one , but in consequence of it ,

    among upwards of three hundred million of peop _' e , murder is a very rare crime , and in Pekin _* a town much larger than London , an instance of a _hous _^ fa . _Uing down and _burying in its ruin * twenty or thirty inhabitants never occurs . . The consequences of this r . _efustil on our part ase not wholly known * . Ail r _. - ¦ , | - _^ , ¦ ¦ i , ¦¦ in ¦ m ir ¦ 11 i r . i i __ _+ m i i ¦ _m ¦ ¦ _~ i m _^~ : ¦ ' _¦> * The _depute is now said to be amicably _ftdjufct _^< I _>* € i i _^> . _JEtj .

    Cki;:&Sp Religion And Laws, 66$

    Cki ; : & sp _Religion and Laws , 66 $

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1807, page 669, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121807/page/49/