China: Its State and Prospects/Chapter 1
CHINA:
ITS STATE AND PROSPECTS.
CHAPTER I.
CHRONOLOGY AND EXTENT.
Before entering on the prospects of China with regard to the ultimate diffusion of the Gospel, it may be well to offer a few remarks on its former and present state, as introductory to the consideration of its future destinies, and with the view of encouraging those exertions which, by the Divine blessing, may result in its universal evangelization. The conversion of the Chinese to the Christian faith must be viewed as an object every way desirable, and some observations on so important a theme from the pen of one who has long devoted his energies to this work, may not perhaps be considered altogether unacceptable.
In contemplating the evangelization of China, the field spreads itself out before the mind, as one of vast extent and interest; the importance of cultivating this field appears to be of incalculable magnitude; the difficulties which threaten to impede the progress of Divine truth in those regions ought not to be overlooked; while the existing facilities for conducting a series of operations for the benefit of that interesting people should be allowed to animate and encourage us. An allusion to what has been done, to what is doing, and to what remains to be done, may not be unsuitable; and a prospective view of the contemplated results, when these designs shall have been fully carried out, may properly conclude the whole.
China demands the attention of Christian philanthropists, with regard to the antiquity of its origin, the extent of its territory, the amount of its population, and the advance of its civilization. In nearly all these respects we shall find that it rises superior to every other unevangelized country, and stands forward with a prominence, which bespeaks it the greatest of pagan nations.
Commencing with the early history of China, we may be allowed to correct an error into which many have fallen, relative to the assumption of an extravagant chronology by the Chinese. It has been generally supposed that the Chinese maintain an antiquity of myriads of years, and that their historical records, stretching far back into the vista of more than a thousand ages, are at such variance with the comparatively recent account of Moses, as to oblige us either to question the one or the other. This was, at one time, gladly caught at by the sceptics of Europe, and they thought that they had discovered, in the high antiquity of the Chinese, combined with the Hindoo and Egyptian races, an argument which threw discredit on the chronology of the Bible, and weakened the evidence of its Divine authority. The fact, however, is, that the Chinese, like most other heathen nations, have a mythological as well as a chronological period; the one considered by themselves as fabulous, and the other as authentic; the one connected with the history of their gods, and the other with that of their men. In the former they speak of their celestial emperor, who reigned 45,000 years; their terrestrial emperor, who reigned 18,000 years; followed by their human emperor, who reigned as long: without condescending to enlighten us as to the names, characters, events, or circumstances of these wonderful individuals, or their still more extraordinary reigns; nay, without so much as telling us whether their dominions were established in heaven or on earth, or whether they referred exclusively to China, or included other nations. In short, the vague account they furnish us of these fancied emperors shews that they were merely the figment of the imagination, introduced to supply a deficiency, and to amuse the credulous. Indeed, so little credit is attached to this fabulous period by the Chinese themselves, that one of their most respectable historians, Choo-foo-tsze, does not venture to allude to it; but, passing by these extravagant assumptions, commences his relation at a much later period, when events and circumstances of a connected character stamp the records of the age with greater marks of credibility. Another Chinese historian, named Fung-chow, remarks, "How is it credible that more than 10,000 years elapsed before the yang, or 'superior principle,' was produced, and the heavens spread; and that 10,000 more elapsed before the yin, or 'secondary principle' was produced, and the earth formed; that 10,000 more passed away before the yin and yang united to produce the various material existences; and, further, that 40 or 50,000 years more passed away, before the process of the two principles was finished, and the sages appeared! Such a tale is contrary to all sense and reason. From the time of the sages Yaou and Shun to the present age is not more than 3000 and odd years. How can it be believed that 40 or 50,000 years elapsed after the formation of the heavens and the earth, before man appeared, or the earth and water were adjusted, and food supplied to human beings? or that, if the world had existed so long, these things should not have been arranged before Fŭh-he and his successors? It is evident that Pwan-koo, the first man, according to the fabulous records of the Chinese, who acted at the separation of heaven and earth, could not have been long before Fŭh-he, perhaps a thousand years, certainly not ten thousand; and the time of Fŭh-he must have been very near Yaou and Shun, perhaps a hundred years, certainly not a thousand. No scholar should decline a thorough enquiry." Sze-ma-tsëen, another very celebrated historian of China, does not record anything relative to the three emperors above mentioned; how much less then might he be expected to refer to Pwan-koo, who is placed before them.
Thus Chinese authors of the greatest reputation agree in considering the first part of Chinese history as entirely fabulous. Whilst, however, we fully coincide with them in this opinion, we cannot help, on a review of their brief allusion to this period, suggesting the idea, that the whole is probably based on some indistinct recollections of the theory of the creation. Of the first man, they say, that soon after the period of emptiness and confusion, when heaven and earth were first separated, Pwan-koo was produced; his origin is not ascertained, but he knew intuitively the relative proportions of heaven and earth, with the principles of creation and transmutation. During the supposed reign of the celestial, terrestrial, and human emperors, they allege that the year was settled, the months and days arranged, and the hills and rivers divided; all which may be but distant allusions to the formation of the heavenly bodies, and the settlement of the earth and waters.
The next period of Chinese history is that which is said to have elapsed between Fŭh-he and the sages Yaou and Shun, which the Chinese denominate the age of the "Five Rulers," and at which Choo-foo-tsze begins his history. There is much difference among historians as to the arrangement of this era, and Choo-foo-tsze himself says, that "several things affirmed of this epoch were all pushed up by people who lived in subsequent ages." While, therefore, we might be unwilling to give full credit to what Chinese writers say of the events of this period, it is not improbable that much of it is drawn by tradition from the correct account of the antediluvian age handed down by Noah to his posterity. The coincidence of ten generations having passed away, the institution of marriage, the invention of music, the rebellion of a portion of the race, and the confused mixture of the divine and human families, closed by the occurrence of the flood, in the time of Yaou, might lead us to conclude, that in their allusions to this period the Chinese are merely giving their version of the events that occurred from Adam to Noah. When Yu ascended the throne, the lands were drained, and China became habitable. About this period wine was discovered; Yu tasted it, and found it sweet, but rejected it, saying, "at some future period wine will occasion the ruin of the country." If now we should consider this to be a description of the antediluvian period, down to the age of Noah, traced according to Chinese recollections, and illustrated by Chinese fancy; and if we should account Yu to be the first founder of the Chinese empire, we should then be assigning them a very high antiquity, without giving any countenance to the extravagant pretensions which their fabulous writers have assumed. These thoughts are merely thrown out as suggestions, in which some sober and judicious men have concurred, who have considered the highly wrought relations of the times of Yaou and Shun as mainly imaginary not according with the state of improvement in other parts of the world at that period, nor even with the condition of China itself, at subsequent epochs of her history.
If then we consider Yu to be the first real character in Chinese history, and place the beginning of his reign at B. C. 2204, or one hundred and four years after the flood, about the age of Peleg, when the earth was divided, we shall find that it just gives time for such an increase of the human family as would admit of emigration, and yet allow for China being in such a state of marsh, as to require draining for the sake of culture, which service was ascribed to the labours of Yu. Thus the empire of China, even when deprived of its fabulous and traditionary periods, is still very ancient; the Chinese must have branched off from the great human family immediately after the dispersion, and travelling to the farther east, settled down on the borders of the Yellow River, coeval with the establishment of the Babylonian and Egyptian monarchies. The mention made in their early history of the draining of the land, as one of the first acts of the primitive rulers of China, and the allusion to the discovery of wine about the same period, shew that their first kings must have synchronized with the immediate descendants of Noah; and the recorded fact that a seven years' famine took place in China nearly coeval with that of Egypt proves that their chronicles are entitled to some degree of credit. Thus, ere Rome was founded, or Troy was taken—before Thebes or Nineveh were erected into kingdoms—China was a settled state, under a regular form of government; with customs and institutions, similar in many respects to those which it possesses now.
From that time to this, revolutions and wars have frequently occurred; the country has been exposed to foreign invasion, and torn by intestine commotion; dynasties have changed, and the people are even now subject to a Tartar yoke,—yet China is China still. Her language and her customs remain unaltered; and the genius and spirit of the people are the same they were in the patriarchal age. No nation has undergone less change, or been less affected from without; and they seem to have grown up as distinct from the rest of mankind as if they had been the inhabitants of another planet; retaining all their peculiarities just as much as if their exclusive wall had surrounded their whole empire, and debarred all others from intercourse with them. Those who are accustomed to attach veneration to antiquity, will probably regard the Chinese with some degree of interest on account of their patriarchal character; and those who love to survey human society in every possible stage, will be gratified with the contemplation of it, as it existed not only centuries, but milleniums ago. The modern kingdoms of Europe are but of yesterday, compared with the Chinese; and though western nations have grown rapidly since their origin, yet they cannot look back to any very distant period, when their ancestors laid the foundation of their present greatness, and established systems which still exist and characterize their populations. The Chinese, on the contrary, have derived their veneration for parents, and their subjection to rulers, with the arrangements of domestic life, from the first founders of their monarchy; and embody in their present conduct principles which were laid down four thousand years ago.
A few allusions to Chinese history may not be amiss here. Of the great Yu, the founder of their first dynasty, B.C. 2204, they write, that "seeing his father had been put to death, for not completing the work of draining the waters, he applied himself more assiduously to that undertaking, which kept him from home thirteen years; and though during that period, he thrice passed his own door, he would not enter. When he was appointed ruler, he rose ten times from a single meal to listen to complaints, and thrice tied up his hair while in the bath, to attend to some urgent affair, with the view of encouraging his people to an instant and energetic devotion to business."
Of Ching-tang, the founder of the second dynasty, B.C. 1765, the Chinese write, that "he ruled the people gently, and abolished oppressions, complying with the predilections of the multitude, so that all parties reverted to him. In his days, the seven years' drought occurred; the principal scribe observed, that prayer should be offered up. Ching-tang said, 'I only wish for rain on account of the people. If prayer will avail, I will present it myself!' He then fasted, and cut off his hair and nails, riding in a mourning chariot; and binding white reeds around him, that he might represent a sacrificial animal, he went forth to the wilderness of mulberry-bushes, and invoked, saying, 'Let not the lives of the people be forfeited, on account of the neglect of one individual!' He then acknowledged his six faults, saying, 'Is it that my government is extravagant? or that the people are not properly attended to? or that my palaces are too lofty? or that my ministers are too numerous? or that presents are too frequently sent? or that sycophants abound?' He had scarcely ceased, when the rain fell, to the distance of several thousand furlongs."
At the close of this dynasty, B.C. 1153, the tyrant Chow presided over the empire; he is said to have been endowed with supernatural strength, so as to be able to conquer the fiercest beasts, and yet he was deluded and ruined through the fascinations and extravagances of a wretched woman. It is very remarkable, that the age of this individual should agree so exactly with that assigned, in sacred history, to Samson.
The founders of the third dynasty are described as virtuous, patriotic, and brave, exterminating the tyrant of the preceding dynasty, and scattering the wealth and provisions which hee had accumulated among a starving people. About this time, B.C. 1121, foreign ambassadors came, from the modern Cochin-China, to court, presenting a white pheasant to the emperor: on returning they missed their way, when the prime minister furnished them with a "south-pointing chariot," by means of which they reached their own country after a year's journey. Thus we see that the polarity of the needle was known and applied to useful purposes in China, at that early period.
In the twenty-first year of the emperor Ling, of the third dynasty, B.C. 549, Confucius was born, in the state of Loo, now the province of Shan-tung. He had a remarkably high forehead, on which account his name was called Kew, or "hill." One of the nobles of his native state, when on his death-bed, addressed his posterity, saying, "Confucius is a descendant of the sages, and must certainly understand human nature; when I am dead, let my children repair to him for instruction." When Confucius was in the Chow country, he went to Laou-tsze, to enquire about propriety. Laou-tsze said, "a clever merchant conceals his stock, and appears empty; so an advanced scholar puts on the appearance of stupidity." Confucius, addressing his disciples, said, "There is something remarkable about Laou-tsze." When he was nearly fifty years of age, the ruler of his native state. Loo, employed him to govern a certain district: he had not been thus engaged above a year, when the surrounding nobles began to imitate him. His sovereign said, "Had I not better follow your example in the government of the Loo country?" Confucius replied, "With such principles you might pacify the world, how much more the Loo country." In a few years, Confucius became the prime minister of his sovereign; but seeing his prince carried away with the love of women and music, he resigned his office, and quitted Loo. At the age of seventy- five, he died. The writings compiled by Confucius and his followers are the most ancient Chinese records that have been handed down to the present time. Some of these are, professedly, collections of earlier documents, and refer to the traditionary period of Yaou and Shun, as well as to the times of Wan Wang, B.C. 1120; but it is more than probable, that some of the odes and speeches, collected by Confucius, were merely traditionary notices, found in the mouths of bards and statesmen, and not documents actually committed to writing before his time. Confucius' history of his own times commences with the reign of the emperor Ping, B.C. 720, and is as much to be depended on as the recitals of the Greek and Roman historians;—it not only bears on itself the stamp of credibility, but laid the foundation of all the subsequent historical works which China has produced. The well known "Four Books" are written by the followers of Confucius, and contain an account of the sayings and doings of the sage and his immediate disciples, something similar to our Gospels and Acts, or as has been observed, corresponding to Boswell's Life of Johnson.
It is very singular, that China should have given birth, at the same time, to two remarkable men, differing essentially in their doctrines and views, each the founder of a system of religion and morals, which has overspread and divided China, from their days to the present time. These individuals have been already referred to, viz., Confucius and Laou-tsze, and their interview with each other recorded. Though they seem to have had a respect for each other, yet they do not appear to have combined or coalesced in the plans they laid down for the instruction of posterity. Of Confucius it is said, that he never spoke of the strange and marvellous, and sought to fix men's attention on the duties of the human relations; while the other inculcated a contempt for worldly greatness and domestic happiness—placing the chief good in mental abstraction, and professing to deal much with the spiritual world. The one erred in being too sceptical, and the other in being too superstitious; yet they have both retained their hold of the mind of China, even to the present day, and it is difficult now to say, which system is most prevalent throughout the empire.
About the same period, Buddhism arose in India; and though it did not immediately spread into the ultra Gangetic nations, it diffused itself rapidly on its subsequent introduction, and now exerts as great an influence over the minds of the vulgar as the other two sects do over the learned and the superstitious.
A little more than two hundred years before the Christian era, China became subject to a fourth dynasty, called Tsin, from which Chin, or China, the name by which that country is known in the western world, is probably derived. The ruler of Tsin conceived the insane idea of establishing a dynasty, which should extend from the beginning to the end of time. With this view, he collected and burnt all the records of previous ages, and buried alive four hundred and sixty learned men, wishing to make posterity believe that the dominion of the world commenced with himself, the first universal emperor of China. The object of obliterating all remembrance of antiquity was, however, defeated by the subsequent discovery of the books of Confucius, in the wainscot of an old house; and the intention of perpetuating his rule to succeeding generations was also frustrated by the demise of his son, only two years after his own death, by which means the empire passed into other hands, and his dynasty became extinct. Though the writings of Confucius were recovered, yet they were much injured, and, in many parts, defective; which has greatly detracted from the integrity, intelligibility, and, in the opinion of some, from the credibility of the whole.
During the life-time of this monarch the famous Chinese wall was erected, in order to keep out the Tartars, who then infested the northern frontier. Almost every third man was drafted, throughout the empire, for the accomplishment of this undertaking; and being but poorly supplied with provisions, many of them died in the work. Hence the Chinese call it, "The ruin of one generation, and the salvation of thousands." However true the first part of this sentence may be, the latter is not so exactly correct, as the Tartars have several times invaded China, notwithstanding their wall, and are now in possession of the empire. Still it is a stupendous work, stretching over fifteen hundred miles of country, crossing hills and rivers, and provided with gates and towers, at certain intervals, so that if well manned and guarded, in a country where artillery is seldom employed, it might still be serviceable in keeping out an enemy, were not the dreaded Tartar hordes now on both sides of the wall, and in possession of the palaces and capital of the empire. The name of the first ruler of the Tsin dy nasty is, however, held in detestation by the Chinese.
Since the days of Tsin, a succession of dynasties have swayed the destinies of China; among the most celebrated of which are Han, Tang, Sung, and Ming, with the two Tartar dynasties Yuen and Tsing. The dynasty Han, lasting from B.C. 205 to A.D. 226, is distinguished for the military prowess and courage at that time displayed; hence the Chinese are still fond of calling themselves sons of Han. After the downfal of this race of kings, six smaller dynasties followed, of whom little remarkable is recorded. During the Tang dynasty, from A.D. 620 to 906, learning was extensively cultivated, and the literary examinations were then first established. Between the age of Tang and Sung, five smaller dynasties intervened, during which period printing was invented by one Fung-taou, A.D. 924; while the practice of binding the feet of women appears to have commenced about the same time. At the close of the Sung dynasty, A.D, 1275, Marco Paulo, the Venetian traveller, visited China. While the Mongolian Tartars had possession of China the grand canal was dug, which proved of such incalculable service to the empire; and the Yellow River was brought back to its former bed, by which means much land was brought under cultivation, and former inundations prevented. Under the reign of the Ming dynasty, from A.D. 1368 to A.D. 1643, the Portuguese visited China, and settled themselves at Macao. The present Tartar race have possessed the throne one hundred and ninety-four years.
To the above brief allusions to the principal events of Chinese history, a regular list of Chinese emperors will be added in the Appendix, with some of the remarkable occurrences of each successive dynasty. This list is made up from the Kang-këen-e-che, a Chinese historical work, and is calculated according to the cycle of sixty years, compared with the eras of the western world, that both the Chinese scholar and the European reader may be alike assisted in referring to it. Some explanation of the cycle will be required, for those who wish to consult the list. This mode of reckoning has been adopted by the Chinese from the commencement of their monarchy. They ascribe its invention to Hwang-te, who lived in the traditionary period, before the flood of Yaou. The latter is said to have commenced his reign in the forty-first year of the fifth cycle, while the cycle itself is said to have begun with the sixty-first year of the reign of Hwang-te. During the period anterior to Yaou, however, the events of history, in Chinese books, are not marked by the years of the cycle, while subsequent to Yaou's accession, every important occurrence is carefully noted down by the appropriate horary character, so that a student can easily ascertain the date of any given event, by a reference to this mode of calculation. The inference, therefore, is, that the cycle was not known before Yaou, if so early; and that the assumption of the forty-first year of the fifth cycle, for the accession of that monarch is merely arbitrary, for the sake of fixing the date of subsequent, rather than of preceding events. The sixty years of the cycle are made out by joining ten horary characters, called the "ten celestial stems," with twelve others, called the "twelve terrestrial branches." These united together, of course, exhibit an excess of two branches, after every ten stems, which, being carried over to the next row, vary the associations, until the ten stems are repeated six times, thus forming sixty: when the process has to begin again. The origin of the ten stems may be ascribed to the ten digits, and of the twelve branches, to the twelve signs of the zodiac, which are to be met with in all the primitive nations of antiquity, and are supposed by some to be antediluvian. Indeed, the twelve stems are, in calendars and astronomical books, used for the signs of the zodiac, beginning with Aquarius. As the characters denoting these twelve branches have little or no signification in themselves, the common people, in order to remember them the more easily, have attached to each branch-character another word, with the meaning of which they are familiar; as mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, pig, fowl, and dog, which were, probably, the ancient terms for the Chinese signs of the zodiac; so that the supposition that they were, originally, derived from that source, is not altogether without foundation. The Chinese make frequent use of these horary characters in the notation of time, not only as designating years, but months, days, and hours. Thus there are in each year twelve months and three hundred and sixty days; while in each day there are twelve hours, all exhibiting numbers easily denoted by peculiar modifications of twelve. These characters are frequently used in designating the age of individuals, and most requisite in calculating destinies; while in chronological matters, they form the only safe method of denoting time.
The history of China exhibits many traits of human character, and a variety of incidents that would well repay the perusal. It was thought sufficient, however, in the present work, merely to allude to the system of chronology adopted by that people, partly to remove an erroneous notion entertained by some, that the Chinese boast of a chronology extending through an almost indefinite period, and partly to establish the fact that, exclusive of their fabulous and traditionary periods, they do possess a series of historical records, extending back to the very first ages of the world, agreeing, in many important points, with the astronomical and chronological calculations of the West, and entitled, in some degree, to confidence and credit.
It will not be unsuitable now to call the attention of the reader to the dominions which have been possessed by these successive dynasties. A glance at the map of China Proper exhibits it as bounded on the south and east, by the ocean; on the west, by Thibet and the desert; and on the north, by the great wall. Two mighty rivers are seen rising, nearly together, in the mountains of the west, one flowing north, and the other south; and, after a lengthened and tortuous course, aproaching each other nearly about the centre of China, from whence they flow side by side, till they empty themselves into the eastern sea, not far from each other; the one is called Hoang-ho, or the Yellow River, and the other, Yang-tsze-keang, or the Child of the Ocean.
At the first settlement of the Chinese in their patriarchal regions, they doubtless occupied but a small portion of that space which they now call their own. The first part of the country possessed by their primeval ancestors, soon after the dispersion, was that portion of territory now included in the provinces of Shan-se and Shen-se, on the banks of the Yellow River, just after it crosses the great wall; or the northwestern part of China Proper. Here the land was laid out in portions which were divided into nine equal squares, the outer allotments of which were cultivated by eight separate husbandmen, while the middle plot was wrought by the united strength of the whole, and the proceeds given up for the service of the state. As the population increased, they spread themselves farther eastward, occupying the lands that lie between the Yellow River and the modern wall, as far as the sea; until, in the time of Confucius, the whole of the territory north and south of the Yellow River, as far as the Yang-tsze-keang, was inhabited by tribes speaking the same language, and adopting the same customs, separated into different states, and acknowledging one federal head. In process of time, these were all brought under the dominion of Tsin, and the foundation of that empire was laid, which has been long known to the western world, under the appellation of Sin, Chin, and China. It was long, however, before the emperors of China extended their sway over the tribes lying to the south of the Yang-tsze-keang, and, for many ages, the provinces of Fŭh-këen, Canton, Kwang-se, Yun-nan, and Kwei-chow, were in a state of barbarism, scarcely submitting to the Chinese yoke, and deriving little benefit from the civilizing influence of their northern neighbours. Education, however, and superior tactics, gradually won over the southern states, and the emperors of China became lords of all within the wall and the ocean, and extended their influence from the desert to the eastern sea.
Having thus far progressed, China was soon enabled to enlarge her territories by that which generally circumscribes dominion. She spread, not by conquering, but by being conquered. For many ages, the effeminate Chinese had been exposed to the incursions of the Tartar hordes, which infested their northern border. To keep out these, the great wall was built, but built in vain. First, under the Monguls, and, subsequently, under the Manchows, the Tartar race invaded the territory, and ascended the throne of China. In this, however, the superiority of knowledge over ignorance—of civilization over barbarism—has been apparent. Mencius, a Chinese philosopher, who flourished before the Christian era, has a passage in his works to the following effect: "I have heard of barbarians being improved by the Chinese, but I never heard of the Chinese being improved by barbarians." Thus the Tartars, after subjugating China, instead of altering its institutions, and changing its maxims of government, conformed themselves to the customs and laws already existing in the country, and were, in fact, subdued by the Chinese; while China remained what China was, having only changed its rulers, and gained a great accession of territory.
The modern empire of China assumes a peculiar interest and importance, on account of the extent of its territory. In addition to China Proper, which, with its eighteen rich and fertile provinces, each of them equal in extent and population to some European kingdoms, covers an area of 1,298,000 square miles, the empire is now swelled by the annexation of Chinese Tartary, a thinly peopled, but outstretched region, extending from the sea of Ochotsk, on the east; to Bukaria, on the west; and from the Altay and Nershink mountains, on the north, to the great wall, on the south.
The power of China is strengthened, by having Thibet on the one hand, and Corea and Loo-Choo on the other, almost entirely subject to its influence; while its importance, in the eyes of eastern nations, is augmented by claiming to include Cochin-China, Camboja, Burmah, and Siam, among its tributary kingdoms. What an enormous and overgrown dominion is thus presented before us, extending over thirty-five degrees of latitude and seventy of longitude, and covering an area of upwards of 3,000,000 square miles.
The Chinese empire occupies no inconsiderable space in our map of the earth's surface, and fills up nearly the whole of their own; no wonder, then, that the Chinese should consider their country as the middle kingdom, including all within the four seas; and that, with them, the world and their empire should be synonymous terms. It is true, that a great part of these territories are uninhabitable deserts, and Chinese Tartary may have only four inhabitants to a square mile; yet the government of that country extends an influence over nearly as much of the earth's surface, and more of its population, than either England or Russia, and makes its orders heard and obeyed from Peking to E-le, and from the capital to Canton, amongst several hundred millions of people. By its new accessions of territory China has come into the neighbourhood of the British possessions; and, though originally so distant from us, seems to shake hands across the Himlaya mountains,—and invite western nations to publish amongst them, the glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.