About one-third of the revenue is derived from customs, and the rest from miscellaneous sources of income, chief among them a 'huttax on natives.' The latter produced 17,9267. in the year 1862. The chief item of expenditure is for police and the administration of justice.

Natal is a solitary instance of a colony having been established by Great Britain without cost to imperial funds. In its early days it had a loan of ten thousand pounds, which has long since been repaid. Its military expenditure is, however, still paid by Great Britain.

The colony has an area of abont 18,000 square miles, with a seaboard of 150 miles. No census of the population has ever been taken; but it appears from government estimates that the number of persons of European origin amounts to about 18,000, while the natives number above 200,000. The estimates of this native population are formed from the assessment of the 'hut-tax,' which is collected with great strictness every year.

A small number of emigrants are introduced every year into the colony through government aid. The number thus conveyed from Great Britain in the year 1863 was 256, of whom 35 were married men, 31 married women, 78 single men, 42 single women, 35 boys between the ages of 1 and 12, 23 girls between the same ages, 7 male infants, and 5 female; 184 were English, 59 Scotch, and 13 Irish. A number of Indian coolies, from 500 to 800 per annum, have also been recently introduced into Natal.

Trade and Commerce.

The value of the imports and exports of the colony in the year 1850, and in the four years 1859-62, was as follows:

:

The staple article of export is sheep's wool; next to which in importance stand sugar, ivory, and hides. Many of the exports, particularly wool, come from the neighbouring Dutch republics, which also absorb more than one-third of the imports. The native population, though extensively engaged in agricultural pursuits, have not as yet been able to bring forth any articles of export from Natal.

III. ASIA.

CHINA.

Constitution and Government.

THE form of government of the Chinese empire is strictly patriarchal. The sovereign called 'Ta-hwang-li,' or the Great Emperor, is regarded as the father of his people, and has unlimited power over all his subjects. The fundamental laws of the empire are laid down in the first of the 'Four Books' of Confucius, which prescribe the government of the state to be based upon the government of the family.

Reigning Emperor.-Ki-tsiang, ‘High Prosperity,' formerly Prince Tsai-sung, born April 5, 1855, the eldest son of the Emperor Hienfung, 'Perfect Bliss;' succeeded to the throne at the death of his father, August 22, 1861.

The present sovereign is the 8th Emperor of China of the Tartar dynasty of Ta-tsing, 'The Sublimely Pure,' which succeeded to the native dynasty of Ming in the year 1644.

The emperor is spiritual as well as temporal sovereign, and, as high priest of the empire, can alone, with his immediate representatives and ministers, perform the great religious ceremonies. No ecclesiastical hierarchy is maintained at the public expense, nor any priesthood attached to the Confucian or State religion.

The administration of the empire is under the supreme direction of the Interior Council Chamber,' comprising four members, two of Tartar and two of Chinese origin, besides two assistants from the Han-lin, or Great College, who have to see that nothing is done contrary to the fundamental laws of the empire, contained in the sacred books of Confucius. These members are denominated Ta-hyo-si,' or Ministers of State. Under their orders are the Le-poo, or six boards of government. They are:-1. The board of civil appointments, which takes cognisance of the conduct and administration of all civil officers; 2. The board of revenues, regulating all financial affairs; 3. The board of rites and ceremonies, which enforces the laws and customs to be observed by the people; 4. The military board, superintending the administration of the army; 5. The board of public works; and 6. The high tribunal of criminal jurisdiction.

Independent of the government, and theoretically above the central administration, is the Tu-che-yiven, or board of public

censors. It consists of from 40 to 50 members, under two presidents, the one of Tartar and the other of Chinese birth. By the ancient custom of the empire, all the members of this board are privileged to present any remonstrance to the sovereign. One censor is to be present at the meetings of each of the six government boards, without taking any part in the deliberation, and others have to travel through the various provinces of the empire to inspect and superintend the administration of the chief public functionaries.*

Revenue and Population.

The revenues of the Chinese government, according to official returns published in the year 1844, are as follows :†—

Taels 53,730,218 113,398,057

7,486,380

The above is the net revenue of the country; but the expenditure of collection, and the extortion and fees, make the taxes that are actually levied at least three times as heavy. No statement of the expenditure is given in the official accounts; but from missionary reports, as well as the accounts published in the 'Peking Gazette,' it would appear that there are almost constant deficits, which the governors and high officers of provinces must make good by loans or extraordinary taxation.

The amount of land-tax not paid in money is chiefly discharged in rice, wheat and pulse, which is kept by the government in immense granaries in the suburbs of Pekin and Tung-chow. The transport of the mass of grain occupies 64,000 men, with 6,318 vessels, divided into 123 squadrons.‡

The revenues of the various provinces of the empire were stated as follows in the budget of 1843, extracted from the Chinese statistical tables :

* Gützlaff, C. F. A., China Opened, London, 1838.

† Macgregor, John, Appendices to Commercial Reports, Part 23, London, 1850.

Osborn, Capt. Sherard, Past and Future of British Relations in China, London, 1860.

The empire is divided into eighteen provinces, the area and population of which, according to the imperial census of 1812, is as follows:

Provinces

Distance

from

Peking in Lys*

Area in

English statute Population

Provincial Capital

miles

* Lys-194 to a degree, or about one-third English mile each.

The above population, giving 283 souls per square mile throughout the empire, appears to be excessive. In the evidence adduced before the British Parliamentary Committees, in 1830, 1831, and 1832, the area of China was computed at 1,372,452 English statute square miles, and the number of inhabitants at 141,470,000, or 103 to the square mile; to which was added 1,182,000 for the standing army, and 12,000,000 for Tartary. But the information possessed at that period was very obscure with regard to the population. Thibet, Korea, the Mantchoo, and other Tartar and Mongolian states, are computed to have a population of more than 30,000,000, which would increase the whole population of China and its assumed dependencies to nearly 400,000,000 inhabitants.

The standing military force of China consists nominally of four divisions—the Manchoos, in 678 companies of 100 men each, the Mongols, in 211 companies, and 106,000 Chinese, all cavalry, and 500,000 native infantry, besides 125,000 irregular troops or militia; in all, 829,900 men. Besides these, many irregular troops are stationed in the provinces of Mongolia, Turkestan, Tibet, where the government is military, and in all considerable cities there is a garrison of Tartar troops. But recent reports* state the Chinese army to be composed of only 600,000 men, scattered over the surface of the empire. A standing army, in the European sense of the word, is not in existence. The soldiers do not live in barracks, but in their own houses, pursuing as chief business some civil occupation, frequently that of day-labourers, and meeting only on certain occasions, pursuant to orders from the military chieftains.

Trade and Commerce.

The first attempt on the part of Great Britain to open a trade with China was made in 1637, when four merchant vessels arrived at Macao; but through the intrigues of the Portuguese there established, the enterprise failed. Afterwards the East India Company carried on a small traffic at the different maritime ports, and chiefly at Canton. In 1792, Lord Macartney's embassy attempted to put the trade on a more liberal basis, but with little success. In 1816, Lord Amherst's mission for a similar purpose also failed, though the English trade continued for the next twenty years. In 1834 the exclusive trade of the East India Company with China terminated, and the country was thrown open to general traders.

'* Moger, Marquis de, Recollections of Baron Gros's Embassy to China and Japan, Lond. 1860.