The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

146 such a stereotyped race ; and, above all, change in the matter of their ancestral and national systems of religion. But on all these points our conceptions, where they are not erroneous, are exaggerated. The inaecessibility of China to strangers does not extend beyond the line of the mast ; in deed the variety of dialects in Chins is so immense, and their dissimilarity so striking, amongst the numerous tribes and races that occupy the prodigious area of that vast empire, that the detection of an intruder in one part of the empire, who chose to represent himself as a native of another, would be a matter of diffi culty if not impossibilq. Hence, from the earliest period, the repre sentatives and emissaries of numerous creeds have found a ready access ri n d established a permanent position in China. J e ws and Ma homedans have maintained a firm footing within the prohibited territory ; and Christians of all denominations have for centuries been engaged in disseminating the tenets of their respective churches amongst the followers of Dentine, and the disciples of CONFCCIUR and LAUKIUS. Besides this, the doctrines of the Buddhists and Rationalists in China are not of the ex clusive and intolerant character which belongs to seine of the religions of the %Vest. and they have at all times encouraged inquiry with a liberality and self-confideuee which are almost peculiar to themselves. Christianity ix therefore no north!, in China ; and long before our intercourse with it had been expedited by the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, mid centuries before 'mewls and MARCO POLO brought to Europe the stories of Prester John and the Bishops of Cathay. we have proofs that the Nestorians had implanted Christianity in China in the sixth and seventh centuries. A diseovery ors remarkable kind was made in China in the year 1015 A.D., when a stone tablet was brought to light in Shensi, inscribed with ancient diameters, recording the leading tenets of the Christian faith, and professing to have been erected in commemoration of "the ditfu sion of the illustrious religion of Ta-tsin Jutheal in China." This, the most ancient monument of Chris tianity hr Asia, details the arrival of the Nes torian teachers in 039 A n., their alternate wel comes and persecutions under successive So vereigns, down to the date of the monument, 7SI, when it was " erected in the second year of KIEN-CILUNO, ninth Emperor of the / fang dynasty, by the Priest Negostiu, being special law lord and preacher of the inns " trims religion throughout the regions of the .. East." Traces of Christianity thus early implanted by the Nestorians survived the ravages of OENOIS KITAN and the expulsion of the Mon gols; and paved the way for the Jesuits and other missionaries of the Church of Rome who resorted to China in vast numbers, and ith singular success, between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries. Abundant and MI -4.141111A0ti evidence exists of the results of their labours, and the prodigious numbers of the Chinese whom they succeeded in converting to Christianity. In 1307 A.D. these were suffi cient to occupy the care of an archbishop and seven suffragans. XAVIER, " the apostle of the Indies," added his wonderful enthusiasm to urge on the work, and died in China in the midst of his successful labours. MArito Ricci, in 1581 A.D., addressed himself to the work of evangelisation with such signal suc cess that, after making good his footing at Canton and Nankin, the Emperor invited the Jesuits to Pekin, asigned to them the building appropriated to foreign envoys, and conferred on them an annual income. In return for the Imperial protection, the Jesuits rendered other services to the Chinese besides the inculcation of their religion. They communicated to them the discoveries of En ronean astronomy, they corrected the errors of their calendar, they cast cannon for the Em peror. and completed a trigonometrical survey of his dominions, which is to the present day the only authentic document possessed by Europe as to the geography of Chins. Their popularity and share of royal favour, however intermittent, were sufficient to swell the number of their converts—hundreds of Roman THE PRESS. Catholic missionaries arrived between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the present one, and ten years ago they had eight bishoprics in China, one hundred and fourteen native priests in addition to their European staff, and the Amides de lac Foi for 1839 estimated their converts and communi cants by hundreds of thousands. All this is, of course, independent of the la bours and the converts of the various Protes tant missions which, for the last forty or fifty years, have been established in China, but whose success has been far less striking than that of the Church of Rome. It is not to be wondered at then if, amongst a people who practically adopt education as the title to official employment and political power, these Christian converts, with their numerous schools and their native catechists and teach ers, have established a wide and prevailing in fluence in Chinese affairs ; and hence the dis couragement and suspicion which of late years the Emperor has manifested towards the Christian population ; the authorities being ac customed to identify them with the political societies of "the Triad" and the "White Lily," which take a prominent, share in the present insurrection. It is true that KEYING, in 1844, proclaimed an act of toleration towards the professors " of the religion of the Lord of ileaven," Protestants as well as Roman Catho lics, but it is equally well known that all are regarded with distrust on political grounds, from a feeling of alarm for their sentiments and apprehension of their numbers. With a knowledge of these facts, it is easy to understand that the leaders of the pre sent revolution, who make their appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the educated classes of China, may have found it their in terest to address themselves to the Christian communities, by whom education has been widely promoted ; and that, in emblazoning the insignia of Christianity on their banners, they have resorted to no temporary stratagem, but appealed boldly in a name and to a body who command a powerful and increasing sym pathy anti influence throughout the extent of China. THE STATE OF ITALY. IT is now upwards of three hundred and fifty years since CHARLES VIII. invaded Italy, and overran it with an army of a few thousand men. He was quickly compelled to retreat ; but the consequences of his brief conquest have never been effaced : with it the independence of the peninsula was entirely destroyed. The traditions of the Roman empire estab lished a connection between Italy and the Emperor of GERMANY, the representative and successor of AUGUSTUS and CHARLEMAGNE, which, though it was occasionally loosened, was never dissolved. It was as Imperial fiefs that the Spanish provinces in Lombardy were held by the Princes of the house of Austria, and as such they devolved to the younger branch of that family on the partition of the Spanish monarchy. If Italy has not been always unfortunate, she has always thought herself so, and the misfortunes of Italy can never be a matter of indifference to the rest of Europe. Previously to the disastrous events of 1848, the material prosperity of the country had vastly increased. the people seemed rapidly advancing in intel ligence, the various Sovereigns vied with each other in their concessions and sacrifices. The sanguine politician anticipated a new era. With all this the threatening present offers ' a gloomy contrast. The Governments, per plexed with suspicion and irritated by oppo .. 'Rion, have only before them a choice of errors. The people, unfit to govern and un willing to obey, filled with angry recollections and vague aspirations, exhibit a sullen and stubborn resistance that perpetuates animosity and precludes improvement. In Naples, where foreign agitation and hostile diplomatists failed to shake the national SATURDAY, loyalty to the throne, and where no foreign assistance was required to quell the insurrec tion, we regret that confidence should not im mediately have been restored between the Prince and the people. On the one hand, the arts of the interested should not have been allowed to perpetuate ill-will ;on the other, the King might have exhibited more of the amiable weakness of forgiveness, and a greater reliance on the affection of his subjects. The Grand Duke of TUSCANY, restored to his capital by the repentance of his people, but maintained on his throne by Austrian assist ance, has not found the same Florence he left, nor the same people ho once governed in reci procal confidence and good-will. He is looked on by his subjects as an Imperial Viceroy, and events still recent have proved how little foreign nations can consider him in the light of an independent Sovereign. The Pope, u bigot in religion anti a dupe in politics, a puppet at home and a firebrand abroad, stirs up in other states that disaffec tion which he needs foreign bayonets to sup press in his own. The Austro-Italian dominions are morally, if itot materially, in a yet worse condition. Slowly recovering from the effects of recent rebellion, commercial prosperity returns sooner than political confidence; and the physical well being of the people is in advance of their men tal tranquillity. For this there may be several reasons, but one alone is sufficient to account for it. In the tyranny of the secret societies throughout the peninsula there exists an evil, the extent of which we can hardly appreciate, even with the example of Ireland before our eyes. It is to these, and not to Austrian mis government, that the ills must be attributed of which we have heard so many and such just complaints. Their ranks are unwillingly recruited by the well-disposed and the timid, who dread the threats of the democrats more than the prison of the Austrians, and who are compelled to join a conspiracy they detest. In Italy the members of these societies are not confined, as in Ireland, to the ignorant dupes and victims of a corrupt priesthood : they include persons of education and intelligence—men who can write with energy and complain with eloquence of the evils which they themselves perpetuate. Surely such men should remember that, to attain the ends they profess to desire, they should endeavour to regenerate the country and exalt its character, and not to sink and degrade it by the demoralising in fluence of fear. Against such societies there is no resource but espionage, and, if the Government condescends to practise it, it is in the propensity of Italians for such associations that they find their ex cuse. If the Government may sometimes be charged with harshness, it is but fair to re member how often its clemency has been abused, its power defied. and its fears excited, by the intrigues of political associations, and by those of the exiles who encourage them. The Austrian Government has long seen the ne cessity of putting down these societies, and it is with a thorough knowledge of the subject that it suspects the Lombard exiles at Turin to be among their most active members. We have seen the correspondence between the Austrian and Sardinian Ministers relative to the melancholy events of Milan of the Bth of February, and the measures of security that were adopted in consequence ; and we have read the addresses of several of the most zea lous amongst the Sardinian patriots in defence of the Milanese exiles in Piedmont accused of participation in those culpable attempts. While they maintain the innocence of all the exiles, they endeavour to establish a differ ence between such as have taken the oaths of allegiance in Piedmont and such as have not the claim of citizenship, and all agree in de nouncing the injustice of Marshal RADETZICT's proclamation of the 18th of the same month. We trust the Sardinian orators are correct in maintaining the innocence of the Lombard exiles of all participation in that weak and guilty movement ; but can they deny a con stant correspondence carried on by these men and the disaffected in their own country, or their connivance, if not concurrence, in every plot which had for its object the destruction of the Austrian Government? Will the exiles