CHINA.

THE Chinese, like the Egyptians, and many other nations, assume to themselves too high an antiquity; but neither Homer nor Herodotus has intimated that they ever heard of such a people; nor do any of the Persian historians take the least notice of the Chinese as a nation, before the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the declension of the Persian empire. Their origin has been long a subject of dispute among the learned; but Sir William Jones has rendered it highly probable, from a comparative view of several circumstances, that the Chinese and Hindoos were anciently the same people, and that the existing differences between the nations may be justly ascribed to the care with which the Hindoos have preserved their old language, and family alliances, while the Chinese have accepted of a new religion, and by a mixture of Tartarian blood, from the time of their first establishment, have at length formed a race distinct in appearance both from the Hindoos and the Tartars.

Of the form of government anciently prevailing in China nothing material has been recorded either by the Greek or Roman writers. However, the Chinese historians inform us that it was monarchical, and have given a long series of their emperors up to the present time. The emperor of China, at the present day, is vested with absolute authority, and the veneration he receives from his subjects falls but little short of adoration. Even his nearest relatives are obliged to kneel in his presence; and the least of his commands are as implicitly obeyed as if they came down from heaven.