Gazette Of The United States And Daily Evening Advertiser

CHINESE PROCLAMATION.
Made by the present Emperor, in the year 1780, when he was 70 years of age

"I WILL that one child or relation of every man aged 70, be exempted from road-work and military service, in order that an old man may always have somebody to wait upon him. I give to every man aged eighty, one piece of silk, [Silk stuff] a pound of cotton, ten bushels of rice, and ten pounds of meat. The old men from eighty to one hundred, must "receive the double of this; but those of one hundred I must be acquainted with myself and wait upon them with my own hands; the blessings I intend them."

In another proclamation the Emperor promises to perform the great stated sacrifice himself, but apologizes for not being able, on account of his age, to move the tablet which represents the Spirit of Heaven and Earth, from the place where it is usually kept, to the place of sacrifice, and carry it back again. He concludes this proclamation by declaring, that on account of his increasing age and infirmities he will abdicate the crown when he shall have attained the age of eighty-five. This age he attains next year, and, admitting that Lord Macartney had made an advantageous commercial treaty with the present Emperor, it does not seem absolutely certain that his successor would have adhered to it. But as stability does not seem a favorite word with our present sapient ministers, they perhaps contrived thus to time it, that they might have the pleasure of beginning the whole business de novo next year. They could hardly be ignorant of this determination of the Emperor, for it is recorded in a well known, and authentic volume entitled, "Memoirs concernant L'Histoire les Sciences, les Arts, les Mœurs, les Usages, &c. des Chinois; par les Missionnaires de Pekin. Tom 9 quarto."

The materials of which this volume is composed, were collected from the French Missionaries, in Pekin, and from papers transmitted by two Chinese, who came to France at the age of nineteen, to inform themselves of the manners and customs of Europe. In 1763, when the Jesuits were banished France, these two Eastern travellers took refuge in the Convent St. Lazarus, and soon after received a pension from the French King, to enable them to continue their studies. They were afterwards put under the care of Messrs. Brion and Cadet, to learn chemistry, in which science they made a great proficiency. They were taught drawing and engraving, and sketched some Chinese landscapes in aqua-fortis. They were sent to Lyons to inspect the silk manufactories; at St. Etienne, they took a cursory view of the manner of making fire arms, and were taught the various ways of preparing steel. Being returned to Paris, they took some lessons in printing, exercising themselves on a little portable press, of which the French King had made them a present.

In 1765, they departed, having received several queries from the Literati of France, particularly many from Mr. Turgot, which they promised to return answers to, and for near twenty years they annually transmitted memoirs to Paris.

One of the papers which they sent, contains a very curious order of the College of Religion, settling how the ceremonies, not performed by the Emperor himself, shall be conducted in any future period, and concludes with a description of the Emperor's reading the Yupié, or piece of satin, on which are written, all the good and bad actions he has committed in the course of the year. This he does with a low voice, or only with the eyes, doing an act of reverence whenever he acknowledges himself to have been wrong, and praying God to enable him to do better.