Shan-hai-kwan, adopted Genghis Khan's route--the passes leading in
from the great grassy plains of Mongolia many hundreds of miles to the
West. Allying himself by marriage with Mongols, the Manchu monarch
began a series of grand raids through their territory in the direction
of Peking. Once he actually reached Peking and sat down in front of
its mighty walls to besiege it. But he found his strength unequal to
the task, and once more was forced to retire. Then this second Manchu
prince died, and was succeeded by a tiny grandson of five. The regent
appointed by the Manchu nobles owed his final success to the fact that
he was called in by the Chinese generals commanding the coveted
Shan-hai-kwan gates to rescue Peking from the hands of Chinese
insurgents, who had everywhere arisen; and in 1644, after seventy
years of warfare, the Manchus seated themselves on the Dragon Throne,
in defiance of the wishes of the people, but backed up by a vast
concourse of Manchus and Mongols, and half the fierce blades of
Eastern Asia.

The history of all these centuries of warfare is eloquently written on
all the buildings, the fortifications, the monuments, the palaces and
temples of Peking which surround us. Peking is the Delhi of China, and
the grave of warlike barbarians. Four separate times have Tartars
broken in and founded dynasties, and four separate times have Chinese
culture and civilisation sapped rugged strength, and made the rulers
the _de facto_ servants of the ceremonious inhabitants. In the Tartar
city there are Yellow Lama temples, with hundreds of bare-pated lama
priests, the results of Buddhist Concordats guaranteeing Thibetan
semi-independence in return for a tacit acknowledgment of Chinese
suzerainty. Near the Palace walls is a Mongolian Superintendency,
where the Mongol hordes still grazing their herds and their flocks on
the grassy plains of high Asia, as they have done for countless