prevented the author from perfecting his plan, and hurried his pages
to the press; death has now removed him from his labours. But a
collection of authentic historic facts is valuable, however loosely
embodied; and few writers have enjoyed such favourable opportunities
as Dr Gutzlaff for obtaining them.

Referring first to the personal history of Taou-Kwang, we find that
his education was more Tatar than Chinese. He was one of the numerous
grandchildren of the imperial house of Keelung, but without any
expectation of filling the throne, as both his mother and paternal
grandmother were inferior members of the imperial harem. The
discipline under which the royal family was trained, was of the
strictest kind. Each of the male children, on completing his sixth
year, was placed with the rest under a course of education
superintended by the state. Though eminent doctors were engaged to
instruct them in Chinese literature, yet archery and horsemanship were
considered higher accomplishments, and the most expert masters from
Mongolia and Manchooria trained them in these exercises. They were
treated as mere schoolboys, were allotted a very small income for
their maintenance, were closely confined to the apartments assigned to
them, kept in entire ignorance of passing events, and allowed little
intercourse with the court--none with the people. Not till each had
passed his twentieth year, was there any relaxation of this
discipline. Taou-Kwang was about this age when his father ascended the
throne, in consequence of the somewhat capricious appointment of
Keelung, who abdicated, and soon after died. The new emperor
surrounded himself with buffoons, playactors, and boon-companions. The
debaucheries, jealousies, and cruelties of his reign, remind us of
what we have half sceptically read of Nero and Caligula. But
Taou-Kwang kept aloof alike from the frivolities and the intrigues of