Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/158

134 rites, by the respective officers of each district. While, however, the government requires its ministers to worship the gods, according to the state ritual, it strictly forbids the performance of unauthorized worship; and will not permit private persons to usurp the ceremonial exclusively claimed by the ruler. If it should be objected, that all this does not much display the wisdom of our Chinese legislators, we can only reply, that they are not the first who have failed, in attempting to legislate about religion.

The military laws commence with drawing a cordon around the imperial residence, and threatening any person with the bamboo who shall enter its precincts without authority; while those who intrude into the apartments actually occupied by the emperor shall be strangled. No person is allowed to travel on the roads expressly provided for his majesty; and during the imperial journey, all persons must make way for the state equipage. This regulation is intended to keep up the impression of awe, with which the Chinese invest their rulers, as though they were too divine and majestic to be beheld by mortal eyes; and is no doubt designed to preserve the person of the ruler safe from harm, which under a despotic government is not at all unnecessary. The code next proceeds to legislate on the government of the army, which it places entirely at the disposal of the emperor; and takes up the subject of nocturnal police, which prohibits all persons from stirring abroad, from nine in the evening till five in the morning. In order to protect the frontier, it is enacted, that whoever without a license passes the barriers, and holds communication with foreign nations, shall be strangled: and whoever introduces strangers into