Page:Inside Canton.djvu/92

Rh "Certainly!" exclaimed Pan, surprised at this question.

"Why, then," said I, "since you have nothing to fear from without, why this excess of precautions? What interest could the people of the Chinese city have in creating disorder in the Tartar city? or why should the inhabitants of the latter disturb the tranquillity of their neighbours?"

"This results," said our friend, sententiously, "from our political organisation. The prudence of our sovereigns has so ordered matters as to make treasons and seditions impossible."

"The deuce!" we exclaimed; "if you can give us the recipe without betraying the laws of the state, you will do us great service."

Fan reflected a few moments, then continued thus:— "As the new city is at present separated from the old—the Tartar city was formerly divided into four distinct parts independent the one of the other, and surrounded by fortified walls. The object of this regulation was to isolate the functionaries, and to put them under mutual superintendence, as too frequent intercourse might induce them to hatch plots, or at least to relax from the severity which is indispensable in official relations. This system of separation and surveillance is the one which still prevails in the policy of the Empire. The 4em