the offending dignitaries. As in China, money
has the preponderant influence in all matters of this kind, the Mussulmen
of Hada raised a subscription among all their co-religionists in the
empire, and by its means defeated the Mandarins, who had desired to
demolish their mosques, and effected their deposition and banishment. We
have often asked each other how it was that the Christians in China live
in a state of oppression, wholly at the arbitrary disposition of the
tribunals, while the Mussulmen march about with heads erect, and
constrain the Chinese to respect their religion. It certainly is not
because the religion of Mahomet is, more than Christianity, in harmony
with Chinese manners; quite the contrary, for the Chinese may, without
any compromise of their religious duties, live in intimacy with the
Pagans, eat and drink with them, interchange presents with them, and
celebrate in common with them the Festival of the New Year, all which
things are forbidden to the Hoei-Hoei by the despotic and exclusive
spirit of their religion. No: that the Christians are everywhere
oppressed in China is to be attributed to the great isolation in which
they live. If one of them is taken before a tribunal, all his brethren
in the locality get out of the way, instead of coming in a body to his
aid and awing by their numbers the aggressive Mandarins. Now, more
especially, that imperial decrees have been issued favourable to
Christianity, if the Christians were to rise simultaneously in all parts
of the empire, were energetically to assume possession of their rights,
giving publicity to their worship, and exercising fearlessly, and in the
face of day, their religious practices, we are satisfied that no one
would venture to interfere with them. In China, as everywhere else, men
are free who manifest the will to be so; and that will can only be
effectively developed by the spirit of association.

We were now approaching the first day of the Chinese year, and in every
direction people were preparing for its celebration. The sentences,
written on red paper, which decorate the fronts of houses, were renewed;
the shops were filled with purchasers; there was redoubled activity of
operations in every quarter, while the children, ever eager to anticipate
holidays and entertainments, were discharging, each evening, preliminary
fireworks in the streets. Sandara informed us that he could not pass the
Festival of the New Year at Tang-Keou-E