directions; the rebel chief besieged Peking, and took it. There-upon the
Emperor, despairing of his fortune, hanged himself from a tree in the
Imperial garden, leaving near him these words, written in his own blood:
"_Since the empire is falling_, _the Emperor_, _too_, _must fall_."
Ou-San-Kouei, the Imperial general, called in the Mantchous to aid him in
reducing the rebels. The latter were put to flight, and while the
Chinese general was pursuing them southward, the Tartar chief returned to
Peking, and finding the throne vacant, assumed it.

[Picture: Chinese Soldier]

Previous to this event, the Great Wall, carefully maintained by the Ming
dynasty, had kept the Mantchous from entering China, while, reciprocally,
the Chinese were forbidden to enter Mantchouria. After the Mantchou
conquest of the empire, however, there was no longer any frontier
separating the two nations. The Great Wall was freely passed, and the
communication between the two countries once thrown open, the Chinese
populations of Pe-Tchi-Li and Chan-Toung, hitherto confined within their
narrow provinces, burst like torrents upon Mantchouria. The Tartar chief
had been considered the sole master, the sole possessor of the lands of
his kingdom; but, established as Emperor of China, he distributed his
vast possessions among the Mantchous, upon the condition that they should
pay him heavy rents for them every year. By means of usury and cunning,
and persevering machinations, the Chinese have since rendered themselves
masters of all the lands of their conquerors, leaving to them merely
their empty titles, their onerous statutory labour, and the payment of
oppressive rents. The quality of Mantchou has thus by degrees become a
very costly affair, and many, of consequence, seek altogether to abnegate
it. According to the law, there is, every third year, a census made of
the population of each banner, and all persons who do not cause their
names to be inscribed on the roll, are deemed no longer to belong to the
Mantchou nation; those, therefore, of the Mantchous whose indigence
induces them to desire exemption from statute labour and military
service, do not present themselves to the census enumerators, and by that
omission enter the ranks of the Chinese people. Thus, while, on the one
hand, constant migration has carried beyond the Great Wall a great number
of Chinese, on the other, a great number of Mantchous have voluntarily