than their own.
They are bound to remain in their own kingdom, under the dominion of
their own sovereign, for slavery is still maintained among the Mongol
tribes with the utmost rigour. In order to attain an accurate idea of
the degree of liberty these people enjoy in their desert regions, it is
expedient to enter into some details as to the form of their government.

Mongolia is divided into several sovereignties, whose chiefs are subject
to the Emperor of China, himself a Tartar, but of the Mantchou race:
these chiefs bear titles corresponding to those of kings, dukes, earls,
barons, etc. They govern their states according to their own pleasure,
none having any right to meddle with their affairs. They acknowledge as
sovereign only the Emperor of China. Whenever there arise differences
among them, they appeal to Peking. Instead of levelling lances at each
other, as used to be done in the middle age of Europe, among its little
sovereigns, so warlike and so turbulent, they always submit with respect
to the decision of the Court of Peking, whatever it may be. Though the
Mongol sovereigns think it their duty to prostrate themselves, once a
year, before the Son of Heaven, Lord of the Earth, they nevertheless do
not concede to the Grand-Khan the right of dethroning the reigning
families in the Tartar principalities. He may, they say, cashier a king
for grave misconduct, but he is bound to fill up the vacant place with
one of the superseded prince's sons. The sovereignty belongs, they
contend, to such and such a family, by a right which is inalienable, and
of which it were a crime to dispossess the owner.

A few years ago, the King of Barains {170} was accused at Peking of
having conspired a rebellion against the Emperor; he was tried by the
Supreme Tribunal without being heard, and condemned to be "shortened at
both ends," the meaning of the decree being, that his head and feet
should be cut off. The king made enormous presents to the officials who
were sent to superintend the execution of the imperial edict, and they
contented themselves with cutting off his braid of hair, and the soles of
his boots. They reported at Peking that the order had been executed, and
no more was said about the matter. The king, however, descended from his
throne, and was succeeded by his son.

Although it is a sort of customary right that power shall always remain
in the same family, it cannot be said that there is anything precisely