a say one-half million,--or possibly
three-quarters of a million; in Manchuria Proper--the home of the
race--say two or two and a half millions. The fighting force was
composed in this fashion: When Peking fell into their hands in 1644 as a
result of a stratagem combined with dissensions among the Chinese
themselves, the entire armed strength was reorganized in Eight Banners
or Army Corps, each corps being composed of three racial divisions, (1)
pure Manchus, (2) Mongols who had assisted in the conquest and (3)
Northern Chinese who had gone over to the conquerors. These Eight
Banners, each commanded by an "iron-capped" Prince, represented the
authority of the Throne and had their headquarters in Peking with small
garrisons throughout the provinces at various strategic centres. These
garrisons had entirely ceased to have any value before the 18th Century
had closed and were therefore purely ceremonial and symbolic, all the
fighting being done by special Chinese corps which were raised as
necessity arose.

[2] This most interesting point--the immunity of Chinese women from
forced marriage with Manchus--has been far too little noticed by
historians though it throws a flood of light on the sociological aspects
of the Manchu conquest. Had that conquest been absolute it would have
been impossible for the Chinese people to have protected their
women-folk in such a significant way.

[3] A very interesting proof--and one that has never been properly
exposed--of the astoundingly rationalistic principles on which the
Chinese polity is founded is to be seen in the position of priesthoods
in China. Unlike every other civilization in the world, at no stage of
the development of the State has it been necessary for religion in China
to intervene between the rulers and the ruled, saving the people from
oppression. In Europe without the supernatural barrier of the Church,
the position of the common people in the Middle Ages would have been
intolerable, and life, and virtue totally unprotected. Buckle, in his
"History of Civilization," like other extreme radicals, has failed to
understand that established religions have paradoxically been most
valuable because of their vast secular powers, exercised under the mask
of spiritual authority. Without this ghostly restraint rulers would have
been so oppressive as to have destroyed their peoples. The two greatest
monuments to Chinese civilization, then consist of these twin facts;
first, that