The military dress varies in almost every province. Sometimes they wore blue jackets edged with red, or brown with yellow; some had long pantaloons; some breeches, with stockings of cotton cloth; others petticoats and boots. The bowmen had long loose gowns of blue cotton, stuffed with a kind of felt or wadding, studded all over with brass knobs, and bound round the middle with a girdle, from which the sabre was appended behind, hanging with the point forwards, and on the right, not the left, side as in Europe. On the head they wore a helmet of leather, or gilt pasteboard, with flaps on each side that covered the cheeks and fell upon the shoulder. The upper part was exactly like an inverted funnel, with a long pipe terminating in a kind of spear, on which was bound a tuft of long hair dyed of a scarlet colour.
The greatest number we saw at any one place might be from two to three thousand, which were drawn up in a single line along the bank of a river; and as they stood with an interval between each equal to the width of a man, they formed a very considerable line in length. Every fifth man had a small triangular flag, and every tenth a large one; the staffs that supported them were fixed to the jacket behind the shoulders. Some of the flags were green, edged with red; others blue, edged with yellow. I never saw the Chinese troops drawn out in any other way than a single line in front; not even two deep.
The Tartar cavalry appear to be remarkably swift, and to charge with great impetuosity; but the horses are so small and are broken into so quick and short a stroke that the eye is deceived. Their real speed, in fact, is very moderate. Their saddles are remarkably soft, and raised so high both before and behind, that the rider cannot easily be thrown out of his seat. The stirrups are so short that the knee is almost as high as the chin. They have very little artillery, and that little is as wretched as it well can be. I suspect it is borrowed from the Portugueze, as the matchlock most unquestionably has been.
When our fellow-traveller Van-ta-gin was asked the reason of their pretending to give a preference to the clumsy matchlocks over the firelocks now in use among European troops, he replied, it had been found, after a severe engagement in Thibet, that the matchlocks had done much more execution than the firelocks. It is difficult to combat prejudices; but it was not very difficult to convince Van that the men might probably have been quite as much in fault as the musquets, and that the superior steadiness of the fire from the matchlocks might possibly be owing to their being fixed, by an iron fork, into the ground. The missionaries have assigned a very absurd reason for firelocks not being used in China; they say the dampness of the air is apt to make the flint miss fire. With equal propriety might these gentlemen have asserted that flints would not emit fire in Italy. Their want of good iron and steel to manufacture locks, or the bad quality of their gunpowder, might perhaps be offered as better reasons; and as the best of all their want of courage and coolness to make use of them with that steadiness which is required to produce the effects of which they are capable. Their favourite instrument is the bow, which, like all other missile weapons, requires less courage to manage, than those which bring man to oppose himself in close contest with man.
Although the Tartars have found it expedient to continue the Chinese army on the old footing, it may naturally be supposed they would endeavour to secure themselves by all possible means in the possession of this vast empire, and that they would use every exertion to recruit the army with their own countrymen, in preference to the Chinese. Every Tartar male child is accordingly enrolled. This precaution was necessary, as their whole army, at the time of the conquest, is said not to have exceeded eighty thousand men. At this time, in fact, a weak administration had suffered the empire to be torn asunder by convulsions. Every department, both civil and military, was under the control of eunuchs. Six thousand of these creatures are said to have been turned adrift by the Tartars on taking possession of the palace in Pekin.
The conduct of the Mantchoo Tartars, whose race is now on the throne, was a master-piece of policy little to be expected in a tribe of people that had been considered but as half civilized. They entered the Chinese dominions as auxiliaries against two rebel chiefs, but soon perceived they might become the principals. Having placed their leader on the vacant throne, instead of setting up for conquerors, they melted at once into the mass of the conquered. They adopted the dress, the manners, and the opinions of the people. In all the civil departments of the state they appointed the ablest Chinese, and all vacancies were filled with Chinese in preference to Tartars. They learned the Chinese language; married into Chinese families; encouraged Chinese superstitions; and, in short, omitted no step that could tend to incorporate them as one nation. Their great object was to strengthen the army with their own countrymen, whilst the Chinese were so satisfied with the change, that they almost doubted whether a change had really taken place.
The uninterrupted succession of four Emperors, all of whom were endowed with excellent understandings, uncommon vigour of mind, and decision of character, has hitherto obviated the danger of such an enormous disproportion between the governors and the governed. The wisdom, prudence, and energy of these Emperors have not only maintained the family on the throne, the fifth of which now fills it, but have enlarged the dominions to an extent of which history furnishes no parallel. The present Emperor, Kia-king, is said to possess the learning and prudence of his father, and the firmness of Kaung-shee; but it is probable he will have a more difficult task in governing the empire than either of his predecessors. In proportion as the Tartar power has increased, they have become less felicitous to conciliate the Chinese. All the heads of departments are now Tartars. The ministers are all Tartars; and most of the offices of high trust and power are filled by Tartars. And although the ancient language of the country is still preserved as the court language, yet it is more than probable that Tartar pride, encreasing with its growing power, will ere long be induced to adopt its own.
The Emperor Kaung-shee indeed took uncommon pains to improve the Mantchoo language, and to form it into a systematic Thesaurus or dictionary; and Tchien-Lung directed that the children of all such parents as were one a Tartar, the other a Chinese, should be taught the Mantchoo language; and that they might pass their examinations for office in that language. I could observe, that the young men of the royal family at Yuen-min-yuen spoke with great contempt of the Chinese. One of them, perceiving that I was desirous of acquiring some knowledge of the Chinese written character, took great pains to convince me that the Tartar language was much superior to it; and he not only offered to furnish me with the alphabet and some books, but with his instructions also, if I would give up the Chinese, which, he observed, was not to be acquired in the course of a man's whole life. I could not forbear remarking, how very much these young princes enjoyed a jest levelled against the Chinese. An ill-natured remark, for instance, on the cramped feet and the hobbling gait of a Chinese woman met with their hearty approbation; but they were equally displeased on hearing the clumsy shoes worn by the Tartar ladies compared to the broad flat-bottomed junks of the Chinese.
Although the ancient institutes and laws, the established forms of office, the pageantry of administration, were all retained, and the dress, the manners, and external deportment of the vanquished were assumed by the victors, yet the native character remained distinct; and now, in the higher departments of office especially, it bursts through all disguise. The conscious superiority of the one checks and overawes the other. "Most of our books," observes Lord Macartney, "confound the two people together, and talk of them as if they made only one nation under the general name of China; but whatever might be concluded from any outward appearances, the real distinction is never forgotten by the sovereign who, though he pretends to be perfectly impartial, conducts himself at bottom by a systematic nationality, and never for a moment loses sight of the cradle of his power. The science of government in the Eastern world, is understood by those who govern very differently from what it is in the Western. When the succession of a contested kingdom in Europe is once ascertained, whether by violence or compromise, the nation returns to its pristine regularity and composure: it matters little whether a Bourbon or an Austrian fills the throne of Naples or of Spain, because the sovereign, whoever he be, then becomes to all intents and purposes, a Spaniard or Neapolitan, and his descendants continue so with accelerated velocity. George the First and George the Second ceased to be foreigners from the moment our sceptre was fixed in their hands; and His present Majesty is as much an Englishman as King Alfred or King Edgar, and governs his people not by Teutonic, but by English laws.
"The policy of Asia is totally opposite. There the prince regards the place of his nativity as an accident of mere indifference. If the parent root be good, he thinks it will flourish in every soil, and perhaps acquire fresh vigour from transplantation. It is not locality, but his own cast and family; it is not the country where he drew his breath, but the stock from which he sprung; it is not the scenery of the theatre, but the spirit of the drama, that engages his attention and occupies his thoughts. A series of two hundred years, in the succession of eight or ten monarchs, did not change the Mogul into a Hindoo, nor has a century and a half made Tchien-Lung a Chinese. He remains, at this hour, in all his maxims of policy, as true a Tartar as any of his ancestors."