The Famine Was Laid To
The Charge Of The Christians, And A Commission Of Mandarins Drew Up A
Formal Indictment Of Christianity, Which Has Stood Its Ground Ever Since
As The Text Of The Argument Of The Anti-Foreign School.
It read as
follows:
"We have examined into the European religion (or the doctrine) of
the Lord of Heaven, and although it ought not to be compared with other
different sects, which are absolutely wicked, yet, and that is what we lay
to its blame, it has had the audacity to introduce itself, to promulgate
itself, and to establish itself in secret. No permission has ever been
given to the people of this country to embrace it. Nay, the laws have
absolutely long forbidden its adoption. And now all these criminals have
had the boldness to come, all of a sudden, into our kingdom, to establish
their bishops and priests in order to seduce the people! This is why it is
necessary to extinguish this religion by degrees and to prevent its
multiplying its votaries." The fury of the Chinese, fortunately, soon
exhausted itself; and although many Europeans were injured none lost their
lives, but several thousand native converts were branded on the face and
sent to colonize the Ili valley.
While Lord Macartney was at Pekin it was known that the emperor
contemplated abdicating when he had completed the sixtieth year of his
reign - the cycle of Chinese chronology - because he did not desire his
reign to be of greater length than that of his illustrious grandfather,
Kanghi.
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