harems of the invaders, small wonder if the mass of Chinese
welcomed a firm administration after the frightful disorders which
had torn the country during the last days of the Mings. [Footnote:
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 womenfolk in such a significant way.]

It was the foreigner, arriving in force in China after the capture
of Peking and the ratification of the Tientsin Treaties in 1860,
who so greatly contributed to making the false idea of Manchu
absolutism current throughout the world; and in this work it was
the foreign diplomat, coming to the capital saturated with the
tradition of European absolutism, who played a not unimportant
part. Investing the Emperors with an authority with which they
were never really clothed save for ceremonial purposes
(principally perhaps because the Court was entirely withdrawn from
view and very insolent in its foreign intercourse) a conception of
High Mightiness was spread abroad reminiscent of the awe in which
Eighteenth Century nabobs spoke of the Great Mogul of India.
Chinese officials, quickly discovering that their easiest means of
defence against an irresistible pressure was to take refuge behind
the august name of the sovereign, played their role so
successfully that until 1900 it was generally believed by
Europeans that no other form of government than a despotism sans
phrase could be dreamed of. Finding that on the surface an
Imperial Decree enjoyed the majesty of an Ukaze of the Czar,
Europeans were ready enough to interpret as best suited their