In 1817, a Tartar secretary, and his coachman, were apprehended, and delivered over to the hoard of punishments, on the charge of being Christians. The secretary acknowledged, that his grandfather had been a Christian, but that he himself had recanted ten years ago. The prosecutors argued, however, that as he had neglected to send for the Chinese priests during his mother's illness, and had not performed certain ceremonies at her death, therefore his plea of recantation was insincere. The reply of the emperor was, that as he had trampled on the cross, his recantation must be accepted. Fifteen others were implicated with him, most of whom held offices under government.
In 1819, an imperial censor, complaining of the existence of the Roman Catholic religion in the capital, recommended that every house rented by Catholics should be seized and confiscated; to which the emperor replied, that the existing laws ought to be rigorously enforced, but that the measure suggested would only create a disturbance.
In 1820, a French missionary was strangled in the province of Hoo-pih, by order of the government; and L'Amiot, who had been twenty-seven years in Peking, was banished to Macao.
The French monks of the order of St. Lazarus have, however, continued to labour secretly for the maintenance of the Romish religion in China. For some years they have annually sent two or three young priests to that country, who quietly proceed to the head-quarters of their mission in the interior. They have now Catholic communities in all the provinces, and in many there are public chapels, where service is performed by native priests. The mission has two
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