tration of justice among their co-religionists, the
collection of the revenue, and the levying of customs dues on the
frontier and of trade taxes in the cities. It was only when cause for
litigation arose between a Buddhist and a Mussulman that the amban
interfered. We have therefore the instructive spectacle before us of a
Buddhist conquest becoming harmonized with Mussulman institutions, and
Chinese arrogance not content with tolerating, but absolutely fostering,
a regime to which its hostility was scarcely concealed. This is the only
instance of the Chinese exhibiting such more than Asiatic restraint
towards Mahomedans; for their dealings with Tibet, a country of peculiar
sanctity and Buddhist as well, is not a case in point. The scheme worked
well, however. Chinese strength was husbanded by being employed only
when absolutely necessary to be called into play, and the people, to a
great degree their own masters, did not realise the fact of their being
a subjected nation. Their first anxiety was the payment of their
taxes--far from exorbitant, as it had been under their own rulers; but
that task accomplished, they could free their minds from care.

Very often their own countryman, the Hakim Beg, was a greater tyrant
than the Chinese amban in the fort outside their gates; but against his
exactions they could obtain speedy redress. When their Hakims, or Wangs
as the Chinese called them, became unpopular in a district, the amban
promptly removed them; even if he considered they were not much to
blame, he always transferred them to some other district. The first
object in the eyes of the amban was the maintenance of order, and he
knew well enough that order could not be maintained, unless he resorted
to force, which he studiously avoided, if the people were discontented.
The people therefore could repose implicit trust in the Chinese amban
securing a fair hearing and justice for them in their disagreements with
their own leaders; and the Mussulman Wangs, who were the old ruling
class, saw the unfortunate tax-payer at last secure from their tyranny
through the clemency of a Buddhist conqueror. We are justified in
assuming that the population saw the force of these patent facts, and
that, if not perfectly to be relied on in any emergency, the Chinese had
no danger to expect from the tax-producing and patient Kashgari.

So long as the Chinese rule remained vigorous--that is, for about the
first fifty years--the Ambans worked