h invariable success. In
1661 Kanghi, his son, ascended the throne, and by a series of judicious
measures and successful enterprises, firmly maintained the position won
in China by his father. It was during this brilliant reign that Tibet
was annexed to the Chinese Empire, and from Cochin-China and the
frontiers of Birma to the River Amoor there was none to question the
power of the Mantchoo Government. It cannot be doubted that the conquest
of Tibet opened up fresh ideas in the minds of the Chinese as to their
right to rule in Eastern Turkestan; and with the re-assertion of their
old suzerainty over the Tibetan table-land, the remembrance of a similar
claim, at a far distant epoch, over Jungaria and Turkestan would be
forced on the minds of the Chinese people, until some ambitious ruler or
viceroy might avail himself of the opportunity of distinction by
acquiescing in, and giving effect to, the popular desire. Kanghi was too
prudent to jeopardize his recently consolidated state by expeditions
either into Jungaria or Turkestan; and was quite satisfied with the
respect shown to his empire by the Eleuthian princes of those regions.
On Kanghi's death, in 1721, his son, Yung-Ching, came to the throne,
and during his short reign, the example of his two predecessors not to
interfere in the troubles of the states lying beyond Kansuh, was closely
followed. Yung-Ching died in 1735, and thus made way for his ambitious
and warlike son, Keen-Lung. When Keen-Lung first commenced to reign for
himself he found that he was irresponsible ruler of a most powerful
empire, at peace within itself, and satisfied to all outward seeming
with its _de facto_ government. His treasury was full; the country was,
perhaps, at its very highest point of prosperity, and the sovereign had
only to maintain in this wealth and vigour the nation which had been
brought to such a pitch by the wisdom of his predecessors. To a warlike
monarch, however, the career of ruler of a thriving, peace-loving, and
domestic people, has never been a palatable one, and Keen-Lung thought,
as have many other great sovereigns of our own age, that the only use of
a wealthy and numerous subject race was to enable the ruler to undertake
high-sounding enterprises, and to spread the terror of his name through
distant regions. The reputation and the real strength of the Chinese
Empire were so great at this time in Asia, that no single power, or even
any possible confederacy, would have