Until the late revolution had reduced them to their present state of anarchy, the Chinese were wonderfully regular and exact in every thing relative to government; of which the following incident affords a striking example.  A merchant of Chorassan, who had dealt largely in Irak, and who embarked from thence for China, with a quantity of goods, had a dispute at Canfu with an eunuch, who was sent to purchase some ivory, and other goods for the emperor, and at length the dispute ran so high, that the merchant refused to sell him his goods.  This eunuch was keeper of the imperial treasury, and presumed so much on the favour and confidence which he enjoyed with his master, that he took his choice of all the goods he wanted from the merchant by force, regardless of every thing that the merchant could say.  The merchant went privately from Canfu to Cumdan, the residence of the emperor, which is two months journey; and immediately went to the string of the bell, mentioned in the former section, which he pulled.  According to the custom of the country, he was conveyed to a place at the distance of ten days journey, where he was committed to prison for two months; after which he was brought before the viceroy of the province, who represented to him, that he had involved himself in a situation which would tend to his utter ruin, and even the loss of his life, if he did not speak out the real truth:  Because there were ministers and governors appointed to distribute justice to all strangers, who were ready to see him righted; and if the nature of the wrongs, which he had to represent, did not appear such as to entitle him to this application to the emperor, he would assuredly be put to death, as a warning to others not to follow his example.  The viceroy, therefore, advised him to withdraw his appeal, and to return immediately to Canfu.  The rule on such occasions was, that, if the party should endeavour to recede after this exhortation, he would have received fifty blows of a bamboo, and have been immediately sent out of the country:  but if he persisted in his appeal, he was immediately admitted to an audience of the emperor.  The merchant strenuously persisted in his demand for justice, and was at length admitted to the presence of the emperor, to whom he related the injustice of the eunuch, in taking away his goods by force.  Upon this, the merchant was thrown, into prison, and the emperor ordered his prime minister to write to the governor of Canfu, to make strict inquiry into the complaints which he had exhibited against the eunuch, and to make a faithful report of all the circumstances; and he, at the same time, gave similar orders to three other principal officers, to make the same inquiry, all separate and unknown to each other.