Government and are after the Chinese model. The emperor is absolute, but he must govern according to the laws. He is assisted by a supreme council of high mandarins, seven of whom are his ministers. The government officials are divided into military and civil or literary mandarins. The former have the prece dency; and from them the emperor selects his ambassadors, governor-generals, and viceroys. The learned and official language of the country is Chinese. For administra tier purposes, the country is divided into provinces, departments, districts, and villages. A military governor or viceroy, and two high civil mandarins, reside at every provincial. capital; and the minor divisions have each their regular number of officials, who are• appointed by the supreme government. The laws are very arbitrary. The bastinadoo system is in full force; indeed, the bamboo may be regarded as a political and social institution. The mandarins, as a class, are described as very corrupt. The capital of the whole empire is Hub, or Ilualt. The foreign commerce of C.C. is carried on chiefly
with China, the Portuguese settlement of Macao, Bankok, and Singapore. Cochin. Chinese junks annually visit that port and the British straits' settlements.
to the Mongol invasion of China, Tonquin formed a part of that empire, but at that time it threw off its allegiance. The Anamitic sovereign now, indeed, acknowledges the emperor of China as his superior, yet his vassalage is little more than nominal. The present inhabitants of C. C. proper are said to be descendants of political refugees from Tonquin. In 1774, a revolution in the former country deprived the reigning monarch, Ghialong, o us throne, but in 1790, assisted by some European adventurers, he not only re-establisTled his power in C. C., but added Tonquin to his dominions. By a treaty in 1S74, France guaranteed the independence of C., and obtained the opening of three ports to European commerce.—See Veuillot's La Cochin chine (1859); Bouillcvaux's L' Annain (1873).