for they were a mixed breed speaking the language of these colonizing conquerors, who withdrew to that mountainous district when the Chinese abandoned their intercourse with India altogether, as destructive of their fleets and people. These circumstances are here selected on the authority of Barros. Mr. Barrow's digression is very curious, and affords strong proof that the state of China is materially different now from what it was some centuries ago. A small brig was sent forward to ChuSan to take on board the pilots, who according to the Imperial order were expected to be found ready to embark. But though this was one of the best and most frequented ports in China, no other means of procuring them could be devised than by sending out soldiers to col lect all the persons in that place who had ever visited Tien-sing by sea; the poor wretches were brought before the governor, and dropping on their knees were examined in that attitude as to their qualifications. Two were at last found who were thought qualified; they pleaded earnestly to be excused, saying that they had quitted the sea for many years, and were now comfortably settled in trade which would be ruined by their absence. In spite of all their pleas they were pressed into the service, and after all, the English found them of little or no use. They could not be made to comprehend the difference in the draught of water between their own ships and ours, which in the latter was as many fathoms as feet in the former, although they were palpably shewn by a piece of rope the depth which was required. The passage up the Pei-ho, or White River, in the country yachts, convinced our people of the hospitality of the natives, and of their extraordinary numbers, but conveyed no idea of great wealth or comfort among them, or of great abundance in the country. Both sexes here crowded indiscriminately to see them. The dress of the women was calculated to shew the foot and ankle, which for singularity, it is observed, may challenge the whole world, the foot having been cramped in its growth to the length of four or five inches, and the ankle being generally swoln in the same proportion that the foot is diminished. This deformity is produced by bandaging the toes of the infant under the sole of the foot, and retaining them in that position till they literally grow into and become a part of it; and by forcing the heel forward till it is entirely obliterated. As none of the earliest travellers mention this strange custom, Mr. Barrow conjectures that it has been introduced since their time. The people were cheerful and dirty. Only a small proportion of the land was culti vated. The cottages very mean, without any appearance of comfort, and thinly scattered; seldom standing alone, but generally collected into small villages. The rivers seem to be better peopled than the land. In the distance of ninety miles upon this small branch of a river, Mr. Barrow computed, that there were floating not fewer than 100,000 souls. The approach to Pekin is admirably described. The external appearance of this great city is by no means answerable to the expectation which a European traveller would have formed of the capital of China. None of the buildings overtop the walls, though these are not above thirty feet high; not even a chimney is seen rising above the roofs of the houses, which are all nearly of the same height, and all straight lines, so that the whole has the appearance and the regularity of a large encampment. little that was interesting, we had no sooner "Although the approach to Pekin afforded passed the gate and opened out the broad street, than a very singular and novel appearance was exhibited. We saw before us a line of buildings on each side of a wide street, consisting entirely of shops and warehouses, the particular goods of which were brought out and displayed in groupes in front of the houses. Before these were generally erected. large wooden pillars, whose tops were much higher than the eaves of the houses, bearing inscriptions in gilt characters, setting forth the nature of the wares to be sold, and the honest reputation of the seller; and, to attract the more notice, they were generally hung with various coloured flags and streamers, and ribbons, from top to bottom, exhibiting the appearance of a line of shipping colours of all the different nations in Europe. dressed, as we sometimes see them, in the The sides of the houses were not less brilliant in the several colours with which they were painted, consisting generally of sky blue or green, mixed with gold: and what appeared to us singular enough, the articles for sale that made the greatest show were coffins for the dead. The most splendid of our if placed beside that intended for a wealthy coffin furniture would make but a poor figure Chinese. These machines are seldom less than three inches thick and twice the bulk of ours. Next to those our notice was attracted by the brilliant appearance of the funeral biers F + and the marriage cars, both covered with ornamental canopies. "At the four points where the great streets intersect one another were erected those singular buildings, sometimes of stone but generally of wood, which have been called triumphal arches, but which, in fact, are monuments to the memory of those who had deserved well of the community, or who had attained an unusual longevity. They consist invariably of a large central gateway, with a smaller one on each side, all covered with narrow roofs; and, like the houses, they are painted, varnished, and gilt in the most splendid manner. The multitude of moveable workshops of tinkers and barbers, coblers and blacksmiths; the tents and booths where tea and fruit, rice, and other eatables were exposed for sale, with the wares and inerchandize arrayed before the doors, had contracted this spacious street to a narrow road in the middle, just wide enough for two of our little vehicles to pass each other. The cavalcade of officers and soldiers that preceded the embassy, the processions of men in office attended by their numerous retinues, bearing umbrellas and flags, painted lanterns and a variety of strange insignia of their rank and station, different trains that were accompanying, with lamentable cries, corpses to their graves, and, with squalling music, brides to their husbands, the troops of dromedaries laden with coals from Tartary, the wheel-barrows and hand-carts stuffed with vegetables, oc cupied nearly the whole of this middle space in one continued line, leaving very little room for the cavalcade of the embassy to pass. All was in motion. The sides of the street were filled with an immense concourse of people, buying and selling and bartering their different commodities. The hurry and confused noises of this mixed multitude, proceeding from the loud bawling of those who were crying their wares, the wrangling of others, with every now and then a strange twanging noise like the jarring of a cracked Jew's harp, the barber's signal made by his tweezers, the mirth and the laughter that prevailed in every groupe, could scarcely be exceeded by the Brokers in the Bank rotunde, or by the Jews and old women in Rosemary-lane. Pedlars with their packs, and jugglers, and conjurers, and fortune-tellers, mountebanks, and quack doctors, comedians, and musicians, left no space unoccupied. The Tartar soldiers, with their whips, kept with difficulty a clear passage for the embasy to move slowly forward; so slow, indeed, that though we entered the eastern gate at half pus nine, it was near welve before we arredo the western. **Although an an extraordinary crowd might be expected to assemble en such a particular occasion, on the same principle of curiosity as could not fail to attract a crowd of spectators in London, yet there was a most remarkable and a striking difference observable between a London and a Pekin populace. In the for mer the whole attention and soul of the mul titude would have been wrapt up in the novel spectacle; all would have been idlers. In Pekin, the show was but an accessary, every one pursued his business, at the same time he gratified his curiosity. In fact, it appeared that, on every day throughout the whole year, there was the same noise and bustle, and crowd in the capital of China. I scarcely ever passed the western gate, which happened twice, or oftener, in the week, that I had not to wait a considerable time before the passage was free, particularly in the morning, notwithstanding the exertions of two or three soldiers with their whips to clear the way, The crowd, however, was entirely contind to the great streets, which are the only outlets of the city. In the cross lanes, all was still and quict." No Chinese women were to be seen in the streets of Pekin, though the female Tartars seemed to enjoy full liberty. None of the streets were paved, a defect the more remarkable, as the road to the city is paved with stones of granite from six to sixteen feet in length, and propor tionately broad, which must have been brought at least sixty miles. . No kind of filth was to be seen in the streets; all this, be it of whatever kind it may, is collected in large earthen jars, of which every family has one, and the gardeners' carts which supply the city with vege tables, return laden with this liquid ma nure, so that the city enjoys the full odour of agricultural economy. In the pro vinces these precious articles are made into cakes thicker than our crumpets, and dried in the sun; then sent to the capital, where the gardeners purchase them, and dissolve them in urine for manure. The police is very strict. At the end of every cross street, and at certain distances in it sentry boxes are placed, and few of these streets are without a guardhouse. The proprietor of every tenth house is answerable for the good conduct of his nine neighbours; this villainous system, which is carried to its utmost length in Japan, was once the custom in England. While the ambassador went into Tartary to be introduced, Mr. Barrow remained near Pekin, having apartments in the palace of Yuen-min-yuen; he had permission to visit the city whenever he thought proper, and prudently chose to have none but Chinese servants, that his knowledge of the language might be im proved. His lodgings were mean and miserable, but bad as they were, they were what one of the ministers of state occupied when the emperor was at this residence. Here the largest and most valuable of the presents were to be fitted up for the sovereign's inspection, and they attracted an infinite number of beholders. "The two elegant carriages made by Hatchett puzzled the Chinese more than any of the other presents. Nothing of the kind had ever been seen at the capital; and the disputes among themselves as to the part which was intended for the seat of the em peror were whimsical enough. The hammer cloth that covered the box of the winter carriage had a smart edging, and was ornamented with festoons of roses. Its splendid appear ance and elevated situation determined it at once, in the opinion of the majority, to be the emperor's seat; but a difficulty arose how to appropriate the inside of the carriage. They examined the windows, the blinds, and the skreens, and at last concluded, that it could be for nobody but his ladies. The old eunuch came to me for information, and when he learned that the fine elevated box was to be the seat of the man who managed the horses, and that the emperor's place was within, he asked me with a sneer, if I supposed the Ta-hang-tee would suffer any man to sit higher than himself, and to turn his back towards him? and he wished to know if we could not contrive to have the coach-box removed and placed somewhere behind the body of the carriage." A planetarium completely puzzled the president of the tribunal of mathematics, as the Jesuits have denominated the board at which he presides. A few Portuguese missionaries are members of the board, their business is to supply the astronomical part of the national almanack, the astrology being managed by a committee of their Chinese associates. These Europeans were not much more skilful than the natives; they honestly confessed that they were more indebted to the Connuances de tems of Paris than to their own calculations, and as the revolution had cut off this resource, they considered a set of the nautical almanack calculated for the meridian of Greenwich up to the year 1800, as an invaluable present. These missionaries, however, on the whole, are represented in a favourable light. The Tartar officers had heard of sword blades which would cut iron bars without injuring the edge, and so great was their astonishment on proving the fact, that they could scarcely credit what they saw. Gill's sword blades, Mr. Barrow thinks, might be advantageously introduced in the regular course of trade through Canton. Among the presents carried into Tartary was a collection of prints, chiefly portraits of English nobility and distinguished persons ; and to make the present more acceptable, they were bound up in three volumes in yellow Morocco. The emperor was so pleased with this collection, that he sent it express to Yuen-min-yen to have the name, rank, and office of each portrait translated into the Mantchoo and Chinese languages. The Tartar writer got on pretty well, but the Chinese secretary was not a little puzzled with the B. the D, and the R, that so frequently recurred The duke of Mariin the English names. borough was Too-ke Ma-ul-po-loo, and Bedford was transformed to Pe-te-fo-ul-te. But here a more serious difficulty occurred than that of writing the name. The rank was also to be written down, and on coming to the portrait of this nobleman (which was a proof impression of the print, engraved from a pictere by sir Joshua Reynolds, when the late duke of Bedford was a youth), I told the Chinese to write him down a Ta-gin, or great man of the second order. He instantly observed, that I surely meant his father was a Ta-gin. I then explained to him that according to our laws, the son succeeded to the rank of the father, and that with us it was by no means necessary, in order to obtain the first rank in the country, that a man should be of a certain age, be possessed of superior talents, or suitable qualifications. That these were sometimes conducive to high honours, yet that a great part of the legislative body of the nation were entitled to their rank and situation by birth. They langhed heartily at the idea of a man being born a legislator, when it required so many years of close application to enable one of their countryinen to pass his examination for the very lowest order of state-officers. As, however, the descendanis of Confucius continue to enjoy a sort of nominal rank, and as their emperor can also confer an hereditary dignity, without entitling to office, emolument, or exclusive privilege, they considered his grace might be one of this description, and wrote down his rank accordingly; but they positively refused to give him the title of Ta-gin, or great man, asking me, if I thought their emperor was so stupid as not to know the impossibility of a little boy having attained the rank of a great man. The news from Gehol, that lord Macartney had refused to perform the nine prostrations before the emperor, threw all the officers at Yuen-min-yuen into dismay, and Mr. Barrow and his companions felt the effects of their ill humour in their table, which was very materially affected by it, both in the number and quality of dishes. This, however, wore off, though the old eunuch of the palace used to call them proud headstrong Englishmen. The famous gardens of the palace Mr. Barrow could only visit by stealth; what little he saw was such as to induce a very favourable opinion, though they fall very short of the extravagant descriptions which sir William Chambers has given of Chinese gardening. Gardening, however, seems to be of all arts that which they have studied most successfully. Lord Macartney's account of the imperial park at Gehol, contains the highest praises of their good taste and knowledge of the picturesque. But except in this single art, the Chinese are wretchedly below the rank which was heretofore assigned to them among civilized nations. The women are in a state of abject slavery. In infancy, by a preposterous and cruel fashion, they are crippled, and, as if this was not a sufficient means of confinement, it is made a moral crime for a woman to be seen abroad. The wives and daughters of the lower class, indeed, are not thus immured, but the drudgery of agricultural labour falls upon them; they drag the plough and the harrow, while their husbands are gambling or idling; and there is reason to believe that sometimes a woman is yoked to the same plough with an ass. Even at home the wife must neither eat at the same table, nor sit in the same room with her lord and master; and boys at the age of nine or ten are entirely separated from their sisters. For mental pursuits the women are totally unqualified, and to fill up their tedious hours smoking is the usual expedient. Love of course cannot exist in a country where there is this grievous disparity between the sexes. The bridegroom always bargains for his intended bride with her parents; she herself has no choice, her price is paid, she is locked up in a close chair, and sent to a man whom she has never seen, who, if he does not like her when he unlocks the door, may turn the key again, and send her back to her parents, if he chuses to forfeit what she has cost him, and a sum of the same value. If she be found guilty of adultery she may be sold for a slave, the method by which girls are punished for having been debauched. Polygamy is customary among the great: the poor of every country where it is permitted are prevented by their poverty from having more wives than one; but as one of its constant effects, the most detestable of all crimes is so common, that it is publicly avowed by many of the first officers of state. There are no social pleasures in China, for gambling is a selfish one. The upper rank stupify themselves at home with opium. The people are free from drunkenness, but they are also without those friendly and cheerful feelings which, though they sometimes lead to it, produce more good than evil. There are no meetings for dancing or feats of activity, none even for religious worship; the Chinese are without a sabbath, the same solitary and dissocializing system pervading their devotion and their private life. All ranks are addicted to gaming, with cards, dice, or at the game of the fin gers, the morra of the Italians, which is mentioned by Cicero. Cockfighting, with which a few despicable Englishmen are still permitted to disgrace their coun try, is eagerly pursued by the upper classes in China: they train quails for the same wicked purpose, and having found a species of gryllus, that will attack each other with such ferocity as seldom to quit their hold without bringing away a limb of their antagonist, they keep these insects for the pleasure of seeing them devour each other; and during the summer months scarcely a boy is to be seen without his cage. Cruel amusements are as much a cause as an effect of national cruelty. Their punishments consist in inflicting mere physical pain, they produce no shame, for shame is a sentiment whereof they know nothing. Compassion also seems to be a feeling with which they are wholly unacquainted, and as if their hearts were not hard enough already, one of the most absurd laws that ever disgraced a criminal code contributes to harden them still more. Whoever takes a wounded man under his care in the hope of healing him, or of alleviating his sufferings, is liable to be punished with death if the man die, unless he can produce an undeniable evidence how the wound was made, or that he survived it forty days. The poor wretches, therefore, who by any accident are dangerously hurt, are left to die in the streets. The horrible practice of infanticide is not indeed expressly allowed by the laws, but it is sanctioned by them, as no pu nishment is provided for it: and it may indeed be considered as a legitimate consequence of that paternal despotism to which their whole system of government refers. The son is the absolute property of his father, he is his slave, and may be sold at is pleasure: but when human beings are once considered as mere animals, any West India planter can tell how cheaply their lives are held; and a proprietor may be allowed to calculate how many he can conveniently rear. "It is, however, tacitly considered as a part of the duty of the police of Pekin to employ certain persons to go their rounds, at an early hour in the morning, with carts, in order to pick up such bodies of infants as may have been thrown out into the streets in the course of the night. No enquiries are made, but the bodies are carried to a common pit without the city walls, into which all those that may be living, as well as those that are dead, are said to be thrown promiscuously. At this horrible pit of destruction the Roman Catholic missionaries, established at Pekin, attend by turns, as a part of the duties of their office, in order, as one of them expressed himself to me on this subject, to chuse among them those that are the most lively, to make future proselytes, and by the administration of baptism to such of the rest as might be still alive, pour leur sauver l'ame. The Mabomedans, who, at the time that their services were useful in assisting to prepere the national calendar, had a powerful in fluence at court, did much better: those zealous bigots to a religion, whose least distinguishing feature is that of humanity, were however, on these occasions, the means of saving the lives of all the little innocents they possibly could save from this maw of death, which was an humane act, although it might be for the purpose of bringing them up in the principles of their own faith. I was assured by one of the Christian missionaries, with whom I had daily conversation during a residence of fire weeks within the walls of the emperor's pelace at Yuen-min-yuen, and who took his turn in attending, pour leur sauver l'ame, that such scenes were sometimes exhibited on these occasions as to make the feeling mind shudder with horror. When I mention that degs and swine are let loose in all the narrow streets of the capital, the reader may conceive what will sometimes necessarily happen to the exposed infants, before the police-carts can pick them up.” Upon an average twenty-four infants are thus found dead, or dying, every morning in the streets of Pekin!" These unfavourable features, says Mr. Barrow, in the character of a people whose natural disposition is neither ferocious nor morose, but on the contrary mild, obliging, and cheerful, can be attributed only to the habits in which they have been trained, and to the heavy hand of power perpetually hanging over them! Never have we seen the vices of any people more fairly stated or more candidly considered than in the volume before us. The proverbial knavery of the Chinese in their dealings with Europeans partly proceeds from retaliation, partly because a merchant, a buying and selling man, as they call him, is considered as the lowest character in the country, as one who will cheat if he can, and whose trade it is to create and then supply artificial wants. "The gaudy watches of indifferent workmanship, fabricated purposely for the Chinese market and once in universal demand, are now scarcely asked for. One gentleman in the honourable East India company's employ took it into his head that cuckoo clocks might prove a saleable article in China, and accordingly laid in a large assortment, which more than answered his most sanguine expectations. But as these wooden machines were constructed for sale only, and not for use, the cuckoo clocks became all mute long before the second arrival of this gentleman with another cargo. His clocks were now not only unsaleable, but the former pur chasers threatened to return theirs upon his hands, which would certainly have been done, had not a thought entered his head, that not only pacified his former customers, but procured him also other purchasers for his second cargo: he convinced them by undeniable authorities, that the cuckoo was a very odd kind of a bird which sung only at certain seasons of the year, and assured them that whenever the proper time arrived, all the cuckoos they had purchased would once again tune their melodious throats.' After this it would only be fair to allow the Chinese sometimes to trick the European purchaser with a wooden ham instead of a "real one." England, we fear, could produce blacker anecdotes of commercial knavery than China. Large fortunes have been accumulated, in this country by manufacturing bad guns for the African trade, which sooner or later are sure to burst and to maim or kill the purchaser. But it is not from such instances of individual villany that the national charac ter is to be estimated. It may also be remarked with respect to the tricks practised at Canton, that the worst people of every nation are always to be found in its sea-ports; and also that the Chinese only extend that principle of overreaching which is openly practised in our own country by all gentlemen dealers in horse-flesh. Some valuable extracts from loid Macartney's journal are given in this volume, and a hope expressed that the whole may one day be communicated to the public. In one part of these the |