fiable, on both sides. The factories at Canton form a close block of buildings facing the river and surrounded by high walls; and there the two or three hundred foreign residents-chiefly English, Americans and Parsees had several times to stand a sort of siege from infuriated mobs who tried to fire the factories, and whom we had to repel by force of arms. During and after these affairs, the Interpreter had of course a busy time of it. But it was when taken or sent away by H. M.'s Plenipotentiary on special missions, that I had my most interesting experiences. Some of these are described in the following pages; and the scattered notices which the reader will there find of my avocations, will, together with what has just been said, give him a very sufficient idea of the opportunities which I have had to gain a knowledge of the subjects which I discuss.

Among other things, he will observe that I was sent to the Loochoo islands by Sir G. Bonham. About a year afterwards, the Japanese expedition of the Americans. under Commodore Perry visited the same place. An educated Chinese, who accompanied the expedition, wrote a description of the little State, a translation of which appeared (4th March, 1854) in the "North China Herald." In describing the Loochoo officials, the writer says of one of them :

"Yung kung is well practised in the literary art, has good abilities, and speaks the mandarin of Peking. This accomplishment he acquired from having accompanied an embassy in 1835, when he remained six years in the Capital. He has in consequence a perfect knowledge of my country's manners and institutions, and is unquestionably without a rival in all Loochoo.

Last year when T. T. Meadows, Esq., was here, he was interpreter, and admired that gentleman's command of the Peking dialect. He often invited me to take wine with him and write verses with a certain rhyme. Then when poetizing was over, he praised my productions highly. When he came to see me, as he frequently did, our conversation was upon poetry or the news of the day. Sometimes we talked of the institutions of the country."

No compliment on the subject of the Chinese language has afforded me so much gratification as the perfectly spontaneous praise, which was given in the above conversation between these two curious Asiatics, over their "wine and verses" out in that little island principality of the Pacific. The Loochooan Yung kung I remember, but his Chinese interlocutor is quite unknown to me, and I do not know who translated his narrative for the Shanghae Journal; in which it did not appear till some months after I had left for England. Under the circumstances, I may hope to be pardoned for quoting a certificate so impartial.

A year or two before leaving China, I had planned three books. The first was to have been a description of the Chinese people, rigorously based on the principle of proceeding from the general to the special. It was to have commenced with an exposition of the fundamental beliefs of the Chinese, and then to have given a view of their legislation, their administration and their social customs, as based on these fundamental beliefs. This would have been accompanied by the corresponding historical sketches, viz. a sketch of the history of philosophy and of political history; together with a

notice of political geography, and of the physical features of the country in so far as they have influenced the national mind. Some portions of what would have constituted this proposed work have been embodied, in a less systematic manner, in the present volume. And it is still my intention to execute, at some future day, the work as originally planned; for, though all the subjects have been handled in already existing works, the method of representation would, I conceive, throw much new light on the whole.

The second work was to have been a narrative of all that I thought amusing or interesting in my own movements and experiences from the time I left England in 1842 till my return in 1854, together with a view of the present Chinese rebellion. This latter portion has been completely executed in the present volume; while some of the experiences and movements have found their way naturally into Chapters XV. XVI. and XVII., as also into some portions of the Essay on Civilization.

The third book was to have been on the Union of the British Empire and the Improvement of the British Executive. It would have consisted of a detailed plan for the effectuation of these two objects,-chiefly (though not altogether) by one and the same means, viz. a system of Public Service Competitive Examinations. The present volume dwells frequently on the effect that such Examinations have had on the Chinese people; and I shall close this Preface with an enumeration of some of the leading features of the plan for the British Empire. At some future time, I shall go into the whole subject, unless forestalled by some one in the enjoyment of better health and more leisure.

It is ill-health that has prevented the preparation of the above three works, and which has caused even the present to be less systematic than I should otherwise have made it. Chapter V. was written upwards of a year ago, and was originally intended to form, with some other matter, an article in a quarterly review. When I gave up that idea and wrote Chapters I. II. and III., I had no intention that the volume should extend to a third of the size which it has finally reached. Hence I therein shortly noticed some points that are dwelt on at length in later Chapters. The Essay on Civilization was originally intended for separate publication. That Essay and the first fifteen Chapters were in the hands of the printer six months ago; the remaining five long Chapters, comprising nearly the half of the volume, having been since written as my strength permitted.

But though ill-health has greatly retarded my labours by making them exceedingly uphill work at times, and partially prevented a systematic arrangement, the same leading ideas and principles pervade and give unity to the book. Further, the reader may rest assured that the after extensions which took place were made solely to give greater completeness to the view of the whole subject. For instance, I regard Chapter XVIII. on the Philosophy &c. &c. as the most valuable portion of the work; while as to arrangement, if the reader will peruse the Essay on Civilization first, then that Chapter, and afterwards the other Chapters in the order in which they stand, beginning with the first, he will find that he is led along a nearly straight path from general and remote principles to special and recent occurrences. I strongly recommend this course to those who may have

reasons for wishing to get all the information that the volume affords, and who may resolve to go through it for that purpose.

From the sketch of the first work that it was my intention to have prepared, it will be observed, that it formed no part of my plan to deal with inanimate nature in China, or even with the state of material civilization there except in the most general way. Up to the period when I commenced the study of the Chinese language, I had devoted most of my time to mathematics and the physical sciences. And so loth was I to give up one of the most attractive of the latter, Chemistry-in which I had advanced so far as to make (qualitative) analyses-that I had a chest of Reagents constructed at Munich with the intention of taking it out to China. But before starting from London I began to perceive that it was only to animate nature, and to one, though by far the most important section of that, viz. to man, that I should thenceforth have to devote my whole attention. Accordingly I left my Reagents behind, and have never since allowed myself to be attracted by the scientific study of inanimate nature in any of its features. Subdivision of labour requires (and this may be considered a portion of what I have to say on the improvement of the Executive) that international agents should devote themselves first to languages, their means of operation,—and next to the study of man, as an individual and in communities; from the general principles of psychology, through ethnology and morality, to the details of practical legislation and of family customs. That is assuredly a sufficiently wide field-one which few will ever venture