DIVINITY OF A KING.

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and devoted, and aid in supporting the vast affair, that our family dominion may be preserved hundreds and tens of thousands of years, in neverending tranquillity and glory! Promulge this to all under Heaven: cause everyone to hear it!

When we read of such a monarch as Kea-king "exercising the utmost caution," never being "idle," "assiduously aiming at the best possible rule," diffusing around him the influence of "a benevolent heart and a benevolent administration," exciting "the deepest reverence," and rendering his people "happy," we can hardly help exclaiming

"What a divinity doth hedge a king!"

Truly, China is a strange country, and the Chinese are a strange people! but never can I look over the map of the Celestial Empire without emotions of pleasure. It takes me back to days that are past-to sun-shiny seasons and flowery scenes of enjoyment. Hingqua, when will thy arms again be folded across thy breast, while thou bendest low to receive me with respect? Chinqua, when shall I drink of the fragrant herb beneath thy garden pagoda, beside the flowing stream, and listen to thy recitals of far-off cities, and mountains and rivers which I have not seen? Hangfra, shall we never again wander together through the tea-plantations of Fokien? Ardent wert thou in thine harangues against opium, and

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HARANGUES AGAINST OPIUM.

excess in all its forms, and eloquent was thy tongue in praise of Bohea, Congou, Souchong, and Pekoe, lauding temperance, and the milder virtues. Though the mountain-waves of ocean roll between us, we are not altogether divided: the past will rise to thy remembrance as it does to mine, and our hearts will yet beat in friendly unison. By thy countrymen I am styled a "barbarian," and by mine thou art held but in low estimation; yet hast thou learned, that a "barbarian" may have a heart, and I, that a disciple of Confucius may possess kindly affections.

CHAPTER XVI.

COMMERCE AND THE FIVE PORTS OPEN TO THE BRITISH

-AMOY,

CANTON.

FOO-CHOO, NING-PO, SHANG-HAI, AND

Commerce.-Exports and Imports.-Amoy.-Foo-choo.Ning-po.- Shang-hai.- Canton.- Factories.- Streets.Population. - Beggars. - Tanka People. - Hog Lane. Shopkeepers.

THE Commerce of China will, most likely, considerably increase in consequence of five of her ports being opened to the British. The "Celestials" send away tea, raw silk, sugar, nankin-cloth, manufactured silks, cassia-lignea, cassia-buds, camphor, rhubarb, musk, aniseed, turmeric, orpiment, cinnabar, alum, white-lead, red-lead, brass leaf, false pearls, glass beads, paper-hangings, toys, table and floor mats, china-ware, and the precious metals; and they receive opium, cotton-wool, black-pepper, myrrh, frankincense, asafoetida, saltpetre, sandal-wood,sharks'-fins, fish-maws, cowbezoar, pearls, cornelians, sea-slugs, betel-nut, nutmegs, elephants' teeth, rice, sapan-wood, gamboge, tortoiseshell, bees'-wax, birds'-nests, cloves, ebony,

rattans, tin, dragons'-blood, mother-of-pearl shells, gold, eagle-wood, and other things.

When describing the expedition to China, I told you that in one year the Chinese sold to the British, teas, silk, and other articles, to the amount of more than three millions, and bought opium, metals, and cotton, to the amount of between five and six millions; now, if we, after ascertaining their wants, can contrive, instead of sending them opium, to send them manufactured goods, doing them a service, and doubling our commerce with them, what an excellent thing it will be for old England!

You, perhaps, remember that, in the treaty of peace entered into between the British and the Chinese, one of the articles provided that the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foo-choo-foo, Ning-po and Shang-hai should be thrown open to British merchants, and another that the island of Hongkong should be ceded in perpetuity to her Britannic Majesty, her heirs and successors. Having spoken on a few points respecting Hong-kong, I will now give you a few pickings with regard to the five ports. May the British flag long float there in the breeze, and deserve and receive the respect that is due to the first and best nation in the world.

Amoy, the first port of which I shall speak, is a seaport of some importance in the province of Fokien on the eastern coast of China. Its great

HARBOUR OF AMOY.

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gate is a massive erection, with sculptured ornaments of dragons and fishes, and inscriptions from Confucius. In the short account I gave you of the British expedition to China, I described it as a third class city, on an island of the same name, in an estuary of some magnitude on the coast of the tea district of Aukoi. When taken by the British troops it was strongly fortified, and the citadel alone was near a mile in circuit. Its inhabitants can hardly be less than two hundred thousand.

The streets of Amoy are rather narrower than you would like, but as they have neither so many carriages, nor people there, as are to be found in Cheapside, they are likely enough not to be altered. Many are the temples of the place, and a few wealthy merchants dwell in large houses. But the most important feature of Amoy is its excellent harbour this has long since made it " one of the greatest emporiums of the empire," and one of the important markets of Asia."

Foo-choo-foo is a seaport a little to the northeast of Amoy. It stands on the river Min, about five miles from the sea. Being the capital of Fokien, and two-thirds as large as Canton, it is a place of importance. The narrow passage at the mouth of the Min resembles, in the opinion of many people, the Bocca Tigris of the Canton river. The forts on each side, and those on the hills, have a picturesque appearance, being in

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