more than ordinary opportunities of acquiring information, is admitted by competent judges to be one of the most trustworthy that have yet appeared on this subject.

"The great wealth of the empire, the cheerful and indefatigable industry of the people, and their unconquerable attachment to their country, are all of them circumstances which prove that, if the Government is jealous in guarding its rights, it is not altogether ignorant or unmindful of its duties. We are no unqualified admirers of the Chinese system, but would willingly explain, if possible, some of the causes which tend to the production of results whose existence nobody pretends to deny. In practice there is of course a great deal of inevitable abuse; but upon the whole, and with relation to ultimate effects, the machine works well,—and, we repeat, that the surest proofs of this are apparent on the very face of the most cheerfully-industrious and orderly, and the most wealthy nation of Asia. It may be observed that we make great account of the circumstance of cheerful industry, because this characteristic, which is the first to strike all visitors of China, is the best proof in the world that the people possess their full share of the results of their own labour. Men do not toil either willingly or effectively for hard masters.

"It would be a very rash conclusion to form any estimate of the insecurity of property generally from what is observed at Canton among those connected with the foreign trade, and especially the Hong merchants. These persons are instruments in the hands of a cautious government, which, not wishing to come into immediate collision with foreigners, uses them in the manner of a sponge, that, after being allowed to absorb the gains of a licensed monopoly, is made regularly to yield up its contents, by what is very correctly termed 'squeezing.' The rulers of China consider foreigners fair game: they have no sympathy with them, and, what is more, they diligently and systematically labour to destroy all sympathy on the part of their subjects, by representing the strangers to them in every light that is the most contemptible and odious. There is an annual edict or proclamation displayed at Canton at the commencement of the commercial season, accusing the foreigners of the most horrible practices, and desiring the people to have as little to say to them as possible. We have already seen that the professed rule is to govern them 'like beasts,' and not as the subjects of the empire. With perfect consistency, therefore, they are denied the equal benefits and protections of the known laws of the country, condemned to death for accidental homicide, and executed without the Emperor's warrant. These are their real subjects of complaint in China; and whenever the accumulation of wrong shall have proved, by exact calculation, that it is more profitable, according to merely commercial principles, to remonstrate than to submit, these will form a righteous and equitable ground of quarrel.

"But, to return to the Hong merchants and others at Canton, there is in fact a set of laws existing under this jealous Tartar Government which makes all transactions of Chinese with foreigners, without an express licence, traitorous-that is the word,—and it forms a terrible engine of ex

tortion; for the construction of the terms of the licence, as well as of the particular regulations from time to time enacted, opens a wide field for injustice under the forms of law."

This last sentence deserves to be noted, as showing that while our intercourse with China remains on its present footing, we can never tell with certainty what articles are contraband and what are not. Mr. Davis thus proceeds:

"This is the only solution of the anomaly, that at Canton, in a country where there is a written code, with numerous provisions against extortion and oppression, and with severe denunciations against the abuse of power, there should still be so much of the evil apparently existing. But it is the foreigner that pays after all; the Hong merchants are the véritables vaches à lait, the real milch cows; but the foreign trade is the pasture in which they range. One of the ablest of their body many years since obtained the express authority of the local government for the Consoo, or body of Hong merchants, to levy charges at its own discretion on the foreign trade, for the avowed purpose of paying the demands of the mandarins. Other annual charges were levied to defray debts of individual merchants to foreigners, and, the debts being liquidated, the charges are continued. But for these abuses, the fair trade of Canton would be much more profitable than it is; and, if they increase, it will die a natural death."

"There are some curious practical anomalies, which one is not prepared to find under a despotism. The people sometimes hold public meetings by advertisement, for the express purpose of addressing the magistrate, and this without being punished. The influence of public opinion seems indicated by this practice, together with that frequent custom of placarding and lampooning (though of course anonymously) obnoxious officers*. Honours are rendered to a just magistrate, and addresses pre

* As a specimen of this, we extract from the Canton Register of the 8th January, 1839, the following free translation of a pasquinade posted at the governor's gate :— "O'er th' impoverished but broad Eastern land, Our venerable Tang holds chief command; His favours fall on those who seizures make, Yet in the daring game he holds a stake. Four cruizing boats his son and comrades keep To scour the waters of the inner deep*; And in his halls, having heaped an untold store Of gold, unsatiated still he craves for more; While dice and women all his hours employ, Still the fond father censures not the boy. O blind to reason! no distinctions seen, The good must bow to tyrants and the mean: But leagued oppression will resistance cause, And men's indignant hearts assert the laws."

a These boats were kept for the purpose of smuggling opium. What were foreigners to think of the reality of a law against opium which was thus openly broken by the governor of Canton ?

The governor employed his son to superintend his smuggling boats.

sented to him on his departure by the people; testimonies which are highly valued.

"It is deserving of remark, that the general prosperity and peace of China has been very much promoted by the diffusion of intelligence and education through the lower classes. Among the countless millions that constitute the empire, almost every man can read and write sufficiently for the ordinary purposes of life, and a respectable share of these acquirements goes low down in the scale of society. Of the sixteen discourses which are periodically read to the people, the eighth inculcates the necessity of a general acquaintance with the penal laws, which are printed purposely in a cheap shape. They argue, that as men cannot properly be punished for what they do not know, so likewise they will be less liable to incur the penalty if they are made duly acquainted with the prohibition.

"The Chinese have lived so much in peace that they have acquired by habit and education a more than common horror of political disorder. 'Better be a dog in peace, than a man in anarchy,' is a common maxim. It is a general rule,' they say, 'that the worst of men are fondest of change and commotion, hoping that they may thereby benefit themselves; but by adherence to a steady, quiet system, affairs proceed without confusion, and bad men have nothing to gain.' They are, in short, a nation of incurable conservatives. At the same time that only check of Asiatic despotism-the endurance of the people-appears from their history to have exercised a salutary influence. The first Emperor of the Ming family observed, the bowstring drawn violently will break; the people pressed hard will rebel.' Another sovereign observed to his heir, 'You see that the boat in which we sit is supported by the water, which, at the same time, is able if roused, to overwhelm it; remember that the water represents the people, and the Emperor only the boat.' Amidst all the internal revolutions of China, it is deserving of remark that no single instance has ever occurred of an attempt to change the form of that pure monarchy which is founded in, or derived from, patriarchal authority.* The only object has been, in most cases, the destruction of a tyrant; or, when the country was divided into several states, the acquisition of universal power by the head of one of them.

"The Chinese show much respect to age; but their regard for age, even, is secondary to their respect for learning. In learning,' says their maxim, ' age and youth go for nothing; the best informed takes the precedence.' The chief source of rank and consideration in China is certainly cultivated talent.

"Wealth alone, though it has of course some necessary influence, is looked upon with less respect, comparatively, than perhaps in any other country; and this because all distinction and rank arise almost entirely from educated talent. The choice of official persons, who form the real aristocracy of the country, is guided, with a very few exceptions, by the possession of those qualities, and the country is therefore as ably ruled as it could be under the circumstances.-' Les lettrés,' observed a correspond

We have marked this by Italics, because it is important with reference to the future.

ent of ours from Pekin, ainsi honorés par les Hân, ont acquis un grand ascendant sur le peuple; la politique s'en est emparé dans toutes les dynasties, et c'est sans doute à cette réunion des esprits que la Chine doit son bonheur, sa paix, et sa prospérité.'-The official aristocracy, content with their solid rank and power, aim at no external display; on the contrary, a certain affectation, on their part, of patriarchal simplicity operates as a sumptuary law, and gives a corresponding tone to the habits of the people. We are bound to admit that some evil results from this; superfluous wealth, in the hands of the vulgar possessors of it, is driven to find a vent occasionally in the gratifications of private sensuality.

Independently altogether of political considerations-that is, of the policy or expediency of the measure, any civilized nation that should attempt, by conquest, to disturb this state of things would evidently incur a very awful moral responsibility. At the same time there are certain features in the Chinese system with regard to foreigners, some of which are slightly touched upon in one of the above extracts, that deserve (indeed, the time seems now to have arrived when they imperatively demand) the most serious and grave considera

tion.

"The fundamental maxim of Chinese intercourse with foreigners has been accurately translated by Père Premare as follows, and it is quite sufficient to explain their conduct. 'Barbari haud secus ac pecora non eodem modo regendi sunt ut reguntur Sinæ. Si quis vellet eos magnis sapientiæ legibus instruere, nihil aliud quam summam perturbationem induceret. Antiqui reges istud optimè callebant, et ideo barbaros non regendo regebant. Sic autem eos non regendo regere, præclara eos optimè regendi ars est.' That is, 'The barbarians are like beasts, and not to be ruled on the same principles as citizens. Were any one to attempt controlling them by the great maxims of reason, it would tend to nothing but confusion. The ancient kings well understood this, and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. Therefore, to rule barbarians by misrule is the true and the best way of ruling them.' It is on this principle that all the benefits of Chinese law are denied to strangers, and that, in the case of even accidental homicide, they are required to be delivered up, not for trial, but execution. The mischiefs of such a system are obvious, and it is in consequence of this that acts of atrocious violence, on the part of foreigners, committed by them under the plea of doing themselves right, have been attempted to be justified, though coming strictly under the definitions of piracy, murder, or arson, which, under a more vigorous government, would have rendered them the property of the public executioner*."

The conduct of the Chinese to Europeans is what might be expected from such premises.

Davis's Chinese, vol. i. p. 66.

"The natural consequence is, that their conduct to Europeans is very different to their conduct among themselves. Except when under the influence of either interest or of fear, they are often haughty and insolent to strangers, as well as fraudulent; and such is the effect of opinion among them, that, even in cases where interest may persuade them to servility, this will not be exhibited in the presence of a countryman. A beggar has often been seen, who, though he would bend his knee very readily to European passengers when unobserved, refrained altogether from it while Chinese were passing by. It was some time before the very coolies, the lowest class of servants, would condescend to carry a lantern before a European at night; and still longer before they could be induced, by any wages, to convey him in a sedan even at Macao, where it is permitted. Is it surprising, then, that they should reconcile it, without much difficulty, to their feelings to overreach and ill-use, occasionally, these creatures of an inferior rank, who, as their government phrases it, come to benefit by the transforming influence of Chinese civilization ;' or, rather, is it not very surprising that so general a course of honesty and good faith, and so many instances of kindness and generosity even, should have been experienced in their intercourse with us?

"A true calculation of their own interest makes most of the merchants of that place sufficiently scrupulous in their commercial engagements; but on all other points the foreign devil,' as they call him, is fair game. Many a Chinese of Canton, in his intercourse with a stranger, would seem occasionally to have an abstract love of falsehood and trickery, independently of anything that he can gain by it; and he will appear sometimes to volunteer a lie, when it would be just the same to him to tell the truth. Mr. Barrow has attributed their national insincerity to a motive which no doubt operates with the higher classes, as much as an ignorant contempt, and a mischievous malignity, do with the rabble. As a direct refusal,' he observes, ‘ to any request would betray a want of good breeding, every proposal finds their immediate acquiescence: they promise without hesitation, but generally disappoint by the invention of some slight pretence or plausible objection: they have no proper sense of the obligations of truth.' This renders all negociations with them on public matters almost entirely fruitless, as no reliance whatever can be placed on them for the fulfilment of engagements. They dispense with faith towards foreigners in a manner truly Machiavellian.

"There is a positive law against the use of things not sanctioned by custom ; partly therefore from fear, partly from conceit, they are very little inclined to adopt foreign modes, or purchase foreign manufactures. Raw produce, or the materials of manufactures, find a better market among them; but the most marketable commodity of all are dollars. Indisputably superior as Europe is in science, and in the productions of science, yet to a Chinese, who sees few things brought from thence that really suit his peculiar and conventional wants, or that are in conformity with the usages enjoined by the ritual,—and who, until lately, heard little of the different states into which Europe is divided, but the indistinct rumour of their endless wars and massacres on a large scale,-it is not surprising