a long, narrow street, not more than two feet and a half wide, but which is nevertheless a very great thoroughfare, the bustle and throng in it are tremendous; crowds of loaded porters, sedan chairs, and passengers are hurrying along, and leave little room for loitering; yet it is impossible to avoid noticing how clean and well-arranged all the shops are. Continuing along this street, and passing the end of Hog-lane one side of which is formed by the dead wall of the burnt factorieswe ascend and descend the steps of a small bridge, and turning to the left, are soon in Carpenters'-square, which, however, does not require any notice. The carpenters' and joiners' shops are like carpenters' and joiners' shops all the world over-the saw, which is set at nearly a right angle to its frame, being perhaps the strangest thing in the Chinese shop, the Chinaman himself of course excepted.

We retrace our steps for some distance, and enter a street running at a right angle from the great (or small) thoroughfare, nearly opposite China-street; and crossing two or three other streets, we at length arrive in Apothecaries'-street-so named from its consisting entirely of doctors' shops; and this leads us directly to Curiosity-street. The moment we enter one of the virtuoso shops, a crowd collects round it, in whose face the door is immediately shut by the shopmen. The shops are more extensive than any we have yet seen, and consist of two or three houses each; from one to another of these detached buildings we pass through small open courts. Among the old coins, rings, and antiques of all kinds, there are four things that peculiarly attract us; the first, is the large slabs of stone, naturally marked with veins and spots so as to resemble landscapes, and much prized by the Chinese; the second, is the beautifully embossed lacquered ware of Japan, which is of the richest appearance, and alas! excessively dear; the third, is the bronze vessels, made in imitation of knotted trunks of trees, and displaying considerable taste; and the fourth, is the porcelain vessels on which figures become visible when fluids are poured into them, and to which Fadladeen likened the poetry of Feramorz. Once, and once only, was I fortunate enough to see one of them, for the art is now lost, although the Chinese are continually endeavouring to re-discover it. After a long stay here, and purchasing a few articles that come within the meagre limits of our purses, we set out on our return to the factories, highly gratified with all we have seen, and with the polite and agreeable manners of the Chinese shopkeepers.

As we are sauntering quietly back, we observe that this part of the town is thoroughly Chinese, and that we have lost all connexion with Europe, or with the Europo-Chinese of Macao, or China streets; and since I left England, I never felt so totally separated from home, as I did when wandering along these narrow winding streets. The long, white sign-boards are placed perpendicularly at the sides of the shopdoors, for the Chinese characters are written one under the other, and are inscribed, I have been told by those who can read them, with the owner's name and business, and also frequently with sundry pithy and sage sentences. The shops, each of which is devoted to one peculiar branch of trade, are exceedingly clean, and indeed often elegant, but small, and, as I have already said, much resembling the shops in our arcades.

At both ends of the streets are gates that are closed every night. There are a great many miserable beggars in the streets, and we often

see them standing inside the shops, banging away at small gongs, or clattering pieces of bamboo, as an accompaniment to their dismal voices. This is not, as we might perhaps imagine, a religious ceremony, but a trial of the shopkeeper's patience, for the beggars are entitled to something from each person, and the shopman, knowing that as soon as one beggar moves on another will take his place, stands the din as long as he can, before he throws him the cash, on receiving which he must go away. Thus the beggars can always procure the means of subsistence while they have strength enough to move about the streets; but when ill health or age cripples them, they lay themselves down in the open spaces before the temples, with no other covering than a piece of old matting, and, unregarded and unrelieved by any of the many passers by, wait until death shall relieve them from their misery.

On returning into the principal thoroughfare, we proceed along it to the westward for some distance, utterly astonished at the mass of people crowded in it, and wondering how upon earth the bearers of the sedan-chairs, and the porters, manage to get along as fast as they do, keeping up a continual cry of warning, and not knocking off people's hats, as I have often seen done by their brethren in London. The narrowness of the street, too, is rendered even still more confined by the stalls of pedlars ranged in great numbers along the walls. But the day is coming to its close; we turn back and re-enter China-street through a small fish-market, and find ourselves once more among European sign-boards, and are soon seated at dinner.

The dessert consists of oranges, walnuts, chesnuts, pears, &c., all of which I have remarked exposed for sale in the fruiterers' shops; but one kind of orange deserves particular mention, for I have never seen it excepting at Canton; it is called the high mandarin orange, and its skin is very deep coloured, like the skin of a Seville orange, and so loose that on tearing it open, the orange falls out. The flavour of this orange is far more like the flavour of a grape than that of a common orange, and is very delicious. I never visited Canton without buying a large basket of them. I have, however, with all my fondness for the fruit never had courage to taste any of the roasted oranges that I have often seen cooking in the streets of Canton. The walnuts, chesnuts and pears are brought from the northern provinces, if my information be correct. A large rhinoceros horn, having its rim bound with silver, is handed round the table, as a specimen of a drinking-cup much esteemed and sought for by the Chinese.

After coffee and a game at cards, we go up to the flat roof of the house, to see the unannounced comet. Its head is near the horizon, but its tail stretches for many degrees across the heavens, and has caused a great deal of uneasiness to the Chinamen, who, like our forefathers, associate misfortune with the appearance of comets, and pay no slight attention to all signs and wonders in the sky. The governor of Canton was, when I arrived in China, in mourning for an eclipse of the emperor's sister, the moon.

Such is the extent of my personal experience of Canton, and very limited it is, for although I made at least a dozen visits to it, yet my stay never exceeded a few hours at a time; so that I was not even able to visit the temple of Honan on the south side of the river, nearly opposite the factories, and one of the great lions of foreigners,

as containing a monastery of priests; nor can I describe the streets inhabited by private gentlemen, where nothing is to be seen but the dead walls surrounding the houses, as in the quarter of St. Germain at Paris; nor speak of the wretched and miserable hovels on the outskirts of the suburbs.

On two occasions I have seen the dead bodies of infants floating about among the boats; for infanticide, although strongly disapproved of by the authorities, as may be seen by the edicts in which they exhort people to discontinue the practice, is yet not regarded as a punishable crime by the law of the empire, which does not consider the taking away life, before the being can understand what life is, as murder. Female children are those usually destroyed, but as in all things, relating to China, there is a great diversity of opinion as to the extent to which infanticide is carried. Some persons say that it is very general, and acknowledged by the perpetrators without any shame; others again declare that none but the lowest, most degraded, and poverty-stricken, have recourse to it, and that they are regarded with detestation by every body. This difference may arise from real difference in the state of public opinion in various parts of this mighty empire, according to the greater or less population and means of obtaining food; but one thing is certain, that considerable numbers of children are annually exposed, some few being saved and placed in foundling hospitals; while the dead bodies of those that perish, are collected and thrown into pits, by officers appointed for that purpose.

LETTER XII.

THE state of foreign society in Macao and Canton has always been very peculiar. Every foreigner who wished for an establishment in these places, was required* to first provide himself with a comprador, that is, a man licensed by the Chinese authorities to art as head-servant. These compradores are in general very respectable men in their class of life, and take on themselves all responsibility in hiring the inferior servants, buying provisions, and other arrangements, according to the wishes of their masters, and are also answerable for any thing that is lost. After living some years with a person, the comprador becomes a most fatherly man, and takes a most lively interest in all that goes on in the house, and would seem to consider it an especial part of his duty to testify a more than parental care to visiters, and to welcome old friends. The comprador of the gentlemen whose kind hospitality I enjoyed for some time at Macao, was a most excellent specimen of these worthies, and was well known to all residents in China for his numerous good qualities.

The Chinese have, several times during the last few years, availed themselves of the dependence of foreigners on celestial servants, to cause them serious inconvenience and annoyance, by commanding all the servants to leave their employ; as in March, 1839, when the foreigners were imprisoned for some weeks in the factories at Canton, and were obliged to minister to themselves in cooking, bed-making,

&c.

Besides the other servants, there is always a watchman kept to

This was still the case at the time of my visit to China.

guard the house from his brethren, the thieves, and who testifies his watchfulness by beating two pieces of bamboo against each other every two or three minutes during the night, the effect of which operation is, until one becomes accustomed to it, rather to cause a person to imitate the wakefulness of the worthy guardian of the night, than to lull him into gentle slumbers.

In the houses of married foreigners there are native women servants to attend on the children, but there is also, in general, indeed always, an European or American nursery-maid in every family.

No woman, foreign or native, was, until the treaty of peace, permitted to enter the factories at Canton, and the society there was composed entirely of men engaged in commercial pursuits, and who were most certainly often rather "hard up" for amusement. Card playing, cigar smoking, and beer drinking, were the standard passe temps. Besides these, some persons kept wherries, in which they used to row about the river, and "cock-fighting" was in general esteem. Cock-fighting has, however, a peculiar signification in China, and the person who imagines that the residents at Canton procured fine Malay game-cocks, and amused themselves in witnessing the fierce combats of those courageous birds, will be in error. The men transform themselves into cocks, pro tem., as boys do at school; they first tie their wrists together, and then embracing their knees, regularly truss themselves, by passing a stick between their arms and legs. When thus prepared for action, the two cocks are placed opposite to one another on the floor, and the contest begins; whoever succeeds in insinuating the point of his shoe under the foot of his adversary, upsets him, and is declared victor in the gallic warfare.

At Macao there is some improvement on this mode of life, as ladies form part of the society there; but, as in all small communities, English country towns for example, they have caused the formation of several cliques, and have not added much to the unanimity of the male residents. The bachelors, however, with the exception of an occasional dinner party, live pretty nearly in the same way as they do in the provincial city, with the additional amusements of boat-sailing, walking, riding, horse-races once a-year, and a housekeeper. But the routine of society was very much disarranged at the time I visited China, for people were in expectation of soon removing over to Hong Kong, and no balls were given that winter. The foreigners and Portuguese do not mingle together in society, with the exception of some young men, who are now and then attracted to the Portuguese balls by the bright eyes of some of Lusitania's daughters. The members of the foreign society are continually changing. Out of a list of 137 names of foreigners resident in China in the year 1832, there were but twenty found in a list of 1842, amounting to 230. By far the greater proportion of residents are British subjects and Americans.*

There are several benevolent societies in China, at being forced to subscribe to which the young men grumble not a little. The Morrison Education and Useful Knowledge Societies, the Medical, Missionary Hospitals, &c., are well known in England; but their success has been small, with the exception of the Medical Missionary Hospitals, to which

In the list of 1837 there were 279 names, of whom 158 were British, 62 Parsees, 44 Americans, 4 Indian, 3 Dutch, 2 Swiss, 2 Prussian, 2 German, 1 Danish, and 1 French,

patients flock in great numbers. Whether the medical missionaries will succeed in their main design, that of conversion, is very questionable; a good deal of jealousy exists between the medical and clerical missionaries, or, I should rather say, that the latter do not quite approve of any interference in what they consider their own peculiar department. Before leaving England, I thought a Protestant missionary's life very different from what it really is; in China at all events, I had associated a great amount of hardship with it, the missionaries, on the contrary, are very comfortable, and well off, and never put themselves to any inconvenience they can possibly avoid. No one can deny that they have done great service, in giving us much information regarding the language of China, but the Protestant missionaries cannot now show one single convert. There was one indeed who had been baptized by an American missionary at Hong Kong. He was a poor creature who had to choose between starvation and apostacy, and chose the latter. The missionary was very proud of this first fruit, and published an account of his conversion, and said to him, "You are now a Christian and an honest man, I will make you my comprador, and you shall have charge of all my property." The Chinaman was accordingly installed, but in two or three days time he was not to be found, neither were the silver spoons with sundry other valuables. "Oh, he will come back," said the missionary." An old celestial, who was standing by, quietly took his pipe out of his mouth, and oracularly responded, "My can secure, he no come back;" nor did he.

The Protestant missionary comes out to China, remains at Hong Kong or Macao translating and printing books and tracts, and occasionally makes a trip along the coast in an opium vessel. Both cargoes, that of tracts, and that of opium, are got rid of together; and the missionary returns home, at the end of a two or three months' pleasant cruize, rejoicing that he has dispersed some thousands of tracts, and convinced, from the eagerness with which the Chinese received the books, that they will become Christians immediately on reading them. He then sits down to translate some more, while his wife, if she can spare the time from her duties to her own children, teaches half a dozen Chinese boys, who afterwards go off and become linguists. The missionary next year makes another trip along the coast, or becomes interpreter to, or follows the footsteps of, a victorious army, overruning the country he wishes to convert,-because their emperor would not allow the health and morals of his subjects to be destroyed! This is plain language, yet I challenge any of the most eloquent speakers on the platform of the great room in Exeter Hall to deny one word of what I have written. Very different is the conduct of Roman Catholic missionaries, of whom no less than eighty have been sent out during the last ten years, and every one of them is in the interior of the empire, where they keep up the spirit of religion among the Chinese Catholics, who number many thousands. A woman who came as patient to the Medical Missionary Hospital in Canton was discovered to be a Roman Catholic, by her calling on the Lord Jesus during an operation she was undergoing, and she said, on being questioned, that there were a great many people of the same religion in the part of the country where she lived.

And now for home! Reader, have you ever left your native country and wandered for months in distant lands? if so, I need not tell you