partly also by the low price of paper. What is called India paper, by our engravers and printsellers, is nothing but the large sheets in which the silk piece-goods of China are wrapped, as they are brought to us from Canton. These have commonly been purchased at an exorbitant price in London; but they might be bought by the chest, upon the spot, for much less than our own paper costs. There is, however, a considerable duty on the importation. The date of the invention of paper seems to prove that some of the most important arts, connected with the progress of civilization, are not extremely ancient in China. In the time of Confucius they wrote on the finely-pared bark of the bamboo with a style; they next used silk and linen, which explains why the character chy, paper, is compounded of that for silk. It was not until A.D. 95 that paper was invented. The materials which they use in the manufacture are various. A coarse yellowish paper, used for wrapping parcels, is made from rice-straw.* The better kinds are composed of the liber or inner part of a species of morus, as well as of cotton, but principally of bamboo ; and we may extract the description of the last from the Chinese Repository:'t "The stalks are cut near the ground, and then sorted into parcels according to the age, and tied up in small bundles. The younger the bamboo, the better is the quality of the paper which is made from it. The bundles are thrown into a reservoir of mud and water, and buried in the ooze for about a fortnight to soften them. They are then taken out, cut into pieces of a proper length, and put into mortars with a little water, to be pounded to a pulp with large wooden pestles. This semifluid mass, after being cleansed of the coarsest parts,

* They also obtain paper from the re-manufacture of what has been used, as well as from rags of silk and cotton.

† Vol. iii. p. 265.

is transferred to a great tub of water, and additions of the substance are made until the whole becomes of sufficient consistence to form paper. Then a workman takes up a sheet with a mould or frame of the proper dimensions, which is constructed of bamboo in small strips, made smooth and round like wire. The pulp is continually agitated by other hands, while one is taking up the sheets, which are then laid upon smooth tables to dry. According to others, the paper is dried by placing the newly made sheets upon a heated wall, and rubbing them with brushes until dry. This paper is unfit for writing on with liquid ink, and is of a yellowish colour. The Chinese size it by dipping the sheets into a solution of fish-glue and alum, either during or after the first process of making it.* The sheets are usually three feet and a half in length, and two in breadth. The fine paper used for letters is polished, after sizing, by rubbing it with smooth stones."

What is commonly known in this country under the name of Indian ink is nothing more than what the Chinese manufacture for their own writing. The writing apparatus consists of a square of this ink; a little black slab of schistus or slate,† polished smooth, with a depression at one end to hold water; a small brush, or pencil, of rabbit's hair inserted into a reed handle; and a bundle of paper. These four articles, the ink, the slab on which it is rubbed, the writing-pencil, and the paper, are called (with that respect which the Chinese profess for letters) "the four precious implements." They are taught from youth

*Sized paper is not required in their printing, where the ink is of a thicker consistency.

This is found in the mountains called Leu-shân, on the west side of the Poyang lake, where the last embassy saw quantities of these slabs manufactured for sale.

to keep them in high order and neatness, and, as men's lasting impressions are always more or less the results of early habit, this of course has its effect.

The Chinese, or, as it is miscalled, Indian, ink has been erroneously supposed to consist of the secretion of a species of sepia, or cuttle-fish. It is, however, all manufactured from lamp-black and gluten, with the addition of a little musk to give it a more agreeable odour.* Père Contancin gave the following as a process for making the ink :—A number of lighted wicks are put into a vessel full of oil. Over this is hung a dome or funnel-shaped cover of iron, at such a distance as to receive the smoke. Being well coated with lamp-black, this is brushed off and collected upon paper. It is then well mixed in a mortar with a solution of gum or gluten, and, when reduced to the consistence of paste, it is put into little moulds, where it receives those shapes and impressions with which it comes to this country. It is occasionally manufactured in a great variety of forms and sizes, and stamped with ornamental devices, either plain, or in gold and various colours.

Besides being the universal ink of China, this manufacture serves occasionally with them, as it does with us, for drawings and designs, in executing which they use the same hair pencils with which they write. They consider that the best ink is produced from the burning of particular oils, but the commoner and cheaper kinds are obtained, it is said, from fir-wood. As almost every separate place is more noted than others for the manufacture or production of some particular article, the best ink is produced at Hoey-chow-foo, not far from Nanking; and a certain quantity annually manufactured for the use of the emperor and the court is called Koong-mě, "tribute-ink."

* A black dye, but not ink, is obtained from the cup of the acorn, which abounds in gallic acid.

The same name, however, is often given to any commodity, to imply its superiority over others of the same description, just as if the person who makes it were to call himself "Manufacturer to his Majesty." The best ink is that which is most intensely black, and most free from grittiness. Of the superior sorts a number of ornamented cakes are often tastefully disposed in small cases finely japanned and gilt; and, when their ink is very old, the Chinese sometimes apply it, as they do almost everything in its turn, in medicine.

However ancient may be the discovery, among this people, of the composition of gunpowder, its particular application to fire-arms was probably derived from the west.* The silence regarding cannon of the two elder Polos,† who served at the siege of Siang-yang-foo about the year 1273, and the circumstance of those persons having taught the use of balistæ for hurling stones to the Tartar emperor, seem to prove that the Chinese at that period were as little acquainted with fire-arms as Europeans. Their history notices the use of a composition of the nature of Greek fire, which, when thrown into the ditches that surrounded cities, exploded in contact with water, and proved very destructive. The invention of powder, as compounded of "sulphur, saltpetre, and willow charcoal," is carried very far back by the Chinese, and was probably applied by them to fireworks (in which they excel at present), or other harmless and useful purposes, long before their unwarlike spirit could have suggested the use of guns to themselves, or they could have borrowed the notion from Europeans.

It is reasonable to suppose that the early discovery of

*The Chinese name has no reference to guns, and simply means fire-drug.

+ Marsden's edition, 4to. p. 488.

the composition of gunpowder was promoted by the abundance of nitre, a substance which abounds in the alluvial plains near Peking as much as it does in those of Bengal. Mr. Wilkinson, of London, in a lecture on the subject of gunpowder, has some observations deserving notice. He gives a table of the different quantities of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur, used by different nations in the manufacture, the proportions being expressed in 100 parts:

"The powder manufactured in England" (Mr. Wilkinson observes) "is preferred in commerce to that of other countries of Europe, as being much the strongest. It may therefore be inferred that our proportions are the best, though no doubt the excellence of the powder may partly depend on the purification and perfect admixture of the materials. It is, however, worth observation, how nearly our proportions agree with those of the Chinese,† and, as they seldom change anything, it has probably been the same from the beginning; though, from the imperfection

* Dr. Watson, bishop of Llandaff, well skilled in chemical analysis, improved the strength of gunpowder by ridding the charcoal of pyroligneous acid.

+ “The Honourable Colonel Napier, when in the ordnance department, procured a sample of powder from China, which, on the average analysis of 2 oz., was found to consist of 720 gr. saltpetre, 141 charcoal, 89 sulphur, and 10 loss. Dividing the deficiency equally, and reducing it to the proportion in 100 parts, gives the result in the above table."Lecture.