The higher classes are in the habit of purchasing females, who have previously been educated for sale, to serve as concubines, and to live under the same roof with their legitimate wives; but neither the concubines nor the wives are allowed to sit at the same table with, or even to appear in the presence of, their lord and master, either in the company of friends or strangers. Among the lower classes, the females of the most savage nations are not doomed to more degrading and slavish labour than are those of the Chinese. Like the females of savages, they are, moreover, as we have seen, frequently hired out by their fathers and husbands to the seamen of the junks that frequent the portsso frequently, indeed, that it occurred at almost every place where the vessel that carried Mr. Gutzlaff stopped-one alone excepted —where, he says, there was not, in the whole place, nor even in the circuit of several English miles, one female to be seen.' Being rather surprised at so curious a circumstance, he learned, on inquiry, that the whole female population had been removed by the civil authorities, with a view to prevent debauchery among the many sailors who annually visited this port.' Its name is Kin-chow, in the gulf of Leau-tong, on the coast of Mantchou Tartary.

6

The Chinese have long been accused of carrying the horrid practice of infanticide to a frightful extent. At the beach of Amoy,' says Gutzlaff, we were shocked at the spectacle of a pretty new-born babe, which shortly before had been killed. We asked some of the bystanders what this meant; they answered, with indifference, "It is only a girl." He says

6

It is a general custom among them to drown a large proportion of the new-born female children. This unnatural crime is so common among them, that it is perpetrated without any feeling, and even in a laughing mood; and to ask a man of any distinction whether he has daughters, is a mark of great rudeness. Neither the government nor the moral sayings of their sages have put a stop to this nefarious custom.'-p. 174.

Mr. Ellis speaks of a Chinese philosopher, who, in writing on the subject of education, and alluding to the ignorance of their women, and the consequent unamiableness of wives, exhorts husbands not to desist from instructing them; for, says he, with a naïveté that marks the estimation in which he at least held the intellectual character of the sex,

' even monkeys may be taught to play antics-dogs may be taught to tread a mill-rats may be taught to run round a cylinder-and parrots may be taught to recite verses. Since, then, it is manifest that ever birds and beasts may be taught to understand human affairs, how much more so may young wives, who, after all, are human beings.'

What

What a concession from a Chinese philosopher! It would seem, however, that there are places in China where the ladies are determined to exercise a freedom of action even beyond the usual privileges of the sex in more enlightened nations. At Ke-shan-so, a port in the province of Shan-tung, Mr. Gutzlaff tells us, the people seemed fond of horsemanship; and while we were here, the ladies had horse-races, in which they greatly excelled.' This is so novel and so refreshing a feature in the female condition generally of China, that we could not forbear wishing the worthy missionary had been less costive in his narrative of so unusual a practice, and entered into some little detail of this branch of female art, such as the mode of training, riding, betting, and other important matters connected with the female turf-club of China.

There are, however, among the lower orders of Chinese some redeeming qualities. From a country so overflowing in population, where thousands annually perish for want, emigration takes place, to a great extent, to the several islands of the Indian Archipelago, to Siam, Malacca, Prince of Wales's Island, and Singapore. The affection of these poor people for their homes and their kindred is as strong as that of the Swiss; neither time nor distance can withdraw their attention from the beloved objects they left behind in their native land. A part of their hard earnings is carefully hoarded and annually remitted to their kindred left behind. If an emigrant can send but a dollar, he will do so, and will fast in order to save it. Every letter he writes must be accompanied by some token, however trifling. These favourable traits are particularly dwelt upon by Mr. Gutzlaff.

On the banks of the river Pei-ho, which leads to the neighbourhood of the capital, Mr. Gutzlaff's attention was drawn to the miserable condition of the trackers of the barges, which is described to be just the same as that in which they were found by the embassies of Lords Macartney and Amherst-ragged, halfnaked, and half-famished. They were very thinly clothed, and seemed to be in great want; some dry rice, that was given to them, they devoured with inexpressible delight.' The houses, whether of the rich or the poor, along the banks of this river are built of mud; those of the latter are miserable hovels of one apartment, most commonly having no other door but a screen of matting. I had much conversation,' says Gutzlaff, with these people, who seemed to be rude but hardy, poor but cheerful, and lively but quarrelsome. The number of these wretched beings is very great; and many, it is said, perish annually by the cold of winter' yet it is under 40° of latitude.

.

The vessel proceeded up the river as high as Tien-sing, near which are noticed those large and innumerable stacks of salt

an

an accumulation sufficient to supply the whole empire. While here, our missionary says he had thoughts of proceeding to Pekin; and why he did not afterwards at least attempt this is not clearly stated. A visit to the capital of the Chinese empire, he tells us, was an object of no little solicitude; but he seems to be in doubt how this visit might be viewed by the Chinese government. Hitherto, he says, they had taken no notice of him, but it was expected the local authorities would now interfere. Almost friendless, with small pecuniary resources, without any personal knowledge of the country and its inhabitants, I was forced to prepare for the worst.' We soon find him, however, in the Gulf of Petche-lee, on the frontiers of Tartary, distributing his tracts and his medicines among the natives, who appear to have been more kind and civilized than in the lower parts of the coast.

On the night of the 9th of November the wind changed to the north-west, and in a few hours the rivers and creeks were frozen up. The sailors consoled themselves with fighting quails, and smoking opium day and night. At length they bent their course to the southward, and in about three weeks arrived in safety at Canton. The long personal inconveniences and perils, the poverty and scantiness of food, consisting almost entirely of rice and salted vegetables, endured by this honest missionary, and his determined perseverance to spread the Scriptures among this heathen people, are the strongest tests of his sincerity; it has long been,' he tells us, the firm conviction of his heart, that, in these latter days, the glory of the Lord will be revealed to China.'

The second voyage of Mr. Gutzlaff was in the ship Amherst, with Mr. Lindsay, some account of which we gave in a former Number,-on The Free Trade with China.' The first voyage brought him chiefly among the lower class of Chinese and Chinese seamen; but the second introduced him more largely into the society of mandarins and merchants. Among the latter there was a strong disposition to encourage commercial intercourse with strangers; while the former used every means, open and concealed, to prevent it, and were generally successful. This aversion, however, did not proceed from any dislike to foreigners, but from the fear of loss of office, or other punishment, should any complaint reach the court of Pekin; a circumstance which actually occurred, and the consequence was degradation and loss of place in two or three instances, where the officers did not succeed in driving away the barbarian ship.' Those persons hold their offices, their fortunes, and even their lives, at the mercy of their superiors; and the consequence is, that their whole conduct is but too generally a tissue of falsehood, hypocrisy, and duplicity. Every step they take is marked

marked by timidity and indecision; and, in their negotiations with strangers, they frequently entangle themselves in the most ludicrous embarrassments. Often did Gutzlaff make them ashamed of their conduct, by quoting against themselves the maxims of Confucius and the ancients, which they affect to observe as their rule of conduct, though at the same time acting in direct violation of them. Mr. Lindsay bears testimony to the extraordinary power over the minds of the Chinese, of all ranks, which our author obtained by his thorough acquaintance with the ancient classics, and the copious knowledge which he possessed of the Chinese language. On many occasions, he says, when Mr. Gutzlaff has been surrounded by hundreds of eager listeners, he has been interrupted by loud expressions of the pleasure with which they listened to his pithy, and indeed elegant language.'

At every port the Amherst touched at, along the whole of the eastern coast, tracts, of various kinds, in the Chinese language, were eagerly sought after; and these were not confined solely to religious subjects, but others on history, geography, and morality, containing both instruction and amusement, were copiously diffused. But that which most attracted their attention was a pamphlet, written by the late Mr. Marjoribanks, and translated by Dr. Morrison, Upon the English Nation;' a copy of which is said to have reached the emperor, and to have been carefully perused by him. 'Scarcely any means,' says Mr. Gutzlaff, adopted to promote a friendly intercourse, proved so effectual as the circulation of this paper. Often,' he adds, when I came upon deck, all hands were stretched out to receive it; a scuffle would ensue, and loud complaints were vented by those whose wishes were not satisfied.' Mr. Gutzlaff would seem to have provided himself with little treatises on most subjects. At one place he found a number of persons in a temple, engaged in gambling: 'I presented them,' he says, with a tract on gambling, when they started up, astonished at our unexpected and unwelcome gift.'

Mr. Gutzlaff observes how difficult it is to ascertain in what manner this populous empire, of such an immense extent, can be kept together; but is convinced that it can by no means be ascribed to the wisdom of the theoretical laws of the Celestial Kingdom. Mr. Pauw tells us, which is partly true, that China is governed by the whip and the bamboo. It is certainly by a graduated and mitigated system of despotism, accompanied frequently with oppression and tyranny, that order is preserved among the greatest mass of human beings congregated on an equal space in any portion of the earth's surface. The emperor tyrannizes over his ministers, his ministers over the governors of provinces, and these over the whole series of subordinate officers-each acting with a sufficient

sufficient degree of arrogance in his own sphere; and yet all is considered-even personal castigation-to emanate from a paternal solicitude for the welfare of those committed to their care. But such a system could never have held together for such a length of time, had not the subjects, of all ranks and degrees, been carefully debarred from all intercourse with foreigners, from all knowledge of the language, the literature, or the institutions of other nations. Of all such knowledge they are, even at this time, most innocent; and it was the desire to prevent such a contamination that caused so many efforts to prevail on Lindsay and Gutzlaff to depart from their ports.

The mode pursued to get rid of the Amherst was different in different places-sometimes by offers of money and provisions, sometimes by putting on a bullying tone, frequently by coaxing, and now and then by a grand display of soldiers of the most miserable description, some of whom, the missionary sarcastically observes, had the word valour written on their jackets behind. On one occasion they were visited by two naval officers, who said, that if they failed in driving the ship away, they were to be degraded; and to show they were in earnest, they unscrewed the buttons on their caps, offering them to the party, as being no longer of use to themselves; they said they were all implicated, up to the governor and the commander-in-chief, who were in great tribulation at their remaining so long. One of the mandarins tried to weep, but the tears fell very sparingly; and, on the whole, this intended tragedy more resembled a farce than anything else,'

From the promontory of Shan-tung, the Amherst stretched over to the coast of Corea, which is studded with such a multitude of islands, that the sovereign may well style himself the King of Ten Thousand Islands.' The country is thinly inhabited, the land but little cultivated, and the people miserably poor. Their written characters are Chinese-their timidity and duplicity Chinese-their system of government Chinese-their religion, such as it is, also Chinese. They are supposed to be independent both of Japan and China, though they do pay a sort of tribute to the latter; they, however, said to the visiters, in order to get rid of them- Our kingdom is a dependent state of China; we can do nothing without the imperial decree-this is our law. Hitherto we have had no intercourse with foreigners; how could we venture to commence it now?' They have but a few vessels, which are either employed in fishing, or in carrying on a trifling commerce with China, Japan, and Mantchou Tartary.

Leaving the coast of Corea, the Amherst proceeded to the LooChoo Islands, and came to an anchor in Napakiang Bay, in the

VOL. LI. NO. CII.

2 K

harbour