From the North British Review. HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINA. 1. A Narrative of an Exploratory Visit to each of the Consular Cities of China, in behalf of the Church Missionary Society, in the years 1844-5-6. By the Rev. GEORGE SMITH, M. A. of Magdalen Hall, Oxford London, 1847. 2. Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China. By THOMAS TAYLOR MEADOWS, Interpreter to Her Britannic Majesty's Consulate at Canton. London, 1847. 3. Three Years' Wanderings in China. By ROBERT FORTUNE, Botanical Collector for the London Horticultural Society. London, 1847. 4. China and the Chinese Mission. By the Rev. JAMES HAMILTON, National Scotch Church, Regent Square. London, 1847. intercourse, and influence, and example of other races, and other modes of civilization. If it be not good for man to live alone, neither is it for nations; for we find that the same narrow, contracted, and selfish notions, which arise in the solitary and secluded individual, are no less apt to take possession of the whole community Hence the exclusive jealousy of strangers, the vain boasting, and ignorance of the manners and history of all other nations, so conspicuous in the Chinese. CHINA is undoubtedly the most singular, it has opened up this vast empire to the country in the world. Possessing a population amounting to at least a third of the whole human race, and occupying a vast yet continuous and well defined portion of the globe, it has existed as a peculiar and entirely secluded kingdom for a longer period of time than any other nation on the face of the earth. While migrations and wars and foreign conquests were making vast changes on the rest of the world-while nations were rising up from barbarism, flourishing for a season, and then sinking into insignificance, the Chinese held on in one uniform tenor-with the same arts, the same government, the same laws, unchanged and uninterrupted, except by casual outbreaks and tumults within themselves, which were soon calmed and smoothed over. While many mighty nations of the western world were still in a state of comparative barbarism, the Chinese had their various arts to embellish domestic life,they were clothed in their silks and cottons -were expert in the culture of the soilknew something of the nature of the magnetic compass-of gunpowder, and various other inventions still unheard of in Europe. The extreme caution of their natures, a certain timid and exclusive policy, which has all along characterized their intercourse with surrounding nations, as much, perhaps, as their self-conceit, which made them look down upon all others as barbarians, had the effect of keeping them for so long a time in such a state of singular seclusion. At last, however, the spell has been broken; an almost unavoidable war of aggression has done to them, what wars and conquests seem to have been the chief agents in performing among all the nations of the world Hitherto our information regarding the actual state of China has been derived from the hasty survey of ambassadors quickly passing through it, or the casual reports of a few missionaries who had been permitted, under many restrictions, to enter the country. But now that five of the largest maritime cities have been opened up by treaty to the trade and free intercourse of all nations, we begin to have the accounts of travellers who have made themselves acquainted with the language, and whose opportunities of observation have been more extensive and more unreserved than those of any of their predecessors. Of the works more recently published on this subject, we have selected a volume by the Rev. George Smith, of the Church Missionary Society; another volume by a Diplomatist, resident in Canton; and a third by a scientific traveller ;-all of whom have spent from two to three years in China, and have acquired a knowledge of the language. It is true that the range of these travellers has been limited to the maritime cities and surrounding districts, and has not extended into the central parts of the empire, or even to the capital, Pekin; but when it is considered that such a uniformity and sameness ner vade the whole empire-that the people and institutions of any one province are so like to those of any other-it may be presumed that we glean from their partial observations a pretty accurate conception of the average condition of the whole empire. The population of China, both from native statements and the calculations of foreigners, has been estimated at not less than 360 millions. Immense as this amount of human beings appears, it is perhaps not an over-estimate. The city of Canton is said to contain a million of inhabitants; that of Foo-chow 600,000; and the other cities visited are reported to be generally swarming with inhabitants. But even supposing the estimate above given to be correct, the whole area of China proper contains 1,300,000 square miles, so that we have to each square mile 277 human beings. Now, if we compare this rate of population with that of England, as afforded by the last census of 1841, we shall find that in it there are 297 persons to every square mile. We must not then be deceived by exaggerated conceptions of the extreme density of the population of China. With a comparatively level and arable country, a rich soil, that in many localities bears two crops a year, and an industrious and frugal people, the average density of the population comes considerably short of that of England. is no permanent or hereditary nobility among this people. There are many old families who are held in estimation, but the two great distinctions of the people are into the literary class and the plebeian. Admission into the literary class is open to every individual of the empire, however poor or unknown; and from this class alone are selected all government officials, from the lowest clerk up to the greatest mandarin. Candidates for admission are subjected to a strict and generally an impartial examination. After having passed this first examination, they undergo a second and more searching one before they can become eligible for office; and a third is necessary for those who aim at the highest posts. The candidates for these literary honors are always very numerous, and an intense interest is shown at the periods of examination, both by the individuals themselves and their relatives. A great many are of course rejected, but these return again and again to their studies, and make repeated attempts to pass the ordeal. Once accepted, they are almost sure to succeed in time to some government employment, and the highest appointments are open to all. So highly is admission into this literary class prized by the people, that a successful aspirant sheds a lustre on his family, and even ennobles his more humble parents. With an extent of surface, and an amount The same government and laws extend of population equal to twenty-five Eng- over the whole of the empire, and each lands, this vast empire is ruled by the province has its full complement of Governdespotic sway of one individual. The ment officials. If we call to mind that each genius of a people most frequently moulds province is in extent equal to an ordinary their government. The mild and submis-European kingdom, we need not be surprised sive, and generally unimpassioned character at the number of these officials. There are, of the Chinese, peculiarly fits them for im- in the first place, three grand orders of plicit subjection. Their leading mental mandarins: 1st, the civil; 2d, the literary, characteristic is plain homely common sense who superintend the examinations for de-they have not the imaginative qualities grees and admission into the literary class; or passionate enthusiasm of other Oriental 3d, the military. Each of these orders nations, neither have they the profound, ex- may again be subdivided into other three, cursive, and restless intellects of the nations so that there are in all nine mandarins, or of the west. Filial respect and veneration higher officers, in each province-all these is their most prominent instinct-their being distinguished by the quality and conotions of rule are patriarchal. From their lor of the buttons on the top of their caps. fathers and kindred their respect extends to A simple enumeration of the different detheir rulers and their Emperor, who again, nominations of the several officers of the on their parts, take care to foster and en- province of Kwang-tung, will so far indicourage such feelings, and not to outrage cate the nature of their duties, and afford a them. Public opinion exists and prevails general idea of the officials of the other to such an extent as to keep a check on provinces. There is first the Tsung-tu or bad government, or outrageously corrupt Governor-General, whose power not unfreadministration; but there is neither the quently extends over more than one prodesire nor energy to carry it further. There vince. Then a Governor, Superintendent of Finance, Provincial Judge, Collector of A governor of a province gets, nominally, Salt Duties, Grain Collector, Intendant of £50, and makes it up to £4333. A judge Circuit, Prefect of Department and three has £43 of salary, and makes up £2000. Sub-Prefects, District Magistrate and As- The collectors of taxes from £1500 to sistants, Township Magistrate and Assist- £1000. Even a subordinate officer, with a ants, Inspector of Police, Inspector of nominal salary of £10 or £12, ekes it out, River Police, Secretary, Treasurer, Prison by various means, to £200 and £300. Master, Superintendent of Customs. The Government salaries of these officials are very small; the highest, that of the Governor-General, amounting only to £60 of English money, and the lowest ranging from £12 to £20. The consequence is that their incomes are made up by extortion and bribes, levied on the community. This, like the arrangements of some of our European Governments (the Russian, for example), is a most unfortunate one, and leads to endless abuse of justice. The vast extent of the empire, too, and the impossibility of the most vigilant central Government taking due cognisance of the whole, tends greatly to peculation and abuse of authority, and to that feebleness of the executive power which prevails throughout China. The yamun is a large building, where the courts of justice, prisons, and offices and houses of the mandarins, and other officials, are situated. It consists of four divisions. The outermost contains the gaols, and places of confinement for short periods, as also the dwellings of the inferior officers. The second contains a hall of justice for the formal trial of causes and criminals, as also apartments for public records, treasury, &c. The third includes the office of the mandarin himself, and rooms for the public reception of visitors; while the innermost division comprises the private residence of the mandarin and his family. Attached to each of these establishments are the Shi Ye, the judicial advisers, and private secretaries of the mandarin. These men are the only people in China who devote themselves solely to the study of the law, and "I have found it impossible," says Mr. Meadows," to learn, with any degree of certainty, in so far they resemble our advocates, what the real incomes of the mandarins, as increas barristers, and sergeants-at-law; but they ed by illegal fees and special bribes, may amount are scarcely ever made mandarins (judges), to. They vary with the harvests, which, accord- and none of them act as counsel for either ing as they are good or bad, render it easy or diffi- of the litigating parties in an action at cult to collect the land-tax-a proceeding in con- law; their sole business is to protect the nexion with which much extortion is carried on. interests of the mandarin their employer, to They vary also with the number of law-suits, and the wealth of the litigating parties; and, lastly, point out to him the proper way of conthey vary with the characters of the individual ducting his judicial examinations, and to mandarins. The legal incomes of the lower mansee that the decisions he pronounces are in darins are, indeed, so notoriously insufficient, that strict accordance with the laws, so as that they have little hesitation in speaking, even to a he may not incur any of the penalties laid foreigner, of their other gains in a general way; down in the code of the Board of Civil but they have many reasons for not entering into Office, and thus be subjected to degradation particulars. Under these circumstances it is little or dismissal. better than a guess when I assume the highest man-nised as official servants of Government, These lawyers are not recogdarins to get about ten times, the lowest about fifty times the amount of their legal incomes. One of those but are in the private employment of the in the receipt of about £22 legal income, once com- mandarins. Certain of these devote their plained feelingly to me about his poverty, and on attention to the criminal, and others to the my hinting that his post was after all not a bad civil law. Besides these, there are a set of one, he protested, with some earnestness, that his nondescript retainers, who hang about the whole income did not exceed 7000 taels (£2333), mandarin, and are the negotiators of all the of which he had, he said, to give a great deal special bribes, and other illegal gains of their master, and a number of inferior Government clerks, who keep accounts of the revenue, and make copies of all law papers, and other Government business. The judges alone investigate and decide in all causes and trials; there are no counsel for the prisoner, and of course nothing corresponding to juries. Threats and torture, too, are of daily occurrence. The interior away."-P. 100. Mr. Meadows exhibits a table of the Government salaries of the State officials, and the actual incomes which they derive by extortion, and other means, deduced from the best information he could obtain. Thus, a governor-general receives from Government £60 per annum, but he contrives to make his actual income £8333. 352 CHINA. [Nov. of a yamun is said to present a very strange | levied in Amoy, and perhaps in other cities and bustling scene. "The almost unceasing flail-like sounds of beating with the bamboo, either as a punishment for ascertained guilt, or to extort confessions and evidence the cries of the sufferers-the voices of the examining mandarins questioning, bullying, and wheedling--the voices of the porters stationed at the doors, between the first and second and the second and third divisions, transmitting, in a loud singing tone, orders for different officers to repair to certain places where they are wanted-the constant running hither and thither of some of the inmates of the place, and the frequent appearance of criminals and witnesses being escorted to and from the prisons and rooms for examination-are sounds and sights that bewilder and agitate those who have not been accustomed to them, and serve to heighten that dread which all Chinese entertain of entering a yamun.”—Meadows, p. 115. The yamun of a district magistrate thus comprises within itself what may be called the general police station on a great scale -the county gaol, as it were, for the custody of debtors and of criminals, awaiting trial or execution-the place where quartersessions and assizes are held-the offices of all the subordinate officers of these courts, and the office and residence of the chief mandarin, who is at once judge, sheriff, coroner, and commissioner of taxes. In a populous district such a building is calculated to contain from 300 to 500 individuals, and in a less populous place about 200. The Chinese, however, in their domiciles, contrive to pack into amazingly little room, so that their buildings do not at first view appear so extensive. payers, throughout the kingdom, the collector of The tax is partly optional with the which is called "the king of the beggars." and is indirectly under the cognisance of the Government. duly elected from among the number of the "The king," who is beggars, calls on each householder at the beginning of the year, and ascertains the monthly subscription which he is willing to give, in order to be free from the annoyance of their visits for alms, and the clatter of the sticks by which they implore relief. For the sum of five or six hundred cash* a month, he gives a red piece of paper, inscribed with three copies of the characters for " outline of a jar or vase; this is affixed to great good luck," inclosed within an the door-post as a sign of immunity, and is renewed at the commencement of every year. Any beggar overlooking this bill of exemption, and entering a shop for relief, may be seized by the householder, and be beaten on the spot. "The king," after giving a certain proportion to the mandarins, and appropriating a certain fund for the support of the incorporated society of beggars, contrives to appropriate the remainder to his own use, and to become a rich man. tattered rags, wear long dishevelled hair, The beggars are covered with and are not very particular in the mode of satisfying their hunger. beggars pass the shop of a confectioner, and I observed," says Mr. Smith, "one of these stealthily slip a cake into his hand, and throw it In general, the habits of the Chinese theft, ran out and followed the thief, caught him into his sleeve. One of the partners who saw the population, especially in the country dis- by the hair, made him restore the cake from the tricts, are peaceful and submissive. In the folds of the sleeve, and then, by a species of lynchlarge towns, however, especially in Canton, law is expensive, and bribes must precede justice, law very common in a country where ordinary there are frequent tumultuous ebullitions of the mob. Their contempt and hatred gave the beggar a severe beating, and let him deof foreigners cannot be easily restrained, humor of the tradesman himself, and a remarkable part, amid the applause of the crowd, the good and the appellation "Fanquee," or "for-nonchalance on the part of the offender." eign devil," is a term of common reproach. Canton, however, affords not a favorable The Chinese cities have a general resemspecimen of Chinese manners. In the more northern cities, and in the country districts, a stranger may safely mingle with the people, without any other inconvenience than that arising from their excessive curiosity. They are almost uniformly kind, hospitable, and good-humored. A great proportion of the lower orders of the community fare but poorly, and have great difficulty in making out their daily bread, while hosts of beggars are to be found in all the cities. For these a tax is blance to each other. built, crowded within a small space-have They are irregularly a dirty appearance, have few large or fine streets, but innumerable narrow lanes, and are generally traversed by canals in all directions, and are surrounded by walls and ramparts. ings which make any show, with the excep- of our money. suburbs. Mr. Smith thus describes his these sign-boards contain some fictitious emblem, first impressions of Canton : adopted as the name of the shop, similar to the practice prevalent in London two centuries ago. um. "The recently-arrived stranger naturally mani-On entering, the proprietor, with his assistants or fests surprise and incredulity on being told that the estimated population of Canton exceeds a million. As soon, however, as he visits the close streets, with their dense population and busy wayfarers, huddled together into lanes from five to nine feet wide, where Europeans could scarcely inhale the breath of life, the greatness of the number no longer appears incredible. After the first feelings of novelty have passed away, disappointment, rather than admiration, occupies the mind. After leaving the open space before the factories, or, as the Chinese call them, the thirteen hongs, and passing through Old China Street, New China Street, Curiosity Street, and similar localities, the names of which indicate their propinquity to the residence of foreigners, we behold an endless succession of narrow avenues, scarcely deserving the name of streets. As the visitor pursues his course, narrow lanes still continue to succeed each other, and the conviction is gradually impressed on the mind, that such is the general character of the streets of the city. Along these, busy traders, mechanics, barbers, venders, and porters, make their way; while occasionally the noisy abrupt tones of vociferating coolies remind the traveller that some materials of bulky dimensions are on their transit, and suggest the expediency of keeping at a distance, to avoid collision. Now and then the monotony of the scene is relieved by some portly mandarin, or merchant of the higher class, borne in a sedan-chair on the shoulders of two, or sometimes four men. favor. partners, welcomes a foreigner with sundry salutations; sometimes advancing to shake hands, and endeavoring to make the most of his scanty knowledge of English. They will show their saleable articles with the utmost patience, and evince nothing of disappointment if, after gratifyAt a distance from the factories, where the sight ing his curiosity, he departs without purchasing. of a foreigner is a rarity, crowds of idlers, from fifty to a hundred, rapidly gather round the shop, and frequent embarrassment ensues from an incipient or imperfect knowledge of the colloquial mediIn these parts the shopkeepers know nothing but their own language, are more moderate in their politeness, and as a compensation, put a less price on their wares. To write one's name in Chinese characters is a sure method of enhancing their good Sometimes no fewer than eight or ten blind beggars find their way into a shop, and there they remain, singing a melancholy dirge-like strain, and most perseveringly beating together two pieces of wood, till the weary shopman at length takes compassion on them, and provides for the quiet of his shop by giving a copper cash to each; on receiving which they depart, and repeat the same experiment elsewhere. The streets abound with these blind beggars, who are seldom treated with indignity. A kindly indulgence is extended to them, and they enjoy a prescriptive right of levying a copper cash from every shop or house they enter. It is said that this furnishes a liberal means of liveYet, with all this hurry and din, there seldom oc-who, in many instances, are banded together in lihood to an immense number of blind persons, curs any accident or interruption of good nature. On the river the same order and regularity prevail. companies or societies, subject to a code of rules, Though there are probably not fewer than 200,000 on breach of which the transgressor is expelled denizens of the river, whose hereditary domains the community, and loses his guild. are the watery element that supports their little dwelling, yet harmony and good feeling are conspicuous in the accommodating manner with which they make way for each other. These aquatic tribes of the human species show a most philosophic spirit of equanimity, and contrive, in this way, to strip daily life of many of its little troubles, while the fortitude and patience with which the occasional injury or destruction of their boat is borne, is remarkable. "To return from the wide expanse of the riverpopulation to the streets in the suburbs, the same spirit of contented adaptation to external things is everywhere observable; and it is difficult which to regard with most surprise-the narrow abodes of the one, or the little boats which serve as family residences to the other. There is something of romance in the effect of Chinese streets. On either side are shops, decked out with native ware, furniture, and manufactures of various kinds. These are adorned by pillars of sign-boards, rising perpendicularly, and inscribed from top to bottom with the various kinds of saleable articles which may be had within. Native artists seem to have lavish ed their ingenuity on several of these inscriptions, and, by their caligraphy, to give some idea of the superiority of the commodities for sale. Many of VOL. XII. No. III. 23 66 In every little open space there are crowds of travelling doctors, haranguing the multitude on the wonderful powers and healing virtues of the medicines which they expose for sale. Close by, some look, explaining to some awe-stricken simpleton cunning fortune-teller may be seen, with crafty his future destiny in life, from a number of books arranged before him, and consulted with due soemnity. In another part, some tame birds are exhibiting their clever feats, in singling out, from amongst a hundred others, a piece of paper enclosing a coin, and then receiving a grain of millet as a reward of their cleverness. At a little distance are some fruit-stalls, at which old and young are making purchases, throwing lots for the quantity they are to receive. Near these again are noisy gangs of people, pursuing a less equivocal course of gambling, and evincing, by their excited looks and clamors, the intensity of their interest in the issue. In another part may be seen disposed the apparatus of some Chinese tonsor, who is performing his skilful vocation on the crown of some fellow-countryman unable to command the attendance of the artist at a house of his own." The five cities which by treaty have been opened up to the general trade of all na |