was carried on to a great extent with the Hong merchants; but in 1834, after the monopoly of the East India Company had been abolished, our government appointed Lord Napier to proceed to Canton as special superintendent, to adjust all disputed questions among the merchants, and to form regulations with the provincial authorities. The Chinese, always jealous of foreigners, and looking upon mercantile employments as degrading, insulted our superintendent; hostilities took place, and trade was suspended. Lord Napier took his departure amidst circumstances of insult and confusion, and died on the 11th of October 1834. The functions of superintendent devolved on Mr Davis. The Chinese, emboldened by the pacific temperament of our government, proceeded at length to the utmost extent; and not satisfied with imprisoning and threatening the lives of the whole foreign community, laid also violent hands on the British representative himself, claiming, as the purchase of his freedom, the delivery of the whole of the opium then in the Chinese waters -property to the amount of upwards of two millions sterling. After a close imprisonment of two months' duration, during which period our countrymen were deprived of many of the necessaries of life, and exposed repeatedly, as in a pillory, to the gaze and abuse of the mob, no resource was left but to yield to the bold demands of the Chinese, relying with confidence on their nation for support and redress: nor did they rely in vain; for immediately the accounts of the aggression reached London, preparations commenced for the Chinese expedition.' After two years of irregular warfare, à treaty of peace and friendship between the two empires was signed on board Her Majesty's ship Cornwallis on the 29th of August 1842. This expedition gave rise to various publications. LORD JOCELYN wrote a lively and interesting narrative, entitled Sir Months with the Chinese Expedition; and COMMANDER J. ELLIOT BINGHAM, R.N., a Narrative of the Expedition to China. Two Years in China, by D. MACPHERSON, M.D., relates the events of the campaign from its formation in April 1840 to the treaty of peace in 1842. Doings in China, by LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER MURRAY, illustrates the social habits of the Chinese. The Last Year in China, to the Peace of Nankin, by a Field Officer, consists of extracts from letters written to the author's private friends. The Closing Events of the Campaign in China, by CAPTAIN G. G. LOCH, R.N., is one of the best books which the expedition called forth.

Chinese Ladies' Feet.

From Commander Bingham's Narrative. During our stay we made constant trips to the surrounding islands, in one of which—at Tea Island-we had a good opportunity of minutely examining the farfamed little female feet. I had been purchasing a pretty little pair of satin shoes, for about half a dollar, at one of the Chinese farmers' houses, where we were surrounded by several men, women, and children. By signs we expressed a wish to see the pied mignon of a really good-looking woman of the party. Our signs were quickly understood, but, probably from her being a matron, it was not considered quite comme il faut for her to comply with our desire, as she would not consent

* Macpherson's Two Years in China.

to shew us her foot; but a very pretty interesting girl, of about sixteen, was placed on a stool for the purpose of gratifying our curiosity. At first she was very bashful, and appeared not to like exposing her Cinderellalike slipper, but the shine of a new and very bright loopee' soon overcame her delicacy, when she comround the leg, and over a tongue that comes up from menced unwinding the upper bandage which passes the heel. The shoe was then removed, and the second bandage taken off, which did duty for a stocking; the turns round the toes and ankles being very tight, and keeping all in place. On the naked foot being exposed to view, we were agreeably surprised by finding it delicately white and clean, for we fully expected to have found it otherwise, from the known habits of most of the Chinese. The leg from the knee downwards was much wasted; the foot appeared as if broken up at the instep, while the four small toes were bent flat and pressed down under the foot, the great toe only being allowed to instep a high arch is formed between the heel and the retain its natural position. By the breaking of the toe, enabling the individual to step with them on an even surface; in this respect materially differing from the Canton and Macao ladies, for with them the instep is not interfered with, but a very high heel is substituted, thus bringing the point of the great toe to the ground. When our Canton compradore was shewn a Chusan shoe, the exclamation was: 'He-yaw! how can walkee so fashion?' nor would he be convinced that such was the case. The toes, doubled under the foot I have been describing, could only be moved by the hand sufficiently to shew that they were not actually grown into the foot. I have often been astonished at seeing how well the women contrived to walk on their tiny pedestals. Their gait is not unlike the little mincing walk of the French ladies; they were constantly to be seen going about without the aid of any stick, and I have often seen them at Macao contending against a fresh breeze with a tolerably good-sized umbrella spread. The little children, as they scrambled away before us, balanced themselves with their arms extended, and reminded one much of an old hen between walking and flying. All the women I saw about Chusan had small It is a general characteristic of true Chinese descent; and there cannot be a greater mistake than to suppose that it is confined to the higher orders, though it may be true that they take more pains to compress the foot to the smallest possible dimensions than the lower classes do. High and low, rich and poor, all more or less follow the custom; and when you see a large or natural-sized foot, you may depend upon it the possessor is not of true Chinese blood, but is either of Tatar extraction, or belongs to the tribes that live and have their being on the waters. The Tatar ladies, however, are falling into this Chinese habit of distortion, as the accompanying edict of the emperor proves : For know, good people, you must not dress as you like in China. You must follow the customs and habits of your ancestors, and wear your winter and summer clothing as the emperor or one of the six boards shall direct.' If this were the custom in England, how beneficial it would be to our pockets, and detrimental to the tailors and milliners. Let us now see what the emperor says about little feet, on finding they were coming into vogue among the undeformed daughters of the Mantchows. Not only does he attack the little feet, but the large Chinese sleeves which were creeping into fashion at court. Therefore, to check these misdemeanours, the usual Chinese remedy was resorted to, and a flaming edict launched, denouncing them; threatening the heads of the families with degradation and punishment if they did not put a stop to such gross illegalities; and his Celestial majesty further goes on and tells the fair ones, that by persisting in their vulgar habits, they will debar themselves from the possibility of being selected as ladies of honour for the inner palace at the approaching presentation!' How far

feet.

this had the desired effect I cannot say. When the children begin to grow, they suffer excruciating pain, but as they advance in years, their vanity is played upon by being assured that they would be exceedingly ugly with large feet. Thus they are persuaded to put up with what they consider a necessary evil; but the children are remarkably patient under pain. A poor little child, about five years old, was brought to our surgeon, having been most dreadfully scalded, part of its dress adhering to the skin. During the painful operation of removing the linen, it only now and then said, 'He-yaw, he-yaw !'

MR ROBERT FORTUNE, a botanist, was nearly nine years resident in China, employed on three separate missions by the Horticultural Society of London to collect specimens. In 1847 he published Three Years' Wanderings in China; in 1851, his Two Visits to the Tea Countries of China; and in 1857, A Residence among the Chinese, Inland, on the Coast, and at Sea. These works of Mr Fortune are extremely valuable as affording information relative to the social habits of the Chinese, as well as the natural products of the country. A French missionary, M. HUC, has also added fresh details in his work, L'Empire Chinois, 1854, of which an English version has had great success in this country. In describing his personal adventures, the French ecclesiastic is supposed to have indulged in the proverbial license of travellers; but his account of Chinese

customs is said to be exact.

Chinese Thieves.-From Fortune's 'Residence among the Chinese,

About two in the morning I was awakened by a loud yell from one of my servants, and I suspected at once that we had had a visit from thieves, for I had frequently heard the same sound before. Like the cry one hears at sea when a man has fallen overboard, this alarm can never be mistaken when once it has been heard. Before I had time to inquire what was wrong, one of my servants and two of the boatmen plunged into the canal and pursued the thieves. Thinking that we had only lost some cooking utensils, or things of little value that might have been lying outside the boat, I gave myself no uneasiness about the matter, and felt much inclined to go to sleep again. But my servant, who returned almost immediately, awoke me most effectually. I fear,' said he, opening my door, the thieves have been inside the boat, and have taken away some of your property.' 'Impossible,' said I; they cannot have been here.' But look,' he replied; 'a portion of the side of your boat under the window has been lifted out.' Turning to the place indicated by my servant, I could see, although it was quite dark, that there was a large hole in the side of the boat not more than three feet from where my head had been lying. At my right hand, and just under the window, the trunk used to stand in which I was in the habit of keeping my papers, money, and other valuables. On the first suspicion that I was the victim, I stretched out my hand in the dark to feel if this was safe. Instead of my hand resting on the top of the trunk, as it had been accustomed to do, it went down to the floor of the boat, and I then knew for the first time that the trunk was gone. At the same moment, my servant, Tung-a, came in with a candle, and confirmed what I had just made out in the dark. The thieves had done their work well-the boat was empty. My money, amounting to more than one hundred Shanghae dollars, my accounts, and other papers-all, all were gone. The rascals had not even left me the clothes I had thrown off when I went to bed. But there was no time to lose;

and in order to make every effort to catch the thieves, or at least get back a portion of my property, I jumped into the canal, and made for the bank. The tide had now risen, and instead of finding only about two feet of water-the depth when we went to bed-I now sank up to the neck, and found the stream very rapid. A few strokes with my arms soon brought me into shallow water and to the shore. Here I found the boatmen rushing about in a frantic manner, examining with a lantern the bushes and indigo vats on the banks of the canal, but all they had found was a few Manilla cheroots which the thieves had dropped apparently in their hurry. A watchman with his lantern and two or three stragglers, hearing the noise we made, came up and inquired what was wrong; but when asked whether they had seen anything of the thieves, shook their heads, and professed the most profound ignorance. The night was pitch dark, everything was perfectly still, and, with the exception of seemed sunk in deep sleep. We were therefore perfectly the few stragglers already mentioned, the whole town helpless, and could do nothing further. I returned in no comfortable frame of mind to my boat. Dripping with wet, I lay down on my couch without any inclination to sleep. It was a serious business for me to lose so much money, but that part of the matter gave me the least uneasiness. The loss of my accounts, journals, drawings, and numerous memoranda I had been making during three years of travel, which it was impossible for any one to replace, was of far greater importance. I tried to reason philosophically upon the matter; to persuade myself that as the thing could not be helped now, it was no use being vexed with it; that in a few years it would not signify much either to myself or any one else whether I had been robbed or not; but all this fine reasoning would not do.

What the Chinese think of the Europeans.

From Huc's L'Empire Chinois.

The Europeans who go to China are disposed to think the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire odd and ridicu lous; the Chinese who visit Canton and Macao return the compliment. They exhaust their caustic and mocking vein upon the appearance of the Western devils, express unutterable astonishment at the sight of their scanty garments, their close-fitting pantaloons, their prodigious round hats in the shape of a chimney, their shirt-collars, which appear devised to saw the ears, and which so gracefully surround their grotesque faces with the long nose and blue eyes, without beard or moustache, but which display in compensation on each jaw a handful of red and frizzled hair. They are puzzled, above all, by the shape of the dress-coat. They endeavour, without success, to account for that strange habiliment, which they call a half-garment, because it is impossible to make it meet on the chest, and because the tails which hang down behind are entirely wanting in front. They admire the exquisite and refined taste of wearing at the back large buttons like coins without having anything to button to them. How much more beautiful do they think themselves, with their oblique, narrow black eyes, high cheek-bones, nose the shape of a chestnut, and shaven head adorned with a magnificent tail which reaches to the heels! Add to this graceful and elegant type a conical hat covered with red fringe, an ample tunic with large sleeves, black satin boots with white soles of an enormous thickness, and it is beyond dispute that a European can never rival a Chinese. But it is chiefly in their habits of life that they assume to be so much our superiors. When they see Europeans spending several hours in gymnastic promenades, they ask if it is not a more civilised mode of passing leisure time to sit quietly drinking tea and smoking a pipe, or else to go at once to bed. The notion of spending the larger portion of the night at balls and parties has never occurred to them. All the Chinese, even among the upper ranks, begin to sleep in time to be able to rise

with the sun. At the hours in which there is the greatest stir and tumult in the principal cities of Europe, those of China enjoy the most profound repose. Every one has gone home to his family, all the shops are shut, the boatmen, the mountebanks, the public readers have finished their labours, and there are no signs of activity except among the theatres for the working-classes, who have no leisure but at night to enjoy the sight of a play. The hostilities-1857-58-ending in a treaty with China, have led to various publications respecting the Celestial Empire, the most copious and generally interesting being China, or the Times' special correspondence from China, by MR GEORGE WINGROVE COOKE (1814-1865), author of a Life of Bolingbroke, The State of Parties, &c. We give a few extracts from Mr Cooke's lively and graphic narrative :

The Chinese Language.

In a country where the roses have no fragrance, and the women wear no petticoats; where the labourer has no Sabbath, and the magistrate no sense of honour; where the roads bear no vehicles, and the ships no keels; where old men fly kites; where the needle points south, and the sign of being puzzled is to scratch the antipodes of your head; where the place of honour is on your left hand, and the seat of intellect is in the stomach; where to take off your hat is an insolent gesture, and to wear white garments is to put yourself in mourning-we ought not to be astonished to find a literature without an alphabet, and a language without a grammar, and we must not be startled to find that this Chinese language is the most intricate, cumbrous, unwieldy vehicle of thought that ever obtained among any people.

The Execution-ground of Canton.

Threading our way, under the guidance of some experienced friend, we come to a carpenter's shop, fronting the entrance to a small potter's field. It is not a rood in area, of an irregular shape, resembling most an oblong. A row of cottages open into it on one side; there is a wall on the other. The ground is covered with halfbaked pottery; there are two wooden crosses formed of unbarked wood, standing in an angle, with a shred of rotting rope hanging from one of them. There is nothing to fix the attention in this small inclosure, except that you stumble against a human skull now and then as you walk along it. This is the Aceldama, the field of blood, the execution-ground of Canton. The upper part of that carpenter's shop is the place where nearly all the European residents have, at the price of a dollar each, witnessed the wholesale massacres of which Europe has heard with a hesitating scepticism. It was within this yard that that monster Yeh has within two years destroyed the lives of seventy thousand fellow-beings! These crosses are the instruments to which those victims were tied who were condemned to the special torture of being sliced to death. Upon one of these the wife of a rebel general was stretched, and by Yeh's order her flesh was cut from her body. After the battle at Whampoa the rebel leader escaped, but his wife fell into the hands of Yeh; this was how he treated his prisoner. Her breasts were first cut off, then her forehead was slashed and the skin torn down over the face, then the fleshy parts of the body were sliced away. There are Englishmen yet alive who saw this done, but at what part of the butchery sensation ceased and death came to this poor innocent woman, none can tell. The fragment of rope which now hangs to one of the crosses was used to bind a woman who was cut up for murdering her husband. The sickening details of the massacres perpetrated on this spot have been related to me by those who have seen them, and who take shame to themselves while they confess

that, after witnessing one execution by cutting on the cross, the rapidity and dexterity with which the mere beheading was done deprived the execution of a hundred men of half its horror. The criminals were brought down in gangs, if they could walk, or brought down in chairs and shot out into the yard. The executioners then arranged them in rows, giving them a blow behind which forced out the head and neck, and laid them convenient for the blow. Then came the warrant of death. It is a banner. As soon as it waved in sight, without verbal order given, the work began. There was a rapid succession of dull crunching sounds-chop, chop, chop, chop! No second blow was ever dealt, for the dexterous manslayers are educated to their work. Until they can with their heavy swords slice a great bulbous vegetable as thin as we slice a cucumber, they are not eligible for their office. Three seconds a head suffice. In one minute five executioners clear off one hundred lives. It takes rather longer for the assistants to cram the bodies into rough coffins, especially as you might see them cramming two into one shell that they might embezzle the spare wooden box. The heads were carried off in boxes; the saturated earth was of value as

manure.

The Horrors of the Canton Prisons.

A Chinese jail is a group of small yards inclosed by this yard are dens like the dens in which we confine no general outer wall, except in one instance. Around wild beasts. The bars are not of iron, but of double rows of very thick bamboo, so close together that the interior is too dark to be readily seen into from without. The ordinary prisoners are allowed to remain in the yard during the day. Their ankles are fettered together ally also wear similar fetters on their wrists. The lowby heavy rings of iron and a short chain, and they generroofed dens are so easily climbed, that when the prisoners are let out into the yard, the jailers must trust to their fetters alone for security. The places all stank like the monkey-house of a menagerie.

We were examining one of the yards of the second prison, and Lord Elgin, who is seldom absent when any work is doing, was one of the spectators. As it was broad daylight, the dens were supposed to be empty. Some one thought he heard a low moan in one of them, and advanced to the bars to listen. He recoiled as if a blast from a furnace had rushed out upon him. Never were human senses assailed by a more horrible stream of pestilence. The jailers were ordered to open that place, and refusing, as a Chinaman always at first refuses, were given over to the rough handling of the soldiers, who were told to make them. No sooner were hands laid upon the jailers, than the stifled moan became a wail, and the wail became a concourse of low, weakly muttered groans. So soon as the double-doors could be opened, several of us went into the place. The thick stench could only be endured for a moment, but the spectacle was not one to look long at. A corpse lay at the bottom of the den, the breasts, the only fleshy parts, gnawed and eaten away by rats. Around it and upon it was a festering mass of humanity still alive. The mandarin jailer, who seemed to wonder what all the excitement was about, was compelled to have the poor creatures drawn forth, and no man who saw that sight will ever forget it. They were skeletons, not men. could only believe that there was blood in their bodies, by seeing it clotted upon their undressed wounds. As they were borne out, one after the other, and laid upon the pavement of the yard, each seemed more horrible than the last. They were too far gone to shriek, although the agony must have been great, the heavy irons pressing upon their raw, lank shins as the jailers lugged them not too tenderly along. They had been beaten into this state, perhaps long ago, by the heavy bamboo, and had been thrown into this den to rot. Their crime was that they had attempted to escape.

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