ties are in full operation. Ministers have been sent and received. English colonies are rapidly settling at various ports in the Empire; and with this episode in her history,-which at present she scarcely regards as more than a slight eruption on the body politic,-China, in her internal administration, returns to her wonted routine. What this European incursion is to result in, time alone can reveal to us. Much has undoubtedly been gained in the security of person and property, and much may justly be urged in favor of the war when it is regarded as an assertion of the right of all civilized nations to demand the sanction and safeguard of treaties from people with whom they entertain a large and lucrative trade. But if the old customs of this antiquated empire are to be changed;-if modern civilization is to be engrafted on the ancient quasi-civilization of China;-if Christianity is to be spread abroad by missionary zeal;-and if all these things are sure and safe in their ultimate accomplishment, awaiting the lapse of time, alone, for their complete realization, then indeed, may this war have proved a blessing,--dark and dismal as are the pages that reveal its history to the eyes of the present generation. One result, this contest has certainly achieved. It has produced inquiry in regard to China. Up to the period of its outbreak, the Chinese language was a subject of curious inquiry for philologists, whilst the Chinese history and habits were sealed in the tomes of musty antiquarians. Our general notions of the arts and civilization of the Empire were derived from our crapes, our canisters and "that world before perspective," a China plate. The first very definite idea the Americans obtained of the Chinese people, was derived from the magnificent museum of Mr. Dunn, which was exhibited in 1836 in Philadelphia and has since been taken to Europe. The collection made by this gentleman, with great labor and expense, consisted not only of the arts and productions of a single city or neighborhood, but of the whole nation; and, in this view of his work, we have regarded him as one of the greatest historical benefactors of the age, and as entitled to be ranked among the most eminent friends of modern science. Whilst Morrison and Rémusat were engaged in studying the philology of the Orientals; and scores of natu Charles Lamb, ralists were occupied in chasing butterflies, varnishing fishes, stuffing birds, polishing shells, classifying minerals, and bottling reptiles,-Mr. Dunn, with a nobler view of his opportunities, chose man as the peculiar subject of observation, and accomplished,-what, I believe, no one had previously attempted,-by enclosing a whole people in glass cases, and thus, exhibiting the nation in a nutshell ! In his museum, China re-existed in America. He had, as if by necromancy, suddenly transformed to stone, a choice specimen of every rank, occupation, character, art, and trade of the Empire, and given it permanence in his gallery. He classified the people as we classify the collections of naturalists. Their habits, their crafts;-their follies, their amusements; their manners, costumes, dwellings, and implements of war or husbandry;-their ships and their boats; their vanity and their mourning;-their arts, antiquity and superstitions;-all found appropriate places in his museum, and formed a panoramic pageant of Oriental life which brought China within the reach and comprehension of every observer. It was the most splendidly illustrated work ever offered for our perusal, for it spoke to the eye in language that was at once a picture and a poem. The THE CHINESE,-centuries ago,-perhaps even before comparative civilization dawned on Western Europe-had reached a high degree of excellence in arts and manufactures. An immense population produced an extraordinary degree of inventive skill; but it was foreseen by the politi cal economists of the Empire, that, with rapidly increasing numbers and the simplification of labor by improved inven tions, or, in other words, by excessive improvements in machinery, that thousands of the teeming population would be thrown out of employment and starve. consequence was that they stopped invention in the midst of its full career. Thus it is, that having but a limited foreign commerce in proportion to so vast a population, they preserved an equilibrium between producers and consumers, and that their almost countless millions go on still in their old-fashioned way without jostling each other, and without the constant strife and envy which are exhibited in nations whose inventive efforts keep no measured pace with their numerical increase. Stopped in their progress, as the Chinese were, by this restrictive system,-and, without any likelihood of a change. in their national policy, a collection like that of Mr. Dunn becomes of permanent value, for it exhibits not only the past and present of such a people, but their future also, What China now is-that will it be as long as the Empire shall exist. Its arts, tastes, costume, manners, and government, are stereotyped; and the author who shall write its history, or visit its coasts and canals in order to describe them a hundred years hence, will have but little more to do than to copy the works that were published in the nineteenth century. It is in consequence of this permanent character,—this tideless oozing of Chinese life, that we do not hesitate to write of the country from our personal recollections, albeit some twenty years have elapsed since we trod "the flowery land." It was our good fortune to enjoy the most friendly intercourse with many Chinese of great intelligence, and to receive from them the usual courtesies of refined intercourse. Honest in their dealings, moral and pleasant in their social hours, we look back to our association with the people and our residence in China, with feelings of intense pleasure. Our visit disclosed to us a new phaze of humanity, of which we design presenting our readers some sketch, es in the following pages. At the period of our voyage to India in 1827, there were but two ports open to foreigners in the "Celestial Empire:”— Macao, under the quasi-government of the Portuguese; and Canton, under native rule, at the distance of a hundred miles in the interior. Lintin, which has become so famous in consequence of recent events, was then as it is probably now, only an anchorage for the opium smugglers, and bordered the sea to which the contraband traders could easily escape, when menaced by the periodical visits of the Mandarins. Here the commerical desperadoes considered themselves perfectly secure, though but seventy or eighty miles from Canton. The plan of their operations was quite simple. It was the habit of a foreign commercial house in the Capital, or of a number of merchants, to join in the purchase. of a vessel, somewhat the worse for the storms she had encountered in the Eastern seas, and, after dismantling the craft, to anchor her under the lee of Lintin, according to the prevailing monsoon. This was their store-ship, or floating warehouse, manned by experienced and daring seamen. Small traders, of swift keel and light draught, were kept constantly plying between this station and the opium-marts of the East, so that the supply was always equal to the demand in the market of Canton. Meanwhile the owners of the drug resided at Macao or the Capital, where they secretly transacted their business with the Chinese merchants. After the bargain was made, orders for delivery were transmitted by confidential agents to the store-ships at Lintin, and the opium was despatched at night in large boats, manned by armed natives, and swept along by such a multitude of oars, that they were known as "centipedes." Thus safely delivered of their poisonous but profitable burthen, the opium became immediately at the sole risk of the Chinese purchasers, who stole along in the dark through the narrow channels of the river, and even by the forts at the Bocca Tigris,-fighting the revenue officers at one place, and dodging, buying, bribing, or bullying them at another,—until all danger was past or vigilance eluded. When the opium season ended, a fact which became speedily known among the natives,-the Chinese authorities, well aware of their inability to cope with the European or American ships, yet still desirous of keeping up a show of resistance to the smugglers, gave notice at Canton, that the "Celestial navies" were about to attack the desperate contrabandists. This was, of course, a signal for the Receiving-ships to depart. Accordingly, as nothing was to be gained by trade during the dull season, or nothing lost by a short trip to sea, the dismantled vessels were quickly rigged for a voyage, and prepared to weigh anchor at the shortest notice. In a day or two, with booming cannons, ringing gongs, flying flags and boasting Mandarins, the Chinese "War-Junks," swept down the river from Canton, and were joined by an additional fleet at Chum-pee. As soon as this manœuvre was perceived by the foreigners at Lintin, their sails were set, and long before the hostile navy approached within range of their guns, the flying merchantmen were beyond the reach of their pursuers. The Chinese forces lurked about the coast until nightfall; when, after firing a feu de joie, lighting their lanterns, and again beating their gongs, they returned to their stations at Canton, and in a day or two, issued a proclamation which set forth, in terms of the loftiest gasconade, that the fleet of his "Celestial Majesty," had, after a desperate conflict with the audacious "Fan-Kweis,"* driven them forever from the "flowery coasts." In the meantime the floating warehouses, well aired by a pleasant trip among the islands, returned to their customary anchorage and enjoyed another half year's rest. The native authorities and inhabitants of the village of Lintin were afraid to report their reappearance in the harbor, because their livelihood depended on secrecy, and the naval authorities were equally afraid to revisit the smugglers, in consequence of their grandiloquent proclamation and military weakness. The scenery about Lintin is by no means romantic or interesting even to a stranger just from sea. Lintin island, itself, is a lofty hill, cultivated, with the usual economical spirit of the Chinese, in terraces; and its neat town lies on the southern acclivity towards the sea. Our vessel anchored in this neighborhood for a few days, whilst we repaired to Macao, in a native boat, to obtain a pilot for the river. After accomplishing the object of our visit to that hot and dreary city, in which Camoens wrote his Lusiad, and St. Francis Xavier resided for a while, we returned to our ship, and immediately weighing anchor, sailed up the river towards Canton. With a gentle wind and tide in our favor, we fanned along to the forts at the Bocca, where the stream forces its way impetuously between Tiger Island and the main. In this strait the river is hemmed into a gorge among the mountains, resembling the Highlands of the Hudson; and both island and mainland, are capable of being fortified in a manner that would resist the strongest aggression. The Chinese, however, utterly ignorant as they * All foreigners in China are called “Fan-Kweis,” an epithet which has been translated: "barbarian wanderer,"-"outside barbarian"-"red-haired devil," or "outlandish demon." + That excellent man, Francis Xavier was buried in the year 1552, in a hill on the island of San-Shan, at the distance of rather more than a stone cast from the sea shore. A monumental stone was raised over the grave, after the lapse of a hundred years, by a few Jesuits who touched at the island on their way to China. Before that time, the spot that had been consecrated by the remains of the Saint, was marked only by a rude cross and piles of stones at the head and feet of the "Apostle of the East." About seventy years after the visit of the Jesuits, one of their Order, wrote from Canton that a chapel was to be erected on the spot where Xavier was interred; but it is doubtful whether this pious duty was ever performed. In 1813, Easchim, the Bishop of Macao, went on a pilgrimage to the supposed shrine of St. Francis in the lonely island; but instead of a beautiful temple or splended tomb over the sacred relics, he found after great labor |