in Canton, I went to visit the atelier of Lum-qua-the Sir Thomas Lawrence of China-and my attention was particularly attracted by what I considered a very pretty female face, of round, plump contour, the eyes rather too small; the figure was habited in Chinese costume. On asking the artist who the lady was, he replied-" That fancy portrait for Englishman. That not China beauty. That China beauty," pointing to the portrait of a boatwoman, which most certainly ill-accorded with our ideas of feminine loveliness. The colouring of this artist's oil-paintings was very beautiful. He showed me many portraits, several of which I instantly recognized, both of Europeans and Chinese. Though deficient in light and shade, they were executed in a most masterly manner. There

is, however, a want of life and expression, which no doubt these ingenious people might soon rectify. I possess the interior of a Chinese dwelling, painted in oil by this master, which for chasteness of composition, accuracy of perspective, truthfulness of design, and subdued tone of colouring, has never been surpassed by any master of the ancient schools. What renders this painting so remarkable, is the diversity of subject. The figures and costumes are perfect; and the objects of stilllife, animals and flowers, are delineated with Chinese accuracy. I was not previously aware of their proficiency in oil-painting, nor do I believe it is generally known. Their water-colour drawings have often been imported to Europe. The late Doctor Adam Clarke possessed a series of great beauty, representing all the legends of their mythology. There is something very peculiar in the preparation of their oil-paints. On one occasion I watched with an artist, who was in company with me, the operations of a pupil who was mixing some paints. When Lum-qua observed us, he instantly stopped his progress, nor did he allow him to resume his occupation during our stay. I purchased some colours from him, and mixed them in

our manner, and although they appeared the same as those which he was using, the tints were totally different. I tried to induce him to give or sell me some prepared colours; but neither fair words nor money could persuade him to accede to my request. Here I saw some highly-finished water-colour drawings upon rice-paper, representing human beings, animals, flowers, and birds. But the most remarkable of these drawings were a series which, corresponding with Shakspeare's Seven Ages of Man, represented the life and death of a mandarin. The first in order exhibited an infant just born, whom the female attendants immerse in his first bath. Next his father leads him by the hand, and conducts him to school. Then he appears in the house of a mandarin, to whom he presents certain writings. Next, having been just married, he attends to welcome and receive his bride at his own house. Now, habited as a soldier, he knocks his head before the emperor, who confers upon him the button of a mandarin, as a reward for military services. Arrayed in mandarin robes, and surrounded by numerous attendants, he proceeds to pay a visit to his schoolmaster, to thank him for the successful education he received under his charge. "The last stage (of life) in this eventful history," represents the mandarin on his death-bed, surrounded by a numerous family of weeping wives, sons, daughters, grand-children, and other relatives, while near him is placed a coffin exquisitely decorated. The last drawing exhibits the deceased mandarin borne to the grave, preceded by innumerable banners, on which are in scribed his manifold titles, and various good qualities, followed by a train of sedan-chairs, occupied by mourners and attendants. The beauty of colouring in this series of drawings is inimitable, and an extraordinary like ness is preserved in the face from the infant to the dying mandarin. The whole of the accessories appertaining to each epoch are faithfully delineated, and the backgrounds are most delicately stippled in. The accuracy and fidelity of the Chinese artist contrasts amusingly with the attempts made by our own artists to represent Chinese customs and manners. In representing a criminal receiving the bastinado,

English draftsmen represent the feet held by two Chinese, dressed in boots and wearing mandarins' caps and feathers. Executioners were never graced with such appendages. This cap and boots never are, and dare never be worn except by mandarins. The peacock's feather is rarely conferred by the emperor, and then only as a mark of distinction for some public service. On some rare occasions, an individual of merit may receive the distinction of three feathers. It is considered nearly as great an honour to receive this feather, as to obtain from the emperor the gift of some of his personal appendages-such as a fan and fan-case, or his purse, which is the highest distinction known.

The manufactory of paper is said to have been discovered in China many centuries earlier than in Europe. Tradition affirms that the invention is due to a mandarin, who mixed silk and pulp of trees together, which he spread in the sun. The very inferior description of paper which is produced in China, seems a tacit contradiction to this claim of priority, as it is almost incredible that a nation, which has brought other arts to so great perfection, and where literature is so highly prized, should so long stand stationary in an art so useful. Their best and finest paper is made of the pulp of the sycamore tree, and their coarser paper from paddy-straw, the fibre of hemp, and the barks of various trees; that which we erroneously call ricepaper is made from a very fine description of bark; but the best paper comes from Nankin.

The Chinese also lay claim to the invention of printing, at an equally early period. From the nature of the language, however, this art does not appear capable of much improvement, since the Chinese language consists of between seventy thousand and eighty thousand characters, each character representing a distinct word. It seems almost impracticable to use moveable types; and therefore they adopt the plan of cutting in relief all the characters of the work to be printed, on slabs of a very hard wood. The printer daubs these over with a preparation of Indian-ink, and the paper, being pressed upon them, receives the impression. One coating of the printing fluid is sufficient for two or three impressions,

but the paper being of too porous a nature to receive impressions on both sides, it becomes necessary to fold the paper.

These doubled sheets are then stitched together, the fold is at the outer edge, with two coarser sheets of paper to form a cover. But the wealthier classes are as particular as we are, in their bindings, which are of beautifully figured silks and satins, sometimes of gold or silver tinsels. The Chinese being a very reading nation, never destroy the slabs on which the characters of a work are cut, which are laid by with great care, and the place of their deposit is referred to in the preface of the work.

Books are sold at so cheap a rate that they are within the reach of all. But it is deplorable to witness the depravity of taste so publicly exhibited in China, by the circulation of an enormous number of obscene publications and indecent engravings, which are eagerly sought after. The taste for reading may very cheaply be gratified in China, by means of itinerant circulating libraries, which are carried about by their proprietors, in boxes slung over their shoulders. In no part of the world is education so universal as it is in China. In such estimation is literature held, that literary attainments form the only passport to the highest offices in the state. Each province is furnished with officers appointed to examine claimants or aspirants to state preferment, who go their circuits twice in each year. Each candidate must submit to repeated examinations previous to the distinction of being placed upon the books for preferment. When a man has reached the highest class of literary attainment, he is examined by the Emperor in person, and if approved of by him, he attains the highest honours. It would appear that genius or originality is not so much admired in China as memory. The power of reciting the greatest number of the sayings of their ancient sages. is considered the acmé of learning. Every literary honour confers the rank of a mandarin on its possessor; and each grade is distinguished by its peculiar dress. Although honours are not hereditary (even the emperor selects whom he pleases, as his successor, from the royal blood), yet the descendants of men of learning are treated

with the greatest respect. In proof of this, the descendants of Confucius, who died more than two thousand years ago, are treated with the greatest consideration by all classes, from the emperor to the lowest coolee. So highly is learning prized, that, very frequently, deceased ancestors are ennobled, in compliment to the attainments of their descendants. The emperor causes a book of merit to be kept, in which are recorded the various titles and descriptions of the manda. rins, the causes of their preferment, and all their actions which are deserving of praise. Should, however, a mandarin be degraded (which frequently occurs) the reason of his pun

ishment is stated with equal accuracy. Gazettes, by the emperor's command, are commonly published at Pekin, which contain imperial grants of land, remission of taxes, public acts, &c. &c. The day which is selected by the em peror for all public executions is notified by means of this gazette. The degradation of mandarins is here announced; and the events of war are bombastically set forth, which inva riably represent the deeds of the nation as successful. The official reports contained in this gazette, during the late war, of the thousands upon thousands of Fan-quis who were daily slain, and driven before their conquerors, were truly astounding.

TREATY SUGGESTED INTERCHANGE TIONS ON TRADE-FURS.

THE trade in opium is of the most fearful nature. To furnish poison to the multitude, whatever may be the gain, is a crime against humanity. Opium not only enslaves its votaries, but destroys their bodies; it commits such fearful ravages in its progress, that the mental powers are wholly paralysed, and the consumers are conducted onwards from one crime to another.

The habitual use of this drug terminates the smoker's life in about five

years. The offspring of the opiumsmoker, may always be known by his emaciated appearance and imbecile mind. Unborn generations are thus doomed to suffer for the sins of their parents, and the aggrandizement of heartless traders. In the empire, the smoker, to evade the penalty of the law, is compelled to use the opiumpipe in secret. A wealthy smoker provides himself with a subterranean chamber, where he may indulge his suicidal propensity without molestation. We cannot penetrate into these narcotic caverns, or witness their sepulchral horrors. Whole streets are devoted to licensed opium-shops, from which the colonial government derives a large revenue. It is even a more shameful crime to fill the treasury of a colony from the produce of such a trade, than to traffic in slaves. Prudery has exclaimed against our French neighbours for taxing gambling and

prostitution; but we should look more at home before we boast of our morality, and not suffer our colony to turn this murderous and soul-destroying drug into a source of revenue.

Man degraded into an opium-smoker cannot be better described than in the words of Lord Jocelyn, who says:

"One of the objects at this place (Singapore) that I had the curiosity to visit, was the opium-smoker in his hea ven, and certainly it is a most fearful sight, although, perhaps, not so degrading to the eye as the drunkard from spirits, lowered to the level of the brute, and wallowing in his filth. The idiotsmile and deathlike stupor of the opium debauchee has something far more awful to the gaze than the brutality of the latter. Pity, if possible, takes the place of other feelings, as we watch the faded cheek and haggard look of the being abandoned to the power of the drug; whilst disgust is uppermost at the sight of the human creature levelled to the beast by intoxication.

"One of the streets in the centre of the town is wholly devoted to shops for the sale of this poison; and here, in the evening, may be seen, after the labours of the day are over, crowds of Chinese, who seek these places to satisfy their depraved appetites.

"The rooms where they sit and smoke are surrounded by wooden couches, with places for the head to rest upon, and generally a side-room is devoted to gambling. The pipe is a reed of about

an inch in diameter, and the aperture in the bowl for the admission of opium is not larger than a pin's head. The drug is prepared with some kind of incense, and a very small portion is sufficient to charge it, one or two whiff's being the utmost that can be inhaled from a single pipe; and the smoke is taken into the lungs, as from the hooka in India. On a beginner, one or two pipes will have an effect, but an old stager will continue smoking for hours. At the head of each couch is placed a small lamp, as fire must be applied to the drug during the process of inhaling; and from the difficulty of filling and properly lighting the pipes, there is generally a person who waits upon the smoker to perform the office. A few days of this fearful luxury, when taken to excess, will import a pallid and haggard look to the features, and a few months, or even weeks, will change the strong and healthy man into little better than an idiot-skeleton. The pain they suffer when deprived of the drug, after long habit, no language can explain; and it is only to a certain degree under its influence that their faculties are alive. In the hours devoted to their ruin, these infatuated people may be seen, at nine o'clock in the evening, in all the different stages. Some entering, half distracted, to feed the craving appetite they have been obliged to subdue during the day; others laughing and talking under the effects of the pipe; while the couches around are filled with their different occupants, who lie languid, with an idiot-smile upon their countenances, too completely under the influences of the drug, to regard passing events, and fast merging into the wished for consummation.

The last scene in this tragic play is generally a room in the rear of the building, a species of morgue, or dead-house, where lie those who have passed into the state of bliss the opium-smoker madly seeks an emblem of the long sleep to which he is blindly hurrying."

The British merchant is unquestionably entitled to every protection in the prosecution of his legitimate trade, and should receive every encouragement and assistance in his political relation. As an inhabitant of HongKong, every assistance and protection should be rendered to him in the honest exercise of his calling, while exchanging European commodities for the teas, silks, and dyes of China; yet that protection should be withdrawn when he becomes an opium-smuggler. Descending from an honourable posi

tion, he then brands himself with infamy, and proves that he is devoid of all the better feelings of human nature. Yet, strange as it may appear, a tacit sanction is given to any of our merchants who choose to embark in this dishonourable trade, prohibited alike by the laws of China, of humanity, and of God. Hong-Kong is openly permitted to be made a depot, and roadstead for receiving ships, employed to enervate, demoralize, and destroy the subjects of a friendly power. They are constantly anchored both there and at Whampoa.

A stir, possibly for effect, was made at some of the ports by the consuls. Thus, at Canton, an order was sent down to the receiving ships, which had been lying for months at Whampoa, to send in their papers. The friendly notice sufficed; they very quickly slipped their cables, and sailed away. The owners and commanders were very well known at the consulate, but no further steps were ever taken. When the affair had blown over, the receiving ships returned with new cargoes to their anchorage.

If the Chinese, habitually a depraved race, and prone to every vice to which human nature is addicted, deem it necessary to enact the severest laws against the sale and use of this poisonous drug, how foreign ought it be to the British nation, and the honor of her merchants, for the sake of gain, to break the laws of a country with which we are in alliance, and to pander to the vices of its inhabitants! Britain may boast of having abolished the traffic in human flesh, she may be proved of her just though tardy legislation in favour of Africa; but it behoves her to prove that her policy was the result of her deep sense of moral obligation. If her repentance, as a dealer in slaves, be genuine, she will not suffer an equally nefarious traffic, to be carried on in her name for the devastation of China. It should be the object of the British merchant to establish a character for probity and honesty with the Chinese, as well as with other nations. It will scarcely be believed, however, in England, that in China English merchants and English officials appear to have combined together to subvert the deserved fame Great Britain has established in all her other foreign relations. Our

policy in reference to the opium trade has injured our character for political honesty in the estimation of the Chinese government and nation, and is most mischievous in its tendency upon our mercantile community. Our traders sanctioned, or at least connived at, in pandering to the vices of the Chinese, and aiding them in the transgression of their national, and of all moral laws, become defiled in their consciences, and feelings of common honesty are set aside. Thus, not contented with the enormous prices obtained for opium (varying from six hundred to one thousand dollars per chest for the Mul-wa, which is of inferior quality, the Patna always fetching much higher prices), they place a layer of opium balls upon the top of a chest, which is filled beneath with hay and rubbish. When the Chinese smuggler comes on board a receiving ship or clipper, he is compelled to take this box without examining its contents-compelled, I say, because, as a contraband dealer, he has no appeal. But, on the other hand, the British merchant is secured against fraud, by the employment of a schroff, a person whose sole business it is to assay Sycee silver and dollars. No opium chest is allowed to go over the side of the vessel until the whole value in silver has passed through his hands. I was informed by a gentleman who was long in the employment of one of the richest houses in China, that when he received the chests on board the clipper, they were not more than half full of opium, and that he took very good care that they should not be more than a quarter full when he sold them. The commander of a receiving ship at Wampoa boasted in my presence that there were several hundred chests on board his ship, which did not contain above fifty chests of opium. I do not mean for one moment to accuse all the merchants engaged in the traffic, of such gross dishonesty, but it is a constant practice on board receiving ships. Two of the largest and richest houses in China have receiving ships, anchored off HongKong, and occasionally at other ports. The fastest vessels, called clippers, are constantly employed by them in conveying the opium from India, in carrying on the coast trade, and in supplying the receiving ships.

Immediately before government issued their order to the British to deliver up their property in opium, for which an indemnity was secured to them, a Chinaman, named Achou-y-ok, relying on British probity, placed a quantity of opium for security on board a clipper, belonging to one of the houses above alluded to. All the opium on board the clipper in question, including that of A-chou-y-ok, was surrendered without delay. The owner of the clipper received compensation for the whole of this abominable cargo, which was entered in his own name. He refused to render any account to the Chinaman, who was compelled in 1845 to commence legal proceedings for the recovery of his own share of the indemnity.

A disgraceful occurrence, which recently took place at Shang-hai, will show how all feelings of honour and probity, when the trade in opium is carried on, are sacrificed. A merchant, formerly connected with the corporation of the city of London, commenced building a fourteen-oared boat, which, from its peculiar construction, was suspected by the mandarins to be intended for smuggling opium. It was a kind of boat rarely used for any other purpose. The mandarins complained to the British consul, who immediately sent for the merchant, and informed him of the charge which had been preferred against him. He at once declared, upon his honour, that he was only building a pleasure-boat. The consul felt satisfied by this declaration, and informed the mandarin that the building of the boat must proceed.

The Chinese authorities were not so easily satisfied, and insisted that a native merchant should become security in a heavy penalty, that the boat should solely be used for the alleged purpose. The boat was built, and used two or three times as a pleasure-boat. It proved to be the fastest boat which had ever been seen in those parts. What, however, was the indignation of the consul, when he learned, some time after, that the boat had been seized during the night hea vily laden with opium! It was afterwards discovered that it had been constantly employed in this manner from the time it was first launched! To the credit of all the British in Shanghai, it should be mentioned that they