Money.] The only regularly stamped coin among the Chinese is the tseen or cash, as it is called by Europeans. A thousand of them make a tale. It is of copper, about nine-tenths of an inch in diameter, with a small square hole in the middle, inscribed with two Chinese words on one side, and two Tartar ones on the other. The hole is made for connecting a number of them together with a string. Silver is not coined, but is disposed of by weight, and is divided into larger or smaller pieces according as it may become necessary. Scales, weights, and scissars, are therefore necessary for every payment. The value of an article is estimated according to the current price of an ounce of silver. Silver coin of any denomination is received according to its intrinsic value; and Spanish dollars are the sort most current. Their accounts are kept in tales, mace, candareens, and cash, thus: 10 cash=1 candareen, 72 candareens make a Spanish dollar, and the exchange between China and England is usually 40 per dollar. £100 sterling would consequently be 360 tales, or 500 Spanish dollars. A tale is worth 5s. 63d. British currency. The authorized rates of interest are as high as 36 per cent., and from 15 to 18 per cent. may always be obtained. Money-lending is a trade well suited to the genius of the Chinese; and there is no country in the world where the pawnbroker's business is better understood, or more extensively practised. Weights and Measures.] The number of grains which the hwang-cong or musical reed will contain, is the basis of all the Chinese weights and measures. In our ignorance of their terms, it can be of no service to copy their tables of admeasurement. CHAP. IV.-POPULATION-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS---RELIGION ---LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE. Population.] In the table of the provinces of China, given at the commencement of this article, the population will be found to be estimated at something above 143 millions. This is according to an official return made by order of the emperor, in A.D. 1790; and considerable reliance may be placed on it, as official returns, from the mode of forming them in China, have much likelihood of being materially correct. Every householder is required, under a penalty, to have a tablet, called men-p' nai (the tablet of the gate) on which all his inmates are faithfully enumerated, ready for the inspection of the officers appointed to take an account of the population, who are not allowed to examine the house when there are any women or children in the family. By this means, the number of the great body of the people may be considered as pretty accurately ascertained. The statement, also, corresponds very nearly with the report of Mr Thomas, who classed the population of China as follows: Dwellers on the land, 143,000,000 2,000,000 9,611 7,552 822,000 400,000 31,000 146,270,163. So that, between the two accounts, 145,000,000 may be taken in round numbers as the sum-total of the Chinese population. The statements of the Catholic missionaries and of lord Macartney, on this subject, are now generally considered to be quite erroneous. It is remarkable that in none of the tables of population in China are the towns or cities classed separately the estimation being merely divided under the comprehensive heads of provinces. Manners and Customs.] The manners and customs of the Chinese, who, without being mere savages, have lived for many ages in a state of almost entire seclusion from all intercourse with the other inhabitants of the globe, form a peculiarly interesting subject of inquiry; and we therefore propose, under this general head, to enter into more detail than usual, regarding the physical constitution, habits, domestic economy, religion, &c. of this singular people. The following able summary of the general appearance of the country and its inhabitants, extracted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica,' will be of service in introducing our more minute details; while the view given in another chapter of the government, laws, &c. of the Chinese will afford a material assistance to the reader in forming his estimate of their national character. General Appearance of the Country and its Inhabitants.] "When an European first sets his foot in China, he will find the appearance of the country, the buildings, and the people, so totally different from any thing he had before seen, that he might fancy himself to be transported into a new world. In the long line of internal navigation between the capital and Canton, of 1,200 miles, with but one short interruption, he will observe every variety of surface, but disposed in a very remarkable manner in great masses; for many days he will see nothing but one uniform extended plain, without the smallest variety; again, for as many days, he will be hemmed in between precipitous mountains of the same naked character, and as unvaried in their appearance as the plains; and, lastly, a 10 or 12 days' sail among lakes, swamps, and morasses, will complete the catalogue of monotonous uniformity; but whether he crosses the dry plains of Petchelee and Shauntung, abounding with cotton and all varieties of grain and pulse, the more varied surface of Kiang-nan, fertile in silk, in yellow cotton, in fruits, in the staple commodity of grain, and in every thing that constitutes the luxuries, the comforts, and the necessities of the people,-the dreary swamps, morasses, and extensive lakes of the northern part of Kiang-see, where men subsist by fishing,-or its naked and picturesque mountains to the southward, famous for its porcelain manufactories, or whether he descend to the fertile plains of Quan-tung, on which almost all the vegetable products of the East may be said to be concentrated, the grand characteristic feature is still the same-a redundant population. Every where he meets with large masses of people, but mostly of one sex; thousands of men in a single group, without a single woman mixing among them--men whose long gowns and petticoats give them the appearance of the softer sex, while these are sparingly seen at a distance in the back-ground, peeping over the mud-walls, or partially hid behind trees or bushes; whose short jackets and trowsers would make them pass for men among strangers, if their braided hair, stuck full of flowers, and their little cramped and bandaged feet, did not betray their sex. He will be pleased with the unequivocal marks of good humour which prevail in every crowd, uninterrupted and unconcerned by the bawling of some unhappy victim suffering under the lash of magisterial correction; and he will be amused at the awkward exertions of the softer sex to hobble out of sight, when taken by surprise ; but his slumbers will be interrupted on the nights of the full moon by the nocturnal orgies of squibs and crackers, gongs and trumpets, and other accompaniments of boisterous mirth. A constant succession of large villages, towns, and cities, with high walls, lofty gates, and more lofty pagodas, large navigable rivers, communicating by artificial canals, both crowded with barges for passengers, and barks for burden, as different from each other, in every river and every canal, as they are all different from any thing of the kind in the rest of the world,—will present to the traveller an animated picture of activity, industry, and commerce. He will behold, in the lakes and morasses, every little islet crowned with villages and mud hovels. He will observe birds (the leutse or cormorant) catching fish; and men in the water, with jars on their heads, fishing for birds. He will see shoals of ducks issuing from floating habitations, obedient to the sound of a whistle; carts on the land, driven by the wind; and barges on the water, moving by wheels, like those recently invented in Europe, for propelling the steam-boats. Among other strange objects, he will observe, at every ten or twelve miles, small military guard-houses, with a few soldiers fantastically dressed in paper helmets and quilted petticoats, making use of the fan, if the weather be warm, and falling on their knees, if an officer of rank should pass them. He will observe that the meanest hut, with walls of clay, and a roof of thatch, is built on the same plan, and of the same shape, with the palace of the viceroy, constructed of blue bricks, and its tiled roof supported on pillars. He will notice that the luxury of glass is wanting in the windows of both; and that, while one admits a free passage to the air, the other but imperfectly resists the weather, and as imperfectly admits the light, whether through oiled paper, silk gauze, pearl shell, or horn. Nothing, perhaps, will more forcibly arrest the attention of the traveller than the general nakedness of the country as to trees and hedge-rows, of which the latter have no existence, and the former exist only in clumps near the dwellings of the public officers, or the temples of Fo, or Tao-tse. No green meadows will meet his eye; no cattle enliven the scene; the only herbage is on the narrow ridges which divide the plots of grain, or brown fallow, as in the common fields of England. The terraced hills he will probably observe to be terminated with a clump of trees, or a pagoda, the only objects in the distance that catch the eye. But the bridges on the canals, of every variety of shape,-circular, elliptical, horse-shoe, gothic-slight and unstable as they are, are objects that, by their novelty and variety, must attract notice; and the monumental architecture, which adorns the cemeteries under every form, from the lowly tent-shaped dwellings to the loftiest column, the elevated terraces, supported by semicircular walls,—and the round hillocks, which, in their graduated size, point out that of the father, the mother, and the children, according to seniority, are among the most interesting objects that China affords. If, by chance, he should be admitted within the gates of one of their great cities, as Pekin, Nankin, Sau-tcheou-foo, Hang-tcheou-foo, or Canton, he may fancy himself, from the low houses with curved overhanging roofs, uninterrupted by a single chimney, the pillars, poles, flags, and streamers, to have got into the midst of a large encampment. The glitter arising from the gilding, the varnishing, and the painting, in vivid colours, that adorn the front of the shops, and, in particular, the gaily painted lanterns of horn, muslin, silk, and paper,-the busy multitude all in motion, and all of one sex,-the painted and gilded inscriptions that, in announcing the articles dealt in, assure the passengers that, "they don't cheat here," the confused noise of tinkers, cobblers, and blacksmiths, in their little portable workshops,-the buying, selling, bartering, and bawling, of different wares, the processions of men, carrying home their newmarried wives, with a long train of presents, and squalling and noisy music; or carrying to the grave some deceased relation, with most lamentable howlings-the mirth and burst of laughter occasioned by jugglers, conjurors, mountebanks, quack-doctors, musicians, and comedians; in the midst of all which is constantly heard a strange twanging noise from the barber's tweezers, like the jarring sound of a cracked Jew's harp,-the magistrates and officers, attended by their lictors, and a numerous retinue, bearing flags, umbrellas, painted lanterns, and other strange insignia of their rank and office;-all these present to the eyes and ears of a stranger a novel and interesting spectacle. The noise and bustle of this busy multitude commence with day-light, and cease only with the setting of the sun; after which, scarcely a whisper is heard, and the streets are entirely deserted. Towards the central parts of China, near to the places where the two great rivers, the Whang-ho and the Yang-tse-kiang, intersect the Grand canal, a scene, magnificent beyond description, will arrest the attention of the traveller; here he will find himself in the midst of bustle and business. The multitude of ships of war, of commerce, of convenience and of pleasure, some gliding down the stream towards the sea, others working against it by sails, oars, or wheels, and others lying at anchor; the banks on either side, as well as those of the canals, covered with towns as far as the eye can reach ; the continuance along the canals of cities, towns, and villages, almost without interruption, the vast number of light stone bridges, of one, two, and three arches,-the temples occurring in frequent succession, with their double and triple tiers of roofs-the Pei-los, or triple gateways, in commemoration of some honest man or chaste virgin,— the face of the surrounding country, beautifully diversified with hill and dale, and every part of it in the highest state of cultivation,—the apparent happy condition of the numerous inhabitants, indicated by their cheerful looks and substantial clothing, chiefly in silk,-such are the scenes which presented themselves to our countrymen who composed the embassy of the Earl of Macartney, and were repeated to those who accompanied Lord Amherst. He would probably be mistaken, however, in inferring the general happy state of the people, or beautiful appearance of the country, from what might occur along this great line of communication between the northern and southern extremities of the empire. The Dutch embassy setting out in the winter, when the canals were frozen, proceeded by a different route, and the inconveniences they suffered, are such as can scarcely be credited to have occurred in any nation removed but a few degrees from the savage state. The face of the country was dreary, without a visible trace of cultivation, or a hovel of any kind, for the space of eight or ten miles together. In many parts the surface was covered with water, and the mud hovels completely melted down. Very few cities, towns or villages, occurred in their route, and those were almost universally in a ruinous condition. Near to the capital they passed a city exhibiting only a mass of ruins. It was not before they had crossed the Yellow River that the prints of wheel-carriages marked out the road. The people every where appeared indigent and oppressed, equally destitute of the feelings of humanity and hospitality. The Dutch were carried in small bamboo chairs, each having four bearers, so weak and tottering that they could seldom go through the day's journey; and it frequently happened that they halted in the middle of a cold night, in an open and uninhabited part of the country, exposed to all the inclemency of the weather, without a hovel of any kind to afford them shelter; and when they reached the end of the day's journey, the lodgings appropriated for their reception were so miserable, admitting, on all sides, the wind, rain, or snow, that they generally preferred taking a little rest in their bamboo chairs. They observed on the road old men and young women travelling in wheelbarrows, sometimes in litters or chairs carried by a couple of asses, one being fixed between the poles before and one behind. The rivers were without bridges, and crossed, when not fordable, by rafts of bamboo. All this is corroborated by a subsequent publication of Voyage a Pe-king, by M. de Guignes: and hence it may be concluded, that China, like other countries, has its fertile and its desolate districts, and that much information is yet required to form a competent notion of the real state and condition of this mighty empire." Physical Constitution.] The physical constitution of the Chinese indicates a Tartar origin, although, from inhabiting a warmer climate, they are inferior to the Tartars in strength of character and firmness of nerve. Both have those peculiarities of feature and complexion which distinguish almost all the northern Asiatics. A complexion olive or brunette; hair and eyes black, the latter small, and elliptical at the end nearest to the nose; foreheads wide; cheek-bones high; chins pointed, which, with the mode of shaving the hair, gives to the head the appearance of an inverted cone; noses flat, ears large, figure in general broad and square-these are the most striking characteristics of the Tartar and Chinese race. A resemblance between the Chinese and the Hottentots of Africa has been pointed out by Mr Barrow. "The form of their persons," he says, "in the remarkable smallness of the joints and the extremities, their voices and manner of speaking, their temper, their colour and features, and particularly their singularly shaped eye, are nearly alike. They also agree in the broad root of the nose, or great distance between the eyes, and in the oblique position of these, which, instead of being horizontal, as is generally the case in European subjects, are depressed toward the nose." From these facts, Mr Barrow thinks it probable, that an ancient intercourse subsisted between China and the eastern coast of Africa; nor is the physical likeness greatly overweighed by mental dissimilitude; for making allowance |