Some Observations Upon the Civilization of the Western Barbarians, Particularly of the English / made during the residence of some years in those parts.

This is a writer who takes the Sea as the scene of his poem. The style is affected; but much liked.

I add below an example of Blank Verse, a form greatly in use:—

"The Morn, exultant, on the mountain tops,
Leads in the Day—and over all the World
Delightful Joy spreads forth his glorious wings!"

This appears to be a parody of Shakespeare, who says beautifully:—

"Oh, see where jocund Day stands tip-toe,
On the distant, misty mountain tops!"

Very much of the poetry is obscured, and spoilt by the influence of the Superstition; and very much by artificiality and affectations. And everywhere there are poor or indifferent imitators of the ancient Greeks and Romans; upon whom the Literati mould their poetic conceits.

Of the Comic and common it is well to read little.Coarseness and indecency seem inseparable from all vulgar humour.

The Descriptive, tinged with the melancholy of the Superstition and Barbaric gloom, is often fine and smooth—sometimes tender and elegant.

I give an extract from an author of no repute, but agreeable; and the more so to me, because inoffensive.It is not defiled by the Idolatry of the Barbarians:—

"Spring-time of life, with open-eyed delight,
Wondering at beautiful earth and sky!
Budding in sweet expectancy, and bright
With smiles and charming grace, and blushingly
Unconscious of a Love, just to be born—
A trembling Joy, which smiles and tears adorn!"

From the same, written in the open country; which, though obscure sometimes, flows on finely, eloquently:—

"Stretched to the brilliant sky, on all sides clear,
Are hills, and dales, and groves, and golden corn—
Whilst in the peerless air, all things are near;
And far or near they each and all adorn!
Here, let us rest, on this fair, breezy hill,
Beneath the shade of this high, spreading beech—
And feel and see that we are Nature's still:
Her Peace and Beauty ever in our reach.
Her calm, majestic glory, harvest-crowned,
Fills heaven and earth, and blends them into one
How vast and solemn bends the blue profound;
How sweet and strong th' immortal gods move on!
Move on, resistless, yet, with tender grace—
Inflexible, yet soft as summer rain—
Intangible—as where yon shadows race,
With nimble Zephyrs, o'er the waving grain!
Ineffable, though murmurs everywhere,
Swell into Anthems of delightful tone;
And smiling hill-tops, and the radiant air,
Rest in expressive Silence, all their own!
And there, by Avon's stream, are Warwick's towers;
And, here, is labour toiling in the fields:
For Lord [Tchou] or serf alike, the patient hours
Give back to Nature all which Nature yields.
Still human hope aspires and will not die;
Will rear aloft its monumental walls;
Informed by Instinct builds as builds the bee—
Mounting secure where stumbling Reason falls!
So Temples rise Immortelles of the race;
Where mouldering with the stones tradition clings—
Touching the landscape with ennobling grace,
And giving dignity to common things.

---

The day declines, and so my holiday;
Care slumbering by my side awakes again;
Grasps on my hand and leads my steps away—
So rudely rules the Martha of my brain!"

The Martha is a scolding, busy house-wife [bro-msti], taken from an incident narrated in the Sacred Writings. The writer refers to Temples in a pleasing way, and to the "mouldering stones," where, about the dead, innumerable legends survive. Burials are near to the Temples, and the graves are on Holy ground. His reference is comprehensive—meaning the universal Hope of Immortality, symbolized by the lofty Fanes.

I give below a few of the absurdities from the Comic, taken from a greatly esteemed author in this Line.

"Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl [tou-se];
If the bowl had been stronger,
My tale had been longer!"

The meaning of which is, I suppose, that when wise men do foolish things they no more escape the consequences of folly than others.

"I bet you a crown to a penny,
And lay the money down,
That I have the funniest horse of any
In this or in any town.
His tail is where his head should be—
'You bet!Well, come and see.'
And sure enough, within his stall,
The horse was turned—and that was all!"

Another, very ridiculous:—

"There was a man of our town
Who thought himself so wise,
He jumped into a bramble bush,
And scratched out both his eyes.
But when he saw his eyes were out,
With all his might and main
He jumped into another bush,
And scratched them in again!"

This would seem to suggest that a conceited man, having committed an egregious blunder, rashly undertakes to remedy it by one equally unwise. The folly of conceited impulsiveness!

Another, and I have done.

"Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
Oh, what a good boy am I!"

This is to encourage children with an idea that, if they be good, they shall have plumsIt is very significant of the low culture.As if one were to imagine that the possession of a big plum (riches, or the like) demonstrated the moral excellency of the possessor!

Commentaries and parodies of these Comic trivialities have been written, and, forsooth, their beauties and meanings need exposition!

---

CHAPTER VI.

OF TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT.

We have ourselves, in our maritime parts, some experience of the English, as traders [Kie-tee]. Something of their moral character is known, not as traders only, but as representatives of the general civilization of their tribe. It will be a long period before the events of the opium war are forgotten—when these selfish and cruel Barbarians came with their big fire-ships and great cannons, and massacred so many of our province, Quantung! Nor will the slaughters of the people of our Central Kingdom, and the burnings and plunderings at the Illustrious seat of our Exalted, pass out of mind for many generations. Trade! yes, Trade is the Moloch [Kan-ni-bli] of the English; there is nothing (of character) which they will not sacrifice to this Idol. The god by which they mostly swear, and whose name they apply to themselves, knew nothing of trade, and his words, as recorded in the Sacred Writings, condemn every practice customary in it.This inconsistency is always found in the devotees of irrational worship; where formal observances stand for practical virtues.Perhaps dishonesty in trade is no more conspicuous, than immorality everywhere; only traffic touching on all sides, and affecting nearly every interest, carries with it an almost universal debasement. Blind and conceited, it is the custom to speak of our Central Kingdom contemptuously, and to brand our people as Heathen thieves [ta-ki]. We have thieves, and punish them. But how strangely to those of our people who know these Barbarians, this charge sounds! It is notorious that the vile stuff packed up as Tea by our knaves is for the gain of English traders; and that the horribly obscene pictures of degraded artists find a market with the Barbarians! We punish these plunderers when we detect them; but these Christians who would convert us encourage this immorality!

The Law-making Houses are continually occupied (and occupied in vain) to find remedies for the almost universal crime of Adulteration [Kon-ti-fyt] of Food. Scarcely an article of food, or of drink, medicine, what not, escapes this dangerous cheat. To make a larger gain some cheap admixture, often poisonous and rarely harmless, is added to nearly every article. It is not easy to understand how general the moral debasement must be, when a thing of this sort, striking at once at health, and even life, is so common as to be scarcely contemned! To be cheated is a kind of comedy—one expects to be cheated—cheated in his clothes, his wine, his horses, his dogs, his meat, his drink, his beer, his sugar, his tea, his everything! To have been honestly dealt with is a surprise—a thing to be remarked upon. To have been cheated—a shrug of the shoulder—an exclamation—"Of course!" In fact, almost always the cause of a hearty laugh, especially if a sharp trick—or at another's expense! The very laws of trade are based on dishonesty; and a people will not generally be better than their laws.

The High-Caste affecting to despise trade, do, occasionally, in the Law-making Houses (as I have said), feebly interfere with the general rascality. Yet, they are so dependent, indirectly or directly, upon trade or its gains, that they will not do anything to hamper it; and any law which touches the utmost freedom of action in buying and selling, in their opinion, has this effect. On the whole, they say, better a few rogues flourish, and a few people be poisoned to death, than that commerce (an euphuism for rascally traffic) be injured.

That man has a fine nature which traffic, in its best ways, cannot tarnish; and laws should take their colour from the best—not the sordid.The old Romans cultivated the land, and looked with contempt upon traffic.When riches and its corruptions lowered manliness, and Commerce spread through the provinces—still, the Roman jurisprudence based itself upon equity—it did not place trade upon a pedestal above Justice!They made no such Barbarous mistake as to suppose that any business of a people could be more important to its prosperity, than the maintainance of right principle!

The English Barbarians say the interests of the public require a disregard of right; and their famous legal maxim (in the Roman) is Caveat emptor—the buyer must take care—must sharply watch the seller.This is to say, "The seller is to be expected to cheat; and, if the buyer be cheated, let him thank his own stupidity!"The old Heathen Romans made no such immoral rule; they required the most exact good faith upon both sides. The seller could not sell a horse blind of one eye, or incurably, though not always visibly, lame, and to the complaint of the buyer answer, "Oh! I gave no assurance of soundness."

The High-Caste, despising trade of any useful sort, none the less delight in traffic of a high-caste colour. They deal in pictures, equipages, horses, jewels, sculptures, books, dogs, nick-nacks of all sorts; know how to bargain, and understand the tricks, especially in horses, dogs, paintings, and the like, as well as those whom they affect to despise.

The English are, doubtless, successful traders and plunderers. They are rough, and brave, and reckless; and in traffic are as unscrupulous as in predatory ventures. Their conquests abroad have been incidental generally, commerce being the immediate object. But they have never scrupled to use force when it has seemed fittest. The plunder of a people has been found easier, and the returns quicker and larger, than the slower gains of traffic.

For this shameful and cruel conduct, the English and other Western Barbarians find ample justification in their Superstition. For they believe that the peoples beyond the seas are Heathen, and under the ban of Jah. Their Sacred Writings so declare; and that "the Heathen are given to the Saints as a spoil, and their Lands as an Inheritance." Now, these Barbarians affirm that they are the Saints; that the people who do not worship their gods are Heathen; and that consequently they (these Barbarians) have a right to the possessions and lands of these distant and unoffending tribes! And not only this, that these tribes, under the wrath of Jah, and subjects of the Devil and hell, ought to be grateful for the inestimable boon of the Gospel (the Sacred Writings), by which they may learn the way to be saved; may, in fine, become Christians!

Thus it comes about that the intercourse of the Western Barbarians with peoples beyond the seas has been aggressive and piratical. From the earlier part of the dynasty Ming, when these Barbarous tribes first visited the great seas and distant regions in the far West and mighty East, the Pope (then worshipped by all the tribes) gave to two of them, very devoted to his worship and powerful in ships, the whole world of Heathen. This meant all the wide world but that small region in Europe wherein the Pope-worshippers lived. To the one tribe, called Portugals, he gave the whole immense East, and to the other, styled Spaniards, the vast regions in the West. Thus the two were possessed, by the gift of their god, of the whole Heathen world—India and our Flowery Kingdom being portions!

In their many ships, these two tribes, sailing East and West, landed upon the distant shores, and seized upon everything which they could. They thought it pleasing to Jah to put to death those who had offended him, and were already under his wrath and condemnation: the Heathen were justly extirpated, unless they believed and worshipped Jah!

Not very long after this gift to the two tribes, the English and Dutch, having quarrelled with the Romish Priests, refused to worship the Pope and denied his authority.The Dutch first, and then the English, growing more powerful in ships, made distant forays for plunder and trade; and, following the tracks of the Portugals and Spaniards, disregarded their pretended exclusive title to the Heathen. They determined to have a portion of this general transfer of the world to Christians; they were in their own judgment the better, the Reformed Christians, and far better entitled!

Since this enormous Blasphemy [Swa-tze] of the Pope, History, as known to the Barbarians, has been, to a large extent, an account of its consequences. Wars between the contending Christians for the distant possessions, and savage and cruel depopulation, plunder, and subjugation of the unoffending inhabitants. Whole races of men have melted away in the presence of these Christ-god worshippers; and the horrors of the dreadful Superstition, which in the regions of Europe had made man more like the Devil of his Idolatry than anything human, spread, with fire and sword, over the wide world! In the far West, beneath the setting sun, a beautiful and peaceful people, rich and numerous, suffered cruelties too shocking to tell; and in the civilised and populous East, the very name of Christian became a synonym of all that is detestable.

None the less, the English Barbarians, to this day, acting upon these Christ-god pretensions, will insist that this Trade and Plunder is the handmaid of Enlightenment, the chief agent in the preparing of the World for a knowledge of the true gods, and the ultimate salvation of the Heathen!

Trade is, therefore, a civilising agency and a powerful helper in the redemption of mankind from the awful Hell. A few poor Missionaries are sometimes added to the general cargo of means of conversion. The same ship which transports these Bonzes to convert the benighted pagans will, perhaps, have a few volumes of the Sacred Writings, some bad rum, worse muskets (more dangerous to him who shoots than to him to whom the shot is directed), gunpowder, flimsy articles too poor for home trade; to these, add the licentious and degraded sailors; and one sees how well the English Barbarians work to introduce their true worship and save the Heathen!But this is feeble: only a trade-ship.The great fire-ships, with big cannons, full of armed and fierce barbarians, which devastate the populous coasts, and burn and plunder the maritime parts—these are illustrious workers in the spread of the Christ-god Salvation and a lofty Civilization! Thus the very worship of the Barbarians has helped, by its cruel pretensions, to ingrain a wrong notion—one making them immoral and cruel. Taking the Jah of the old, huckstering Jews, as an object of idolatry, the whole people has, in trade, become Jewish, as in much else.

I have referred to petty cheating, and to that wholesale criminality of adulteration. But fraud is very common, and often on an enormous scale. Nor is there any remedy. In truth, it is so common, that, as all hope to have a turn at its advantage, none care to punish heavily him, who, by chance, has been too bold. The fraud must take the form of open robbery, or be of such grossness as to be hardly disguised, before the wrong-doer will be arrested. A man may enjoy unmolested, and even with respect, a great fortune acquired by notorious trickery

So universal is this toleration of roguery, that the Plays and Pastimes are often enlivened by comical illustrations of the various arts, tricks, and deceptions practised. The charlatans, rogues, cheats, and the like, are shown in the Lawyer, the Doctor, the Bonze (low-caste), and other professions and occupations. Endless are the villanies of the Lawyer—the quack pretensions and impositions of the Medical man—the cant, hypocrisy and meanness of the Bonze.

Among the professions and trades, the teacher is a brutal ignoramus, who beats and starves the wretched children under his care; the nurse quietly drinks herself drunk and goes to sleep, leaving the sick man to gasp and die for the drink close at hand, but which he cannot reach; the milkman stops at the pump, and fills up his milk-cans with water; the teaman shows and sells you one sort, but delivers a very different; the grocer says his prayers, hurries to his goods, asks his servant if "the sugar be sanded," "the rum watered," "the tobacco wet down," "the teas mixed," "the small bottles filled," and the like; the tailor sells you more cloth than he knows will be required for your garments, and cabbages the excess; the cabman who knows you are a stranger demands quadruple fare; the innkeeper gives you the meanest room, and charges you the price for the best; and so on through every business of life.

The learned professions take the lead in this exhibition of roguery and immorality.The spectators never tire of these displays of the general rascality.The roguish landlord, the villanous horse-dealer, the artful, knavish servant, the Priest of Low Caste, and the Doctor, afford the most common diversion. The Lawyer is generally diabolic, the Bonze a hypocrite and knave, the medical man an impostor and dealer in medicines of infallible healing power.

Much of this may be referred to the love of coarse humour—but its real base is to be found in the degradation of morals. These representations are types, and would only produce disgust, were not the rascalities represented familiar. The excesses and exaggerations are of the Play—but the types are normal and common.

One great trading place is called the Stock Exchange—another, perhaps more important, styled the Merchants' Exchange. These places are established in every large town, and the business done in them absorbs the attention of traders and people who have any property, throughout the Kingdom.

The dealings [Keet-sees] of the former relate to Certificates and Bonds. These are Pieces of Printed and Coloured Paper, which represent in the words and figures a sum of money invested in a trading concern, or a sum of money which somebody owes and promises to pay. The sum may be quite a fiction, and is usually either never to be really paid, or paid at some very remote day. However, a small sum is promised to be paid every six moons, or in twelve moons—this is for not paying the big sum.

The business of the latter relates to the buying and selling of every sort of merchandise, whether on land, or on vessels at sea.

Other great trading places deal in money, or rather in bits of Printed Paper, which promise to pay money to him who has one of these bits. These places get people to sell them these bits at a price, and then resell at a greater price—or they borrow and lend these bits, paying less for the use than they obtain. Very little money is seen—business is in Paper—another of the ingenious tricks of these trading and gambling Barbarians, perhaps the source of more dishonesty and cheating than almost any other. As the like has no existence in our Flowery Land, it will not easily be comprehended.

The chief of these places for dealing in this money-paper is called the Bank. The Government shares in the advantages of this invention. Its object is to bank up, or hoard, all the real money (gold and silver) which it can get in exchange for the bits of paper. These promise that the Bank will always return the sum of gold which the bit acknowledges to have been received. The man hands the Bank his gold-money to be kept safely till he wishes for it, and the Bank gives him the bit of Paper (which is numbered and recorded in a book). He can carry this in his pocket, but the gold-money would be too burdensome and more easily lost. The Government pledges also that the gold shall always be safely kept, to be returned whenever the bits of paper are returned. This Bank-house is immensely strong and large, built of hewn stone, and is guarded by men armed with swords and fire-arms for fear of the savage and ignorant Low-Castes.

Ordinarily, only now and again, a few persons go to the Bank and wish the gold; because if one wishes it, some one of whom he buys, or to whom he owes, will take the money-paper and hand him the difference—consequently, the paper goes from hand to hand for a long time. Everybody takes it because it is convenient, and because he thinks the gold attached to it is safe in the Government Bank-house. The confidence in Paper is called CreditTo which I shall more fully refer.

Sometimes, when a great many demand the gold, it is suddenly found that the Bank-house has it not! The promise of banking up the gold till wanted in exchange for the Paper has been broken. Down goes Credit—every kind of value shrinks at once; for the Bank has not the real money, and values have been measured by the paper!

The traders and everybody connected with them have incurred debts—that is, made paper promises to pay, like those of the Bank, for property valued on the Bank-paper. It is found that this Bank-paper is too much by one-half—the property has been over-valued in proportion. Still the debtors are required to pay the amount of their paper promises!

It is impossible—ruin and Bankruptcy ensue—the whole trading world is convulsed, and tens of thousands are beggared!

The explanation is that the Bank is allowed by the Government (in consideration of certain advantages to itself) to lend out the gold for usury—that is, it lends a thousand pounds of gold to be returned in three moons, for which use the borrower pays twelve or twenty pounds! It makes its gains by thus using the gold which it has promised safely to keep. It is permitted to do this, because the risk of having much gold demanded at once is small, and from experience the Bank has discovered that if one-third part of its paper-promises of gold is in hand, it will be in little risk of having more demanded! Backed by the Government, it deliberately, for the sake of gain, runs the risk of being a cheat and robber!

Then follows a curious contrivance of these dishonest Barbarians. To save its own moneys and advantages in the Bank, and to save loss or ruin to the owners of the establishment, who are very powerful and numerous, composed of members of the High Castes as well as others—in fact, to save the general wreck of the sham paper-money (Credit) upon which values are falsely based, the Government issues a Law, forcing everybody to receive from the Bank its paper precisely as if it were gold!

Thus, having assisted in one fraud, it resorts to another, to remedy in some measure the evils of the first—extending and perpetuating the evil, which a wise man would remove!

Another remarkable thing is the organised BettingThe Houses where this is done are splendid, and the many people supported in them and by the gains, live luxuriously, and are greatly respected.The gains are, in small measure, also shared by those who put in money from which bets may be paid, when the House loses the bet.

The betting may be about anything.But the chief Houses are those where the bets have reference to length of life or injuries, to loss by fire, to loss by sea, and losses by fraud. If a man wish to bet that he will live say seventy moons, he pays down at once a small sum, and the House accepts the bet—that is, gives him a writing, promising to pay his heirs a very much larger sum if he die before the seventy moons expire. If a man have goods in a shop, he bets, say, one pound to 100 pounds, that they will not be burned during twelve moons—he pays down the pound and receives a writing (as before) that if the goods be burned during the time, he shall be paid the 100 pounds. So on, as to bets upon goods and upon vessels on the seas, upon buildings of all kinds, upon duration of life, and upon the life of another, upon accidents to body, upon honesty of servants—upon almost anything where the thing bet by the Houses is remote in time. This is the great point; for these never pay anything down by way of stakes, but always receive in money the stake (bet) of the other party.

One may readily see how corrupting all this is in its nature, and how falsely conceived. The rascally trader burns the goods, the possessor of a building burns that, the owner of a ship has her wrecked, to get the sums promised upon these events; and trade is promoted upon unsound practices. Even life has been taken by a wretched gambler, who has staked money upon the life of another. The tendency is to these crimes. Nor can there be anything but loss to the public at large; for these expensive Houses and their numerous and richly-living inhabitants are supported by the winnings made, without rendering any useful service. This must be true, even when all bets made by these Houses are paid. But another great mischief follows: they do not pay, and are often only Swindles [Kea-ties] on a great scale! There are those which pay—that is, have so far paid—but as there are bets for enormous amounts far in the future, no one can say that final payments are certain. The great object of all the Houses is to secure as large sums in cash as possible upon events a long way off. The more remote the event upon which the bet is laid, the larger the sum demanded from the individual who bets. He pays—the House merely promises to pay, and cannot be called upon to pay for a very long time! In this way, great sums of money having been got (some bets having been promptly paid to obtain confidence), the House shuts its doors! The rogues share the plunder and decampDecamp is to run away to distant parts to escape arrest and punishment.This is, however, rarely necessary; for such are the cunning contrivances of the Lawyers, who organise these Betting Houses, that very little risk is run—forms of law, slack enough at best, have been so well adhered to, that the rascals escape, though everybody knows that they have used those forms as a cover to more effectually defraud, and then as a shield to more effectually protect! These things are unknown in our Central Kingdom, and are only possible to a demoralised people.

The dealing at the Stock Exchange is mainly only another form of betting. It is hard of comprehension, unless by the InitiatedIt is a distinct trade.Those who deal constitute a secret and exclusive betting Ring, or community.If by chance, when the doors are open, a stranger inadvertently enters, he is greeted with caterwaulings, howlings, "Turn-him-outs," and the like."Smash his hat!" some one cries; and suddenly the stiff head-covering is violently driven down, completely over the face and ears, tearing the skin off the nose, and reducing the thoughtless and astonished stranger to a state of ridiculous helplessness!

Betting is a passion with the English Barbarians.The women, the children, the servants—everybody bets about any and every thing.Horse races, boat races, swimming races, all sorts of games and sports, attended by both sexes, afford endless occasions for the indulgence of it.Yet, after all, extensive, ruinous, and debasing as are the evils of it in these sports and games, the mischief is vastly greater in the Marts of traffic—in the Stock and Merchants' Exchanges.

In these, the dealings are, as I have said, either as to pieces of paper representing values, or as to merchandise in hand or at sea; and, I may add, as to pieces of paper, representing this merchandise, called Warrants and Bills of Lading.

The betting in the Stock Exchange concerns itself with the Paper of the former class, and the betting of the Merchants' Exchange with the Paper of the second kind. All this grows directly out of the Bank paper and the Credit system, before mentioned.

All values are founded upon these nominal promises to pay.But the promises themselves are ever undergoing changes, according to the varying circumstances. The promise to-day looks well—it is estimated at so much; to-morrow it does not look so well—and it is estimated at less worth. Besides, all the gold and silver in the world could not pay a twentieth part of these promises. Thus the fluctuations are incessant. The betting at the Stock Exchange has reference to these fluctuations. One of the betters is interested to have a rise, another to have a fall, of value. One agrees to deliver at a future day, at a certain price; all are interested to bring about a change either one way or another. The man who desires a rise may not be scrupulous as to any means which may produce the rise; and he who wishes a fall of price will eagerly second anything which will have that effect. Consider the consequences upon the honesty and good faith of those who engage in this betting!

The Merchants' Exchange is not so devoted to absolute betting; yet its largest business partakes of that vice. One buys a cargo at sea; another agrees to deliver a cargo three months hence. One sells what he has not, for a future delivery. Another buys what he never intends to receive, deliverable to him in the future. No money is paid, nor received. The buyers and sellers are merely gambling—betting (as in the Stock Exchange) upon the rise or fall of prices! And are interested—the one to advance the price, and the other to lower the price, of the thing dealt in!

Consider the temptation to unfair practices, the inevitable tricks, false rumours, lies, and deviations from honourable conduct involved in such transactions!Reflect upon the consequences to the honest trader, who is, in his very honesty, all the more easily tricked by the unscrupulous!

The stronghold of these various gambling Establishments, and the grand feature, in fact, of the English business life, is Credit—to which I will devote some space.We have nothing like it, nor had the ancient barbarians of the West.It is, perhaps, the most distinguishing thing in the Barbarian life.

As already hinted, Credit means that a Promise shall stand for performance.

It had its rise among the Barbarian tribes, not very long since, and grew out of their incessant wars. Particularly the English, finding they could not pay the armed bands, contrived to get the gold out of the hands of the people in exchange for the Bank-paper, and then, forcing the people to still accept the paper for gold, issued paper to such an amount as Government needed! From that period the people, especially the trading classes, making directly or indirectly nearly the whole, found an advantage in resorting to the same fiction—and the Government could do no other than give to the trader, who could not pay his promise, the same relief which it took for itself—for the Bank. It allowed him to pay what he could, and go on as before! No matter that he paid only one-third part—unless he had been guilty of some extreme roguery, he received a discharge from all his promises, and could begin to make new ones and go on in trade as before!

In this way, the Barbarian community is one wherein a false principle corrupts all.Boldness, recklessness, cunning, to say nothing of positive criminality, are encouraged; honour, delicacy, simple integrity, are driven into obscurity.Let him who would preserve his conscience smooth and clear, a mirror whence divinity be reflected, shun all the marts and ways of trade!

The Revenues of the Government are derived largely from the dealers in the great Marts, and it is immediately interested in the upholding of the Credit of the innumerable paper-promises of all kinds made by these and by the Betting Houses. It is, in fact, the chief supporter of the whole sham—it cannot be otherwise, for the English State rests upon it. The promises of the Government to pay gold can never be kept, and it forces an acceptance of a mere fraction, from time to time, as a sufficient redemption of its promises made generations ago!

Other sums are derived from taxes upon the tea, sugar, and other things largely consumed by the lower castes; whilst rich silks, laces, and costly things used by the High-Castes are not taxed.But then the taxes are levied by the High-Castes!

A great revenue is collected from the excise, a tax upon the beer, drunk in enormous quantities by the lowest Caste. To stimulate the consumption of this article and increase the revenue, Beer-shops are to be seen on every hand, and the drinkers everywhere. Drunkenness, wretchedness, riot, disorder—these flourish as the Beer-shops increase; these are the associates of those places! Yet in vain do good Englishmen try to remove these evil densWhat are the efforts of these few in the midst of a general debasement—a debasement which takes, without shame, a share in a traffic so vile!

I have spoken freely of the dishonesty of the Barbarian trade and business—a dishonesty to be expected when one broadly views the whole ground of their Society. Still, natural equity and its instinct, especially when the mind is more or less cultured, will always prevent absolute dissolution—thieving and roguery will be restrained in tolerable bounds. A man of genuine integrity finds traffic no good moralist in the best of circumstances. He needs the support of the State, or he will fight an unequal battle, and be forced by dishonesty to retire. The Barbarians are not yet sufficiently enlightened to raise the measure of honesty. The Government and the people are one in this. They do not perceive that the evils under which their industry, their peaceful pursuits, and all their interests suffer, are those inseparable from a bad superstition and false principles—these extend everywhere and into everything. Misleading in Statesmanship [Lan-ta-soa], in dealings with distant peoples, in due ordering and educating the people at home—stimulating wild speculation and extended confidence (credit) at one time, only to be followed by disastrous collapse, excessive distrust, and wretchedness, soon after! Giving, in fine, to Barbarian society that aspect of restlessness, that apparent but often vicious activity, that indescribable hurry and confusion, that unhealthy excitement, unknown to an orderly and industrious people, whose order and industry are grounded upon the simple and direct rules of reason and truth.

---

CHAPTER VII.

SOME REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND BURIALS.[HI-DY].

In our Flowery Kingdom when a man marries he pays to the parents or relatives; but with the Barbarians the woman pays to the man. Women are such costly burdens that men demand some compensation for undertaking to keep them; and the relatives of women are glad to get them off their hands at any price.

There are in England four great Castes, which contain the whole population.The habits of the Castes differ, though you will observe certain characteristic features common to all.In order to understand more clearly the remarks which follow, it will be convenient to speak of the division of Castes.

The first—High-Caste.Those who do nothing useful and pass their time in mere self-indulgence.

The second—High-second Caste. Those who do but very little, and come as nearly as possible to the selfish existence of the first

The third—High-low.Those who are obliged to work more or less, but are ever longing to attain to the idle selfishness of those above them.

The fourth—Lowest Caste (Villeins).Labourers, not long since serfs, and still so in effect.

The fourth Caste is so low down as to be usually disregarded altogether, in any account of the people, though included in the count taken of the population by Government. They may amount to nearly a half of the whole. They are rarely styled people at all. They are designated by many contemptuous names, of which the more common are my man, navvy, clown, clod-hopper, parish-poor; boor, rough, brute, and beast are frequent, especially when any of the despised Caste slouch too near, or happen to touch a Higher Caste.

When a man of the higher orders thinks to take a wife, he sees to it that she will bring him money enough to compensate the cost.He dislikes to part with his easy freedom and yoke to himself a being as selfish, frivolous, and useless as himself.

He may be broken in fortune and notorious for immoralities, yet, connected to the Aristocracy, he knows that he may demand a large sum if he will take for wife a woman a little lower in family than himself. She must be of High-Caste, but not of the highest.

The woman's relatives say, "Well, he is fast; but marriage will settle him.His father, you know, is second son to the Earl of Nolands, and his mother was a sixth cousin to the Duke of Albania, who has royal blood in his veins.I think we may make a large allowance for such a desirable match."It does not occur to the speaker, at the moment, that the royal blood coursed through very impure channels in the case cited.

It is an object eagerly sought by low rich to buy for their daughters a High-Caste husband; and men of this kind, ruined by gambling, loaded with debt, often degraded by vice, deliberately calculate upon this ambition to repair their fortunes, and get comfortable establishments.

The marriage ceremonies do not differ very much from ours, in some things; but it is very different before the ceremony. With us, the woman is unknown to the man; but with the English, the man has every opportunity of seeing her, and knowing her very well indeed. Our notions could not admit of this, but it has a convenience; it would prevent the disappointment occasionally arising, when, on opening the door of the chair, our new husband finds a very ugly duck instead of a fine bird, and hastily slams the door in the poor thing's face, and hurries her back to her relatives as a bad bargain! However, this advantage to the English husband is not so great as it seems; for the woman is too cunning to discover much till she has secured her game. Unless, therefore, the man be a very cool and practised lover [mu-nse], he is likely to be rather astonished when he sees his bride—and he cannot slam the door against her!

The Bonzes, generally, perform the ceremony before the Idol in the Temple. It is deemed to be important to have the marriage invocations pronounced. These are barbarous in the extreme; most indelicately alluding to those things which decorum hides, and calling the gods to aid the conjugal embrace—no wonder that the bride wears a veil!

The great bells ring in the lofty towers, the loud music strikes up, and the marriage procession enters the Temple; and any one may follow who pleases, so he be well dressed. In the great towns, the beggarly rabble—chiefly children and half-grown youths of both sexes, with old women and men—crowd about the Temple gates, but dare not enter. When the cortège leaves, this rabble clusters round the wheels of the carriages, turning over and over upon hands and feet, standing on head and hands, rolling and crying out, in the dust or mud of the street, begging for pennies (a small English coin). When these are thrown amongst them, they ridiculously scramble and tumble over each other, seeking amid the dirt for the coins, like so many carrion-birds upon garbage.

Arrived at the home of the Bride, a great feast is eaten, with wine and strong drinks. All make merry; whether because it is so desirable to be rid of a female, or because of the liking which the Barbarians have for eating and drink, I know not. The feasting over, all take leave of the new pair, the bride being addressed by the title of her husband. The Bride is kissed, the husband shaken [qui-ke] by the right hand, and good wishes given. On leaving the portal for the carriage, old shoes [ko-blse] and handfuls of rice are thrown after them; the rabble roosting about the areas and railings rush pell-mell after the old shoes, begin their tumblings about the street, and howl for more pennies. The rice-throwing is no doubt Eastern in origin, and has an obvious meaning; the old shoes refer to something in the Superstition—probably to appease the evil imps, who delight in mischief and are amused by the absurd squabbles of the beggars.

The Honey-moon begins at the moment when the pair enter the carriage and the old shoes are thrown after them. The horses start, and the newly-married are whirled away into the deeps of an Unknown! You may, perhaps, catch a glimpse of the bride, wistfully stretching her neck and turning her eyes, dimned with tears, to the door-steps where stand those with whom she has lived—and whom she now, it may be, suddenly finds are very dear to her! But the husband has grasped the waist of his new possession, and is absorbed in thatHe has before been the owner of horses, dogs, and the like, which have worn his collar—this is another and very different bit of flesh and blood; none the less, however, branded as his own exclusive possession, and ever after to bear his name! He understands so well the mere fiction of this ownership, that he is by no means sure that after all he have not made a bad bargain—it may prove too costly, and be by no means either useful or obedient! However, with his arm about his wife, just now he hardly realises these doubts, but feels, or tries to feel, ecstatic—as he ought.

The Honey-moon thus begun, ends exactly with one moon. It is a received opinion that the Incantations at the rite exorcise the Evil One for the period absolutely, though he may (as the Barbarians express it) "play the very Devil" with them afterwards!

I was told that the Honey-moon was so called because, during the Moon, the new couple fed wholly on honey and drank weak tea! There is some mystery attached to it, for my questions were always answered with a doubtful look. I had no opportunity of absolutely solving it—though my observation led me to judge that the honey diet did not agree with people—in truth, I wonder at its use. I have seen a bride after her return, thin, pale, peevish, who had left round and rosy; a bridegroom before the moon jolly [Qui-ky] and devoted to his bride, return taciturn, careless, forgetful to pick up a fan, or to place a chair for his wife, and even (on the sly) kick the very poodle which he before-time caressed! and when the wife pouting has said, "Out again, George," he has replied, lighting a cigar, "Yas, I must meet the fellahs, you know!"

The best hint on this subject which I ever got was from a married Englishmen, who to my query said, "Ah-Chin, my dear fellah, call Honey-moon Matrimonial Discovery, and think about it, ha!"

As the honey-eating and tea-drinking are to go on, whilst the new couple are quite retired by themselves, away from their friends and all usual pastimes and occupations, necessarily they have only each other to look at with attention. The honey-eating is trying enough, and needs, one would think, all the relief of gaiety and occupation possible! But no, it is only to eat and to closely watch each other!

I wonder no more at the changes which I observed.Nor do I wonder at the improved appearance of the couple when, after a few weeks of rational life in usual pursuits, something like the health and cheerfulness of old returned!

Yet I was informed that very many couples never recover from the Honey-moon (as my informant had it, Matrimonial Discovery), but from bad grew worse, soured and sickened entirely, could not, at length, endure each other, separated by consent, or sought the Divorce Court!

The thing, therefore, seems characteristic of the coarse humour of the Barbarians, who appear to find a comedy in an absurd, irrational trial of respect and affection, dangerously near the tragic at best, and often absolutely so! Absurd and irrational after marriage—one can conjecture its use before!However, it is quite of a piece with the general disorder, and want of knowledge and practice of sound principles.

When a child is born, the event is duly announced in the public Gazette, and relatives send compliments. When the infant is about eight days old, it is taken to a Temple to be baptised and christened. It is a singular rite, and one of the most astonishing in the Superstition. The Bonze who officiates before the Idol, takes the little thing upon his arm and sprinkles some water upon its face. At the moment he does this, he makes a curious Invocation to all the three-gods-in-one of the Worship, and pronounces aloud the Christian name of the babe, by which it shall ever after be known. This is called Christening, that is, making a Christian of the infant. The ceremony, it is believed, exorcises the Evil One, and makes it very difficult for him to get hold of the baptised (no matter how diabolically he may act) in after life—the water, duly made holy by the Priest, is a barrier over which Satan, with all his wiles, shall find it well-nigh impossible ever to get—some Bonzes say it is absolutely impossible!

Women, as soon as strong enough to attend the Temples, are churched (we have no term of the kind), a rite much like an ordinary thanks offering, for the happy deliverance and new birth. The Bonze makes Invocations, and refers to the various superstitions and barbarous pretensions of the Worship, devotion to which is inculcated under fearful penalties.However, on all occasions in the Temples, these dreadful intimations of Hell and the Devil are most frequent!

When a death occurs, it is also announced in the public Gazette, with honours and titles; and, if a High-Caste, with a long notice of the chief events of his life, and loud praises of his valour, as where he led, in his youth, a hand of fierce Barbarians like himself to the plunder and burning of some distant tribe! His virtues are also proclaimed—to the astonishment of all who knew him!

The tombs of the High-Castes are something like those of our Literati—though, instead of being in the country amid the pleasing scenes of Nature, they are generally in the holy grounds of the Temples, and even within the Temples themselves—for the superstitious Barbarians think that, even after death, the body is safer from the Devil there than elsewhere! But the common people lie hideously huddled together, without distinguishing marks (or with so slight as to be quickly obliterated), and are soon totally neglected and forgotten—happy, indeed, if their despised dust may mingle with holy earth within the precincts of Temples.

The Bonzes pray and sing the usual invocations and prayers over the body of the dead, before it is placed in the tomb—but there is no real respect for the dead—it is not to be looked for in the rough, barbaric nature. In our Flowery Kingdom regard for the dead, respect for their memory, tombs carefully preserved amid the quiet groves of the country, tablets and busts set up in the Halls of Ancestors—these are ordinary things.With the English, in general, the dead is a hideous object turned over to the undertaker and his minions to be buried out of sight, as soon as decency allows!With us, the poorest will have the coffin ready, prepared, and carefully honoured and cared for.With the English, the thought of one is repulsive, and he looks upon it with loathing!No doubt the horrid superstition has much to do with this feeling.

The undertakers (a hateful crew) drape everything in black. They take possession of everything, and turn the whole house into a charnel. They place the defunct (as the Barbarians, with a kind of contempt, call the dead) in a black vehicle, drawn by black horses, and draped with black cloth—black feathers and scarfs, hideously flaunted, with men clothed in black, attend—the dismal Hearse, with its wretched accompaniments, disappears—but only to disgorge the body. Soon after these Vultures maybe seen returning, seated upon the Hearse, clustering there, like carrion birds, who have gorged themselves! When they have feasted and drunk at the House of Woe (woe, indeed, whilst deified by them), and generally spent as much money as is possible—they, at last, disappear—and the family breathe again!

An English Barbarian once told me that these creatures, in tricks of plunder and cheating, surpass the Lawyers; in truth, the fashion is to show respect to the dead by a lavish expenditure in black draperies, and is almost wholly confined to that. It is an object to speak of the cost as a measure of that respect! The whole thing being a sham, though a most disagreeable one, the Undertaker sees well enough that he might as well pocket a large sum as a small one. A certain sum is to be spent, for respect, not for any tangible thing. The Undertaker takes care to furnish more respect than anything more tangible—and to charge for it! In fact, the mode of plunder is reduced to a system; and it just as well satisfies the real purpose—which is, to do all that is customary, and to submit to all the customary cheating.

After the family have really got rid of the Undertaker, then comes the Lawyer, with the Bonze, to read the Will of the deceased. This is a new departure (as the English call it) in the family voyage of life. The Barbarian law is so erratic and confused, that no one knows what the dead man may have ordered to be done with his money. His Land goes probably to the eldest son, or nearest male relative; and, if it be all the property, younger children may be left quite beggared. The Will begins with some absurd superstitious formula; and, prepared by a Lawyer, is only intelligible to him. He, therefore, is present to read and to explain. For no one is supposed to comprehend its jargon but the initiated. The Will is read, therefore, to those who only imperfectly catch its meaning; and when a name is reached, the party listens with an eager attention. He may be one who, by nearness of blood, or by the nature of his relations with the deceased, expects to receive a handsome gift. When he, at length, from the mass of verbiage, dimly gathers only a gold ring or a gold-headed walking-stick, and sees some one, scarcely heard of, carry off the goods long waited for, he scarcely appreciates the loving token of regard ostentatiously bestowed upon him! Nor is his smothered rage extinguished by the satisfactory expression of other relatives, who whisper, "Well, he cringed and fawned to little purpose after all!"

From this Reading of the Will begins a new era in the family. Quarrels there may have been, but a common centre of influence and interest kept the contestants in order. But now, nobody satisfied (or only those who expected nothing, and got it), all are in a mood to attack any one, to charge somebody with meanness, with treachery. So bitter animosities spring up. Lawsuits, hatreds; families are severed; old friendships sundered; the lawyers stimulate the broils; and, at last, very likely the Will and all the property covered by it get into Chancery! When I have said this, I have said quite clearly, even to the Barbarian mind, that here all are equally wretched and equally impoverished, excepting the Lawyers!

The power of the dead man, by a Will, to cut off a wife or a son with a shilling (as the Barbarians express it), is monstrous. Then the unjust law, by which the next of kin takes all the Lands of a deceased, works endless misery. Think of younger brothers and younger sisters being forced to depend upon the cold charity of the oldest, who, by mere accident of birth, takes every thing! And not only this, but some distant male relative may cut off the very means of subsistence from females very near, and throw them helpless, and too poor to buy husbands, upon the world! A disgrace and shame too shocking for belief.

Then, too, the wife's relatives may have paid to her husband the very money which, by the Will, is coolly handed to a stranger!

Such anomalies are unknown to the customs of any well-ordered and civilised people.

The new Widow usually remains shut up in her house, inaccessible to all but her children, her servants, her Bonze, and her Lawyer, for twelve moons exactly. During this time she devotes herself to the prayers and invocations of the rites; and will not so much as look at a man, unless the exceptions named. She is wholly draped in black; her children, her servants, even her horses and dogs, are in black. She entirely quits all the vanities of life; she only allows her maid to smooth her hair. She suffers her hands and face to be washed, but never paints her cheeks, nor tints her eyelashes. If she go abroad, it is to the Temple to pray, or to the tomb (in some cases) of the "dear departed," covered from head to feet in thick black, followed by a tall footman, all black, bearing the Sacred Rites. If a man come too near, he is waved, with a solemn gesture of the hand, to remove away: this is the special duty of the flunkeyIf, by any chance, the widow in her march happen to lift her thick veil, and catch the eye of a man,—ah!how dolorous must her prayers be!

Precisely at the stroke of time, when twelve moons have gone, the widow drops all the habiliments of woe, and is herself again!—that is, a woman in search of a husband!—if she have not, from clear, sheer desperation, and want of anything better to do, already pledged herself to her Priest or to her Lawyer. Now, free and at liberty to choose, she may wish to look further; but it is probable that "the inestimable services" of the Lawyer, in her time of misery, hold her to recompense; or that the Priest, attentive to the precept of the Sacred Writings (which commands that Widows shall be comforted), has so well obeyed, that the Widow, completely solaced by the dear, good man, gladly rests with him!

The great book of Rites and Customs regulating the conduct of widows, of widowers—in fact, the observances of Society generally—I have never been able to see. It is in the care and under the constant supervision of a High-Caste of exalted state, from whose authority there is no appeal, styled Missus GrundyI think a stranger can in no case be allowed to see this Illustrious, nor the Book.Indeed, I was told that no one, not even Royalty itself, could inspect the Book, nor challenge this authority.It is hereditary in the mighty Grundy family; and the head of the House is believed to be infallible in social observances.Another remarkable thing is, there is never a failure in the succession—a Grundy is always on hand!

Now, Missus Grundy speaks with more tolerance as to Widowers: they are not absolutely liable to decapitation if they marry again in less than twelve moons. Widowers, for reasons I do not know, are favourites with the Barbarian females; and young women with money will give all they possess to get a Widower, even when he have many children. It may be because of the love for the "pretty dears," as the young ones are called; but, whatever the cause, the fact is certain. To gratify these gushing females, Missus Grundy allows a Widower to marry in a less time than twelve moons: it is so desirable that the pretty dears should have the tender care of a new (step) mother!

As the Barbarians have no Halls of Ancestors, where the family preserve with dutiful care the records of the virtuous dead—inscribed on tablets of brass or polished stone—and where, arranged in due order, stand the marble busts of those more distinguished—they soon forget the dead.

The High-Castes sometimes set up monuments in public places; in Temples and the Temple-burial grounds; and inscribe thereon lofty panegyrics, as false in fact as they are bad in style—and no more thought is given to them. In truth, these monuments are always considered to be to the honour of the living—who take the occasion to display their own wealth, characters, titles, or taste.

The Lower-Castes do but little more than hurry to the grave the dead body, and dismiss the "unpleasant topic" as quickly as possible—imitating as well as they are able the High-Caste, by setting up a Stone-slab, carved with a ruder but not truer description. Couplets in verse are often added; and, as giving an idea of the humorous and coarse conceit of the Barbarian mind, I will insert some of these Inscriptions

Often the slabs are flat upon the ground, and the tombs ruinous and neglected; in fact, very generally the burial-places, though holy, are in a wretched condition—tombs fallen, stones and tablets prostrated, graves quite worn away by the careless feet of passers; the whole place wearing a sad air of utter neglect and forgetfulness. One discovers a better culture making some progress, by curiously regarding these stones, inscribed with memorials of the dead. They have slowly become less uncouth, less barbarous, and less devoted to the wildest vagaries of the SuperstitionHowever, this observation is to be taken in a very general sense.

Often, in the country, I have stumbled upon a singularly-built old stone Temple—standing quite alone, with the tombs and the tablets of the dead, clustering beneath the shadow of the lofty, square tower of hewn stone.Upon the hill-side, with a lovely view of hills, and soft vales, and rich fields of ripening corn, and scattered groves—with green meadows divided by flowering shrubs, where the flocks and the cattle fed.Near by, orchards, white and pink in blossoms; and all the air fragrant with a delicate perfume.At my feet, a few houses nestling among lofty elms—far away to the West, the sun shining above with slanting rays across a wide expanse of beauty—sitting upon a stone bench, beneath the ivy-covered Temple-porch, I have looked upwards to the serene sky, and outwards upon the tranquil and lovely scene; and I have known no Barbarian rudeness, felt no Barbarian Idolatry.The solemn Temple, eloquent in silence, the unbroken rest of the dead, the calm and delightful presence of Nature, these were here, these are there; man unites his grateful worship across the wide world—the Sovereign Lord is worshipped, though darkly, by these Barbarians! And in this worship (in time to be purified) we are one!

But I must give some specimens of Barbarian Inscriptions—by them called Epitaphs, when written to the dead—taken from tablets in places of burial.

"Here lies an old maid, Hannah Myers;
She was rather cross, and not over pious;
Who died at the age of threescore and ten,
And gave to the grave what she denied to the men!"

Another:—

"Poor Mary Baines has gone away,
'Er would if 'er could but a couldn't stay!
'Er 'ad two sore legs, and a baddish cough,
But 'er legs it were as carried her off!"

Here is one which refers to certain mineral [zi-kli] waters, prized by the Barbarians for curative properties:—

"Here I lies with my four darters,
All from drinking 'em Cheltenham Waters;
If we 'ad kept to them Epsom Salts,
We wouldn't a laid in these 'ere waults."

Here seems to be one, not uncommon, which covertly shows its disdain for the gods of the Superstition:—

"Here lie I, Martin Elginbrod—
Have mercy on my soul, Lord God!
As I would on thine, were I Lord God,
And you were Martin Elginbrod!"

The following is most absurd:—

"Here lie I, as snug
As a bug in a rug!"

And some equally funny relative placed near, but not probably pleased with him, adds:—

"And here lie I, more snug
Than that t'other bug!"

A slang term for a low, brutal fellow.

The following turns upon the word lie [pha-li], and the word lie [pu-si]:—

"Lie long on him, good Earth—
For he lied long, God knows, on Thee!"

This is ridiculous in manner of quoting from the Sacred Writings; and adding, without proper pause, the death of another person:—

"He swallowed up death in victory
And also Jerusha Jones
Aged sixty!"

Here follow references to the Superstitious horrors:—

"Whilst sinners [kri-mi] burn in hell,
In paradise, with Thee, I dwell!"

Another:—

"When the last trump doth sound,
No more shall I be bound
Within the earth;
My soul shall soar above,
To shout redeeming love,
Which gave me heavenly birth!"

This I fear will be scarcely intelligible. The last trump refers to a statement in the Sacred Writings, where it is said that a great Trumpet shall awake the dead, and so on. Probably, the remainder may be guessed by attentive readers of these Observations

The next intimates that the couple had been quarrel-some, but had, at last, silenced their bickerings in a common grave:

"Here lies Tom Bobbin,
And his wife Mary—
Cheek by jowl,
And never weary—
No wonder they so well agree:
Tim wants no punch,
And Moll no tea!"

These refer to occupations.By a cook:—

To Memory of Mary Lettuce:—

"If you want to please your pallet,
Cut down a lettuce to make a salad."

By a sailor [ma-te-lo]:—

"Here lies Tom Bowline,
His timbers stove in—
Will never put to sea ag'in!"

"Below lies Jonathan Saul,
Spitalfields weaver—
That's all!"

Spitalfields is a famous place for silk-weaving [tni-se-ti].

---

I need not make any criticism upon these things.They would be impossible to our better culture and refinement. Our Book of Rites would not suffer such low conceits to see the light if, by any chance, any one should indulge in them privately.

It may be said in fairness that these are specimens of the low, and with these there is less indecency than formerly. There are, however, abundant samples even among the Higher Castes, of things in really as bad taste, though in neater language—quite as offensive, but to the feelings of right reason rather than to those of literary delicacy. They refer to the canons of the Idolatry, and seem, to a stranger to that Presumption, quite incredible.

However, one must reflect upon the effect of superstition, long ingrained, and "born and bred" till its enormities are as familiar as the most harmless images; and its blessings appropriated, and its curses distributed, with an equal equanimity!

I have not referred to the great Pageants when High-Castes are buried who have been famous as Braves, either in distant forays with armed bands upon the Heathen, or among Christian tribes of the Main Land. Or, perhaps, some high chief who has ordered the great Fire-ships in burning and plundering beyond the Seas. I have not referred to these, because they are merely shows, and do not in any sense apply any especial characteristic. One thing I have remarked—there seems to be no respect for the dead, they are immediately forgotten, and the very monuments ordered to be set up probably never appear; or after so long a period, that a new generation wonders who can be meant by the figure which rises in some public place! And when these are once placed on their pedestals, neglect falls upon them in a mantle of indescribable filth. Even royalty cannot have the royal robes of marble so much as washed by the common street hydrant [phi-pi].

It is impossible not to feel that the cold and coarse feelings of the Barbarians are, in respect of the dead, rendered more repulsive by the horrid features of the Idolatry. In this there is so much to brutalise and render callous, that it is only as it is disregarded, that the natural human feelings come into play, and tenderness and delicacy find expression.

---

CHAPTER VIII.

OF ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SOME WORDS ABOUT SCIENCE.[KRI-OTE].

Until recently the Barbarians had no proper style of Architecture, unless in Temples, Castles, and Ships. The dwellings, even in cities, were as ugly and inconvenient as it is possible to conceive.

When the great Roman civilisation disappeared, the barbarous tribes for many ages so slowly improved, that the aspect of common life remained savage.The Priests of the Superstition, however, saved some tincture of Roman learning, and brought from Rome some of the older knowledge.These, however, directed their minds to the erection of Temples, and edifices designed for the objects of Priestcraft.

Then arose those structures, truly wonderful, in stone, which exhibit so clearly the character of the gloomy Superstition: at first like those of Rome, but in time added to and changed, till at length the vast Temples, truly gigantic, called Gothic, arose.

These are like huge phantasms of carved stone, rising into the sky. Huge walls, buttresses, turrets, immense clusters of columns, vaulted and lofty arches, long aisles, lighted by strangely-tinted windows, carved masses of stone in prodigious strength, leaping, flying upwards, upwards, in grand confusion, and yet upon a strange, wild plan! —giving expression to an imagination only known to these dark and strong Barbarians. Externally, on all sides these Temples are monstrous idols in stone, stuck most curiously upon corners, high up in niches, on turrets and battlemented [trit-ti-sy] walls, over the sculptured, grand portals, everywhere—chiefly diabolic, exceeding all the dreams of a mad and dreadful frenzy, yet borrowed from the Superstition and illustrating it! Others surmounting these dreadful things, angelic and serene—as if, after all, the human instinct spurned all the low and horrible intimations of things too foul for expression, and yet so frightfully attempted, in ghastly and grinning stone!

The Roman-Greek types knew nothing of such—how clear and beautiful these stood out, cheerful and clean, in the pure sky!

As art found this sort of expression in the structures devoted to the Superstition, so in the buildings for the chiefs of tribes the same spirit directed, though modified by the object. In these art found pleasure, and the barbaric mind delight, to pile up lofty Castles of huge stone—dark, menacing—where all was for strength and to symbolise Force, and nothing for refinement, nor even comfort. These great structures are now, for the most part, crumbling away; not from change of barbaric spirit in the love of Force, but from the uselessness of the Gothic forms in the presence of big cannons.The Roman Architecture, somewhat altered, is generally revived in buildings of importance.Yet the Priests build much as before—dropping off, however, the more hideous of the grinning idols. In this unconsciously giving a sign of the decay of the Idolatry itself. For when all its horrors shall have disappeared, the morality and the simple worship of the Lord of Heaven may remain. The improving condition has improved dwellings, particularly of the Higher Castes. The poor still grovel in huts and hovels, often too offensive for the healthy growth of anything but pigs. Among the Low-Castes, in great towns, the filth and stench are quite insupportable.

In ships the English Barbarians pride themselves to be foremost. Upon this subject we may fairly give an opinion. There are others quite equal, and those of the Starry Flag often superior.

At present the style is changing, and from wood are becoming iron, with such massive sides of thick steel, that no shot fired from any cannon shall be able to break through!So these English think to sail with these huge iron machines into the waters of any people and force submission.For the mighty cannon, shooting out vast fiery balls of steel, are expected to knock to pieces any Castles and utterly burn and destroy any city.And sheltered in these impregnable, swift, floating fortresses of steel, these Barbarians expect absolutely to dominate over all the Seas, and to sink everything which dares to oppose.This supremacy is already vaunted; and all the taxes which can be got from the people, from the tea and beer which they drink, from the tobacco which they smoke, from the letters and papers which they write and use in affairs, and from a share of their daily toil, are devoted (after handing a certain portion to the Queen and the High-Castes for their pleasures) to these big, floating machines of war, to the huge cannons, and to arm and pay the sailors and soldiers, that this domination be absolutely assured! Still, so far, none of these terrible vessels have proved of any use, as they can neither float nor fight; or, if they float, turn bottom upwards at a small breath of wind, and, if moved to act in concert, are so unmanageable as to be only terrible to each other! The sailors, therefore, dread them as unfit for the sea, and as Iron Coffins to poor Jack, who is forced to go into them!

The introduction of Steam has only rendered the Western Barbarians more conceited and more miserable. On nothing do they pride themselves so much as upon the tremendous Force, which they have acquired in the various Arts, by the use of steam. They, in this, as in other similar inventions, mistake the nature of the thing used and its effect. They think themselves wiser because they move faster—as if the hare be necessarily wittier than the ox; and more civilised, because more powerful—as if the rhinoceros were to be preferred to the horse.

At this moment, the Barbarian tribes of the West are devoting all their energies to this single notion of Supremacy. Force is absolutely the most coveted thing—to be strong, the only desirable thing. And the acme of that civilisation of which they boast, glitters only with polished steel, towering high, bristling with terrible weapons of destruction!

There are canals not much used, and not commonly of good depth and width. The High-roads are nearly as good, in some parts, as those in our Flowery Land; but more frequently quite inferior, being either very dusty or muddy. They have none of the conveniences for the shelter or rest of travellers, provided everywhere by our Illustrious; nor are the signal towers and fine shade trees, which give such beauty to our roads, to be seen, excepting occasionally, and quite by chance, the latter.

The Bridges are insignificant, as a rule, owing to the littleness of the rivers; but they are handsome and strong, built of stone, in the Roman style. They span the rivers, the canals, and form viaducts [pa-se-gyt] for roads of Iron. Upon these roads, passing sometimes over the dwellings and streets of towns, move rapidly the long chain of carriages, drawn by steam-engines, conveying many people and much merchandise. These iron roads are numerous, and the works and buildings connected with them very great and costly. The Barbarians greatly vaunt the usefulness of these roads; but the rightfulness of their opinion is by no means apparent. They break up the quiet and the accustomed industries of the people; excite agitations, produce restlessness and expense, accumulate too many here, and depopulate and render meagre thereThey crowd the cities with the poor, and leave the rural districts empty; the towns are overburdened and the fields untilled.They foster the extravagances of the rich and add nothing to the comfort of the common people.It is said that in the saving of time is a saving of money.But it is to be considered that this ease and rapidity of movement is not always usefully directed. It may be, and it is, largely used only to waste and dissipate money and time. It is said to save material measured in relation to effect. This is not clear; for, although a ton be moved far quicker to a given point, who shall say that the ton moved by usual means would not, all things estimated, be as economically moved, and with as good result to the common weal?

The real question is not considered, which is—Have Iron-roads added to the useful means of the people?Consider the cost, and say whether such vast expense in other mode or modes of outlay would not have produced means more beneficial.

How much more numerous and better roads, vehicles, buildings for the poor, improved culture, tools, larger areas of recovered lands, new fertilisers, new and numerous schools—innumerable details of improvement—had the intellect, time and money directed to these roads been directed to the many needs of a people! The good, then, is rather the good which activity of brain and outlay of money naturally effect—possibly that activity and expense have not been most usefully employed in Iron-roads—indeed, very probably not to the good effect of a more naturally ordered expenditure. But the English, seeing the effect of a prodigious activity and employment of money spread over many years, place it to the credit of a thing—Steam; never considering at all whether the thing has been necessarily the cause, or only the accident.To what effect, during the same time, might that same energy and money have been applied!The new power stimulated energy, and possibly misled it. It may be said that steam did its service by giving this stimulus. Probably not so. The question is, Has Steam after all misled—fallen short, in fact, of those effects which the usual and less novel forces would have produced?This is an unanswered question.

In the industrial arts the English are not remarkable. They are good in fire-arms and curious in weapons, as may be expected. They are expert in making barrels and vessels to hold liquors from wood; need, which they call the mother of invention, made this art a necessity; such is the prodigious quantity of beer which they consume. In dress-fabrics, in tools, in furniture, in metals, they show no more skill than our artisans, and in many articles not so much. We have arts, useful and beautiful, unknown to the Barbarians; they have things of mere show and luxury for which we have no use. In what is called Fine Art—that is Painting and Sculpture, particularly—we have but little to compare. By Fine Art is meant what is impossible to us; it is for the most part intolerable to us.

Think of the Illustrious of our Flowery Kingdom crowding into Halls, glittering with gilt and showy colours, to see there, arranged upon the walls and standing upon marble tables, great pictures of women and of men, often naked or nearly naked—wholly nude figures, mostly of women, in all attitudes, carved from marble, or made of a fine baked clay!Not only so; but the illustrious mothers, wives, daughters, and female friends, accompanying the men to the spectacle!The young man and the young woman together gazing upon the nude and flesh-tinted voluptuous female, glowing in the picture! No; we give no such encouragement to fine Art! Yet our painters compare favourably with those of the Barbarians, in such proper use of the Art as is allowed by us.

For the same reason, as Sculpture with us is only permitted where useful or innocent, it does not reach after such effects as with the Barbarians; where a naked figure of a young woman, done in marble to the luxurious taste of a wealthy High-Caste, will command a great sum. None the less, our Artists can execute with fidelity, as our Ancestral Halls will show.

Copying from the ancient Romans, in their most wanton and luxurious period, the kind of painting and sculpture referred to is most highly esteemed by the Christ-god worshippers! Many of the Roman works have been discovered, and serve as models; thus the ancients are imitated in their vicious taste, though condemned as very children of the devil!

With the decay of the darker terrors of the Superstition, the mind, rebounding from asceticism, swung to the other extreme.A rational morality and worship would have preserved a due medium.But with ancient letters revived a love for ancient art; and the indecencies from that source were condoned to the excellency of the work—or pretended to be.The Priests took no care to repress this outburst of voluptuousness; in truth, moulded its nude forms to the embellishment of Temples; and, holding the warm fancies of its devotees, strengthened their influence by a new device.This zeal for the voluptuous in Art and reproduction of Roman types, began by the Roman Pope, spread everywhere. Thus the Superstition itself sanctions this taste, which to us appears so unseemly and immoral.

In Parks and Gardens the English Barbarians are not surpassed. We have no equals in horticulture; but in gardens the English are fine artists, and in parks have caught the true instinct of Nature. When in these, I have felt conscious of a fine civilisation. The lovely parterres of blooming shrubs; the grand vases, rich in brilliant colours of delightful flowers; roses, festooned, trailed in arches over smooth walks; green spaces, where the sunlight lay warm and cheerful; noble avenues of lofty trees; sweet arbours, embowered in blossoms and verdant vines; shady walks, meandering among the trees; groves of evergreens, musical with cascades, gleaming in marble basins; and fountains, ornamented and sculptured in shining stone. Little lakes, where the breezes awoke the sleepy waves and chased them to the shore, and where the aquatic birds of many forms delighted to sport! The whole place eloquent and still in beauty! Here, no force, nor barbaric rudeness, nor worship of brutal strength, nor of hideous forms, nor of lighted altars! Here, the English Barbarian was a civilised man, and here I could love him!

Ah, when shall he, so strong, see his true strength, and know how to use it! Arm no more—teach the other Barbarians the proper use of Force! Dreaming no harm to others, fearing no harm to himself, and using the revenues of his great tribe to render it invincible in virtue—how then invincible in all!

One day one of the High-Caste took me under his Illustrious protection, and conveyed me to his grand House, built of hewn stone in the ancient Roman method. It stood among fine trees, a long and glistening façade [phr-not] of white and ornamental marble. He presented me to his illustrious wife, who graciously saved me from the too great embarrassment of her presence; for, as I shall hereafter explain, the custom of the Barbarians in this respect shocks all our notions. Hanging upon the gilded walls were the costly works of painters—among them naked women, coloured and tinted, in most voluptuous forms, smiling down upon us—upon sculptured pedestals, stood white statues, in rich marbles, of exquisite maidens, nude, and attractive in every graceful attitude and personal charm! All this was surprising, if not pleasing—but when this Lord [Tchou] took me into the gardens and Park, there, indeed, all was calm—the agitation of my spirit subsided!

Walking with him, he took me by the arm, and said, "Ah, my dear Chin-le, how little we know of each other; you do not understand how many things can be with us, nor can we understand many of your customs; but here we are not unlike—in this art we meet on common ground." I expressed my grateful sense of his goodness, assented to his happy reference, and then ventured to observe, "Your illustrious treats me like a relation—a brother." "In what respect—I do not know." "Ah, you presented me to the exalted, the lady [da-mtsi]—with us that is to say, this is a son, or a brother."He smiled."Well, perhaps you are right. I rather think you are, in respect of women, though her Ladyship would not assent." I delicately hinted my embarrassment. "The pictures, the ——." He laughed good-humouredly, and replied, "Doubtless to eyes unused, such things look dazzling, and so on, but it is really only a matter of habit." But then, I suggested, "Is not Art misdirected when so employed." "Well, possibly; but an elegant thing, a beautiful thing—why not give an expression to that beauty which is the most interesting, the most charming?" "Does not that imply a purity above experience and above nature?" "I see; you lead into an ethical maze—look there?" I followed his hand, and the noble Park extended on all sides; yet, I said to myself, in our Flowery Kingdom, if a point be doubtful in morals we lean against the doubt. But is there any doubt as to these nudities?However, turning with admiration to the well-trained flowers, the spreading lawns of soft verdure, the beautiful vases of brilliant shrubs, the fine trees, with here and there a modest statue, or a marble fountain, I exclaimed, "How perfectly satisfactory and pleasing are these effects of an elevated Art, where nothing is suggested but what calms, cheers, refines, and makes generous!"

"Ah-Chin, my dear fellow, your enthusiasm is admirable; but we need more than the serene, the cheerful, and the generous!"As he said this he smiled at my look of bewilderment—for I was puzzled.Since then I have understood better.Art among the Barbarians must be suited to the restless eagerness of their nature, which demands excitement.And the passions which ought to be severely repressed, Art, in a hundred ways, finds itself best rewarded to covertly gratify. Thus, all the strong emotions are most coveted, either as shown on the canvas or in the marble. Male figures, nude, writhing, wrestling, and in attitudes of force, or expressing hate, or pain, or fierce contention, or, if in repose, lapsing into the languor of desire. Female figures, for the most part, so managed as to stimulate those feelings, or to suggest those incidents which a wise man likes to ignore; or in such methods as to suggest emotions of shame, of terror, of suffering, or of crime—often debasing or evil in tendency, and rarely to any good purpose. Pictures of bloody fights, of burning cities, of great ships sinking, or blowing up with all on board; of wretches tearing or cutting at each other, or struggling in blood and fury amid the waves. Statues distorted by agony, or paralysed by terror—in such, Barbarian Art greatly delights. In this, as in the sculpture of the Temples, showing, in another form, its fierceness and love of strong excitement.

In the cities, there are occasionally statues to men who have been famous; and, in some of the great Temples, Sculptures of High-Castes are sometimes set up.They are, as a rule, strange exhibitions.Many of the great pieces consist of a crowd of figures in marble—an astonishing jumble.There are figures blowing great horns; other impossible ones representing huge human birds hovering about; chiefly, however, naked women, with wings awkwardly fastened behind the shoulders, transporting the dead; and others (again females) with rings of leaves held in their hands over the head of the dead or dying man! All this is done, or attempted to be done, in marble; and involved in it will be a great ship burning, or great guns being fired, and men and women being killed by hundreds; or other dreadful scenes wherein the great man took fearful part! Memorials or huge paintings, in honour of persons famous in fight and plunder, are thus exhibited in the Temples and public Halls. They are, in general, very astonishing!

In the street corners are sometimes placed, on pedestals of huge stone, carved effigies of a King, or of a Queen, or of some High-Caste man. Of some Brave, who has cut off more heads than usual, or who has seized more plunder, or carried fire and sword over the lands of distant tribes. He is sometimes on horse-back; sometimes naked, with shield and sword, and very terrible; sometimes so far aloft, on top of a high stone column, that nothing can be descried but a cocked hat and a pigmy figure under it. Rarely there may be a statue to some High-Caste, who has been distinguished for wringing more taxes from the common people, and, by this means, keeping large armed bands at work abroad—to the glory of the English name! more rarely a statue to the memory of any one renowned for a life useful to mankind.

As works of Art, these things are not to be criticised. They are works of money—that is, paid for by weight; merely meant to compliment a party or faction in the State, and not to honour, particularly, the subject of the Work, or to give a noble expression of human genius or skill. No purpose, perhaps, in the sordid workman other than to pocket the large sum for the big show! Nothing wherein a grand imagination, inspired by a fine enthusiasm and full of a noble conception, glows and breathes in the stone, and makes it imperishable!

Whether an unconscious disgust leave these public statues and monuments alone in their ugliness, I know not; but they are totally neglected, begrimed, covered with filth—often made the roosting-places of the unwashed street Arabs (beggar boys) and loafers [na-sthi]. Even the statues of living Sovereigns are so totally forgotten and deserted, that the nose of Majesty may be a small pyramid of dirt, and the ermine robes more defiled and foul than the rags of the street mendicant!

The Western Barbarians are very fond of Science [kno-tu-ze]—(this is the nearest word in our language, though quite defective)—and consider themselves in this to be far superior to the ancients and to all the peoples beyond the great Seas. I have never been able to comprehend, nor do I think the Barbarians themselves comprehend very accurately, the meaning of the word.

They will say of a man who is almost a fool, "Ah! but he is very scientific." Of another, constantly blundering, and who has been famous for prodigies of mistake, "His science is astonishing." A builder of a great ship, or of a great bridge, sees his ship upset or his bridge fall down; none the less, he demonstrates to his admiring countrymen that, upon scientific principles, the ship should have stood upright and the bridge been as stable as rock!

A doctor kills his patient [vi-zton] scientifically; a dentist cracks the jaw in extracting a tooth; a surgeon breaks the leg which he cannot set: Science is satisfied—"all was scientifically done!" A man spends his life in looking at the stars; he is a man of wonderful science. Another keeps a List of fair and rainy days during twelve moons; his scientific attainments are respected and his observations recorded, as if the fate of the harvests were involved.

You will hear of a man of marvellous science, before whom ordinary scientific men stand uncovered in silence; he has discovered a new kind of tadpole, and added another to the already interminable terms of natural Science.

I have heard one of these learned professors [pho-phe-sti] say wisely, "He is a benefactor of the race who makes two blades of grass to grow where one grew before;" "but," he added, "he is a greater who teaches mankind how to do this." In this way, wishing to show that an idiot might chance to find a way to double his growth of grass, but would be incapable of discovering the cause; so that, probably, the accident would die with the finder. A wise man would, at once, look for the reason, and finding that, be able to secure the benefit for all time. This knowledge of cause is the kind called Science

The explanation is familiar to us.In our Flowery Kingdom, the master teaches the rules, and the artificer puts them in practice.We call him an Artisan who has knowledge of an Art: we call him who knows how things ought to be done, and who examines into things so as to comprehend the best modes of doing, simply a teacher, or master. We do not see that his knowledge, without actual performance, makes him a great man—a man of Science (as the Barbarians have it). Indeed, if a man do a thing merely mechanically, as a horse turns a mill, no doubt he is an ignorant artisan. Still, this stupidity does not exalt, in any degree, the nature of the knowledge of a brighter man: this one is only an intelligent artisan. On the whole, then, it seemed to me that the Barbarians, for the most part very ignorant, were easily imposed upon by those who, having leisure, mastered the multiform terms (or some of them) used by the teachers of Natural History in its various departments. These, too, idle and with some ambition to be known, easily fancied that the dry knowledge of words was knowledge; and discovering with surprise at first, but soon with great complacency, how very little one need to know to be ranked with men of Science, at length prided themselves upon the very trivialities which otherwise would have been unvalued. In fact, finally imposed upon themselves as they imposed upon others, and really believed those trifles to be important, because confined to those who paraded them as Scientific. These busy, idle triflers in words become the men of Science

This is very laughable, and shows how mankind, everywhere, constantly repeat the same follies.In our Illustrious annals men like these have appeared and disappeared; founded schools, been admired, had disciples, then passed into oblivion; their works, often voluminous, never met with; or occasionally dug out of mouldy bins and reproduced in some parts to show up the pretensions of a new charlatan—to show how much better the same things were explained, or the same terms used by an old and forgotten author, 5,000 moons ago!

These men, as with us, constantly overrate the value of their labours; the world really can get on without them. Getting together in Congresses [Bed-la-mi], they pay (or affect) great respect to each other, and put on an air of abstraction; they are supposed to be pondering upon the care of men and things, and feel the weight of responsibility. Other men may be trivial; but to those upon whom rests the due ordering of Nature, Care should be a genius and Dignity a presence.

In these Meetings, nothing is worthy of debate unless it be Scientific. A plain paper, directed to a simple, useful object, and stating in ordinary and intelligible language the rules useful to the end, is not satisfactory. There should be something novel and obscure, or it is unlikely to come within the desired category. In truth, high and mighty principles on which man and the gods exist and move and flourish, or upon a disregard of which decay and dissolution follow—these are alone the proper objects of philosophers and men of Science; and involved in the profound investigation of principles, the Congress disappears from the common eye, and is lost even to itself!

On the whole, the value of these scientific men to the world did not seem to me to be considerable. I mean as scientific men—without any of the pretension or cant [Bo-zhe] of their class, individuals may be useful, and would be more useful without the false glamour of class-vanity. A man of brain and who really thinks and examines, if he have anything to say will say it, and it will be judged by its merit. But when men having time and not knowing what to do with themselves, and having some knowledge of words and but little brains, see an opening for imbecility, and are received and praised and dubbed Scientific, because they devote time and waste a large quantity of paper to give the world their thoughts—it is doubtful whether the more harm or the more good be done. To be sure, the idle and empty man may be rendered supremely happy in his vanity, and may have been saved from some personal degradation or vicious inclination—but the world could have been well spared his Catalogue of the Parasites on the Lobster, or his Notes on the Habits of the Barn Swallow, or his Suggestions as to the proper use of smoke, or his Hints upon the hybernation of Eels. No great harm is done, for nobody reads these things but the men of Science, who are obliged to keep up to the work of busy idleness, in reading for debate with each other and at the Congress

This body professes to teach the proper rules for physical improvement, and its members are natural philosophers.They do not, however, confine themselves to the investigation of natural phenomena—they range over the whole broad field of speculation as well, demanding to know the cause of all things, and the very essence, object, and end. Those who take upon themselves this wider inquiry, assume a dignity far above the mere Scientists—these deal with mere visible forms; but those with the laws which underlie the forms, and with the source of Law, its origin, its object, and its end! These are Philosophers! and when a man is a man of Science and a philosopher, then no more is possible to human exaltation!

I have sufficiently referred to the works of these in another place. They cannot be wholly useless, if there really be a brain, honest and strong, at work.For to such patiently, humbly, earnestly, full of grateful recognition and conscious of the limitations of knowledge and of inquiry; seeking and looking out, with sad eyes, upon the vast world; to such, some new evidence of the grand order, some new and brilliant ray of divine illumination may come—not to show cause nor purpose, but to delight and tranquillise, to give new assurance of the Beneficent and Infinite Wisdom!

The English Barbarians have true men of Science. They are those to whom the people are indebted for nearly all of the useful discoveries and inventions. Men, who, engaged in some pursuit, apply a patient investigation and thoughtful experiments to see if they cannot improve the existing means to ends. In these investigations, they discover a new source or a new way of power; and, in the experiments, new applications and uses of it. When these men fall into the hands of the Scientists and Philosophers, and, leaving their work-shops, shine with the gods, at the Congresses—they usually end in that glamour—their light is no longer an illumination!

Of the musical Art, some things may be said.There is a wonderful variety of instruments—not many at all like ours.

Some of the stringed are similar to our Che. There is one, so enormous a structure, as to equal a house in size. It is made by a wonderful combination of hollow, metal pipes, ranging in size from a flute to a big cannon; and in height from a span to the lower mast of a ship. Its sounds are many, single in melody, or astonishing in a wild, clanging harmony (the Barbarians think); but to me, discord. All the combined noises are terrific; and surpass what the effect would be of our Che, Yuhnien, and Pieu-king all sounding at once!

In Singing, the men often roar like bulls, and the women scream, making hideous contortions.A handsome woman does not like to sing.

There is a Theatre—play—where all the parts, men and women, are sung. The passions of love, hate, jealousy, and so on, are sung and screamed at each other by the players in the most absurd manner. The woman will sing and shriek out the most astonishing gymnasts of voice, the man shouting and bellowing back, and then both together bellow and scream; the woman, at last, falls into the arms of the man, or the man throws himself in a passion at the feet of the woman—both singing and screaming all the while—and the curtain drops! Then arise the noisy plaudits of the spectators—demanding a repetition!

The barbaric music is, for the most part, like themselves, rude and noisy. There are some exceptions—and in simple melody often sweet and tender. The flute and the horn are pleasing—the former is much like our Cheng

Occasionally, one or two thousand singers, and as many performers on instruments come together, and give a grand Musical Treat. Judge what this must be, when you add to this vast combination also the prodigious House of Noise (called Organ)!

Oratory is an Art much admired among the Western tribes, and the English think themselves to be prëeminent.I can hardly judge; one needs to be a perfect master of a tongue to follow a speaker as he ought to be followed.Barbarous races commonly produce effective Orators; the imagination is vivid, the passions strong, and there is enough culture to make the forms of speech at least tolerable.

In the Law-making Houses speeches (orations) are often delivered. For the most part dull in manner, insignificant in thought, poor in illustration, very ineffective. The members go to sleep, or withdraw, or rudely interrupt—sometimes coughing down the speaker. Very rarely are to be seen any flashes of eloquence, to be felt any thrill of its power. Unfortunately the same conceit, here as elsewhere, leads many to believe themselves to be Orators to whom the ability to speak properly is denied by nature. Yet these insist upon "airing their eloquence" (as it is styled) on every occasion possible. Generally these men have some subject, nick-named by the other members as a Hobby, which must be spoken to whether the House will hear or not. Then occurs one of those scenes so characteristic. The Hobby-man rises and tries to speak. He waxes eloquent (at least, he intends to be) on his favourite topic—perhaps the Pope at Rome; or the rights of women; or the purification of mud-streams; or the poor man's beer; no matter what, when the other members determined to drown the speaker, break through all the rules of the House, the orders of the Head officer, and more, all the ordinary decencies, and caterwaul, and cough and howl, till, from mere impossibility of hearing his own voice, the poor, squelched orator sinks into his seat.

Now, the House prides itself upon the liberty of speech and of debate; it is one of the palladia of English Freedom; and this is a forcible illustration of the libertyAnything obnoxious to the majority, or even to a noisy minority, may be silenced—such is the freedom of debate!

The English Barbarians especially boast that the Great Council (Law-Houses) is not only the foremost of all national councils, whether ancient or modern, in character and in wisdom, but also in dignity, and the extreme care with which is guarded that most inestimable of all Institutions, the Sacred liberty of Speech!

There is a kind of oratory, sometimes contemptuously called Pulpit-oratory by the English, which may be referred to, because it forms a considerable part of the literary entertainment. Once a week, on the Holy day, ten thousand speeches or more are uttered by the Bonzes from a high place (called Pulpit) within the Temples.From the place of delivery the name mentioned is given to this kind of speech-making.The speech is known by one name—Sermon. These sermons form a part of the rites in the Temples, and are therefore numberless and never ceasing. As ought to be expected, they are as dull as such a formal thing must be. Some Bonze, new to his office, may attempt to give a little life to the performance. But the High-Caste do not like to be disturbed by any novelties; they prefer comfortably to sleep in the soft seats with high-backed supports, where their fathers have slept, Holy-day after Holy-day, for generations before them. They will not have the Bonze, therefore, thunder the terrors of Jah in their ears, nor affright their wives and children by painting Hell and the Devil. Eloquence, therefore, in the Temples, if it exist, must be content to glide softly over "green pastures," murmuring drowsily with "meandering streams."

The lower-sects are not so disposed to neglect their duty. With these the Bonze is expected to be "instant, in season and out of season," in the work of Jah. His terrors and the awful Hell; the wiles of Satan; the agony of the damned; the danger of neglecting repentance; the need of Salvation; the glorious Gospel; the blessedness of the redeemed; the worthlessness of good works; the absolute loss, here and hereafter, of failing to Believe; all these canons are vomited forth from the pulpit with an energy, and, sometimes, when directed to unbelievers, with a vindictive ferocity, startling and overpowering.The hearers do not sleep; even the boldest tremble, and the timid and weak sometimes go into convulsions of fear.

There are itinerant Orators, who go about the country making speeches (and trying to make money) upon all sorts of subjects. They are rarely effective, though occasionally, when they happen to seize upon a popular fancy, or to stir up some popular feeling, they gain a certain attention from the Lower-Castes. Whenever effective, it is by blending some of the strong points of the Idolatry with the prevailing agitation. If there be some matter concerning which the populace presume to have any opinion, then the itinerant speaker has his chance; and he is doubly influential if he mix in his discourse a good proportion of matter taken from the Sacred Writings and the Canons—this he distributes, to damn opposers and to reward adherents, with a combined Priestly and Lay vivacity and force!

We have, and have always had, ample specimens of these self-elected teachers and speakers; and they receive with us, in general, about the same neglectful consideration accorded to them by the Barbarians.

On a review, it must be admitted that the Western tribes are ingenious in domestic arts, and not wanting in invention. In the fine Arts they are sometimes effective, though immoral—merely imitating the ancient Roman-Greeks, whom they call Masters. Their architecture, when worth attention, is Roman. But they have produced one novelty, the Gothic—a wonderful outgrowth of the Barbaric mind, formed by its great Superstition.In painting, when confined to natural scenery and objects, they are sometimes very pleasing and correct.But in this department, where they are not immoral, they are often repulsive, seeking for startling effects, caught from the strongest passions. True Art elevates, refines, and pleases. It never lends itself to deformity, to the bad passions, to baseness. And it cannot sully itself by tampering with impure things. It recognises the twofold nature of man, and addresses itself to his moral instinct and love of divine beauty.

---

CHAPTER IX.

OF AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES.

When the lowest-caste takes a holiday, decent people keep away from the place of resort, as they would from pestilence.The coarseness, indecency, and uncleanliness are too revolting.Not that they really differ in the ways of enjoying themselves; but from their personal brutishness.

The remarks following refer to those above them, and to the great body of the people, when at spectacles and public resorts.

To me, unaccustomed to it, the presence of women everywhere perplexed and surprised.In days of sports, eating, drinking beer, gin, and other drinks, romping of the sexes, and an incessant restlessness, are very noticeable.In the open grounds, all kinds of sports and games are going on; women and men dance, whirl about upon seats, rush after and chase each other, swing in swings, all in a wild revelry!There will be games where the woman is now pursued, and now the man; and now shouting, screaming, giggling, struggling and kissing, men and women rush after each other, catch each other; and then, reforming in ranks, go through the same wild pranks again.

The chief out-door sports are horse-racing, boat-racing, hunting upon horseback, bats and balls, foot-races, and the like.In-door: the theatres, the dancing-halls, the circus, and a great variety of shows and spectacles.Women attend upon all, and take a part in all—or nearly all.In the theatre, the circus, the dances, and many other places and things, they take the most conspicuous parts.

Horse-racing is esteemed as the greatest of all spectacles; and ranks as worthy of a national support. The Highest-Castes—even the Sovereign—attend. The Law-making Houses, the Great Officers of Administration, and the High-Bonzes, leave the duties of their exalted rank, and postpone the making and ordering of the Laws, to attend the RacesThe Illustrious wives, daughters, and female relatives—even royalty—hasten to them, and esteem them as the best of all sports.

Every Caste—thieves, beggars, jugglers, the very scum of the cities; loafers, vagrants—rich, poor; men, women, children—every description of person, rush or crawl to the Races. Every sort of vehicle, every mode of conveyance is used: on horseback, on foot; in any way, the enormous multitudes crowd to the Races—it is the English Saturnalia (as an ancient Roman festival, noted for its licentiousness, was called)—I have heard the word punned [jo-akd] Satan-ail'ye, by jesters—meaning the Devil is in itNot a bad notion, having reference to the evil effects of the sport.

On both sides of the space where the horses are to run, immense numbers of carriages of all descriptions, booths, stands and seats, are arranged, where the vast crowds stand, or sit, pushing, elbowing; whilst the horses are trotted out, and the race is duly prepared. At length, a great many horses, ridden by little men, looking like Apes, rush off at a signal; spurred, whipped, urged by the riders into madness, with eyes bloodshot, and nostrils distended, and every cord and muscle starting out and straining—whilst the multitudes of men and women stand up, shouting, leaping, screaming with excitement—sweep like a whirlwind along the course, and pass the goal! And thousands of gold are lost and won! By as little as a head, or a neck, one of the horses is declared to be winner! The name of the horse is sent all over the Barbarian world, and the event is watched for by millions—because bets are made, not only upon the ground, but in every part.

I can hardly explain to the people of our Central Kingdom, the excitement and the confusion of this scene.The most illustrious men and women are present; the great Bonzes are there—all classes, the lowest and highest, jumbled together, if not in contact, all carried away by the same wild passion.About the splendid equipages of the rich, mere human vermin crawl and fight for the crumbs and bones which fall, or are thrown from the feasting women and men, carousing in the carriages.In these, beautiful women laugh and bet with the men, drink the wines, and exchange a hundred smiles and jokes.Betting books are opened, and the women take bets and plunge into the vortex of the phrensy.The race is over, and thousands are impoverished, many utterly ruined.

With us the Theatre is merely a public, out-door spectacle, of no importance, amusing the ordinary crowd, and free from immorality. Women take no part in the representations—boys, dressed as females, playing for women. But with the Barbarians the Theatre is an organisation of government, and receives the highest support. Women act, and are more popular with the spectators than the men.

The first in estimation is the Opera. In this representation, as I have said in another place, the action goes on, all in SingingTo me nothing could be more ludicrous, more in defiance of all reason and nature.The most terrible emotions—fear, hate, envy, as well as the tender; love, affection, friendship—all sung, and not merely sung, but bellowed, screamed, shrieked, in every contortion of throat and mouth!

In the Tragic performance the fierceness of the Barbarians delights in dreadful murders, plots, assassinations; in things which tear and lacerate human feelings, and bring despair and death!

The Comic is as coarse in loose buffoonery [Kro-sen-to-se] as the tragic is for an extreme of agony, based upon crime and baseness.

But the most astonishing of all the representations upon the Stage is the Ballet. I should not dare nor desire to refer to this, were it not to illustrate a point in the Barbarian character, only too prominent; and to give further cause to the people of our Flowery Land to be thankful to the Sovereign Lord, that He has not permitted such mark of degeneracy to stain us.

The Ballet is supervised by a very High-Caste Lord.It is composed of a band of young women, selected for beauty of form and of limb. They appear in public nearly naked, or so clothed in tightest hose [ki-i-e] and draped in thinnest diaphanous fabric, that what is concealed is half disclosed and more piquant than if left uncovered. Troops of these appear—dazzling in white or pink—upon the stage-floor. Before they show themselves to the public, however, they parade, one by one (as I was truly informed), before the High-Caste Supervisor of the Ballet, who, with his assistants, duly examines the legs, arms, busts, and drapery, to see if all be in due order. The drapery is carefully measured to see if it be of the required length, and, if too short, must be extended to the knees. Not to cover anything, but to satisfy a pretence. For these transparent fabrics, aside from that quality, are so contrived that they float off from the body and limbs with every movement—and the motions studied are those which produce this effect—twirling around rapidly being a chief feat. When the High-Caste is satisfied that there be nothing to offend the most delicate, and that all the demands of a pure Christ-god morality are satisfied, he sends the young girls to the stage, and they appear in the Ballet

This is a dance—why should I say more.But consider this dance is before the highest and best—in an immense and brilliantly lighted, lofty house.There are vast crowds, seated upon a level with, or just below the stage—in rows, one row above another, forming a grand half-circle, from the floor to the dome; so high, that the faces cannot be distinguished.Then the rich and glittering decorations; the paintings, the sculptures, the music!

The music of innumerable instruments strikes up. In come the troops of half-naked girls; their busts, their legs exposed. In they come, leaping, dancing, twirling, whirling, flying! They twirl around on the toes like tops. They spin on a single toe, sticking out the other leg—and, in this attitude, revolve about! They retreat, advance, stoop, go backward, forward; twisting, twirling, throwing themselves, their arms, and particularly their legs, into all possible positions; whirling about on one leg and extending the other, being the most admired feat! This is (very faint) the Ballet!

Mothers, wives, husbands, daughters, sons, lovers, maidens, look upon this spectacle—and pray for the benighted Heathen!

Englishmen often remarked to me, jocosely, "Ah-Chin—no like the Ballet—why, the Theatre nowadays stands on Legs!"

It is a fact that, in those times which the Barbarians call dark, when ignorance and brutality marked the whole aspect of common life, the instinct of decency prevented women from appearing on the Stage at all. It is quite a modern invention.

The Circus is another favourite show. In this, women appear, ride the horses, fly in the air, walk upon ropes tightly drawn above the spectators, and form a main feature. They make the same study of exposing themselves, and are undressed like the women in the BalletThey give to the performance the same kind of stimulus, to which is added the further excitement of danger.For in leaping, flying through the air, vaulting, and walking upon the tight-rope high above the spectators; the probability of a broken back, or neck, gives a new sensation.

In the warm weather, the English Barbarians find great amusement in crowding to the Sea. Here, little houses placed on wheels are trundled into the waves. From these, women, men, and children wade, and plash and dive into the water. The women, and even children, often swim very well—the men nearly all. The two sexes bathe quite near, or together, in full sight of the people on the shore. Here, on the sands, thousands are walking, sitting, and lounging about, amusing themselves in the idlest sports. The men in the water are, with the exception of a mere loin-cloth, naked. The women, though tolerably covered, yet so carelessly that, with the motions of the bath and waves, they are sufficiently exposed! In these sea-bathing places you will see Barbarian life in all its rudeness, and love of boisterous fun and frolic. The men, and women, and children, abandon themselves to eating, drinking, bathing in the sea-water; to sports and games; to dancing, sight-seeing, and match-makingThe last is the pursuit of husband-catching, which the free-and-easy life at the sea-side greatly facilitates.

Boat-races—sailing boats, and boats rowed or paddled—take place at these sea-side places, and are greatly admired.They are unobjectionable, and natural to a maritime tribe.

A strange feature is to see women go fearlessly into boats, and, hustled with the men, enjoy the excitement of the wind and wave, to witness these races, or merely for the frolic—but women are everywhere!

The Cattle Shows are characteristic. Here, fat cattle, sheep, fat swine, fine horses, poultry, tools used in tillage, fruit and vegetables, are shown; and the best receive prizes. Only a few of the High-Castes attend these, and then merely as a form. The real support comes from the farmers; and from the Lower-Castes. These crowd to the show, paying at the doors, merely for frolic and fun. Open to late hours at night, with music, lights, and places for eating and drinking, the mixed crowd of men and women delight in the hustling, crowding. The usual beer and other drinks are ready; the usual giggling of women, surging, and elbowing, and pushing about! One wonders much, whether the fat animals are not more respectable than the animals which crowd about them! But I can hardly fairly judge of the real character of the crowds, for they are too novel and too offensive to the habits of our Flowery Land. It is certain, however, that the Barbaric element always perverts the most useful things; and a Cattle Show must be debased and turned aside from its proper objects. What have the women and men, who push and surge about the brutes, of interest in the thing? Nothing. They may know and care for sheep, when roasted, or for fat swine, when in the shape of a rasher [fri-ie-tz].

The most curious, and, perhaps, most important of out-door scenes is the Hustings. When there is a vacant place in the Lower-Law-House (of the great Council), the Sovereign commands a new member to be chosen by those who have the right, in the town entitled to send. A sort of stage is put up in the market-place, and here those meet who are to be hustled for. Hustings comes from this word, and means to shake together in confusion. There are some who wish to send A. , others who wish to send B. Accordingly, these are seized by their struggling supporters; each side endeavouring to put upon the stage its man, and each trying to put off the man of the other side! One may judge of the hustling. Each candidate submits to every sort of indignity. The hustlers (voters, generally called) are chiefly of the Lower (not Lowest) Caste, and enjoy this privilege mightily. Beyond the immediate actors are the associates of the two parties—not having a right to hustle; but, none the less, aiding in the general struggle, by pelting with rotten eggs, garbage, or other harmless (sometimes not harmless) nastiness [phu-fo], the man whom they dislike. Finally, one of the men is got upon the stage; entitled to be the new member for having had the larger number of indignities put upon him, and come out a-top! These are—to have the head-covering driven violently down over the face—to be befouled with stinking eggs and garbage, and all the time to say, "Free and independent voters," accompanied by bows and grimaces, intended for smiles!

If the Lower-House, however, find on examination that some one has hustled twice—that is, thrown two missiles, then the scene must be rëenacted!For it is thought to be too dangerous to allow of this unfairness.If one could do this on the one side, then it would be done on the other; and in the excitement, things harder than mud would be thrown, to the danger of life!As to the outside throwers, the police take care that they do not exceed mud, filth, rotten eggs, and vegetables!

When the new member is chosen, he is called upon by his supporters to thank them in a speech. He rises to do this, and, bowing, says, "I am powerless to express my grateful sense of the honour. Free and independent voters"—at this moment a half-drunken supporter of the defeated man gives the signal. The rotten egg has fairly hit the new member in the face; the crowd on the one side and on the other rush in pell-mell; the stage is broken down; stones, sticks, clubs, brickbats, are used and fly about freely; noses bleed; heads are cracked; oaths and yells arise! The new member, surrounded by his supporters, finally conquers; and, placed in a chair, is lifted by strong arms to the shoulders of sturdy men, who bear him to his illustrious house, where his exalted wife and noble friends receive him with delight. The tumultuous crowd are feasted by the Servants; and, finally, yelling and shouting for my Lord—the new member—he appears at a lofty window above them, thanks them once more, and disappears. The rabble leave the place, the gates are closed, and my lord and lady can congratulate themselves and be congratulated that the farce is over. Power and influence remain with them—the indignities are all washed off—it is merely English humour.

In these Hustings the Illustrious wives and daughters, as well as all male relatives, take part, and are obliged to take their share of the indignities. The dirty child of a low-caste (who happens to have a right to hustle) will be taken upon the silken lap of my Lady, and feel boldly in my Lady's pocket for pennies; and the daughter of my Lady sits down upon the stool and feeds the hungry old hag of aged poverty. The old hag being ill, and mother to the hustlerIn this way, and on these rather infrequent occasions, the bold Englishman of Low-Caste vindicates his manhood and shows his power in the State.But it is a mere form.The High-Castes understand the Barbaric temper, and consider this mode of amusing it the cheapest and least inconvenient.There is a struggle sometimes for the new membership between individuals, but these are always of the High-Caste connection and order.Actual power does not exist in the hustling rabble—that is in the High-Caste. Nevertheless, sometimes the Hustlers can determine which of two shall be sent; and, therefore, it is necessary, when more than one desires to go, to submit to the hustling. Nearly all the worst indignities are omitted when only one person is named. In this case, all the hustlers being of a mind, they do not inflict more than the accustomed indignities, which are moderate in comparison; though one would think sufficiently humiliating.

In the civic processions, which occur when a new magistrate is appointed to a city, one observes how the old barbaric features still predominate.Like children those things are most esteemed which grown people disdain or laugh at.Rude force and the emblems of it; men absurdly accoutred in old, fantastic arms and armour; banners which once marshalled trained men to war; gilt and golden vehicles, conveying priests and officials; these carrying glittering baubles in their hand; loud music and bands of curiously dressed braves; these things delight the multitude, which comes swarming out from every hole and corner of the city.Such crowds of both sexes, with children even in arms!Nowhere out of these Barbaric and populous tribes can such a spectacle be seen.The vast throngs rush and push about, and woe to that decent man who gets entangled among them!Often the selfish, reckless hordes, rushing through some street with a new purpose, overwhelm and crush every moving thing in the way.

Women, children, strong men, are often thrown down, maimed; even killed outright! Thieves, beggars, the indescribable scum of degraded humanity, mixed with the crowd (in its own character but little removed from lowest debasement), give it an air of unspeakable disgust!

Of these Civic Spectacles, a Coronation is supreme. This only takes place when a new Sovereign is crowned. No one is admitted to the actual Ceremony but the highest of the High-Castes. The common people, who bear nearly all the taxes to pay for the enormous cost, must be content to get such glimpses of the passing pageant, as is possible to them, at the risk of limb and of life. The whole thing is so guarded by armed bands, on horseback and on foot, with fire-arms ready, and swords drawn, that it is only by rushing close to the horsemen, and pressing upon the foot-braves, that any glimpse can be got by the common multitude; and for these mere glances—under the bellies of horses, or between their legs, or through some iron railings, or the like—the devoted barbarians will risk their lives. Such is the admiration which this great show attracts!

It is thus admired, not only because of the awfulness of the Crown, but also because the Idolatry plays so large a part in it. The new King is always crowned by a Highest Bonze, in his costly priestly robes, and anointed with holy oil; whilst the Sacred Writings and Incantations are duly read and uttered! The worship of Christ-Jah and the other gods, are all pledged, together with all the Canons and beliefs, including the Divine Revelation of the Jewish Sacred Writings; in fact, the ceremony, in the Priestly part, is Jew throughout!

The scene is characteristically barbaric. Force, and glittering display; all the jewels, the gewgaws, the golden rods, orbs, bowls, sticks; the spears, swords, steel armour, helmets; the robes, furs, silks, velvets; jewelled garters for the legs; ornamented chains in gold, for the neck; coronets, for the hereditary nobles [Hi-fi]; cassocks, gowns, mitres, staffs; scarlet and crimson cloths, cloaks, and waving plumes of the great braves; men in steel, on horseback—all these things, and a thousand more! With the grand women, and the High Lords! all are present. All is show and glitter; and childish! In the midst, out there rides a man, all covered with steel armour, with a long and flashing spear, who, sitting proudly on his horse, looks defiance! A trumpet sounds; another dashes forward, and proclaims the new Monarch; then the first, with a loud voice, defies to mortal combat any one who dares to challenge the right of the proclaimed Sovereign—and, thereupon, throws down a glove [kang]. If any one should pick up the glove, it would imply an acceptance of the challenge. No one takes up the glove. The trumpets sound, the music strikes up in a hundred places; the vast multitude cry and shout, "Long live the renowned, the exalted, the Illustrious!"—and the new-crowned man is King!

In this barbaric display, the money expended is enormous in amount. The jewels and mere inanities are so costly that, put to proper use, poverty would scarcely exist. Nor is this all; the High-Caste get all the honours and emoluments, though they bear but a small part of the expense. Many of this Caste hold hereditary offices connected with this Show, from which they derive revenue and high honour! One may be hereditary sword-bearer, another cup-bearer, another towel-holder, another bottle-washerNor is this sort of sinecure (name for frivolous, useless Service) confined to males; females may be hereditary folders of the Queen's night-cap, washers of the baby-linen, keepers of the robes, maids of the bed-chamber, and so on! Still, such is the ignorance and debasement of the common people, and even of the better classes, that, although they pay for these expensive whimsicalities and barbarisms, and never by any chance share in the personal benefits, they admire them; and believe them to be, in some mysterious way, connected with their glorious constitution and privileges!

I scarcely like to speak of the displays by the braves. These are those on horseback, those on foot, those with horses, and cannons mounted on wheels; and some who march partly, and partly ride. Our Flowery Kingdom knows these armed bands, and how rude and disorderly they are. How they plunder and kill the defenceless, and burn and destroy! How fierce they are, and how reckless of order, even to their own chiefs!

But I will refer to the main display of these armed bands.Once or twice in twelve moons, all the bands being assembled, are divided into two parts.Each part has a great Chief at the head, with horsemen, footmen, and those with the wheeled-cannon.

One of these Divisions is sent to a distance, and the other is kept at hand. Then the one near is commanded to act as if the distant force was an enemy, who, having landed, was marching into the country to subdue it. In this way, it is intended to teach the armed bands to march, countermarch, hide, seek, advance, retreat, get into ambuscade, get out of it, rush up hills, rush down hills, cross rivers, make bridges, construct roads; pretend to blow up and to construct earth-forts; pretend to charge, to fire, to shoot, to rush with horses, to swiftly move and fire the cannons, each against the other; to skirmish in small squads [kong], and fight in large bands—in fine, to carry on a Military campaign (as the Barbarians term this prodigious nonsense). Some one said to me, "A very sham pain." It seemed to me no sham to the soldiers—so far as toil is concerned.

How, in carrying out this tomfoolery [hen-di-ho-ty], bands of armed men may be seen scattered over a wide range of country. Smoke of fire-arms and reports of the cannons may be seen and heard, in different parts—and a quiet traveller may be surprised to see suddenly a band of men, armed, rapidly approaching, with the bright steel glistening in the sun; and, levelling these steel-spears affixed to the fire-arms, see them rush, pell-mell, upon a row of bushes, firing and shouting—then, suddenly recoiling, rush back and hurry to shelter behind some other row!Then cannon will bang, and smoke will rise from among trees near the place; and the horses will be seen advancing rapidly, dragging after them the cannon, which, being planted on a hill, fire and bang away; then, all at once, some great braves, with feathers flying, and swords flashing, will rush directly upon the cannon, even right into the mouths!

Then pell-mell other horsemen, cutting and slashing with long swords, and firing off little fire-arms, will be seen; and soon long lines of foot-braves will appear among the trees and bushes, and some will rush upon the others, and others rush upon them, firing and banging away, in a manner very surprising; and this is a sham-fightSometimes the braves get so excited that they really do fight in good earnest.As there is nothing but powder in the fire-arms, the danger is in the swords and spears, which are sometimes so used in the heat and excitement that many braves are really hurt.

When all is over the head braves of the two forces make Reports of the doings of their respective divisions, complimenting the braves and the head men upon their discipline and order.

On one occasion the Royal Prince and his attendants rode directly upon the mouths of a battery of cannon. Now the whole idea of the Sham is that everybody is to conduct himself precisely as if the doings were real. Any head-brave who forgets this is disorderly and liable to punishment. What would have been the fate of the Royal party had the cannon which they rode directly upon, been charged with balls as well as powder! It is not to be found, however, that the Great Brave in his Report referred to this extraordinary exploit of the Royal Prince.

With an enemy, real, deadly, strong, advancing into the country, then indeed the braves would have work which would stir all their wits and nerve all their strength. Marches in rain and mud; toilsome nights; work in the ditches; cold and biting winds; wakeful and wearisome watchings; all endured manfully, and hardly noticed because it is real. Even a pauper disdains make-believe toil, and takes the pittance tendered for it as an insult. To the common man all this labour and exposure is very hard and very real—all the more so, because it is mere noise and smoke. No wonder that he is careless and indifferent; no wonder that he curses the nonsense which wearies him without giving him any satisfaction. Show him true, honest need; where the enemy of his tribe lurks, and he is alert, active; calls up all his intelligence, looks to his arms, looks about him, and feels no fatigue. But this—he loses discipline, and is really demoralised by a Sham

Still the Barbarians greatly admire all this noise and blustering; and the Head-Braves fancy that the bands are improved in order and in knowledge of arms; that they would really understand how to meet a genuine enemy more skilfully, by having made-believe to fight a friend. All human experience shows the opposite of this to be true; for the sham is certain to entail some of its mischief and injure the very qualities which it is supposed to improve. In the nature of things this affair cannot be good. The object is a sham—everything, therefore, about it is sham. The fight is a sham, and the fighter is a sham-brave, and, therefore, worthless. Who doubts that he is injured by this pitiful work?

When these armed bands march in the displays made on public occasions, then, knowing that they are doing true work with a true object, they enter into it with spirit.Every man feels himself to be a part of a fine whole, and interests himself to do his best.These displays of the numerous armed men, marching with banners, bright swords and spears, with cannon, great troops of horses, long columns of glittering steel flashing in the sun, with brilliant coverings and gay colours, and the loud clanging music—these attract great multitudes.Whilst the High-Caste Braves, on grand horses, clothed in bright armour and steel, prance about and order the bands of braves.All are quiet and orderly, and preserve due restraint.One would not know that these are the same turbulent, untrained, reckless, and cruel plunderers and murderers, who devastate the homes of peaceful people beyond the seas.

I did not see the big fire-ships, for it was not permitted to me.Or rather it would have been very uncomfortable indeed, for the rude and insolent Barbarians in the ships know nothing of ordinary politeness and civility.They jeer my illustrious country and people, and mock at us with the brutality of conceited and barbaric ignorance.I was told that the big ships perform a great many movements, firing off the great cannons, and moving about each other, and pretending to fight—in this way to teach the head officers and the men how to manage the vessels, and how to fire the enormous guns, and how to shoot the big balls and fire-bombs, and other horrible things, in the most destructive way. Sometimes an old vessel is allowed to float on the waves, and the fire-ships shoot off the cannon balls against the hull, to see how soon they can destroy, burn, or sink it. Sometimes they send against it a curious machine filled with gun-powder, which, sinking under the old hull, suddenly blows up, raising the great mass entirely out of the sea, and utterly destroying it! So ingenious are these fierce tribes of the West in all contrivances for the destruction of mankind!

---

CHAPTER X.

OF THE EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE, AND ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE.

I have spoken quite at length of the English Barbarians as traders—these form a large portion of the whole.Below these are the lowest caste, workers, beggars, and thieves.The tillers of the land make a great part of the workers; then those who toil in the mines, shops, and great factories; lastly, mere day-labourers of all sorts.

The tillers of land are wretchedly poor. In the years of their strength they just keep from starvation, living in hovels hardly fit for a brute, and not so good as the Master's dog-kennel. When strength goes they become idle, paupers, and die in the poor-house [do-zen-di].

The mine-workers delve in the dark bowels of the earth for coal, iron, copper, tin, and other minerals. No beast works in more dirt, nor under more brutal circumstances. Out of the light of day, far below, in pitchy blackness, illumined only by the faint light of a lamp fastened to his head, the serf toils—exposed to death from suffocation, by the falling-in of earth, from great outbursts of water, from accidents of many kinds, and from the fearful explosions!He gets more money—but in the light of day, when he has cleansed himself from some of his weight of filth, the gin and beer shop give him the readiest and only resource! The lives of these toilers and of their families are scarcely imaginable. An explosion sometimes destroys nearly a whole village!

The vast numbers, men, women, and children, who labour in shops and factories of all kinds, present a very uniform appearance of misery and degradation. They swarm in the great towns, amid the débris [kon] of coal and iron works, and in the purlieus of the places of labour—dirty, noisome, barbarous. No High-Caste, unless by mistake, ever goes among them; and even the lower avoid them. Worked by their task-masters all the day, from early morning till late at night, for such pittance as may keep them at work, what can be expected? Young girls and lads work together; there is no decency (there hardly can be), connections are formed, children come; but who is to care for them?What can describe truly the actual state of things?

When work is over, weary, without respect from others, and feeling none, therefore, for themselves; no decent home, wife and children draggled and wretched like themselves, where else to go but to the warm and brilliant-lighted drink-places? Here is warmth, shelter, comforting drink. Is it surprising that these, the only homes, take nearly all earnings; and that the small remainder gives to the bare rooms, ragged garments, and squalid wives and children, that aspect of misery and brutishness?Whole quarters of towns are given up to this degradation.The portals of Temples, the porticoes of grand edifices, the very steps of public charities, are crowded with these victims of ignorance and selfishness—a selfishness peculiar to the cold nature of these Barbarians, and which receives its finest and most exquisite polish among the High-Caste. I speak of the steps of Charity Halls, where relief is supposed to be given to the starving; but on the very steps misery may find its last, wretched repose.

It seems to be accepted as inherent in the nature of things that this abounding debasement and wretchedness, wherein crime breeds by an inexorable law, must be. The crime must be watched and kept within bounds, and guards must carefully repress the disorders of this foul shame, but the thing itself is inherent and ineradicable.It may be so to the barbaric nature.

The ordinary labourers of all descriptions, in the street, in the shipping-docks, in waiting upon the artificers, in the digging, toiling, manual employments, differ not much from their congeners [re-la-tsi] in the factories and mines. Their habits are the same. All are alike really serfs, taking no notice of the refinements and the enjoyments of the higher-castes, and being everywhere rigidly avoided by them. On a sunny day, if you walk in a public garden, you will see some of these miserable beings lying about on the grass, stretched out in the sun, asleep. By no chance will they occupy any place which is usually used by the upper castes, nor will any of these, by any chance (short of dire need), ever speak to or notice one of these low creatures. Sometimes an open green space will present an appearance like a battle-field after a combat. These serfs scattered around, here one or two perfectly still, there some just turning or raised upon elbow; sometimes an old crone resting upon a recumbent man; most, perfectly still and flat, give an aspect of dead and dying strewn over the field. Occasionally men and women will be cuddled close together for warmth; in truth, this grassy, sunny couch, is to them a luxury.

The aspect of these day-labourers as they lounge, or slouch [gr-utn] idly about the streets, is repulsive and curious. They seem unable to stand up. Whether from the nature of their toil, or from mere shiftlessness, I know not. But they never do stand erect, and slouch along from one beer-shop corner to another, till they can lean or lie down. They cluster about the corners by beer and gin shops, rarely molesting any one, but frequently noisy and quarrelsome among themselves. They carry their strong passions and strong drink to their wretched haunts where crime and violence are rife. Women and children of this class are also at these drinking places, and give a feature to the degradation of unusual repulsiveness. These beer and gin shops, in low quarters of a town, are prolific of riot and crime, but abounding everywhere, in parts more decent, the police [ta-pki] are forced to be more watchful. A striking illustration of the callousness of the High-Caste is, that they derive their own revenues largely from this very degradation of the serfs—for an immense tax is paid by them upon the beer and gin which they consume—and this tax enures wholly to the benefit of the High-Caste. In the Law-making House, therefore, whenever some good man wishes to moderate this excessive evil of drink and drunkenness; pointing out how Crime takes root and flourishes, and vice spreads from these drinking-places; how the whole community suffers; he is laughed at and pointed at, and made odious to these miserable creatures, as one who would deprive the poor man of his Beer! In this connection of the serf with the rich man's revenue, it is convenient to say "the poor man;" on ordinary occasions, the "drunken beast," or the "brute," would be more likely.

There are parts of great towns where decent people never go unless by sheer need, and where in the night they would not go unless accompanied by a policeman. Nothing can describe the aspect of the dark courts and streets, of the mean and filthy buildings, shops, and dens! Nastiness, foul smells, dirty shambles and garbage; doors and windows smashed and stuffed with rags; gutters festering with impurities; and the human vermin swarming like maggots in rotten flesh! Upon this foundation the palaces of the rich and the vast stone Temples rest; one wonders that they do not sink into it.

It is a great boast of the English Barbarians that "a slave cannot breathe in England." At first, when I heard this, I supposed that it meant that he would die under the conditions of life awaiting him—he would not be able to breathe—and therefore slaves were unable to live in the land. But the boast merely means that it is not permitted to add black slaves from abroad; they cannot live in England; nor do I think they could. I do not comprehend the boast, unless on the ground that it would be an expensive as well as useless cruelty to land even blacks, merely to have the trouble and cost of burying their carcases.

I have called these low-castes Serfs, disregarding the barbarian fiction which calls them free. Not long since they were slaves under precise law; now they are so by universal custom. When they were legal slaves they had some care and protection; there was a tie existing between master and servant; hearty service and affectionate concern rendered the relation not merely supportable, but positively advantageous. The tie is severed; there is neither hearty service nor affectionate concern. The master possesses everything as before, but he is no longer obliged to maintain his labourers. These are numerous; they must work or starve. Whilst they work they get enough perhaps to live; no longer able to work, mere pauper-life in poorhouses and the pauper's grave await them. Nor do the masters even pay for these; they have cunningly contrived to have the expense borne by all who have anything to be taxed. Thus the severance of the ancient tie has only enriched the High-Castes and freed them from all obligation to care for the labourer, and sunk him into a condition of hopeless and debasing poverty. The freedom is all on the strong side; the slavery more abject and less softened by humane sentiments.

Now there are a few, who have some dim perceptions of these so obvious features to a disinterested spectator.They see that it is a poor compensation to the wretched misery which holds thousands hopelessly in its grasp, to point out an occasional accident of escape—where some one, more gifted and more fortunate than his fellows, happens to rise into comfort and slight esteem!These noble men, the harbingers of light, who try to see and to act honestly, in spite of early prejudice and habit, perceive that there is no hope for these serfs, unless they can be moved with a higher interest. They think they discover a chance to move them by offering them knowledge, without, or nearly without, cost. But it is doubtful if they be not too low, too brutal, to care for knowing anything. Then, "they must be forced to send the children, to be taught—they must be whipped to School." This is resented as an outrage on the freedom of the serf—as an invasion of his family rights—as a positive, additional, tax and burden. For he gets something from the petty work, or from the begging or thieving of the children, and now the Master takes that! Yet, probably, this is one needful thing—to take the children into the hands of the State, in every case where the natural guardian is unfit to properly care for them. But the State cannot half take them. It cannot take anything of the present pittance, and claim to have compensated by giving words instead. It is cruel to say to him who starves in body, "Starve—I feed the mind!" A poor parent cannot receive even knowledge in exchange for bread. And it cannot be asked of him, in his low estate, to exchange the little added support of the child's wage for the, to him, useless words of knowledge. In the face of want one cares only for bread! Therefore, the State which teaches must also feed the poor—or see to it that the honest poor be first fed. If the parent can only feed by the help of the child, the State must not arbitrarily assume to be Master and Judge—saying, "Come to school—and starve, if must be."

The High-Caste, secretly, clog and obstruct all attempts to raise the low. Learning belongs to the master—ignorance to the serf. It is enough for him to obey and work. There will always be poor, and vicious poor. It is better to merely watch and guard against an Evil, for which there is no remedy. To give instruction to the low-orders, is to arm demagogues with a dangerous weapon. "'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'—it only enables the multitude to see just what it suits the purpose of the Agitator to show! There is nothing but evil in these grand measures. All must be left to individual effort; and to the Priests. These must work as comes in their way; instructing those who wish, and encouraging those who dutifully obey, and attend to the labours imposed upon them by divine Providence" (Meaning, that Jah has ordained, from all time, that some must be "Hewers of wood and drawers of water"—a quotation from the Sacred Writings).

In this manner, the High-Caste, when it condescends to the subject at all, dismisses it. Indeed, this Caste, the Master-Caste, really feels no other concern in the low orders, but a concern for their peaceful subjection. To this point they direct so much care, as to have always trained bands of braves, and strong, picked, well-ordered men, called Police, ready at handSo, in case the wretched, degraded, and despised serfs and thieves, should dare to raise any stir, disturbing the ease and enjoyment of the luxurious High-Caste, they may be shot down without mercy!

Necessarily, the elevation of the low-classes will be very gradual. Many of the Priests, wishing to enlarge and maintain the influence of the Superstition, actively exert themselves among the honest and industrious poor. And some of these Bonzes are as benevolent as the traditions of their Caste and of their Idolatry will permit.

It is doubtful if the present condition of the masses of the English Barbarians be so manly and independent as ages ago—when they were sufficiently intelligent to move in their own cause, and were really of some importance in the State. Unfortunately, they did remove from their necks the pressure of immediate, personal service, only to accumulate upon them, as a Class, the whole weight of the landed and trading interests.As a whole, therefore, they are more servile, more abject, and more dependent; and the few individuals who may raise themselves above the level of their class cannot even flatter themselves in this to have gained.There never was a time when these individuals did not exist—it is not clear that their numbers have increased.

---

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE HIGH CASTES: SOME PARTICULARS OF THEIR DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS.

In this chapter I shall try to show some of the peculiarities of the opposite extreme of Barbarian life. From ignorant poverty, verging upon crime, crime and vice; we are taken to luxury, also verging upon crime, crime and vice—though under very different forms. The All-wise and Sovereign Lord knows how to judge each class of offenders!

The High-Caste is very exclusive—it will not, if it can avoid it, notice one of a lower order; and never will do so unless it has some selfish end in view. This cold-bloodedness characterizes all Castes. When the Barbarians, therefore, chance to meet, and being of near Castes, cannot be distinguished by dress, they never touch or address each other—but stare rudely up and down the person, to see if it will be safe to be civil, the one to the other.

In general, however, the two Higher-Castes present so many features in common, that a spectator may regard them as one.Both look upon all useful occupation as shameful; and whilst it is hard to call up a blush for anything mean, detection in any honest work covers with confusion!

The women of this Caste appear everywhere in public, with the same boldness as men.They dress in laces, silks, satins, velvets; richest furs, feathers, shawls, and scarfs.Are so addicted to these things, and to costly jewels, and ornaments of gold, precious stones, and the like, that a fortune is often carried upon and about a fine Lady.(Lady is for the female like Lord for a male). In truth, a Lady only lives for two purposes—to dress, and to marry. I ought to add another, but whether it be subordinate or chief I know not; in fact, I hardly know what it is. We have no very near word. It is a something of which you hear constantly—to flirt. To dress, it is necessary to shop [keat-hi]. This, is to buy the innumerable articles which make up a fine Lady's wardrobe and personal appointments. Heaven and earth, and all the lands beyond the great seas, are ransacked to gratify the insatiate demands of Barbarian High-Caste women. The finest paints for the cheeks and eyelids, the most precious stones for the ears, the neck, the wrists, the fingers; the most delicate perfumes, the pure gold, the richest furs and feathers, spices, oils; the laces, scarfs, silks, embroideries;—an endless variety. Shopping is, therefore, the serious occupation (subsidiary to husband-catching and flirting) of ladies. Many ruin themselves, or their fathers, their husbands, or relatives, in this expensive luxury of idle vanity. High-Caste women show themselves in public, sometimes on foot, but, more generally, lolling, with poodles in lap, within open, grand carriages, drawn by great, high-stepping horses. (Poodles are nasty dogs). They attend the Temples, waited upon by solemn servants, clothed in showy colours, and bearing ostentatiously the Sacred books. They are conspicuous, when at the Temple, for audibly accompanying the Priest in the Invocations and Confessions: "miserable offenders" seeming to be a phrase rolled like a sweet morsel, and having a savour of repentance and humility, very edifying!

The men do not appear very numerously with the women—leaving them to do as they please.The men going off to their own exclusive pleasures: gambling, betting, racing, boating, hunting, and other things equally useful and improving.

All through the night, which is the time of High-Caste revelry, the streets where the great live resound with the noise of the carriages, constantly busy with the transporting of the High-Castes to and from the Theatres, the Dances, the places of Amusements, the Dinners, the Parties, Routs, and visits. To mark the difference of the Upper from the Lower, time itself is reversed; night is taken for life and sport, and the day for rest, gossip [Quen], and shoppingIn nothing could the difference be more striking.The luxuriousness of mere self-indulgence, which takes no heed of the usual order of nature, and does not suspect that day has any better use!When in the country, there is the same round of busy nothings.Visits, feasting, drinking—dancing, routs, and parties.Women taking the lead everywhere and in everything.Here, as in town, the business of life with women is to flirt, to marry, to dress—the last should be first.

The men add to the follies of women some things more robust, but not more useful.Betting, horse-racing, riding over country with dogs, pursuing timid creatures—or gambling, drinking, and feasting.

When I first arrived in England, I was amazed, and supposed all women were shameless [ba-tsi] that I saw, whenever I went in public. In our Flowery Land this class [ba-tsi], under the strictest survey and care of the magistrates, are barely tolerated, and forced to the most scrupulous decorum of dress and conduct. With us no modest woman of any rank ever appears in public. Therefore my surprise and astonishment may be imagined. Afterwards these were moderated, and I could make allowances for the force of custom. None the less the custom is remarkable, and will receive attention elsewhere.

The mode of dress is simply wonderful. It is ever changing and ever indelicate and monstrous—especially for women. When I first saw one of these with a huge hunch on the top of her back, I thought the person was afflicted with an enormous tumour; but when I observed the same thing on all hands, I saw my mistake.The great hunch was no more than a machine placed on top of the seat, under the outer garments.The effect is something amazing.The women in walking also wear the robe drawn as tightly as possible back and over the hips, so as to display the whole form from head to foot in front, and also in rear, excepting at the back-seat where the protuberance is.Here the clothes are clustered, and hang down in a trail upon the ground!The feet are thrust into very high-heeled shoes, or boots; so, in walking, the woman stoops mincingly forward with short, unsteady steps, as if pinched at the toes, rattling her heels upon the pavement, and tossing her back-gear and headdress, and showing off to an astonished observer (unused to the apparition) something to be remembered! On every little occasion taking up her trail, and discovering legs and ankles.

At home, when receiving male and female friends to dinner, the women do as they please—also in dances, routs, and the like. I was invited, soon after my arrival, to dine. I had looked at a Book of rites and ceremonies for the great, and hoped to get on tolerably well. On arriving, my first mistake was to address the servant as Illustrious, taking him for the master. In many houses the servant, dressed like the master (being much more of a man in appearance), may well be taken for him; but in some houses the servants are made to wear badges and colours of their station. Women are very choice about these men-servants, and will not have one unless he have very large, well-formed calves [fa-tze]. I have heard that the rogues supply this requirement by adding so much fine hay to the leg as will give due swell and figure!

Upon being shown up to the room, where I was to address myself first to the Lady—the Illustrious wife—I made my next blunder.The lady was large, full of flesh, rather red, with bright eyes.Another lady, just moving away, trailed her long robe suddenly before me—my foot caught and held her.She turned her white shoulders upon me, frowned—at the moment I stumbled, and recovered myself awkwardly, with open hands full upon the ample bosom of the Illustrious! Ah, my confusion! I could not recover my composure. I could see nothing but necks, shoulders, backs, bosoms of women, and eyes flashing at me—heads, and feathers and jewels—lights, noise, confusion! I got away—never knew how.

Women, when undressed in this indelicate way, are said to be in full dress. I think this is a sly sarcasm of the men. The men, however, dress in a manner not at all better. When in full dress, they put on a ridiculous close garment, slit up behind, and very scant, with two tails, which pretend to cover the hinder parts. The trowsers (an "unmentionable" article for the legs), no more than the under garment worn by us, is the only covering for the legs and lower part of the body! Imagine the indelicacy! In this style of full dress, the women and men of the High-Caste Barbarians meet and mingle together everywhere, and at all feasts, revelries, and dances.

In the shows within-doors the same mode prevails.At the public spectacles, in full view of thousands, ladies sit exposed to the gaze of men, who often level at them the magnifying glasses taken for the purpose!Critically examining the exhibition before them from a distance of twenty feet [tu-fai].

The dress of women on horseback is as follows:—The head is covered with a man's head-gear, round, hard, high, black in colour, with a narrow rim. The bust and body are just as tightly fitted as possible, the hips and figure exposed in exact shape (how much made up no one can more than conjecture), and the legs covered by the dress falling over them long and full. The woman sits on a side-saddle, one leg well up over a horn of the saddle near the front top, and the other supported with the foot in a steel rest. She is lifted by a male servant, relative, or friend, into her perch. And when she, with the little whip in hand, takes up the long strips of leather by which she guides the horse, and starts off, there is a show the most curious! Up and down, with every motion of the horse, she bobs [Ko-bys], exposing, to any one looking after her, the most precise model of herself! but in an attitude and costume so remarkable, that I never saw even the accustomed Barbarians disregard an opportunity to see this show, however indifferent they may usually be.Nor do I think that the Barbarian women esteem any exhibition of themselves superior to this.

In the country you will see several apparitions of this kind, urging their flying horses after men and dogs, all chasing pell-mell some poor hare, which, running for cover, is pursued by a crowd of men and women on horseback, with dogs, yelping, barking, men blowing horns and shouting; the women on the horses leaping over fences, ditches, and urging their horses as wildly, boldly as the men—and sometimes in all respects as skilfully and well! This Sport is considered by the Barbarians to be very manly—nor do they consider a broken back, or even neck, as any objection to it!

The Rout is a favourite amusement with the High-Castes. So named from the confusion of armed men when routed—put to flight.It is to get together just as many people of both sexes as possible.With no sort of regard to the size of the house, but only to show how many of the High-Caste will respond to the invitation.

In full undress the ladies and gentlemen (Barbarian style for any High-Caste man) crowd into the house. Every stairway, every hall, room, chamber is filled. Refreshments are provided, but the flux and reflux of the people render all eating and drinking very difficult. The women flash in jewels, pendants in the ears, sparkling brilliants on arms, busts, ornaments of flowers and gems in the hair, jewelled fans in hand, perfumed laces and scarfs, tinted, and flushed, and adorned, exposed to bewilder and intoxicate the men—in fine, in the pursuit of husbands, or bent upon flirtations! These entertainments are designed for the very purpose of excitement and match-making. "Society is kept alive—life is made endurable by these things," the High-Caste women say. They have no other business but to attend to such matters; and to them Society looks to save it from dissolution and despair!

In the Rout all is confusion and opportunity. The young people, the old people, the highest and the lowest (permissible), are thrown promiscuously together. Women and men mingle, jostle, jamb, crowd, wriggle, and writhe together as best they can. The young lady suddenly finds herself quite in the arms of the young man who has saved her from a fall; and he, in turn, "begs pardon" of some woman, into whose lap he has almost been thrown by a sudden press.

Acquaintances may be made, flirtations begun, ending in something or nothing. But Society has had its excitement, and its members their chances for mere idle display, gossip, sensual gratification, or the more serious business of High-life—fortune-hunting by men and husband-catching by women! The Waltz and Dance are, however, the great game (for they are really one) of Barbarian life. Every Caste, according to its ability, dances—the low imitating, to their best, all the "airs and graces," dress and flirtations of their superiors. In the Waltz, when the music strikes up, the man takes the woman about the waist, standing with the other dancers in the middle of the floor, and she leans upon his shoulder interlocking the fingers of her disengaged hand in his. In this close position, they begin to wheel around, around; one couple follows another about the clear space left for them, till many couples are seen twirling, whirling about, around to the sound of the music—ever in this wild, whirling sort of a gallop, following one after another, rapidly! The long trails of the woman are held up, the embroidered skirts fly out, the silken shoes and hose flash; she is held close and more closely in the supporting arm, her cheek almost touches, her bust, neck, and face glow with excitement, the eyes and jewels sparkle, the man and woman whirl about, till intoxicated, dazed, and nearly exhausted, she sinks upon his arm and motions for rest, and he half supports and half leads her to some soft bench or chair! Such briefly is the Waltz. The dance is the same thing nearly, only more variety of movement is introduced. The whole object is to bring the sexes together, and keep Society alive, as before. Flirtation and match-making being main elements of social life.

The manners of the High-Caste are not really more refined than elsewhere; only there is a cool tone. Nothing must surprise, nothing confuse, nothing abash. A blush must be as rare as a laugh. A young woman seeing a young man gazing at her with bold admiration, must coolly look him down—if she please. His is an action of mere rudeness, or should be, when directed to a virtuous woman: but no, "a man may gaze upon what is everywhere exhibited for his admiration—may he not?" And yet, with strange inconsistency, a woman has a right to complain if a man, captivated by the very means designed, too rudely express his pleasure. And one man is required to chastise another for the rudeness to his relative, though he know that, in the nature of things, the female should expect what she encounters—and more, the complexity is further involved, that though one man must call another to account for this sort of rudeness, yet every man indulges in it!

Young people, in public, of the two sexes, without shame appear in close intimacy—and will look upon statues and paintings of naked women and men, talking and criticizing, examining the works and looking at them in company, without confusion, or appearance of there being any indelicacy.As if, in fact, in the bosoms of the High-Caste there did not exist any of the passions of ordinary mortals!

There are very numerous galleries of Art, where statues, paintings, pictures, models, and the like, are shown, which are always crowded by High-Caste women, children, and men.And shop-windows are made attractive by displays of pictures of nude, or half-nude, women and men, who act in the Plays, or who are notorious in Spectacles.This sort of indecency prevails; and strikes one, not used to it, with an unpleasant surprise.He knows not what to think of its significance—have all his ideas of decency been indecent?

I am not able to say much of the interior life of the family. I was told that a happy family was rare—quite an exception. It is only where the wife rules that any peace is secured. The wife is allowed to do, generally, in Society and at home, as she will. The husband goes off to his pastimes and pursuits. Children whilst young are committed to the care of servants, and when older sent away to be educated and trained by hirelings.

The daughters, when grown, often move the jealousy of the mother by attracting more attention from men—they are often snubbed and made to dress unbecomingly, so that the mother may shine.

Marriage among the High-Caste is an arrangement for an establishment; and to secure the succession of family name and title.To these ends great care is given to the money question.The man demands money for taking the wife.Domestic happiness is hardly thought of; unless, occasionally, by very young people, and they are laughed out of their ridiculous romance.

In the marriage ceremony, the wife, in the presence of the Idols, and following the Invocations of the Priest, solemnly promises to obey the husband.But this is regarded as a mere form.Any husband who undertakes to enforce obedience, finds himself branded by Society, as a "brute!" Much of the infelicity in marriage rests upon this false basis. For, with the virile instinct, man naturally expects obedience; yet has, in his unmarried days, fallen in with the false notion of woman's superiority in delicacy and moral virtue. This peculiar affectation colours all Barbarian intercourse with the sex. It has its root in the Superstition, possibly; where an immaculate virgin gives birth to a Son of god-Jah!who is the Christ-god.Thus, woman came to be mother of God!

From this, very likely, followed all the false worship and gallantry of the barbarians; who still, keeping up this mode of treating women as superior in excellency, could scarcely deny to them a superior place in the family. Assumed to be absolutely chaste and pure, they are to be implicitly trusted—nor to them is there impropriety! Hence follows the fine Art exhibitions—the undress dress; the waltz; the mixed crowds—the everything, where women, according to the ordinary feelings of cultivated men, should not be, or be in a very different way. But the man before marriage, and afterwards, too, (excepting to his own wife), pretends to look upon woman as a divinity—as something far above him in moral goodness! After marriage, it is difficult to dethrone this divinity—the man has not a divinity at the head of his family; but all his friends (male friends) pretend to think so; Society says so; and he is himself compelled to pretend to the same thingUnder these circumstances he will never be likely to get much obedience.None the less, a struggle commences; the man persistent, strong; the woman unyielding, crafty; the family divided; the children demoralized; a false and wretched farce of conjugal Play, so badly acted as to deceive not even Society! and finally ending in the Divorce Court.

This is the tribunal where Causes Matrimonial are settled; and, if one may judge from its Reports in the Gazette, conjugal contention is exceedingly common.For the public cases must be few, compared with those where publicity is avoided by private arrangement.

Doubtless, a fine man and an excellent woman may unite, and live happily together, in spite of the unfavourable conditions. But, more commonly, the high-minded man, really believing in the superior purity of the sex, and her greater moral delicacy, finds his Ideal to be too high; and without absolute cause to quarrel; in fact, seeing that his Ideal was itself only an error of the prevailing delusion; ever after struggles to bring himself into harmony with the existing fact—to love and respect a woman and only a woman, with a woman's vanity, love of excitement, frivolity and caprice—a very weary work. The woman, too, still flattered, and exacting the devotion which her lover (now her husband) gave to her in his days of delusion, thinks herself treated with coldness; and, gradually, by her unreasonable complaints, estranges altogether the husband, whom she, too, tries to forget, in the admiration, flatteries, and excitements of Society!

The affectation and falsity, therefore, respecting woman, tends to a fundamental error in the relation of the sexes and the ordering of the family.It is a strange and almost fatal error to give this exaltation to woman. No doubt, a real trust and respect tend to secure, in some degree, the virtues accorded; and this true respect of an honest man, who places his wife, or his relative, before himself in purity, challenges the best of nature in the female. But man has reversed the true order, and run counter to the true instinct of the race (quite as strong in the female as in himself), when he thus puts woman before him, in anything. What authority is there for this reversal of the natural order? Why is woman more moral, more chaste? There is nothing in the nature of things, why the man, here, as in all things, should not be, as he is, the superior—the master. In morals he should be her guide, her teacher, her best support. That Society is, indeed, unsound, wherein the man may be low and sensual, and fancy, or pretend to fancy, that the woman is better than himself—it is a delusion. Man gives the real character to any Society—the woman will not be, cannot be better than the man. The English Barbarians, in spite of the absurd falsity of their customs, must have some tolerably happy families. The innate perception of the eternal fitness of things will cause many couples to arrive at a proper method. The wife, without exactly admitting it, even to herself, submits to her husband; and the husband, without exactly commanding (except in rare instances), feels that he is really the head of the house—and the family gets on pretty smoothly, because living in the natural order. But, in general, the struggle for mastery destroys either the existence of the family, or all attempts at affectionate ways of living. To avoid public scandal, the members do not actually separate; but all harmony and true domestic life are lost—and life is a dismal and disorderly rout.

The exaltation of the sex and the complete freedom allowed to them belong to a state of society, if any such there be, where man is still more excellent. There, indeed, a bright and beautiful ideal is made real, and men and women know how to love and to obey; and love is as true as the respect and the obedience. The Barbarians, full of immorality, of rudeness, of strong passions, of selfishness, controlled by a false conception founded in their Idolatry, act, in respect of their women, as if purity, cultivation, generosity, and the highest morality, everywhere existed! This, so false, is well-nigh fatal to them. Yet, it is only an illustration of the uncultivated and confused state of mind, even in the highest, that so simple a thing as the natural order governing the relation of sex and family is not comprehended; and that their Society is saved from absolute wreck only by the strong and controlling instinct of nature, which, in spite of obstacles, does bring the female into subjection to the male—at least to an extent sufficient to make life possible!

None the less the disorder of households is dreadful.Sons and daughters, as they grow strong, assert themselves [Quan-hang-ho].They act and speak (and in this follow the wife and mother) as if the sole business of the father was to give the means of selfish, idle indulgence.This would not be so unjust among the High-Caste, but it descends to all grades, and the middle orders are content to see the father toil at his business till overworked, or ruined altogether, in his efforts to supply these daily exactions. No doubt he himself is a victim to the whole vicious falseness—yet the cold-bloodedness of this conduct on the part of children and wives is remarkable. "Obedience," or "gratitude!" —Words sneered at, laughed at!

The daughters, directed by Mamma [na-ni-go], are taught to dress, to look modest, to practise all those arts by which they may attract the male and secure husbands, and are exhibited in public places and in Society accordingly.

The sons are sent off to be taught. In the Halls of Learning they acquire but little of the knowledge paid for in the Lists, but a great deal of that which does not appear there. A youth may have entered, at least, honest, moral, and generous—he still leaves unlearned, but dishonest, corrupt, selfish—he has acquired that knowledge most sought for (even by his parents), a knowledge of the World [Quang]! In truth, the youth instinctively feels that it is better for his success in life to know the World than to know Letters. He acts upon this feeling, which thrives in the demoralised atmosphere which he breathes. Father is called Governor, and is regarded as a sort of creature to be made the most of!The money allowed (perhaps too ample for really useful purposes) is spent in things foolish and hurtful.Money and time are wasted.The latter is valueless, to be sure, to these youths anywhere—but the money may be wrung from relatives, who put themselves on short diet to enable the son or brother (who is defrauding them) to appear well in Society! To perfect himself in the learning which he feels to be effective, he devises new methods of wringing more money from the Governor, who begins to protest. To drink, smoke, lounge about with easy and cool impudence; to stare into the face of women; to bet, gamble; to get in debt, and curse the creditors who presume to ask for pay; to make, or pretend to make, love; and generally to lay broad and deep that moral and cultivated elegance, to take on that exquisite polish [gla-mshi], which shall dazzle society; shall attract the silly butterflies (women) who have influence or money; shall, in fine, shine in the Grand Council, or at the head of armed bands, or to the illumination of the Courts of Law! Noble ambition, based upon manly principles! With the Barbarians to be a moral and wise man is to be a milksop [Kou-bab]; to be a polished man of the World—admirable!

The English Barbarians who are fathers, generally consider it rather a joke to have their sons trick them and poke fun at the "Governor," only it must be marked with some pretence of deference.If the "young fellows" do not positively disgrace the family—that is, marry some poor creature whom they have first debauched; or actually forge, or rob, or descend to improper friendships with inferior Castes—the parents esteem themselves to be fortunate.If he have acquired no knowledge of letters, nor of anything but vices, yet he is a "fine, manly fellow, who will make his mark in the world." That is, he is a tall, strong, active Barbarian—just fit for the armed bands!

The infelicities and disorders of family life, which only prefigure the inevitable confusion and evils of the whole Society, are more intolerable among the Middle Castes. In the Highest, secured revenues enable the wife and the husband each to see as little of each other as they please; and so long as the husband is not stirred up by Mrs. Grundy (who is not severe with this Caste) he cares but little what his wife may do. He goes about his sports and his pleasures as he pleases; and his wife, not wishing to be looked after, does not look after him. On this free-and-easy footing, with no want of money (Mrs. Grundy's decorum being observed), they get on well enough, and may even form quite a friendship for each other. But it is not possible to establish this condition in a family of small income—and here it is that the wretchedness of false principles has full scope. The husband and father, honest and good, finds himself mated to a woman, weak and vain, with children moulded by her. He, misled by false notions and ignorance, took to his heart one whom he fully trusted as simply true and modest; he took her for herself and without money, and flattered himself that she would be a helper and solace. She and her children have made him a miserable slave, who finds no quiet unless he satisfy all their clamorous demands—to shine in Society!If a good man, he tries to obey and live, even under exactions beyond his utmost efforts; for he has learned to see that his wife, though weak, is no worse than the Society which she loves, and which he also cannot escape; he is merely in a false position, and must largely thank himself for having heedlessly entered upon it!

But this kind of man is not universal, and one may judge what follows, where there is a man who will not yield, or yields only because he no longer cares for anything but his personal ease and indulgence—seeking for pleasure, though unlawful, abroad, as the only recompense attainable for the loss of happiness at home!

Such a man feels that life is insupportable, where he makes so wretched an object—to be merely the mute beast of burden for the family, without receiving so much tenderness and consideration as is accorded to the dogs lolling in the lazy laps of the females of the house! He seeks, therefore, abroad for some means of enjoyment, though illicit!

This sort of picture is to be seen everywhere in the Barbarian Literature, and is constantly shown in all its minute and miserable exhibition at the Courts of Divorce.

Adultery, which in our Flowery Land is punished by death, is not so much as a crime among the English Barbarians. And, as it is the chief cause for which the bond of marriage may be wholly severed, one may judge whether the Court do not encourage the immorality. For when parties wish to live apart, here is a way to secure it, lying directly in the path of desire and opportunity. Then, too, the seduction of a maiden, which with us may be punished even to death, receives no sort of reprobation in the Court, and scarcely in Society. If the ruined girl be of low caste, her relatives feel no disgrace if the seducer be a High-Caste—rather an honour; receive from him some paltry sum (not so much as he lavishes upon some favourite dogs), and buy with the money a husband for her from her own Caste!

With us a guilty intrigue is almost unknown; with the Barbarians it is almost a pursuit.

None the less, there is too much vigour in the organism; too much moral, intellectual, and physical strength, to suffer total decay. As is always the case, where the mind is active, even Idolatry itself has intermixed a pure morality, and the Barbarian nature, still unformed, untrained; still rude and stirred by passion and by force; wrestles with the divine instinct, and, unconsciously, often moulds to its light.

Away from the glitter and sham (sometimes in it, but not of it), there are quiet families which live lives of honour. The father works honestly and cheerfully; the wife, in her house, finds the beginning and end of her aims, of her love, and her duty. The husband-father is head; on him rests all responsibility, and to him belong obedience. This is not exacted; it is not questioned. It is founded in love and respect; love and loving obedience spontaneously arising from uncorrupted natures. His whole being responds with unmeasured joy. Whatever is pure, high, tender; all are for these—his wife, his family; so true, so trusting, so helpful, so delightful. He feels no hardship; there can be no sacrifice, for these; all that is done is in harmony with himself. Everywhere he is in accord. The very ills and misfortunes of life touch him not, for he is living in the divine order

And from such a man, the inside-life being serene, outer ills fall away.He is so clear and simple; so whole that nature smiles for him, even in pain and sorrow; he lives in the presence and calm of the Sovereign Lord.

These families are the Salt which saves. Among the Barbarians they are generally obscure, and as wholly unconscious of the service which they render as are the glittering inanities which ignore them. This should be reversed, and the Inanities sink into obscurity.

I will now say a word or two as to the personal appearance and demeanour of the Barbarians. There is no standard of best-looking, and each tribe will judge from its best type. In general the eyes are too prominent and open; the nose large and irregular; the teeth bad or false; the height indifferent; the figure either too lean or too fat. The hair all colours; red and light most common. The women are so made up, judging from the articles openly exposed for sale, that one cannot speak of them with any certainty. The hair, teeth, complexion, bust, outline of form, are all false or artistically got up. The eyes are too bold and open. The feet long, and hands large. Too tall, and either too meagre or too stout. The youth are sometimes pretty. The women are often brilliant under gaslight (a bright, artificial light). I have spoken of dress, but I may mention that the women, not content with every sort of made-up thing to add to their attractions, pile upon their heads an enormity of false curls, bands of hair, laces, and high sort of head-ornaments; it is truly amazing. Some of these gewgaws are hung upon big pig-tails of false hair, and some are stuck high a-top. Nothing really can be more absurd, unless the false, mincing steps, and protruding back. Some women are beautiful; but to my unaccustomed looks, even the brilliant eyes could not blind me to so immodest an exhibition—or, to me, not modest—so instinctively do we demand that especial quality in the sex, as the crowning grace of true beauty.

One thing of a personal kind in the habits of all, high and low, I remarked, which would be intolerable to us. A lady or a gentleman, whilst conversing with you, or at the table of feasting, will suddenly apply a handkerchief [mün-shi] to nose, and blow that organ in the most astounding manner; and this may be continued for some minutes, even accompanied by hauks and spits, and closed by many nice attentions to the orifices not worth while to describe. Surely this strange thing disconcerted me very greatly at first, nor do I understand how any people above savages could do it. A fine lady will interrupt herself in the very midst of speech, or of eating, with spasmodic effort, to clear her head; emptying into her fine pocket-handkerchief the obnoxious matter, and then returning the article to her silken pocket.

However, we should not expect refinement in a Society where the women may boldly mount a horse-back, and follow men and dogs over ditch and wall, urging her steed with the best, to come in to the death of the poor hunted creature.And this, a noble sport, fit for a lady!Nor this only, but will crowd to public spectacles, and be hustled and crowded promiscuously, forgetful of all delicate reserve.These habits are only to be criticised because of the boasted prëeminence claimed in all such matters. But what would be thought of our Literati piling into the mouth huge morsels of flesh, or of guzzling [kun-ki] (with a gulping noise in the throat), great swallows of a hot, greasy liquid, besmearing the lips and beard. The Barbarians know nothing of our delicate mode of eating, where all is silence and decorum whilst in the act. Another most unaccountable thing to a stranger is the robbery allowed by the servants of the High-Caste. If you accept of the hospitality of a great man, you must submit to be plundered by his servants; and, as a stranger cannot know the limits imposed upon this rapacity, it goes far to destroy all the pretence of graciousness in one's reception. When you have eaten at my Lord's table, to think you are to be fleeced [pe-ekd] by my Lord's flunki!

I was once invited by a High-Caste to come to his house in the country and shoot game. I accepted, and soon went into the copses to hunt for birds for the table. A servant accompanied me by command of his master, to show me the grounds and to wait upon me. He was very civil. The next day, upon my leaving, this man, decked in the livery [bung-shi] of his Lord, closely eyed and stuck to me, till, at length, I perceived he wanted something. Only partially aware of the Barbarian custom, and blushing at the idea of feeing [tin-ti] or giving anything in return for hospitality, I awkwardly fumbled in my purse and handed to him a half-crown. He contemptuously looked at the silver piece, then at me; and remarked that the "gentlemen of my Lord did not receive gratuities of that colour." Meaning that gold was only fit for such an exalted minion.

---

CHAPTER XII.

OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY—AND OTHER THINGS.

The country is so small, that, riding in the swift steam-chariots, it is traversed in an incredibly short time.

In those parts not disfigured by the smoke vomited out from the huge fire-chimneys of factories, mines, and the like, nor by the nearness of great towns, the country presents a green and cultivated look; nearly as well tilled as our provinces, Quang-tun and Chiang-su.The villages, Temples with lofty towers, great Houses of the High-Castes, here and there; trees, gardens, smooth fields of fine verdure, over which cattle and sheep are feeding; rising hills and sheltered valleys, rich with copses, orchards, and groves—all seen in moving views—give an aspect of peace, comfort, and wealth.You do not see the poverty, nor, too closely, observe the dwellings of the poor.

In winter it is cold, and the whole appearance changes.Far to the North, the sun gives but little light—and, like the climate of our provinces by the great Northern Wall, the cold is severe, and the gloom deeper.Ice is formed upon the streams and canals, and snow frequently covers the ground.

In approaching great towns, you often catch glimpses of the crowded, wretched streets, where misery only thrives. In some places, in the winter cold, smoke and darkness, life becomes intolerable to many. Out of doors you can hardly find your way, and thieves and beggars emerge from covert to ply their trades. In the night, at such times, it is only possible to move by the glare of many torches; and people are often robbed, or bewildered and lost. At this season of darkness many go mad. There is a strong vein of horror in the Barbarian imagination, derived from their ferocious ancestors, from their old idolatries, and deepened by the new. In the gloom, the misery, the wretchedness—sometimes in sheer disgust of life—many rush upon self-destruction—throwing themselves under the wheels of the steam-chariots, and from the bridges into the canals and rivers. Many persons are thrown down, maimed or killed in the highways, by horses or by vehicles moving along. Yet, in the grim humour of these barbarians, this is the very time when the High-Castes begin their revelries, and the Low-Castes most indulge in drink and riot.

In travelling through the country, you will occasionally notice, seated upon an eminence, some strong Castle, or Place, of hewn stone, belonging to a High-Caste.It will be approached through long avenues of lofty trees, and stand pre-eminent among fine groves, surrounded by broad lands.These wide Parks contain many thousands of acres [met-si], left untilled and unproductive; merely with their green slopes and spaces, interspersed with trees, to give grandeur to the Castle and its Lord. Still, if you look closely, you will discover near by, the squalid huts where huddle the Serfs, who are starving in the midst of this rich profusion—Serfs, who never have an inch [toe] of land of their own, and to whose wornout carcases is begrudged a pauper grave!

The inequality between Castes is quite as conspicuous in country as in town. One is born to an abundance, the other to hunger; one to a life of self-indulgence, the other to one of enforced and hard-worked self-sacrifice. The one, at last, is covered by a tomb, emblazoned with Honour; the other is cast into an obscure corner of despised dead, to rot in forgetfulness—though, often, judged upon a true measure of merit, the resting-places should be exchanged—and the idle and vicious Lord [chiang-se] descend into ignominious neglect!

You will see deer, pheasants, partridges, hares, and the like, almost tame, in the meadows and copses; but the tillers of the soil must not touch them, though starving—they are carefully preserved for the Lord [Tchou]. Not that he needs them, or cares for them for food—sometimes he likes to shoot them for idle diversion!

You will notice sturdy tramps (beggars) resting, or lazily slouching along by the ways, with heavy staves in their hands; and, if you suddenly come upon these in a secluded place, very likely you will be accosted—"Master, I be'se hungry—will ye give me tuppence?" You do not like the bearing of the man—and would not notice him. But you observe his face and the clutch of his thick stick—and you hurry to hand him a sixpence, and get away! These scamps prowl about, idle, ready for mischief, scornful of honest work—the terror of women and children who meet them, unexpectedly, without protection.

Sometimes the Iron-roads for Steam-chariots are carried over the housetops, in entering towns; sometimes, through long tunnels under the houses, or under hills—and the works in connection with these roads are surprising.The Barbarians of the Low-Castes are forced to incessant labours, to prevent starvation.These must be greatly directed to mines of iron, coal, copper, and tin; and to various things made from these, and from wool and cotton.For the fruits of the land cannot feed the population.The amount of food which must be brought from beyond seas is very great—and to pay for this, the products of industry must be given.Now, other Barbarian tribes make these things also, and; having them, do not require the English; in fact, in more distant parts, undersell them.From this cause, many are unemployed and turned adrift—they have no land to till; they beg, steal, and starve.Should this inability of the English Barbarians increase, there would be no sufficient employment for the Low-Castes—there would not be the means of paying for the food required—and depopulation must ensue!The wealth of the High-Caste must shrink—the English tribe must decline in strength!

Many of the High-Caste, already anticipating danger to themselves—fearing not merely loss of revenue, but the savage ferocity of starving multitudes—promote schemes by which large numbers of the poor are shipped off far beyond the great Seas (so that they never shall return)—to starve, or live, as may chance. "England is well rid of them!" they say.

In the neighbouring island, Ireland, an actual starvation of the people in vast numbers happened a short time since. As in England, the poor serfs, tilling the soil and owning none; at the best, toiling for the High-Castes for such pittance as would buy the cheapest food—potatoes; when these failed, could buy nothing—all else too dear. These failed, the serfs died by thousands and tens of thousands. Not because Ireland was destitute of food; such was the abundance that ample stores were actually sold for other and distant tribes! but because, in the midst of plenty, the starving were powerless to touch it; it was out of their reach—out of the reach of paupers! The potatoes were not—and they must die. The annals of no people record such a depopulation of a fertile land, in the midst of peace and plenty—there is no parallel! A people dying, not from idleness, nor unwillingness to work; not from want of food at hand; not from the ravages of war, nor pestilence; but from sheer poverty! Yet, the English Barbarians boast that no people are so rich, so generous! In our own annals are recorded great sufferings from floods, failures of crops, and natural causes; where our vast populations have been for a time deficient in food; but we have nothing to compare with this Barbarian horror!

The Thames is the only considerable river. This flows through the greatest of all the cities of the West—London. It is an insignificant stream—much less than even the Quang-tun, in our chief Southern province.

As it flows through the great city it is, in some places, confined by high hewn-stone terraces [kar-tra]. These are truly great works, and useful, worthy of a strong people. On the river bank is the vast Hall of the Grand Council; with its lofty towers, turrets, clocks, and many bells. The architecture is not like anything known to us—it is the Gothic, which I have mentioned elsewhere. Why this style, so characteristic and fit in the Temples, is used in this grand Hall, I know not; but probably because this barbarous form was that of the old Hall, destroyed by fire some time since. And the barbaric stolidity sticks to its habit, however inconvenient and unfit. Not far away, may be seen the Dome and Towers of a fine Roman-Grecian Temple, clear and defined, giving expression to an orderly and trained mind, severe in dignity and beauty. But the Gothic, expressing, or trying to express, something very different; and, rising in the Temples of a gloomy, dark Superstition, to a horrible and unformed shape! With that the disorderly brain burdened itself and the river bank—a pile at once wonderful and abortive!

London is very large, perhaps equal to some of our greatest cities.For the most part very dirty and grim, and badly built.The river shows its great trade—not inland, but from abroad.You can discern, rising above the buildings, the many tall masts of the ships like forests dried up.And you will observe the numerous vessels with high chimneys; these are the vessels moved by steam—and the incredible number of small craft. At one point you will remark the tall white towers and the high prison walls of stone, erected by the Barbarian chief from the Main Land who subdued the English tribes in our dynasty Song, and made this huge Castle a stronghold and prison.

Lower down rises, close by the shore, one of the best in style of all the Barbarian monuments. It is a fine Palace in carved stone, built, after the Roman forms, to perpetuate the remembrance of Victories gained over distant tribes. Within are great Paintings of these Victories. Terrible scenes of devastation and cruelty; bloody fights and dreadful conflagrations, by sea and land; rapine, massacre, unbridled fury! These are the most admired of all things by the Barbarians—by the Low-Castes, who are almost entirely the victims, as much as by the High. The sight of these kindles their passion for bloody force. They Hoorah! with an indescribable yell [zung] whenever they wish to show their frantic delight at any exhibition of brutal ferocity. This yell is greatly gloried in, and vaunted to be far more terrible than that of any other tribe—that by it alone, when raised upon the air by fierce bands, English Barbarians have routed armed hosts!

When one is in the narrow seas of the English, very many vessels may be seen, and near the coasts fleets of fishing craft.The fishermen live in great poverty, in miserable villages by the seaside.They use lines and snares, sometimes like ours, but are not so ingenious in catching the sea-creatures as are our fishermen.They have never trained birds to the work.Their huts are noisome, and their habits and dress unclean. They wear a curious cover upon the head, like a basin, with a long wide flap behind. This is all besmeared with a thick, black oil—and their clothing is stiff and nasty with the same unctuous stuff. The oil is to exclude the sea-spray and wet. Their speech is nearly unintelligible to the Literati, though comprehended by their own Caste; they are of the lowest—serfs. Multitudes of these rude and unlettered Barbarians perish amid the waves in the storms of winter—being forced to imperil their lives that they may live at all. They are quite a feature in some parts, with their awkward uncouthness. They are addicted to the grossest superstitions of the Superstition. They have many legends about the dark devil-god, and swear by him mostly. They seem to think to cheat him—though they cautiously observe those things which may entrap them, and nothing would tempt them to put to sea on the devil's day—Friday. To do so, would be to go to the devil's Locker (as they call it) at once! This class is similar to the sailor [mat-le-si] known in our ports, and the character may therefore be fairly judged. The fisherman, in fact, often changes into the ships and goes upon distant voyages.

There are no mountains, only pretty high hills, in the English provinces.The loftiest are in the far Northern parts, where are also some small lakes.In the winter these loftier ridges of land are sometimes white with snow.The inhabitants are savages, having their legs naked and bodies wrapped about in loose robes and skins, secured by a belt, into which a knife is stuck, and to which a long leather pouch is hung. In this pouch they place some dry corn [matze], which, with strong wine in a bottle suspended from the neck, enables them to live for days. Thus equipped, they descend to the valleys, and drive off to their haunts in the rocky hills the cattle of the more civilised people of the plains.

The English Barbarians have never conquered these fierce tribes of the Northern hills, but have contrived gradually to destroy and to remove them. So that, at present, what few remain are quite tamed. A great many, in times past, were cunningly betrayed to the English and put to the sword; but, in latter days, the head-chiefs have been bought by the English, and used to entice their ignorant but devoted serfs to enter into the armed bands to be sent beyond seas. By these methods, those distant Northern parts have been, in good degree, depopulated and made quiet.

The Low-Castes furnish the fierce savages so well known in our Celestial Waters as those who live in the great fire-ships.

Now, when the English tribe, being in need of many men for these ships (just about to go away to plunder and to fight), determines to have them, this follows:—Strong, brutal men, are paid to watch for the poor of the Low-Caste, and seize them. These cruel wretches are armed with clubs and swords and small firearms. They are sent into the places where the poor and friendless abound, to seize any man whom they think they can carry off without much fuss [pung]. The poor cower and hide away; but these savage bands hunt them out, and bear off from wife and children, it may be, or from any chance of succour, some unfriended man to their dreadful dens. Here they are beaten, or put in irons, or otherwise maltreated; or they may have been brutally knocked down when captured. When gangs [twi-sz] are collected, the victims are forced on board the fire-ships to work in the dark, filthy holes, till, completely cowed, they are made to fire the great cannons, and to learn the art of sailing and fighting!

Many of these slaves of selfish, cruel force, never see their own land again, but are killed in fight, or by accident, or by disease.Multitudes sometimes perish by a single disaster.These are, however, fortunate.They have escaped the brutal whipping, the loathsome diseases, the vile contagions, the inexpressible horrors of a continued captivity!

By these press-gangs (so-called) the fire-ships are often supplied with victims snatched from the unprotected Low-Castes; and the Upper enjoy the idle and luxurious security which they rob from the blood and limbs of the friendless and obscure.

This unjust custom, frightful in every aspect, receives the approbation and applause of the Barbarians very generally, who say, "Let the fellows thank their stars that they can receive the Queen's money and fight for her! Then look at the chance for prize!" By prize, they mean some pitiful fraction of the plunder taken. The stars are referred to, because the Barbarians fancy that everybody is born under the influence of some star!

I once noticed a painting, wherein a young man and maiden were represented as just leaving a Temple, where they had been married. Both were nicely dressed, young and handsome, with roses and nosegays [bong-no]. They were walking arm-in-arm, happily engrossed in each other, when, from an alley, out springs a black-whiskered bully [kob-bo] with drawn cutlass, followed by a band of half-drunken, armed wretches, wearing the sea-garb of the Queen; he grasps the young man roughly by the collar—the picture attempts to show the indignant surprise of the man, the clinging tenderness, fear, and horror of the maid! But more striking to an observing stranger than even these, is the merely passing curiosity of the people moving about! The scene to them is not so novel. It is merely a press-gang doing its lawful work—if, by chance, a wrong sort of man be seized, it is none of the affair of these indifferent passers.

Probably, the picture means to excite some compassionate interest by showing how very hard the press-gang system may work!

It would be vain to call the least attention to the matter, if the victim were merely a common labourer; even the accessories of wife and children would not raise the scene into one of compassion. Nor does the representation, for one moment, cause any reflection upon a system wherein bullies [kob-toe] are employed to waylay and carry off unbefriended and unoffending men, at so much per head!For, besides the regular pay, a reward is given for each victim captured!

---

CHAPTER XIII.

LONDON.

London is the capital city of the British Empire. This is the style assumed by the English when they speak of their whole power. It is a curiously constructed empire—in some respects like that of the old Romans, who, however, obtained their domination more directly by valour and wisdom—whereas the English rather by cunning, accident, and fraud. I say accident, because the immense regions possessed by virtue of discovery come under the term; and the vastest of all their distant provinces, that of India, was obtained chiefly by fraud, assisted by force. I say curiously constructed, because these Christians are content to wring from Heathen subjects their last bit of revenue utterly indifferent to the idolatries and to the miseries of the people. If the Taxes come in and the wretched Hindoos starve, the main thing is to make the money and support 'our magnificent Empire' (as the English have it). So the wildest excesses may go on, and the native chiefs, who are mere creatures of their distant masters, may oppress the poor inhabitants; still, now and ever, the Master demands money; this secures the yoke upon the neck of the subjugated, and enables the English to make the vast Hindoo world a field where golden harvests are to be reaped. Boasting of liberty at home, there, a tyranny most odious is practised without pity. Then, the distant settlements where the poor English Barbarians go, to cultivate the lands and to trade and plunder, are held in subjection chiefly to give places, with large revenues attached, to members of the Aristocracy, who must be provided for in some way, as they can do nothing for themselves. So this arrangement is very satisfactory, because the stupid Englishman abroad is just as devoted to the Upper-Caste and to the Superstition as at home, and feels honoured to have a "scion of nobility" foisted upon him; and is amply repaid all the cost by the privilege of "cooling his heels" in an ante-room of the great man, when he holds his little Court.

The result is, that back upon London flows all the wealth which the English Barbarians can contrive to get. Having these distant regions, and a greater trade across sea, London has become the greatest mart of all the Western tribes. It is, perhaps, as large and populous as our Pekin. It is the centre of Authority and of business; not only so, but is the Metropolis of all the Christ-worshipping Tribes—or, as the Barbarians phrase it, of Christendom

The population is 3,500,000, or thereabouts.The bulk of this multitude is poor, and a large fraction paupers.Yet the English boast that "it is the richest city in the world!"