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

illegalities;' and his Celestial majesty further goes on and tells the fair ones, 'that by persisting in their vulgar habits, they will debar themselves from the possibility of being selected as ladies of honour for the inner palace at the approaching presentation!' How far this had the desired effect I cannot say. When the children begin to grow, they suffer excruciating pain, but as they advance in years, their vanity is played upon by being assured that they would be exceedingly ugly with large feet. Thus they are persuaded to put up with what they consider a necessary evil; but the children are remarkably patient under pain. A poor little child, about five years old, was brought to our surgeon, having been most dreadfully scalded, part of its dress adhering to the skin. During the painful operation of removing the linen, it only now and then said, 'He-yaw, he-yaw !'

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

[Chinese Thieves-From Fortune's 'Residence among the Chinese.']

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

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

[What the Chinese think of the Europeans.]

[From Huc's L'Empire Chinois.]

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

of passing leisure time to sit quietly drinking tea and smoking a pipe, or else to go at once to bed. The notion of spending the larger portion of the night at balls and parties has never occurred to them. All the Chinese, even among the upper ranks, begin to sleep in time to be able to rise with the sun. At the hours in which there is the greatest stir and tumult in the principal cities of Europe, those of China enjoy the most profound repose. Every one has gone home to his family, all the shops are shut, the boatmen, the mountebanks, the public readers have finished their labours, and there are no signs of activity except among the theatres for the working-classes, who have no leisure but at night to enjoy the sight of a play.

The recent hostilities-1857-58-ending in a treaty with China, have led to various publications respecting the Celestial Empire, the most copious and generally interesting being China, or the Times' special correspondence from China, by MR GEORGE WINGROVE COOK, author of a Life of Bolingbroke, The State of Parties, &c. We give a few extracts from Mr Cook's lively and graphic narrative:

[The Chinese Language.]

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

[The Execution-ground of Canton.] Threading our way, under the guidance of some expe. rienced friend, we come to a carpenter's shop, fronting the entrance to a small potter's field. It is not a rood in area, of an irregular shape, resembling most an oblong. A row of cottages open into it on one side; there is a wall on the other. The ground is covered with halfbaked pottery; there are two wooden crosses formed of unbarked wood, standing in an angle, with a shred of rotting rope hanging from one of them. There is nothing to fix the attention in this small enclosure, except that you stumble against a human skull now and then as you walk along it. This is the Aceldama, the field of blood, the execution-ground of Canton. The upper part of that carpenter's shop is the place where nearly all the European residents have, at the price of a dollar each, witnessed the wholesale massacres of which Europe has heard with a hesitating scepticism. It was within this yard that that monster Yeh has within two years destroyed the life of 70,000 fellowbeings! These crosses are the instruments to which those victims were tied who were condemned to the special torture of being sliced to death. Upon one of these the wife of a rebel general was stretched, and by Yeh's order her flesh was cut from her body. After the battle at Whampoa the rebel leader escaped, but his wife fell into the hands of Yeh; this was how he treated his prisoner. Her breasts were first cut off, then her forehead was slashed and the skin torn down over the face, then the fleshy parts of the body were sliced away. There are Englishmen yet alive who saw this done, but at what part of the butchery sensation

four dens. The hardest and most malignant face I ever saw is that of the chief jailer of this prison. The prisoners could not be brought to look upon him, and when he was present could not be induced to say that he was a prisoner at all, or that they had ever seen him before. But when he was removed, they always reiterated their first story. "The other jailers only starve and ill-treat us, but that man eats our flesh.' Many of the prisoners had been inmates of the place for many years, and it appeared quite certain that, within a period dating from the commencement of the present troubles, six Europeans-two Frenchmen and four Englishmen had found their death in these dreadful dens. Many different prisoners examined separately deposed to this fact, and almost to the same details. The European victims were kept here for several months, herding with the Chinese, eating of that same black mess of rice, which looks and smells like a bucket of grains cast forth from a brewery. When their time came-probably the time necessary for a reply from Pekin the jailer held their heads back while poison was poured The prisoners recollected two who threw up the poison, and they were strangled. The result of the investigation was, that the jailers were roughly handled by the British soldiers in sight of the prisoners, and the lieutenant-governor taken into custody, to give an account of his conduct.

down their throats.

Since the publication of Dr Clarke's first volume, in which he gave a view of Russia, that vast and in many respects interesting country has been visited by various Englishmen. Amongst the books thus produced, is Recollections of a Tour in the North of Europe, 1838, by the MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY (1778-1854), whose rank and political character were the means of introducing him to many circles closed to other tourists. The marquis was also author of A Steam Voyage to Constantinople by the Rhine and the Danube in 1840-41, and to Portugal and Spain in 1839, two volumes, 1842. MR JOHN BARROW, junior, is the author, besides works on Ireland and on Iceland, of Excursions in the North of Europe, through parts of Russia, Finland, &c., 1834. He is invariably found to be a cheerful and intelligent companion, without attempting to be very profound or elaborate on any subject. Domestic Scenes in Russia, by the REV. MR VENABLES, 1839, is an unpretending but highly interesting view of the interior life of the country. Mr Venables was married to a Russian lady, and he went to pass a winter with her relations, when he had an opportunity of seeing the daily life and social habits of the people. We give a few descriptive sentences.

[Russian Peasants' Houses.]

These houses are in general extremely warm and substantial; they are built, for the most part, of unsquared logs of deal, laid one upon another, and firmly secured at the corners where the ends of the timbers cross, and are hollowed out so as to receive and hold one another; they are also fastened together by wooden pins and uprights in the interior. The four corners are supported upon large stones or roots of trees, so that there is a current of air under the floor to preserve the timber from damp; in the winter, earth is piled up all round to exclude the cold; the interstices between the logs are stuffed with moss and clay, so that no air can enter. The windows are very small, and are frequently cut out of the wooden wall after it is finished. In the centre of the house is a stove called a peech [pechka], which heats the cottage to an almost unbearable degree; the warmth, however, which a Russian peasant loves to enjoy within doors,

is proportioned to the cold which he is required to support without; his bed is the top of his peech; and when he enters his house in the winter pierced with cold, he throws off his sheepskin coat, stretches himself on his stove, and is thoroughly warmed in a few minutes.

[Employments of the People.]

labour of his serfs, which it is his study to turn to The riches of the Russian gentleman lie in the good account; and he is the more urged to this, since the law which compels the peasant to work for him, requires him to maintain the peasant; if the latter is found begging, the former is liable to a fine. He is therefore a master who must always keep a certain number of workmen, whether they are useful to him or not; and as every kind of agricultural and outdoor employment is at a stand-still during the winter, he naturally turns to the establishment of a manufactory, as a means of employing his peasants and as a source of profit to himself. In some cases the manufactory is at work only during the winter, and the people are employed in the summer in agriculture; though, beyond what is necessary for home consumption, this is but an unprofitable trade in most parts of this empire, from the badness of roads, the paucity and distance of markets, and the consequent difficulty in selling produce.

The alternate employment of the same man in the field and in the factory, which would be attempted practicable and easy by the versatile genius of the Russian peasant, one of whose leading national characteristics is a general capability of turning his hand to any kind of work which he may be required to underto build a house the third day, and the fourth, if his take. He will plough to-day, weave to-morrow, help master needs an extra coachman, he will mount the box and drive four horses abreast as though it were his daily occupation. It is probable that none of these operations, except, perhaps, the last, will be as well performed as in a country where the division of labour is more thoroughly understood. They will all, however, be sufficiently well done to serve the turn-a favourite phrase in Russia. These people are a very ingenious race, but perseverance is wanting; and though they will carry many arts to a high degree of excellence, they will generally stop short of the point of perfection, and it will be long before their manufactures can rival the finish and durability of English goods.

in most countries with little success, is here rendered

Excursions in the Interior of Russia, by ROBERT BREMNER, Esq., two volumes, 1839, is a very spirited and graphic narrative of a short visit to Russia during the autumn of 1836. The author's sketches of the interior are valuable, for, as he remarks, 'even in the present day, when the passion for travel has become so universal, and thousands of miles are thought as little of as hundreds were some years ago, the number of Englishmen who venture to the south of Moscow seldom exceeds one or two every year.' The same author has published Excursions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, two volumes, 1840. Before parting from Russia, it may be observed that no English book upon that country exceeds in interest A Residence on the Shores of the Baltic, described in a Series of Letters, 1841, being more particularly an account of the Estonians, whose simple character and habits afford a charming picture. This delightful book is understood to be from the pen of a lady, Miss Rigby, now Lady Eastlake, who has also written Livonian Tales, 1846.

One of the most observant and reflecting of the travellers of our age is undoubtedly MR SAMUEL LAING, of Papdale, Orkney, a younger brother of the author of the History of Scotland during the

seventeenth century. This gentleman did not begin to publish till a mature period of life, his first work being a Residence in Norway in 1834-36, and the second, a Tour in Sweden in 1838, both of which abound in valuable statistical facts and well-digested information. Mr Laing resided two years in different parts of Norway, and concluded that the Norwegians were the happiest people in Europe. Their landed property is so extensively diffused in small estates, that out of a population of a million there are about 41,656 proprietors. There is no law of primogeniture, yet the estates are not subdivided into minute possessions, but average from forty to sixty acres of arable land, with adjoining natural wood and pasturage.

men.

*

*

[Agricultural Peasantry of Norway.]

The Bonder, or agricultural peasantry (says Mr Laing), each the proprietor of his own farm, occupy the country from the shore side to the hill foot, and up every valley or glen as far as corn can grow. This class is the kernel of the nation. They are in general fine athletic men, as their properties are not so large as to exempt them from work, but large enough to afford them and their household abundance, and even superfluity of the best food. They farm not to raise produce for sale, so much as to grow everything they eat, drink, and wear in their families. They build their own houses, make their own chairs, tables, ploughs, carts, harness, iron-work, basket-work, and wood-work; in short, except window-glass, cast-iron ware, and pottery, everything about their houses and furniture is of their own fabrication. There is not probably in Europe so great a population in so happy a condition as these Norwegian yeomanry. A body of small proprietors, each with his thirty or forty acres, scarcely exists elsewhere in Europe; or, if it can be found, it is under the shadow of some more imposing body of wealthy proprietors or commercial Here they are the highest men in the nation. The settlers in the newer states of America, and in our colonies, possess properties of probably about the same extent; but they have roads to make, lands to clear, houses to build, and the work that has been doing here for a thousand years to do, before they can be in the same condition. These Norwegian proprietors are in a happier condition than those in the older states of America, because they are not so much influenced by the spirit of gain. They farm their little estates, and consume the produce, without seeking to barter or sell, except what is necessary for paying their taxes and the few articles of luxury they consume. There is no money-getting spirit among them, and none of extravagance. They enjoy the comforts of excellent houses, as good and large as those of the wealthiest individuals; good furniture, bedding, linen, clothing, fuel, victuals, and drink, all in abundance, and of their own providing; good horses, and a houseful of people who have more food than work. Food, furniture, and clothing being all home-made, the difference in these matters between the family and the servants is very small; but there is a perfect distinction kept up. The servants invariably eat, sleep, and sit apart from the family, and have generally a distinct building adjoining to the family house.

The neighbouring country of Sweden appears to be in a much worse condition, and the people are described as highly immoral and depraved. By the returns from 1830 to 1834, one person in every forty-nine of the inhabitants of the towns, and one in every hundred and seventy-six of the rural population, had been punished each year for criminal offences. The state of female morals, particularly in the capital of Stockholm, is worse than in any

other European state. Yet in Sweden education is widely diffused, and literature is not neglected. The nobility are described by Mr Laing as sunk in debt and poverty; yet the people are vain of idle distinctions, and the order of burgher nobility is as numerous as in some of the German states.

[Society of Sweden.]

Every man (he says) belongs to a privileged or licensed class or corporation, of which every member is by law entitled to be secured and protected within his own locality from such competition or interference of others in the same calling as would injure his means of living. It is, consequently, not as with us, upon his industry, ability, character, and moral worth that the employment and daily bread of the tradesman, and the social influence and consideration of the individual, in every rank, even the highest, almost entirely depends; it is here, in the middle and lower classes, upon corporate rights and privileges, or upon licence obtained from government; and in the higher, upon birth and court or government favour. Public estimation, gained by character and conduct in the several relations of life, is not a necessary element in the social condition even of the working tradesman. Like soldiers in a regiment, a great proportion of the people under this social system derive their estimation among others, and consequently their own self-esteem, not; from their moral worth, but from their professional standing and importance. This evil is inherent in all privileged classes, but is concealed or compensated in the higher, the nobility, military, and clergy, by the sense of honour, of religion, and by education. In the middle and lower walks of life those influences are weaker, while the temptations to immorality are stronger; and the placing a man's livelihood, prosperity, and social consideration in his station upon other grounds than on his own industry and moral worth, is a demoralising evil in the very structure of Swedish society.

1

Mr Laing has since published Notes of a Traveller in Europe, 1854; Observations on the Social and Political State of the European People in 1848-49; and Observations on the Social and Political State of Denmark and the Duchies in 1851.

Travels in Circassia and Krim Tartary, by MR SPENCER, author of a work on Germany and the Germans, two volumes, 1837, was hailed with peculiar satisfaction, as affording information_respecting a brave mountainous tribe who have long warred with Russia to preserve their national independence. They appear to be a simple people, with feudal laws and customs, never intermarrying with any race except their own. Further information was afforded of the habits of the Circassians by the Journal of a Residence in Circassia during the years 1837, 1838, and 1839, by MR J. S. BELL. This gentleman resided in Circassia in the character of agent or envoy from England, which, however, was partly assumed. He acted also as physician, and and confidence. The population, according to Mr seems generally to have been received with kindness Bell, is divided into fraternities, like the tithings or hundreds in England during the time of the Saxons. Criminal offences are punished by fines levied on the fraternity, that for homicide being 200 oxen. guerrilla warfare which the Circassians have carried on against Russia, marks their indomitable spirit and love of country, but it must, of course, retard civilisation.

The

A Winter in the Azores, and a Summer at the Baths of the Furnas, by JOSEPH BULLAR, M.D., and JOHN BULLAR of Lincoln's Inn, two volumes, 1841, furnish some light agreeable notices of the islands of

793