place the matter beyond all doubt, we give the record in the words of the perpetrator himself. Mr Innes thus writes :--

"I bought rockets and blue lights, and by eight p.m. the mandarins house was on fire. At half past eight my barricadoed door was knocked at by Howqua, and after a parley he was shewn up stairs. I, having no high opinion of his veracity, held no words with him till witnessed by Mr. Jardine, who rose from dinner and came to us. Howqua granted every point he had refused at two in his own hong, thus yielding to violence and from fear what was refused to reason and justice, calmly and deliberately asked. The cooley was publicly punished next days being exposed all over Canton, wearing the wooden collar with his offence described upon it. The viceroy and hoppo wrote very proper answers to me; and, excepting the merchant's letter to your Committee, I should have considered the affair as finished."” pp. 365, 366.

This is by far the coolest act of revenge than we evee remember to have read of, and it only shows how men of the best dispositions will degenerate under the influence of noxious example. Mr. Innes justified his retalliation evidently with a strong conviction that he was right, but what must we think of the reason of that man, which could permit him to cherish so abominable an error. The select Committee of the East India Company accordingly condemned Mr. Innes's conduct as being "most unjustifiable.'

From the whole of the facts which have been comhined in so authentic a form, as they are in this volume by Mr. Auber, we find that the invariable principle of the Chinese, has been to exclude for ever from their shores the people of every other quarter of the world beside. The government of that country if its policy be carefully traced, will be found to have grown more determined in its notions of exclusion, and more wary in its contrivances for enforcing that policy. What can more signally mark the difference between the solicitude for the preservation of her solitude at present time, as compared with what China felt a century ago, than the fact of her stopping the privilege which the Russians up to a late period enjoyed of sending merchants and caravans to Pekin. The Chinese Emperor has forbidden the Russian Ambassador from the limits of his kingdom. It is time that there is a mission of Russians in that capital, but one word of explanation will show that it is, in reference to China, a mere neutral existence. Young men are sent to Pekin from the Russian dominions merely to learn the Chinese language; they hardly have time to acquire it when they are under the necessity of returning to make room for their successors. far, under all these circumstances, the experiments of the ensuing year will succeed against the preparations of the Chinese government, time alone will unfold. Meanwhile, as a considerable number of British merchants is very likely to be gathered to the coast of China in the present year, it may be of no small benefit to them to be prepared with a knowledge of the practical methods of trade

How

peculiar to Canton. The following account of the present method of carrying on the trade, at least so far as regards the arrival and departure of vessels, is given by Mr. Auber.

"As soon as a vessel arrives among the islands which front the entrance to the Canton river, she is generally boarded by a pilot, who conducts her into Macao roads. The entrance is however so safe, that ships push on without waiting for the pilot, who, if the weather is bad, is sometimes long in coming on board. The Pilot's names are registered at the Keunmin-foo's office, near Macao, and for a license to act the sum of 600 dollars is paid. The person who takes out the license sometimes knows nothing about ships or the river; but employs fishermen to do the duty. On the vessel's arrival in Macao roads, the pilot goes on shore to report her at the office of the Keun-min-foo, who when he has received answers to his inquiries about her, gives a permit for her to pass through the Bogue, and orders a river pilot on board. This pilot seldom repairs on board the vessel before twenty-four hours have elapsed. When arrived, the vessel proceeds through the Bogue, and up the Canton river to Whampoa.

"Every ship that enters the port is required to have a hong merchant as security for the duties, and a linguist and comprador, before she can commence unloading. She is required also to give a written declaration, in duplicate, solemnly affirming that she has brought no opium. From giving this declaration, the East-India Company's ships alone are excused." -pp. 123, 124.

It may be convenient to explain that the Hong is a security merchant, and that no one else is permitted to trade except a Hong. The permission is looked on not only as a privilege but a privilege worth purchasing. Linguists are interpreters in the employ of the government. Their duty, in addition to that which is indicated in their name, is to procure permits, to transact all Custom House business, and keep the account of duties. Mr. Auber proceeds in his account to describe the further duties of the Linguist and the Hong.

"When a vessel wishes to discharge or receive cargo, the linguist is informed a day or two previously what kind of goods are to be received or discharged, and in what quantities. He then applies for a permit, which being issued, the lighters or chopboats can proceed to Whampoa, where they usually arrive on the evening of the second or morning of the third day. For a single boat the linguist receives a fee of twenty-three dollars; but if a permit be obtained for from two to six boats at a time, the fee for each boat is only 11 taels 2 mace 6 cand, or about 15 dollars. "When the goods are ready to be landed from or sent to the ship, the Hoppo sends a domestic, a writer, and a police runner; the hong merchant who has secured the ship sends a domestic, called a court-going man (one who attends at the public offices, on ordinary occasions, in behalf of his master); and the linguist sends an accountant and interpreter to attend at the examination of the goods. The hong merchants are always held responsible to the government for paying all duties, whether

on imports or exports, in foreign vessels; and, therefore, when goods are purchased, it is customary for the parties, before fixing the price, to arrange between themselves who is actually to pay the duties. The hong merchants are required to consider the duties to be paid to government as the most important part of their affairs. If any merchant cannot pay at the proper period, his hong and house, and all his property, are seized by government, and sold to pay the amount; and if all that he possesses be inadequate, he is sent from prison into banishment at Ele, in Western Tartary, which the Chinese call the cold country,' and the body of hong merchants are commanded to pay in his stead."

Here we are under the necessity of closing our account of this interesting volume. Mr. Auber has added many interesting facts, and in particular a very curious narrative of a voyage to Japan, by Adams, an Englishmen, who acted as pilot to a Dutch Fleet in

1598.

ART. III. History of Natural Philosophy from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time. By BADEN POWELL, M. A. Savillian, Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford: being vol. 51 of the Cabinet Cyclopædia. London: Longman & Co. 1834.

By this little volume our literature is, at last, supplied with what has long been a desideratum in it, namely, an historical account of the progress of the physical and mathematical sciences in different ages. It is to the absence of some such collection of materials, that we owe in a great measure the indifference, and sometimes even the contempt, with which rather a large portion of the general community treats the cultivation of physical science. The learned professor seems to have sufficiently estimated the disadvantages attending such a deficiency of information, and now presents us with a work which has rendered the department of scientific history so familiar, and at the same time, so attractive, that it cannot fail to produce a very happy effect in the dissipation of prejudices and misconceptions, on the important subject that constitutes his theme. They who suppose that the annals of the physical and mathematical sciences, are a dull, uninviting study, must never have been at the pains of making an inquiry into the matter for themselves. In fact, the utility of history in physical science, is one of its most peculiar advantages, for so closely connected are the truths of science, so intimately do they depend on each other, that almost uniformly we find that the history of some vast discovery, is, in effect, only a great exposition of the order of the facts and reasonings which finally met to establish the truth deduced from them. We may, indeed, lay it down as a certainty, that most of the modern inventions will not be understood, unless a

knowledge of the earlier discoveries in the same department is first obtained.

Such being the object of Professor Powell's work, we are now to speak of the execution. We have no hesitation in stating, that the attempt of the learned author to reduce the language of science into the simple and familiar dialect of the community, has been most triumphant, and for our own parts, we must say, that we have extensively shared in the benefits of the lucid system of explanation which the Professor has adopted in this history. The peculiarities which belong to the great subject itself, seem to have suggested to the author the most proper principle on which he should divide it. The periods, then, which form the divisions under which he considers the history of physical science, are-1. The Progress of Science among the Ancients; 2. Its condition from the Middle Ages, till the time of Newton; and 3. Its advance from the discoveries of Newton, to the present day.

With respect to the portion relating to the ancient history of science, our notice of it may be greatly abridged, considering the probabilities which exist of our readers being already well acquainted with the whole of the facts which it embraces. Still it may be curious to estimate the amount of merit which is due to them in their scientific investigations. In the first place it would appear, that they were unacquainted with the value of tracing those relations which exist between two different classes of facts, although they succeeded to perfection in tracing the facts themselves. But this was all they did; they confined themselves merely to observations, and were satisfied with these, thus receiving, as it were, the knowledge afforded spontaneously by nature, without attempting to investigate her powers by any experiments. The consequence is, that what could be ascertained by mere observation, they succeeded in, as in determining the motions of the heavenly bodies, but with respect to the. bodies on the earth, they made no effort to investigate these, because, in fact, the means that would enable them to do so, had not been yet discovered. The great error of the ancients, was that of recognising no connexion between observed results and philosophical theory: they uniformly trespassed on the limits of truth and fact, setting up fiction and hypothesis as worthy of as much credit as truth. The chief stumbling-block, then, of the ancient philosophers was, that they mistook the aim and object of natural philosophy, and, that they were taken up in the maintenance of theories of much too metaphysical a nature for any physical conclusion. The portion of the work on the science of the ancients, includes its history from the earliest records, to the foundation of the Alexandrian school; next, its progress from the establishment of the latter school, to its decline; and, lastly, the state of science during the age of the Roman Empire, to the era of its dissolution.

In the second of the three divisions, Professor Powell enters at

considerable length into the progress of the Sciences, from the middle ages to the time of Newton. He tells us, that in the middle ages, the cultivation of Science had sunk to the lowest possible ebb, and that a general mental darkness had spread itself over the earth. No one appeared in this melancholly era, capable of making the slightest addition to the sources of knowledge, which had been up to that time accumulated. The whole of the records of ancient learning and philosophy were sealed up, because no one almost with the exception of the clergy and the monks, was acquainted with the Greek language, which was at that period the exclusive language of Science. The Aristotelian doctrines, with all their dogmatic errors, was the only philosophy cultivated in the middle ages. It is to the monastic establishments of the above era, that we owe therefore, the preservation of the manuscripts of ancient writers, for they were the only asylums of security agninst the devastations of military plunder and hostile intrusions. Hence, philosophic historians have usually regarded this instrumentality of the monastic institutions as a tribute extorted from superstition to intelligence.

About the eleventh century Universities began to be established, the only institutions for the purposes of education up to that time, being monasteries. Professor Powell traces the progress of these establishments in England, and shows that the studies pursued in these Universities throughont England, even down to a recent period, consisted scarcely of more than servile comments on Aristotle. One of the earliest Englishmen who distinguished himself in scientific investigations, was Roger Bacon, well known under the title of Friar Bacon. He was well versed in mathematics and in the theory of mechanics: his knowledge of astronomy was far superior to that of any of his cotemporaries, and he was the first to point out the necessity of a further correction of the Calendar, for that the Julian was not a sufficient one. He also distinctly described the composition of gunpowder, but he never brought it into practice from motives of humanity. It is the opinion of the author, that Bacon understood the theory of lenses, and Mr. Molyneux even goes farther by stating that this illustrious man applied his know. ledge of the above theory to practice. Mr. Powell thus sums up the character of Bacon :

"Roger Bacon's great merit is to be found, not so much in the mere details of his various inventions and projects, as in the bold appeal which he made to experiment and the observation of nature; he stood forth as the champion of unfettered enquiry, and vindicated the rejection of all the trammels of authority in matters of science. In an age like that in which he lived, indeed, there were few capable of profiting by his example and instructions; but there were not wanting those who were able to appreciate their value, nor again those who had good reason to dread the influence of such principles, and who accordingly took measures to impede their progress, and, if possible, to suppress their promulgation. A pre