VOL X. NO. XII.
The Chinese Long Measure.
standard measure, which could easily be compared with our own, and the proportion ascertained; but unhappily we cannot get access to any office in this vicinity. It may not be without use, however, to request of the individuals engaged in the present expedition, to procure a Chinese cheik (R) measure, should it be in their power; which I should think might be done at Amoy, Ningpo, or Chusan. The information contained in the subsequent part of this paper, will suggest the queries necessary to be asked from the officer from whom such a measure may be obtained. I would mention, however, espe- cially the following questions as claiming peculiar attention.
As there are four different cheih used, inquire the use to which any that may be obtained are applied; or in other words, whether it may be that of the Mathematical Tribunal, or the land-surveyor's, &c. What cheih is used in measuring the le-the mathematical or the land-surveyor's? And next, which of these two may be used in measuring the mow (H) or Chinese acre.
The difficulty of coming to any conclusion on this subject at pre- sent, arises from the various lengths which are assigned by different writers to the cheih and to the le. In many Chinese works we have the following table of
LONG MEASURE.
tsun make a R cheik. 5尺cheih make a步 poo.
360 ✈ poo make a le.
Could any one of these be ascertained, the others could of course be easily calculated; but the statements, as I have said, differ mate- rially, and we are at a loss on which to rely. With respect to the number of le, of the present standard, that make a degree of the me- ridian, we have met with three statements. The Chinese Repository, vol. II, page 446, and Mr. Morrison in his Chinese Calendar, say that the Jesuits divided the degree into 250 le. Milburne says, in his Ori- ental Commerce, vol. II, page 472, that they divided the degree into 200 le. ́ ́ Mr. Gutzlaff says, in a Chinese work, that the degree is 180 le. Besides these, I have met with a statement of P. Prémare in a note to his “Researches on the times anterior to those spoken of in the Shoo King," in which he says "that ten le make very nearly one of our (French) leagues." This, however, I think was said of the le used by the Chinese previons to the alteration introduced by the Jesuits. That le was the 192.5 part of a degree, and equal to 1892 feet, which is a little more than ;', of a French marine league. The
The Chinese Long Measure.
Jesuits, I have no doubt, although I cannot find the statement of the fact anywhere, changed it so as to make it correspond exactly with the of their league. Perhaps each of the statements, that the le is the 250th part of a degree, and that it is the 200th part, are derived from this the first being the of the French astronomical league, which is the of a degree; and the latter the of the marine league, which is the of a degree. I cannot find any authority for the le, as at present established, being 180 to the degree, except the work of Mr. Gutzlaff above quoted.
We shall be able to form some opinion, as to which of these state- ments may be the most correct, by calculating from each the length of the cheih, and comparing the cheih thus obtained with that given us, by the various writers on this subject. The calculations below show what its length is according to each of these statements.
1st Calculation.
A degree according to Mr. Baily's tables is 365,110 feet. We have then at the rate of 180 le to the degree:
365,110÷180=2028.39 feet 2028.39-360-5.6344 feet
676.13 yards =2.60 le to 1 mile.
5.6344-51.1269 feet = = IR cheih.
1 cheik, then, is equal to 13.5228 inches.
2d Calculation. At 200 le to the degree.
A degree is 365,110-200=1825.55 ft. 608.52 yds. 2.89 le
to 1 mile.
1825.55-360-5.071 feet 1步100.
5.071-5 1.014 feet X 12=12.168 ins. to a cheih.
3d Calculation. At 250 le to the degree.
A degree is 365,110÷÷250=1460.44 feet 486.81 yds. = 3.61 le
to 1 mile.
1460.44÷360=4.056 feet = 1 poo.
4.056-5=0.8112 feet = 9.7344 inches to a cheih. ́. The authorities for the length of the cheih, that have been met with are as follows:
1. Dr. Hutton in the Edinburgh Review. China Mathematical foot, 1.127 English foot.
2. China imperial foot 1.051 feet. Cavallo 1.050 feet.
3. Milburne's Oriental Commerce, vol. II, page 472.
4. Foot of Math. Tribunal, 147.7 French lines, or 134 Eng. inch. 5. Builder's foot, called Kungpoo, 143.1 French lines, or 12, Eng. inch,
The Chinese Long Measure.
6. Tailors' and tradesmens' foot, 150 French lines, or 13 Eng. inch.
7. The foot used by engineers, 141.7 French lines, or 12, Eng. inch.
"The le," he says
" contains 180 fathoms of 10 feet each of the last mentioned lengths, which makes the le 1897 English feet, and 192 le measure a mean degree of the meridian nearly; but the European missionaries divided the degree into 200 le, each le measur- ing 1826 Eng. feet."
Malte Brun, in his Geography, gives the very same table in French lines as Milburne. I subjoin it, as I fancy Milburne has made a mistake in converting French into English measure. The propor. tion, according to which this is calculated, is, that 40,000 French feet, inches, or lines, equal 42,638 English feet, inches, or lines. Malte Brun, vol. I, page 618.*
Mathematical foot 147.7 French lines=13.120 English inch. Foot of the merchants 150 French lines 13.324 English inch. Ché's or carpenter's 143.1 French lines = 12.7114 English inch. Land-surveyor's 141.7 French lines 12.5870 English inch.
We have then the following results:
13.120 in.
Math. ft. Land surv.
Hutton. 13.524 in.
Milburne.
Cavallo.
Malte Brun and Rees' Cyclo.
13.125 in.
12.612 in.
12.65 in.
13.5228 inch Cheih at 180 le to 1° 13.5228 inch
Cheik at 200 le to 1°
12.168 inch
Cheil at 250 le to 1°
9.7344 inch
12.5870 in.
Dr. Hutton's Math. foot. Which nearly agrees with
Which agrees with none but is nearest to the land surveyor's of Malte Brun. Which is less than any, and unquestionably wrong.
These calculations, it will be seen, do not verify the length of the cheih given by any of the authorities, bụt I am disposed to believe, from a review of the whole, that at present the le is reckoned at 200 to the degree, and is therefore equal to 1825.55 feet or 608.52 yards. 2.89 ↳ will then be equal to one English mile.
While on this subject, I will add an estimate of the Chinese mow according to the land-surveyor's cheih, of Malte Brun. The table of land measure is as follows:
The table given in Rees' Cyclopædia agrees exactly with that of Malte Bun, as above expressed in English inches and hundredths of inches. It would therefore, only uselessly prolong this article to transcribe it.
Diary and Journal of Parsees.
5 R cheih make 1✈ pov:
24 poo make 1 1⁄2 fun;
60步 poo make 1
4 19 keò or 240
步 poo make I 畝
12.587 X 562.935 inches 5.244 ft, or 1 poo.
5.244 X 5.244 = 27.499636 square feet, or I square poo.
27.499536-9 = 3.0555 sqr. yd. X 240
mow; which is 6.6 mow to one English acre.
733.32 sqr. yd. to 1
ART. III. Diary and Journal, during tours to England and re- sidence in that country, of one year by Ardaseer Cursetjee'; and of two years and half by Jehanjcer Nowrojee and Hirjee- bhoy Merwanjee, all of Bombay.
THIS, it is said, 'is an age of bronze.' Is it so? Is society so harden- ed that no impression can be made upon it? Are the nations so pe- trified that they are like dead metal, spiritless, unmovable, inactive? Is an apathy like that which covered the world in the darkest times of the Middle Ages, again coming over the whole wide world? Threescore and ten years ago, what was the state of the British em- pire compared with what it now is? What, at that time, was the condition of the British colonies in North America compared with what the United States now are? On the continent of Europe, in India, in New Holland, and on some of the islands of the sea, what has been the progress of affairs? Has there not been one uninter- rupted series of changes, old foundations broken up and new ones laid, old and venerated systems demolished and new ones formed? In arts, in sciences, in morals, in religion, in government, and in almost everything, has there not been an aspiring activity, such as seldom if ever before existed? And does not this activity still con- tinue and increase, so as to baffle conjecture respecting its future achievements? Where, for example, will terminate the inventions resulting from the wonder-working power of steam? Look at the be- nevolent institutions of this age: when were voluntary associations either so numerous or so extensive in their operations as they are
Diary and Journal of Parsees
at this day? When were the poor, and the sick, and the infirm, and the ignorant so much cared for as they are in our own times?
That there is in this age much that is hard and unfeeling, we ad- mit, for there are still those who can keep themselves aloof from all the great and good enterprises of the day, and pass by the most wretched sufferers unpitied and unrelieved, without taking any part or But to act thus is interest in the melioration of their fellowmen. not, we think, in accordance either with the fashion or prevailing spirit of the present generation.
The two works named at the head of this article, are pleasing proof that the spirit of the age is active, and enterprising, and becom- ing more and more free. People of different and distant nations are coming into nearer and better relations with each other; and in these altered circumstances, they see themselves in contrast with others, detect their own defects, see the advantages and improvements of others, and learn to make just comparisons, so as to reject the evil and useless, and to select whatever may seem likely to promote their own and the public good.
The Parsee gentlemen, named above, by visiting England, and by publishing the results of their observations there, have set a noble example, which will be followed by many others. In a few years, we expect to see Chinese publishing the results of their observations in Europe and America, and bringing from thence the most useful modern improvements.
The first of the two works before us, a " Diary of an Overland Journey from Bombay to England, and of one year's residence in Great Britain, by Ardaseer Cursetjee, c. E., F. A. s., chief engineer and inspector of machinery at the honorable E. I. Company's steam- factory and foundery at Bombay," was published in London last year, in a neat pamphlet, comprising 106 pages.
The second, a " Journal of a Residence of two years and a half in Great Britain, by Jehangeer Nowrojee and Hirjeebhoy Merwanjee, of Bombay, native architects," was published early this year in Lon- don, and is a handsome volume of 500 pages.
These gentlemen, all members of the Lowjee family, visited Eng- land chiefly for the purpose of improving their knowledge in naval architecture, in which profession the family has been distinguished for more than a century. It is well known that some of the finest ships in the world have been built in the hon. E. I. Company's dock- yard at Bombay, under the direction of Parsee master-builders. While in England, the three gentlemen of the Lowjee family, appear
Diary and Journal of Parsees.
to have paid the most particular attention to all the improvements in steam navigation; but their observations were not, by any means, limited to what belongs appropriately to their own profession. Both of their works are written in very good style, and are characterised by manly spirit and sound sense. To the Parsees they must be full of interest, and the English reader cannot fail to derive from their pe- rusal some useful hints and much amusement. For ourselves, at least, we can say, we have read them with a great deal of pleasure; and recommend their perusal to all who are interested in the Par- sees, the direct descendants of the ancient Persians.
Leaving our readers to persue the Diary and Journal at their lei sure, we will here lay before them a few particulars, which we have learned from the Parsees themselves, during an acquaintance with some of them for more than ten years. Always we have found them kind, affable, generous, and ready to communicate information re- specting their nation.
After the conquest of Persia, 632 B. C., the despotism of the usur- per, caliph Omar, obliged the followers of Zoroaster, or the ancient Persians, to quit their homes for the sake of their religion. Some fled to the north, others to the west, while most of them went to the bay of Ormus, where, owing to oppression by the Mussulmen, they did not remain longer than 15 years. Thinking that no country could afford them a better place for keeping their religion than Hindostan, they now left the bay Ormus for Dieu. There they stayed about 17 years, and then left for Sanjan, being much oppressed by the Portu- guese government. When they came opposite Sanjan, the rájá of that place, named Jadee Rana, sent a messenger on board one of their vessels to inquire, who they were, and why they had come. hither, and demanded that, before landing, four of their men should come on shore, and acquaint the rájá with their designs. Accordingly, next day, four of them landed, and were kindly received by the rájá, who questioned them about their leaving Persia and their motives for it. They answered that it was on account of their religion. Next he wished to know what their religion was, an account of which was accordingly furnished to him in four days, written in Sanscrit and comprised in 16 verses. The rájá, extremely surprised at the purity of their religion, not only gave them a kind reception, but became half inclined to adopt their faith. Before receiving permission to land, they were required to change their dress, to lay down their arms never to be taken again, to adopt the Sanscrit language, and to yield to certain changes in their diet, marriage ceremonies, costumes,
Diary and Journal of Parsees.
&c., all of which were in no way prejudicial to their religion; and consequently these changes they agreed to adopt. On landing they built an aguiary, or fire-temple, for their worship.
They had continued there five hundred years, without any moles tation, when Mohammed, surnamed Dagura, after having conquered the greater part of Guzerat, sent a force of 3000 men, under his gene ral Ulaf khan, to take possession of Sanjan. But two hundred years before this event, most of the Parsees had left Sanjan for Cambay, Broach, Surat, Uklasur, Vuriow, Nowsary, seeking for a livelihood. When the ruler of Sanjan, one of the descendants of Jadee Rana, heard of the approach of the army of Mohammed, he requested his Parsee subjects to fight against them, which they refused to do, as it would be acting contrary to the treaty, which they had made with his forefathers. However, after being much urged by the high offi. eers of the state, they consented once more to take arms. The Parsee fighting men amounted to 1400, and, headed by Ardaseer, marched against the Mohammedans and completely routed them. When Mo- hammed heard of the defeat of his troops, and knew that the rájá was aided by Parsee warriors, he sent reinforcements, which, joining the the defeated army, marched a second time and were victorious. Great losses were sustained on both sides. The few remaining Par- sees, being now again under the control of the opponents of their re- ligion, left Sanjan, and joined their friends in other parts of India.
After the British obtained possession of Bombay, many Parsees came to that place, and thence went to Calcutta, Madras, China, &c. There are in Persia at present, it is supposed, about 200,000 followers of Zoroaster, but they are much disturbed in their religious rites by the Mohammedans. The number now in India is probably about 50,000.
Almost all the Parsees are merchants, or servants of merchants. There are no tailors, barbers, &c,, among them. The Parsees are dependant upon others for the production of almost all the necessa- ries of life. If reduced to poverty, they either become servants, or are supported by their friends. As with the Greeks, so with the Par- sees, there is a great contrast between those of ancient and those of moderns times. Some of the Parsees are very wealthy and very libe- ral and charitable men.
The religion of the Parsees is called Muzdyesné, or Yezdaprust, meaning worshiper of God. Muzd and Yezd both signifying God; and yesné and prust, to worship. By foreigners it is-sontracted, and called Magi, and its followers Magians. Zoroaster, their lawgiver,
Diary and Journal of Parsees.
was born 392 years before the Christian era. He was descended from the well-known family of Feridoon. His father was Porosusp bin, Petarusp bin, Arovundrup (or Arundusp) bin, Hurchudrap (or Hucha- dusp) bin, Chuckmos (or Chukhusnos) bin, Petarusp bin, Hudrusné (or Hurdrusné) bin, Hurdar (or Hurdar) bin, Supatum bin, Vedsut bín, Usfunx (or Ujum) bin, Rujusné bin, Dorasroon bin, Menochehr bin, Eruch bin Feridoon ; his mother was Dogdoé, daughter of Furm- rua, also a descended from Feridoon. His birth was in the city of Rea, in Persia, then governed by Gustusp, or Darius Hystaspes. No sooner was he born than he began to laugh; and many were his miracles at an early age, which excited the attention of all. The pagan priests; knowing that he was the prophet expected to come, commenced seeking his ruit. But he was saved from all dangers and perils; once on a day, while a child he was taken and thrown into a heap of burn- ing wood, but the fire becathe like cold water. At another time he was attacked in a street, and in many other ways wicked men tried to kill him, but could not. When he was about twelve, he was adinit ted to the company of several wise men, and was there admired by his jealous countrymen for his deep sense and understanding. He was, as his followers believe, now taken into favor by the Almighty, who made him an object of reverence with the people; and by this assistance of God, during his communication with him, he made out laws for his country. Being dissatisfied with the existing language, or the Pehlvi, as it was not a rich one, he invented another more rich,' in which he wrote the Twenty-one books, or Nodsuck, held in 'the' highest respect by the Persians' of all ages, and which are as follows, ed in in their Zend and Persian pamės.
In India 3-Zendt til Persian:-
1. Eutha,
ants of mer 13 Veriu,
ost all the
ecome sent
§, SO WithEr
Tent and
hr and re
5 Rutos, 16 Assaud. 7. Ched, 8 Huchá,
-:Persian.
12 Siuthranunam, Kesut,
13 Ungaeos,
Satroodyest,
Satroodgur.
Vahest Mathre,
14 Muzda,
Pursut, from
15. Ishusthremcha,
Bugaunyest,la
.: 17 Aa.
Rutoostide,
19 Dragobio,
Dwazdeh Hummaust, 16 Huwora,
9 Vungaeos, 10 Duzda,
Brus, Cussroob,
Il Munnango, ***Vistasp,''
20 Dudud,
21 Vastarem,
Mirdoom,
Hoosparéin, Husb Duwas Ropsed, i Uskurum, Vandidad,!
| Wadoki.
These books of the Persians contain moral and natural philosophy, and treatises on the arts, &c.; but the Parsees in India have only a part of them, some having been lost during the last war, wheii, their king being deposed, they were obliged to flee with whatever they could lay their hands upon. The names of these Books 'forth a short prayer, and are daily repeated not less than 100 times by every ma-
VOL X. NO. XII.
Diary and Journal of Pursees,
gian, however irreligious, and very much oftener by the religious and devout. They repeat the prayer with amazing rapidity, so that a stranger can scarcely make out anything from it. They are ac- customed to say this prayer from a very early age, about four, and thus it is fixed in their memories, without being understood. In each of the last five days of every year, they are required to repeat it, 1200 times, in addition to a great number of repetitions in their long prayer of pages..
Zoroaster, so called by the Greeks, meaning the 'living star,' is by the Persians called Zurtoste, Zuratpate, Zuzdoste, Zurdhoste, and Zurthost, all having the meaning of "bright deeds.' The Magians are distinguished by their sudrai, and coesty, the latter is called Ueveogunen in the Zend, and Ueveogaun in the Pehlvi. It is made of seventy-two threads of fine wool, denoting the 72 paragraphs com- tained in the sacred book of Izeshne or Izume.
In making it, six pieces are first formed, each of twelve threads, denoting the twelve chapters of the Dwazdeh Hummaus, one of the 21 books, and the six pieces, denoting the six intervals in which God made the universe, are made into one which forms a coosty. This done, the upside is turned round, showing that the dead will rise again in another world, that is in heaven. This coosty is required to be tied and united round the body eight times'in a day, and some- times oftener. In tying it round the body, there are three turnings, denoting Hoomut, Hooukht, and Hoourest, meaning, that he will not think, nor do, nor wish what is sinful There are four knots, two on the fore and two on the back part of the body: and in tying the first he says there is only one God, who has no partner or relative; in tying the second, he is satisfied with the Muzdyesné, and thinks it the best that exists; in the third, he believes in Zoroaster as the true prophet; and in the fourth, he says, as far as it may be in his power, he will always take the path that leads to virtue. Moreover, the four knots denote the elements. The sudrai is used to protect the coosty from touching the skin, and thereby making it impure; it is a law, there- fore, that every one wear it.
The magians have separate names for every day and month, and when both are of the same name it is a holy day.
According to their law, God made the universe in one year, but at six different intervals, with periods of rest following each of them, 'The order of creation was this; first heaven was made;; second, wa- ter; third, earth; fourth, trees; fifth, brutes, &c,; and sixth, man.
Parsees, on account of their religious views, do not allow other
Diary and Journal of Parsees.
sects to join them. They are strict in their observances. If any culinary vessel, be touched by one of another caste, it must be thrice. washed to purify it ; and if it chance to be a mineral substance it can never again be considered as pure.
Their religion requires them to say their prayers five times a day. The first' prayer, that said between sun-rising and midday, is called Havun; the second, that between midday and 3 r. m., is called Ru- peetun; the third, to be said before night, is called the Ogirun; the fourth, to be said before midnight is called Aevasruthrum; and the last, to be said before morning, is called the Hoseen. In saying great their prayers, they turn their faces to the luminous objects, as the most visible signs of the invisible deity. They do not touch the dead of either lower or superior animals, neither do they allow their shadow to fall upon them, and if this happens to be done they must consequently bathe. Ablution is frequently required by their religion.
Some of the Parsees attend at their temple every day, but most of them only on specially appointed days, which are the 1st, 9th, 17th and 20th of every month. There is no preaching, but every one says his prayers, some orally and standing, while others sit and use their books. The priests are numerous; but are neither very learned, nor much respected. If a man does forbidden acts, he and his family are excluded from participating in the sacred ceremonies; but if he makes atonement for his crime, a restoration can then take place.
Fire is consecrated and preserved in their temples with great care, and the ceremonies regarding it are made a subject of particular
attention./
The doctrines of Zoroaster were, for the most part, delivered in pa- rables, designed to civilize and improve the barbarians of his age. His followers have labored to prove that their's is the only sect whose dead are not turned into démons.
Their treatment of the dead is remarkable. The bodies of the deceased are exposed to the vultures, in costly buildings, common to all Parsees: These buildings are of a circular form, about ten feet high, surrounded by walls of the same height. In the centre of these there is a hole, ten feet deep, communicating with secret vaults. There are many lines of communication, and numerous apartments. There are three receptacles of unequal dimensions, one for children,' one for females, and one for men. 'The ashes or remains of the dead are left in the dentre hote. A cemetery calculated to receive the bodies of 35 men, 35 women, and 35 children,—a model of which is in possession of the Royal Asiatic Society, has at the base a cir.
Diary and Journal of Parsees..
cumference of 175 feet, and of 170 at top, which is open, so that the bodies of the men, women, and children, are all, in their respec-. tive places, exposed to the sun and rain. The three receptacles for the bodies are in a circular form, one within the other, the partitions: running parallel with the outer wall of the cemetery, The innermost receptacle is for the children, the next for the women, and the other for the men.
It has been asserted by some of the most distinguished orientalists, that the language in which the sacred writings of the Parsees are composed is a fabrication of the Zoroastrian priests, subsequent to their expatriation from Persia, and that their writings are, as far as regards antiquity, entitled to no consideration whatever. Against this assertion, the Parsees advance the following remarks. They affirm, that in various parts of Persia, at the present day, inscriptions are, to, be found in a character which they denominate Cuneiform, exhibit- ing historical records of the sixth and fifth centuries before Christ, written in three different languages.
The inscriptions in the simple and literal cuneiform, character ins variably occupy the most distinguished place of the three upon the tablets, and exhibit other points of evidence, to indicate that the lan- guage in which they are written must have been the native and ver-, nacular language of the sovereign by whose orders they were engrav-; ed. To the analysis of this character, and to the examination of their language, a good deal of time has been devoted; and it is asserted that the Persian language of the ages of Cyrus and Darius, is unquestiona-, bly the parent of the tongue now called the Zend, and which bas been so successfully elaborated by continental students, and by none with greater, skill and perspicuity than by M, Bournouf in his admi- rable “Commentaire sur le yacno."..
The Anti-Alexandrian Persian is in fact, to all appearance, an in- termediate formation between the languages of Zend Avesta and some primitive tongue which gave rise to the various cognate derivatives, of Sanscrit, Pali, Pelasgian, Etrusian, and the many branches of the: Indo Teutonic family .*:* !!
The preceding remarks on the language are quoted almost verba- tim from the notes of major Rawlinson, who is writing a memoir to` illustrate, the cuneiform inscriptions of Persia, and to show the close affinity between this Anti-Alexandrian Persian and the Zend. He, considers it as incontrovertible, that the dialect in which are compes-: ed the Vundidad, Vispered, Izeshne, &c., is merely a modification of the true vernacular tongue, used in Persia in the ages of Cyrus and.
Diary and Journal of Parsees.
Darius, about twelve centuries anterior to the period of the Indian emigration of the Parsees; and that there is scarcely a single radical of any importance, in any of the sacred books of the Parsees, which may not be traced, under some modification or other, to a corres- pondent term in some living dialect of Persia ; and consequently he has come to the conclusion that these writings of the Parsees were brought from Persia in their present state, and are thus now entitled to the same degree of consideration, among the Parsees in India, as they enjoyed among their ancestors at the period of their expatriation.
Education among the Parsees of India has been, and is still, great- ly neglected. Females have little, or no knowledge of letters. In sew- ing and embroidery they are expert, and are well accustomed to the duties of the kitchen. They are, it is said, most faithful to their busbands. They are, in their way, more devoted to religiou than are the men, and have the almost entire charge of the religious educa- tion of the young, who are for this purpose placed under their care usually when about three years old. This branch of education con- sists in learning to recite prayers, which neither teachers nor pupils understand. In the day schools, the boys are first taught arithmetic by a master, who gives oral lessons; writing the same lessons on boards, with chalk, comes next in course. At this stage, certain cere- monies must be observed by their parents. The alphabet is now to be learnt, and reading follows. The pay to the masters is very small never more than six rupees annually, even by the rich. The schools,
fact, hardly deserve this designation, and children are often sent, to them solely in order that they may be out of the way of their pa- rents at home. However, within a few years some English schools have been opened for their benefit. In 1822, a foundation was laid by Elphinstone, of which Parsees have availed themselves for the edu- cation of their sons. In periodical literature, the Parsees have also become interested, and have already four newspapers and a monthly journal, all published at Bombay.
*} Notes,—–7]. One of these papers appears thrice a week, another twice, and two once. One is called the Bombay Telescope, another is the Bombay Whip (Bombay Chabook), and the monthly is styled the Ocean of Knowledge: all 'pub lished in Guzarattee, the common language among the Parsees of India,
2. We here correct an expression in our number for October, where we ought to have said 'Mr. Herjeebhoy's donation, and not Mr. Rustomjee's donation.' Rustomjee is the name given to his father at birth, and then Rustomjee's sons father, and
must each have their respective given name preceding that of the ter
thas we ought to have 'written Herjeebhoy Rustonjee.
While on this subject, we may remark, that, yery few of the names of the Par sees in India are of Persian origin. In Guzarattee, jee means master, and byee mistress, and are similar in use to our Mr. and Mrs' "The names are usually selected by astrologers, who in doing this mark out a horoscope showing the suq's
Illustrations of Men and Things in China.
place in the zodiac at the time the child was born; and each of the signs having letters peculiar to itself, the child is called by a name which begins with one of those letters belonging to that sign in which the sun was at the child's birth.
ART. IV. Illustrations of men and things in China: manufacture of lanterns; an ode arranged in squares, with some account of its reputed author, Svo Hwuy; Chinese portable writing apparatus. Manufacture of lanterns.-The making of the transparent lanterns, so universally used by the Chinese, employs many thousands of work- meu. The framework of the lantern is made of fine bamboo splints, which are split by the hand with a knife, and woven on a frame of the proper size; this work is done by women and children, and it is said an expert hand can finish six or eight in a day. When brought to the shop, the workmen in the first place cuts off the fag ends, shapes it, and rearranges all the splints, so that the interstices, which are very large, will be nearly of equal size; he then stiffens them with a coat of glue, and lays the skeleton away to dry. When a suitable number are ready, he takes his station near the glue-pot, and laying a piece of thin and coarse bamboo paper called sha che, upon the frame which he holds in his hand, he brushes it down even- ly and smoothly over the splinths with a brush filled with glue. The glue is made from a species of fucus (a Delesseria?) found on the rocky shores of Hainan, and brought to Canton in junks in a dry' state; it is boiled to a proper consistence, and when dried upon the lantern is almost transparent. Two or three coats are laid on, each being well dried, after which the lantern is mounted with a socket for the candle, and a wire for the handle, and hung up for sale. When the customer selects it, a painter, usually one of the workmen, adorns it with flowers, or with his name, his style, the sign of his shop, or any other characters he wishes, fits in a grotesque handle if desired, and charges from five cents to ten or twenty times that, ac- cording to the size and finish.
Lanterns are used by the Chinese for many purposes unknown to western nations. Officers, when traveling by night, always have large ones carried before them with their titles written upon them; and, private persons carry one in their hand with their names upon them. By night, a lantera hung at a shop door serves both for an illuminat- ed sign, and to lighten the street. Besides the kind of lanterns abov
Illustrations of Men and Things in China.
described, the Chinese make very elegant ones of colored paper called trow ma tăng, or horse-racing lamps, having two, three or more cylinders one within the other, and very delicately balanced. Wind- Haps are so contrived that the draft of heated air circulating up through the lantern, causes the inner cylinders to turn round; and as they are made of paper figures set in a frame, the effect of so many tiny men, women, children, horses, or other animals, pursuing one another round and round is very beautiful. There are others of still more elaborate workmanship than these made for gandees, de scribed to us as being twenty cubits in diameter, containing many sorts of "lamps placed within, and so artificially and agreeably that the light adds beauty to the painting, and the smoke gives life and spirit to the figures in the lantern, which art has so contrived, that they seem to walk, turn about, ascend and descend. You shall see horses run, draw chariots and till the earth; vessels sailing; kings and princes go in and out with large trains, and great crowds of people both afoot and horseback, armies marching, and a thousand other divertisements and motions represented." These and many other sorts are got up for the feast of lanterns, to the great jollity of all sorts of people.
Soo Huuy's Ode. Sometime ago, we noticed a ballad, the cha- racters of which were arranged in the shape of a cow. We have here a more elaborate performance, in which the characters are placed so as to form squares, with a large character in the centre of each. It is a sonnet upon a husband's long absence, and is popularly ascribed to Soo Hway of the first Tsin dynasty. In the Tsing Sze, or History of the Passions, is a short account of Soo Hwuy, from which we take a few particulars regarding this lady, and the ode she
“Soo Hwuy, (also styled Jeð-lan,) flourished during the Tsin dynasty, B. C. 250; she was the daughter of a military officer, and at the age of six- teen was married to Tow Taou. She had very superior parts, was retiring and modest in her demeanor, as well as beautiful and elegant in her person, nor did she seek to be known abroad; but her temper was rather basty, and she was liable to fits of jealousy. Her husband Tow (also styled Leënpo) had been, on account of his spirited conduct and his talents, appointed by Fookeen to a very responsible office, which he filled with great reputation and credit. However, while he was the chief magistrate of Tsinchow, for opposing the emperor he was transported to the frontier at Tun-hwang; but in the insurrection of Fookeen, the city of Seängyang became a very impor- tant place; and being in danger, Tow, on account of his talents, was ap pointed general to quiet the southern provinces, and in consequence made
Illustrations of Men and Things in China.
his residence at Seängyang in Honan. He had a concubine, called Yangtae, a very skillful actor and singer, unequalled by any in her day, whom he loved very much. He had placed her once in a separate house, which, when his wife Soo heard, she inquired and ascertained where it was, and gave,her a severe beating. Tow was very much disturbed at this conduct, and Yang, tae also telling him all her other misdemeanors, slandering and vilifying her, he wished to take her with hiin to Seängyang, where he was then going, but Soo would not accompany him. Tow thereupon took Yangtae, and ceased all intercourse with Soo; but she, deeply grieved for, and repentant of, her folly, wove an1hwuy wan, or revolving composition, on silk, in which many different colors were so blended, that it rejoiced the mind, and entranced the eyes.' It was about a foot square, and contained more than eight hun- dred characters; and if read either up or down, crosswise, backwards or for- wards, it made sense; nor was a stroke or a point in it deficient. The talent and ingonuity displayed in it was surpassing, excelling that of the ancients and putting to shame the moderns; she called it the seuen-ke picture. Even fearned persons called hardly understand it, upon which Soo laughing, said,
• 1 who am nothing uncommon have made this piece of anagramatic compo- Jition, and now none of you can explain it.' She sent it by a faithful do- mestic to her husband, who narrowly examined it, and was so affected by its extraordinary elegance and singularity, that He dismissed Yangtae, and sent a carriage loaded with presents to Soo to bring her to him. She was therefore exceedingly beloved, and wrote more than Ave, thousand lines, which however were irrecoverably lost during the commotions of the Tsuy dynasty, together with this worked anagram."
From a notice in the Koo Sze Tsin Yuen, or. Deep Researches into Ancient Matters, it would appear that Soo Hway wrote this while her. husband was banished beyond the frontiers, and before he went to Seangyang; it is also there said, that the emperor compassionated her, and as a reward for her talents and skill in weaving it, recalled Tow Taou. The sonnet is written in heptameters, and contains 280 cha- racters; it commences at the character kwan near the circle in the left upper corner, and reads along the top and down the right side; the lines there reäscend, forming all the squares on the right șide, and then again go down and up until they end next to the circle. at keë, which is the second word of a line, and is connected with the first column of large characters on the left side. The last four lines are placed somewhat” irregularly so as to bring the two characters teen tsze the emperor, in the middle. The last character in the piece is hwan to return. The whole, to say the least, is ingenious in its arrangement, and is a good specimen of a kind of literary trifling common among the Chinese one that would: not be misplaced in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature.
Illustrations of Men and Things in China.
SOO HWUY'S ODE, CALLED
SEUEN KE TOO.
VOL. X. NO. XI.
Illustrations of Men and Things in China.
TRANSLATION OF Soo Hwer's ODE.
When you received his majesty's commands to quiet the distant frou-
Going with you to the river's bridge, we there bade our sad farewell: Restraining my grief and hiding my tears, I left with you this word: "O do not forget my love and affection, nor tarry long away.'
Who would have guessed that since you left, not a word should I
receive.
Have you thought that to your lone wife e'en the spring is bleak and
At the foot of the gemmeous stairs the greensward is left unmown, And our nuptial chamber with dust and webs is all o'erstrown. Even now, when I speak of our farewell, my soul with dread doth
And my mind revolves what I would be my lord again to see. One time, to be the deep sea moon, I much desire,
And then to be the cloud upon the mountain's brow is my heart's wish: For the giddy mountain clouds for aye my husband's face do meet, And the deep sea moon year by year shines down upon the land
The first flying here and flying there, reach my beloved's place; And at thousands and ten thousand miles, you see each other's face. Far far along the distant road, the mountain pass while us dividing, Do I bemoan my lord, who now beyond the marches, so long has
absent been.
At the time you left, when we bade good-bye, the leaves of the reeds.
were yellow;
Who then would have thought, that the plum would have blossomed
its boughs so oft?
Each kind of flowers, scattering its leaves abroad, has met the early
The time of genial spring, doth urge men to commune: but to whom
shall I turn ?
The pendent willows cover the ground, which for you I oft pull down, The falling flowers bestrew the earth, which none do sweep away: Before the hall, the vernal herbage grows most rich and fragrant. Taking the lute of Tsun in my arms I turn me to the pictured hall, Where for your sake, I try to thruin the ballad of departed friends. Sending my inmost thoughts away, they reach the northern bounds- The northern bounds-how far they are, o'erpassed the hills and
streams.
Illustrations of Men and Things in China.
Along the dreary distant way, the word of a letter has ceased so long, My silvery dress, upon my pillow, with my tears is deeply dyed, And on my gilded robe and on my satin coat, the flowers are
wholly spoiled.
This spring did the cry of the geese and storks, in their passage
north when heard,
Seem to me, whose friend is far dispart, like tearing my heartstrings
The strings of my lute had not yet broke, but my feelings were all
subdued ;
My grief was at its utmost bent, but my song was still unsung. I feel that your present love for me is stable as the hills,
And my thoughts from you, my lord, for a moment never stray. When I had woven but half my task, I presented it to his majesty, Wishing him to release my husband, that he may quick return to me
Portable writing apparatus. The Chinese, and others who write. with a hair pencil, have a sort of pocket inkhorn which is very neatly contrived. It is usually carried in a long pouch, which, along with two or three others, containing a pipe, chopsticks, fan, &c., hang pendent from the girdle. It consists of a brass tube as long as the pencil, having a lid at the end to close it up, and a cup or bowl to contain the ink. The cup is frequently dispensed with, and in its stead the cap of the pencil is made of brass, and liquid ink put into it to saturate the pencil. In an inkhorn, now before us, from Lewchew, the brazen tube to hold the pencil is seven inches long, and the cup for the ink holds about a table-spoonful; both tube and cup have a lid, and the four pieces are all connected by a cord running through rings, by which it is carried. Another one, from Japan, is in a single piece; the cup is attached to the tube somewhat as a ladle is joined to its handle, and one lid closes them both; a long cord running through a ring secures it to the girdle. In both of them, the ink is kept from evaporating by a ball of cotton wool. A seal, also from Lewchew, is made of buffalo's horn, and composed of three parts. The lower part is a cup to hold the ink, the upper is the seal, and fits closely into the middle part; the three are kept together by a cord running through them, by which also it is worn. The stamp is very neatly cut in intaglio in the seal character. The custom of wearing seals and inkhorns by the side is referred to in Ezekiel ix, 2, and from Harmer's description of this part of the Persian dress, considerable resemblance to the Chinese is observed..
Biographical Notice of P. Prímare.
ART. V. Biographical notice of Père Joseph Prémare. Tran-
slated from Rémusat's Nouveaux Mélanges Asiatiques, by S. R. AMONG the host of learned men whose labors have rendered the mission to China illustrious, there are two who deserve to occupy an eminent rank in the memory of the lovers of learning; one as a grammarian and philologist and the other as a historian and astrono- The first is Prémare-the second is Gaubil. Couplet, Noel, and Parrenin, among the early missionaries, Amiot and Cibot, among those of a more modern period, did not equal Prémare in pro- found knowledge of the Chinese language, and in reading authors who owe their celebrity to their literary merit. Schall, Verbiest, Grimaldi, have not rendered to astronomy greater services than Gau- bil, and his researches into history and antiquity are even above those of Martini, of Visdelou, and Mailla. Unquestionably, these two learned missionaries had acquired the one and the other, an ability in point of Chinese literature, which no one of their order, much less of other Europeans, has ever surpassed, or perhaps ever equalled. It would be difficult to decide which of these two men had the better knowledge of Chinese. Perhaps Prémare had more fully acquainted himself with certain niceties of the language, and more deeply pene- trated into its genius; but Gaubil, drawn towards graver objects, threw the light he had acquired upon points the most important. Both were of the number of men of letters, of whom France ought to be proud.
The place and period of the birth of Joseph Henry Prémare are unknown; we only know that he was one of the Jesuits who set out from Rochelle, on the 7th of March, 1698, to go and preach the gos- pel in China. He made the passage in seven months, in the Amphi- trite, in company with PP. Bouvet, Domenge, and Baborier. There were in all on board that vessel, eleven Jesuit missionaries, several of whom have shed great lustre on the mission to China. Premare aṛ- rived on the 6th of October at Sanshan (or St. John's); and oy the 17th of February of the following year, he wrote to P. De la Chaise an account* of his passage, with some particulars that he had ga- thered respecting the Cape of Good Hope, Batavia, Acheen, and Ma- lacca. The first year of his residence in China, he was obliged to occupy himself solely in studying the language, so as to put himself in
See Lettres Edifiantes, vol. XVI, page 338.
Biographical Notice of P. Prémare.
a condition to discharge his duties in the provinces. We learn, by a letter* that he addressed to P. le Gobien, the 1st of November, 1700, that he was then at Yuenchow foo in Keängse. One readily per- ceives that he was still under the influence of those impressions from which a traveler finds it so difficult to secure himself at first, and to get rid of afterwards. The weak side of Chinese institutions had up to that time struck him singularly, and the abuses, inevitable in the administration of a vast empire, and of which so many superficial travelers have given descriptions more or less darkened, were all that he had time to observe.
The learned missionary had formed a very favorable opinion of the Chinese, and fully recognized the falsity of his prejudices, when he wrote the letter,† in which he refuted so completely the fables and absurdities with which the Relations, translated from the Arabic by the Abbé Renaudot, are replete, and of which the notes and ad- ditions by the translator, are far from being free. That celebrated book, many passages of which would not disgrace the collection of Arabian tales, has at all times excited the indignation of the mission- aries to China, among whom many have set themselves to correct its inaccuracies; but the refutatiou of P. Prémare is the most com- plete and the most solid. From that time, he devoted himself to the study of the Chinese language and literature, no more, like most of the other missionaries, with the single view of discharging the ordinary duties of preaching, but as a man who wished, after the ex- ample of the most distinguished among them, to put himself in a state to write in Chinese on religious subjects, and to search, for himself, in the national monuments, for weapons to rebut error, and cause the truth to triumph. His success in this new career was so remarkable, that after a few years he was able to compose some books in Chinese which are esteemed for their elegance of style.
It was while he was occupied in profound researches into Chinese antiquities, that P. Prémare found himself led to undertake a singular project which had misled several of the missionaries of China, and, what is most remarkable, precisely those who had best studied the ancient Chinese authors. The scheme was to search in the King (K), and in the literary monuments of the ages that preceded the burning of the books, for traces of traditions which were supposed to have been transmitted to the authors of those books, by the patri-
See Lettres Edifiantes, vol. XVI, page 392.
+ See Lettres Edifiantes, vol. XXI. page 183.-See Chinese Repository, vol. I, pages 6, 42, for an account of Renaudot's work.
Biographical Notice of P. Prémare.
archs, who founded the Chinese empire. The sense of certain passages, sometimes obscure, the various interpretations which had been given at different periods, the allegories contained in the Book of Odes, the enigmas of the Book of Changes (Yih King), and the analysis of certain symbols, were to the missionaries who were prepossessed of these ideas, so many arguments suited to strengthen them in an opi- nion, which they regarded as favorable to the propagation of Chris- tianity. It was certainly with that view, and not to excite a vain curiosity, that they applied themselves to spreading these extraordi nary notions.
P. Prémare speaking of his works, to which we shall allude here- after, wrote as follows to. Fourmont: "The ulterior, and highest end to which I have devoted this notice, and all my other writings, is to cause, if I can, that all the world may know that the Christian reli- gion is as old as the world, and that the God-man was most cer- tainly known, by that or those men who invented the hieroglyphics of China, and composed the King (). Here you see, my dear friend, the only motive that has sustained and animated me, during more than thirty years in studies, which, without this, had been very tedious."
But the perseverance which Prémare and his brethren directed to sustain these opinions, and the strong conclusions which some wished to deduce therefrom, brought upon them much dislike, from those men who did not partake of their views, and who therefore con. nected the inquiry with the great quarrel between the Jesuits and Dominicans, about the meaning of the Chinese rites and ceremonies, and the pretended atheism of their literature. Men who were less passionate did not abstain from disapproving of the opinions of the Jesuits upon Chinese antiquity; and Fourmont, to whom P. Prémare had communicated his ideas on that subject, avowed that they had never appeared probable to him, because, said he, "the ancient Chi- nese were not prophets."
It was very natural to receive so strange a scheme with distrust, and one of which the consequences might be so serious; but it was less just to suspect the intelligence or the good faith of respectable men, who were not less distinguished for their science than for their uprightness. It were better to examine the texts upon which they rested their assertions, and to see if those texts were not susceptible of more natural interpretations than those which they proposed. This is what few persons at that period were able to attempt; and what has been done since, in a manner to clear Prémare and his compa-
Biographical Notice of P. Prémare.
nions completely of the unjust allegations, of which they had been the object. It is seen, in reading those very books, that they contain numerous vestiges of opinions that had their origin in the west, and must have been carried to China in very remote times. But one sees too, at the same time, that the opinions and doctrines in which Prémare believed he saw the fragments of sacred traditions or antici- pations of Christianity, appertain to that oriental theology from which Pythagoras, Plato, and the entire school of Neoplatonists, have borrowed so much. Prémare, Bouvet, Fouquet, and many others, there- fore, had as good a right to seek for ideas and dogmas, analogous to those of Christianity, in the Single, the Yih King, the Chung Yung, and in the writings of Chwang tsze, of Laou tsze, and Hwaenan tsze, as had Eusebius, Lactantius and St. Clement of Alexandria, to see prophecies in the books of the false Orpheus or Mercurius Trismegistus. We see that these opinions which have been ascribed to a weakness of mind or whimsicalness, show on the contrary in those who have set them forth, vast erudition and a profound acquaint- ance with the philosophical works of the Chinese. The facts col- lected by Prémare were exact; his manner of explaining them was affected by the influence under which his researches were under- taken. There is room to believe that, after this explanation, we shall read with less disrelish the very interesting fragment from the same author, entitled Recherches sur le temps antérieurs á ceux dont parle le Shoo King, et sur la mythologie Chinoise, and inserted, by De Guignes, at the head of the Shoo King translated by Gaubil, in the form of a preliminary discourse. Amiot has treated this work with great severity; the only one, with the short extracts given by Des- hautesrayes, where persons who do not know Chinese, can find any quotations from the most ancient books on the fabulous traditions of China. He aims especially at the numerous citations by which these researches are sustained. We see, according to him, at a single glance, that two or three by no means voluminous writers could have furnished them all.
This innocent fraud it is indeed easy to discover by much the same marks, in the memoirs of several missionaries, and particularly in those of Cibot, and of Amiot himself; but Prémare had no occa- sion to resort to it. His extensive reading, and indeed his variety of learning, in the Chinese whether ancient or modern, are well at- tested from other quarters. There is no need of other proof than his Notitia Linguæ Sinicæ, the most remarkable and most important of all his works; the best, without contradiction, of all those that Eu-
Biographical Notice of P. Prémare.
ropeans have hitherto composed on the subject.* It is neither a sim- ple grammar, (as the author himself very modestly says,) nor a rheto- ric, as Fourmont has given us to understand. It is a treatise of literature nearly complete, wherein Prémare has put together, not merely all that he had collected upon the usage of particles, and the grammatical rules of the Chinese, but where he has also inserted a great number of observations upon style, phrases peculiar to the an- cient language, and the common idiom, proverbs, and the most usual tropes, the whole being supported by a host of examples cited textually, translated and commented upon when it was necessary.
Quitting the beaten track of the Latin grammarians whom all his predecessors, Varo, Fortigny, and Castorano, had taken for their models, he has struck out a method entirely new, whereby he has sought rather to render all method superfluous, by substituting for rules, the phrases themselves from which one may deduce them. This single statement comprehends at once an eulogium upon the work of Prémare, and the only well grounded criticism to which it is expos- ed. The author judged others by himself; and he believed that they would consent with him, to acquire the Chinese by practice, instead of studying it theoretically. Perhaps, as it has been said elsewhere, he considered particular cases too much, in the room of combining them in the form of general observations. His book is, in fine, one that furnishes excellent materials for a work, rather than a work really finished.
This form which Prémare gave to his Notitia, is what hindered it from being printed in China, and what will always be an objection to the European publication, because it contains in three small quarto volumes, little less than twelve thousand examples, and fifty thousand Chinese characters.
We cannot say that the plan pursued in it, is suited to an elemen- tary book designed for beginners; but when one has already a smat- tering of the language, he can get ideas on the subject from that work, which otherwise he could not obtain, but by a diligent reading of the better Chinese authors, and that for a long time.
Prémare, who from 1727 maintained with Fourmont a constant correspondence, and who showed in all his letters the greatest eager- ness to afford the academician all the aid that he asked of him, must have believed that he gave him peculiar pleasure, when he announc- ed to him, at the end of 1728, that he had sent him a grammar, by
Rémusat subsequently wrote a grammar, founded upon Prémare's, which is better adapted to the purposes of such a book.
Biographical Notice of P. Prémare.
the aid of which, he could, for the future, make rapid progress in the study of Chinese. Unfortunately, Fourmont had also drawn up a grammar, or to speak more correctly, had translated that of Varo from the Spanish. The fruits of the labor he had expended, and the merit which he believed he had acquired, all seemed to him anni- hilated in a moment, by the announcement of a book, with which he well knew, his own could not bear a comparison.
It is worth the while to see with what unaffected grief he tells of that event; for such it really was to him. He hastened to deposit, for himself, in the Royal Library, before the arrival of his friend's work, the manuscript of the Grammatica Sinica, so as to have it quoted and commented upon by the Abbé Bignon; and when Pré- mare's Notitia came to hand, he by these precautions had prepared the way to compose for himself a comparative examination of the two works, and to make it appear that in all important points they agreed, although his own was the better of the two. He then publish- ed the result of this comparison in the preface to his own grammar.
Prémare was no longer living, when that book appeared; but be- fore his death, he had been informed of the precautions which Four- mont took, to prevent his Notitia from being much known.
"You say (he writes to him in 1733) that they have done all they could to get my Notitia from your hands. If it is from envy, and to suppress yours, that is unjust; if it is to see and become acquainted with it, that is laudable. Only the terms, to get it from your hands, do not please me. When I sent it to you, I knew in whom I confided, and I never dreamed that you would be the only one to read it. I made it in order to render the study of Chinese easy to future mis- sionaries, and to all the savans of Europe, who are, like you, curiou to search into Chinese antiquities.”+
But Fourmont survived his friend, and the work of the latter was lost from view, and remained forgotten, until in spite of the keeper, I found; in the cabinet of oriental MSS., the original of the Notitial Linguæ Sinicæ, and brought it to remembrance by publishing my obligations to Prémare. The autograph manuscript, which is in the Royal Library, is in three small volumes in quarto, and not in five as Fourmont said, written on Chinese paper doubled. The Latin part is in many places difficult to read. From that original, a very exact copy has been made and again from that a second, which has pass-
See the circumstances of that plagiarism, in Rémusat's Elemens de la Grammaire Chinoise, pref. p. 14.
A letter written to Fourmont, from Macao, Oct. 5th, 1733.
VOL. X. NO. X11.
Biographical Notice of P. Prémare.
ed into England, which it is said, is destined for publication; at least is there not a security from the fear, some might have entertained, that so precious a manuscript might some day or other be lost or destroyed.*
Besides this grammar, Prémare also compiled, in company with P. Hervieu, a Latin-Chinese dictionary. He put into the Chinese part of it nearly all that we find in Danet, without forgetting a single phrase that gives to the words a new sense or usage. This work formed a large quarto volume. We know not that it has ever been sent to Europe.
Prémare also translated from the Chinese a drama entitled, "the Orphan of the House of Chaou." This piece, which furnished to Vol- taire some positions for his Orphelin de la Chine, is in Du Halde; and until the publication of the comedy translated into English by Mr. Davis, was the only specimen, from which one in Europe could judge of the Chinese theatre. We besides owe to Prémare the acquisition of a great number of Chinese books, which he sent to Fourmont for the Royal Library, and among which it is proper to notice the collec- tion of a hundred dramatic pieces, composed under the Yuen dynas- ty alone, the thirteen classics, and many romances, and collections of poetry. The correspondence of Premare was very extensive, and to judge of it by the four entire letters and the various extracts from others, which have been published, it must contain many interesting details. Unfortunately, Fourmont, who was the one to whom he wrote most frequently, has preserved scarcely any of them, or at least only one has been found
his among papers.
We are aware of three works written in Chinese, by Prémare; the life of St. Joseph which he had composed in 1718 or 1719; the Luh Shoo che yih or the True Sense of the six classes of characters,—a work in which the author, upon the origin of the Chinese characters, sets forth those singular hypotheses, of which we have already spok· en; and lastly, a small tract upon the attributes of God, which he has inserted in his Notitia Lingua Sinicæ, as an example of the manner in which one might write upon religious subjects in Chinese. There are still in the Royal Library, some treatises in Latin and French, in all of which the object is to establish, develope and defend the system of explaining Chinese characters and antiquities, embrac- ed by Bouvet and Prémare. Several of these tracts are from the hand of Prémare, and composed by him, in part from materials col- lected by Bouvet. We see there also the originals of many of his
Since published at Malacca in 1831.
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chekeang.
letters addressed to the confessor of Louis XV., and to some others, Three of his letters have been published in the Lettres Edifiantes. A fourth which had remained among Fourmont's papers, has been given by M. Klaproth, in the Annales Encyclopédiques. It contains a judgment upon the grammar of Fourmont, both very severe and very well founded, addressed to Fourmont himself, and expressed with a candor and simplicity worthy of commendation.
Prémare had had three attacks of apoplexy in 1731, and it was feared that paralysis would follow. These accidents were attributed to the very great ardor with which he had devoted himself to the study of Chinese. He survived the first attacks of the malady, for a' few years, and died in China about 1734 or 1735. It is sad to leave so many chasms in the dates and other circumstances of the life of a missionary so illustrious. The fault belongs to the compilers of the Lettres Edifiantes, who have neglected to render to Premare the homage which they have paid to many of his companions, who haveTM not rendered so important services to letters.
ART. VI. A memorial addressed to his imperial majesty, by Lew Yunko the lieutenant-governor of Chekeäng and his colleagues, respecting the fall of Ningpo, and the state of the defences in the province. Dated Oct. 27th 1841, and forwarded by express. Lew Yunko, the lieutenant-governor of Chěkeäng, with Kemingpaou and Hăngkih the commandant and lieutenant-general of Hangchow, kneeling send up to his majesty their report, respecting the attack made on Ningpo by the rebellious foreigners, the loss of that city, and the imminently dangerous state of affairs both at Shaouhing and Hangchow; and also respecting the provisional appointments of the provincial commissioner of finance, Ching Tsooshin (late of Fuh keen), with general Le Tingyang, and the intendant Luh Tseihchang, to superintend and direct the forces stationed for the defense of the commanding position at Tsaougo. Respectfully, they lay this report before his majesty, hoping a sacred glance may be cast thereon.
The fall of Chinhae, the impossibility of maintaining the defense of Ningpo for a single day, and the consequently disheartened state of all the inhabitants on the west, from the district of Tszeke to Hangchow,
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chěkeäng.
the capital of the province, have been duly reported to the throne, by your majesty's minister Lew, in successive dispatches, dated the 12th, 13th, and the 24th of October.
On the 16th of October, Lúh Tseihchang, the intendant of the departments of Ningpo and Shaouhing, made a report. The said intendant, on the 10th of October fought at Chinhae; but on account of the fierce bearing of the rebellious foreigners, our soldiers were unable to withstand them and maintain their defenses; and the heights of Kinke and Chaoupaou, with the chief town of the district, were one after another lost. The said intendant, seeing that the case was impracticable, threw himself into the river that he might sacrifice life in the maintenance of duty; while in a state of insensibili- ty, he was taken from the water by the marines (lit. water braves), and in a small boat was sent off to Tszeke, when recuscitation commenc- ed, and he began to revive, although his thighs had been severely wounded by his fall. Having heard that the commander-in-chief (Yu Pooyun) had fallen back for the defense of Ningpo, and that the im perial commissioner and high minister Yukeën,-having attempting to sacrifice life in the maintenance of duty, but being rescued from the water by the people,-had, after reaching Ningpo, expired on the road while being borne off from thence to the provincial capital; the said intendant, seeing the routed troops come rushing into the city (of Ningpo) in perfect confusion and disorder, now at length took off his wounded self to Shangyu, and there assembled together the scattered soldiers, purposing to return and defend the city of Ningpo.
On the 15th of October, Shaou Yung, a domestic of Täng Tingtsae the prefect of Ningpo, reported that, on the 12th, a steamer came up to the city and sounded the depth of the water, and that early on the morning of the 13th, eight ships of war coming up near to the city, Tăng Tingtsae, the commander-in-chief Yu Pooyun, aud the chief magistrate of the district, went out with their troops for the defense of the place; but on account of the small number of their troops and the constant firing of the enemy, they were unable to maintain the defense; and seven or eight hundred of the foreign soldiers having made a rush into the city, Tăng Tingtsae leaped from the wall over the western gate into the moat. The people belonging to the small boats dragged him out of the water, and bore him away to the city [of Tszeke?], in an apparently lifeless condition; but on the applica tion of ginger gruel, he showed symptoms of life and began to breathe. The other officers, civil and military, the said domestic knew not where they had gone. On passing through the city of Tszeke, he saw it deserted and empty.
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chěkeäng.
The fall of Chinhae, and the state of Ningpo-extremely dangerous like a pile of eggs, we your ministers had already faithfully reported ; and now on the 13th Ningpo has suddenly fallen, and thus this pro- vince of Chěkeäng has lost one of its eastern defenses, and the two districts of Funghwa and Seängshan (on the south of Ningpo),, are left isolated and exposed in a manner much to be regretted. On the west of Ningpo, although the rivers and channels are rather narrow, so that the large vessels of the rebels may not be able easily to make their way upon them, yet their boats and small craft will be able to go in every direction.
On the 15th, a dispatch was received from Wang Wootsăng, the magistrate of Tszeke, stating that the inhabitants were flying in great numbers and confusion, and that the danger was so great that it was impossible to afford any security for the defense of the place. The above named domestic, Shaou Yung, has now again reported verbally that when he passed through Tszeke, the place was entirely vacated. That place being thus left without inhabitants, the people of the neighboring districts Yuyaou, Shangyu, Hwuyke, Shanyin, Seaoushan, together with the inhabitants of Hangchow, are day after day removing in great numbers; and the removals are numerous in proportion as the respective places are near to the late scene of action. Perhaps the rebels, hearing of this state of our affairs, may come either in their small craft or on foot, and improve the opportunity to make new attacks. It is feared, therefore, that Tszeke and the other places on the rivers will hardly be able to maintain their defenses against them. And should the rebellious foreigners not presume to enter so far into the country, still there is reason to fear that treacherous natives will seize on this opportunity to rob and to plunder. The number of these outlaws daily increasing, it is further to be feared that they will band themselves into factious bands, and give rise to internal disorders.
Pondering on this state of things, as we relate them, it is impossi- ble to repress the bitter grief and painful anxiety of our hearts.
We, your majesty's ministers, with the other high provincial au- thorities, having taken into consideration the whole state of affairs, are only able, under existing circumstances, to guard and defend the most important positions, hoping thereby to secure the safety of Shaouhing, and also to cut off from Hangchow the approach of the invaders. In looking at the several positions in the province, the narrows on the river Tsaougo are found to be the most important. From thence, on the one side, Shangyu and Tszeke, and other dis- tricts, may be overlooked; while on the other, defence may be afford-
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chěkeäng.
ed to Shaouhing and the provincial capital. There consequently it seems desirable to appoint soldiers for defense; and by this means prevent the sudden incursions of the rebellious foreigners, and, by repressing the depredations of robbers, keep the country in subjec tion, and gradually restore internal security.
At this moment, not one of the soldiers in the province is available for sach service. But the 800 Tartar troops, formerly ordered from Nanking for the reinforcement of Ningpo, having not yet arrived, we have sent an express to their commander to march directly to Tsaougo, and to have the 50 pieces of artillery from Keängsoo brought on also for immediate service.
Tsaougo being a position of such great importance, in a military point of view, and its defenses so essential to the safety of the province, it becomes in the highest degree necessary to select a man of great experience and ability to take command at that post. This done, there may be some hope of success.
By the present turn of our affairs, the people of the province are becoming more and more alarmed, and the danger is very great. Lew and his fellow-officers, your majesty's ministers, are day and night engaged in devising means to quiet the people. But to do this is impossible.
Moreover, the rebellious foreigners, now flushed with success and eager for conquest, it is very much to be feared that they will seek out a new way to attack Chapoo, or by some of the channels ap- proach Tseënshan in the district of Haening, and thus gain access to the provincial capital. Hence the presence of the lieutenant-go- vernor is required at Hangchow, in order to give stability to that im- portant position and prevent disorders there. All the gentry also belonging to the city, have been forbidden to leave the place.
Ching Tsooshin, late commissioner of justice in the province of Fuhkeën, is found to be an able and intelligent man, and your ma- jesty's minister, the lieutenant-governor, has long been acquainted with his talents. On the recommendation of the imperial commis- sioner Yukeën, your majesty had already been pleased to accede to the proposal of his being put in command of troops in this province. But Chinhae had fallen before he could reach that post, so that his assistance there was not availed of for its defense. He has since arriv- ed at this metropolis; and the lieutenant-governor, having pointed out to him the situation and circumstances of Tsaougo, has appoint- ed him temporarily to take command of and defend that position. This officer has not shrunk back from the danger, but willingly and
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chěkeäng.
boldly undertaken the duties of that station; and accordingly, clothed with proper authority to act, he has repaired thither to take com- mand and give security to the inhabitants, and to seize and severely punish traitorous natives.
Luh Tseihchang, the intendant of Ningpo and Shaouhing, is at present at Shangyu collecting the scattered soldiers.
Le Tingyang, the commander-in-chief of Keuchow, after having been wounded a Chinhae, retired to Shaouhing, and there rallied and collected his forces; and we have deemed it right to order him to repair to Tsaougo, to join commissioner Ching Tsooshin, and as- sist in the direction of affairs at that station.
Tseäng Wanking, the provincial commissioner of justice, has been directed to repair to Shaouhing, and to remain there with the troops, to act in concert with Ching Tsooshin.
A commissariat has been established at Shaouhing, in order easily to afford the requisite supplies.
The troops which have been repeatedly asked for from Showchun, Keängse, and Hoopih, have not yet arrived. Those stationed at Tsaougo are few, and having been already defeated, will be again the more easily shaken and moved. That by such a force the enemy will be overcome, we, your majesty's ministers, really cannot give any assurance.
The soldiers on the lieutenant-governor's own establishment not being distinguished for their valor, your majesty's minister, Lew, has therefore enrolled the brave and patriotic among the people, and put them under discipline. The whole number of these recruits, in and about Hangchow, is about twenty thousand. Their leaders are brought day after day before the lieutenant-governor, who labors to inspire them with a sense of fidelity and justice, and at the same time encouraging them with pecuniary rewards. By this means, these troops have been somewhat emboldened; but those who fought at Tinghae and Chinhae are scattered and disheartened. Thus the regular troops at Hangchow are weak and feeble, while the recruits are wholly unused to war. Under these circumstances of extreme danger, it is impossible to give any security that either will stand to their posts.
We are overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, our strength of body. and mind is exhausted, and our weakness and inability are extreme. It is not in our power to repay the imperial favor. We can only beg his majesty to direct. what we ought to do, and cause us to fulfill our duty. Then great will be our gratitude.
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chěkeäng.
Postscript. Your majesty's minister Lew, entrusted with an im- port territorial government, and having within the current month lost several cities in succession, begs that he may be delivered over to the proper Board for examination and punishment, as a warning to others not to fail in like manner.
With regard to Luh Tseihchung the intendant of Ningpo and Shaouhing, and Le Tingyang the commander-in-chief of Keuchow, with any who have been rescued from the attempt to sacrifice life in the discharge of duty, or wounded in battle and have retired into the country-his majesty's will is requested; and, in view of the present want of men, it is desired, that their examination may be delayed, and their awards or condemnation postponed, so that we may avail ourselves of any assistance which they are able to afford.
Furthermore; when we shall have made examination with regard to Tăng Tingtsae, and ascertain whether he be dead or alive, and shall have obtained any information concerning general Yu Pooyun, then a separate memorial shall be addressed to the throne.
[From Hangchow] this memorial is respectfully sent by an extra express, to travel at the rate of more than six hundred le (about 200 miles) per day. We prostrate beg that the august ruler will cast on it a sacred glance, and grant instruction: A respectful memorial.
The following translation of a memorial, regarding the death of Yukeën, we borrow from the Canton Register of the 7th instant.
“Lew, lieutenant-governor of Chěkeäng, respectfully reported on the 15th of October, 1841, the death in the service of his country of the commissioner Yukeën, and that the coffined corpse had already been forwarded to Keängsoo, and looking up prayed for the imperial glance on the subject.
"I humbly beg leave to state that, because yesterday the reports of what had become of the imperial envoy and great minister, were contradictory from all quarters, after I had made a report to your imperial majesty, requesting speedy inquiries should be made, I besides made another report, which is on record ; and after I had dispatched the documents, I forthwith selected the toosze (general) of the province of Keängnan, Choo Lungho, and entrusted him with the official seals of the imperial envoy and great minister, those of the governor of the two Keäng provinces and of the salt commissioner of the Hawe (rivers) to convey to the provincial capital (of Chëkeäng).
"Moreover, it is authenticated that Kinshing, the domestic servant of the said great minister, petitioned, saying:
"On the 26th day of the 8th month (Oct. 10th) he received verbal orders from his minister, that, because the barbarian ships were successively and unexpected- ly entering (the river), he ordered him to take his official seals and deliver them to Choo Lungho, to carry back (to the provincial capital); he then forthwith embarked and led the battle from the shin to the ycw period-from 8 a. m., to 5
Memorial from Lew Yunko of Chěkeäng.
P. M.; but when the Chaoupaou and Kinke hills and the district town were lost, his master, seeing he could do no more, went to the water's edge, and looking towards the celestial gate, and performing the ceremony of obeisance to the emperor, he immediately plunged into the water, to die with an undeviating adherence to the line of duty.
“But the soldiers, having dragged him out of the water, carried him out of the town, and conveyed him to the public office of Ningpo, and there changed his clothes, and gave him to drink (some medicine), he being scarcely able to breathe; they then pursued with urgent haste their course on foot, and on the next day, about 1 P. M., having passed the city of Yuyaou about 4 or 5 le, Yukeen expired; and now he had brought the corpse to the provincial capital to be prepared for the grave.
"His master left no sons, but had directed that his nephew, Tihchin, the son of his younger uterine brother, the hereditary duke Yuhang-styled Ching- yung-a secretary of the Military Board, should succeed him in his estates; such are the circumstances; after I had read the petition, my tears began to flow, and I could not control my grief.
"A coffin of thick wood was immediately bought, his official colleagues as- sembled, to attend the shrouding of the body in a proper manner, which was adorned with many costly ornaments and grave-clothes.
At the present time, as the province of Chěkeäng is to be defended against the barbarian banditti, the whole province is filled with false rumors, and cir- oumstances are extremely pressing, and it is not convenient to keep the coffin of the said great minister long in the province; therefore Hwangneën, who is wait. ing for the appointment of a chefoo in the province of Keängsoo, and Lan Wei- wan, the magistrate of Chaouwan, and captain Kwantae) of the city of Keäng- ning, have been directed to accompany the domestic (of the deceased) to the governor's office in Keängning (Nanking); to manage the funeral.
As the said great minister, from the commencement of the time when the barbarian rebels began to excite disturbances until now, urged with sharp words their utter extermination, and was earnest in his plans to manifest the dread ma- jesty of his country, although the power of the rebels is great, and their will and determination fixed and strong; yet now, because the earnest wishes of his heart have not been fulfilled, his strength failed him, and he died a victim to his duty; a catastrophe' worthy of the deepest commiseration !
: Looking up I fervently beg that the celestial favor will graciously bow down and confer abundant compassion, in order to stimulate ministers to a like dėvo- tion, and to soothe the 'faithful spirit (of the deceased), then the ministers and people of the empire will heartily bear (the same fate).
The said great minister left orders that his nephew, Tihchin, should be his Heir. On interrogating his servants, I have learnt that he is yet of tender age, and that he resides in Keängning' with his relations, who are all females; he having no other relations and no faithful and sincere adherents on whom he can depend (with him).
further beg the favor that it be permitted, when the coffin reaches his native place, to allow Yuhang to superintend the funeral rites.
As to the public papers of reports of the said great minister when in life, and the réplies containing the imperial will, by me they have been reverently opened, and they all relate to the military affairs of the province of Chěkeäng, and I forth.
VOL. X. NO. XII.
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with respectfully managed accordingly; if there any relating to the affairs of the province of Keängsoo, I will forthwith write and dispatch them to Leäng, the It.- governor of that province, that each separate circumstance may be attended to.
"General Choo Lungku bas brought, the official seals of the (late) imperial envoy and great minister, which I have deposited in the treasury, and when, there is a good opportunity I will respectfully transmit them. The official seals of the governor of the two Keäng (provinces), with those of the salt commissioner of the two Hwae, I have directed Yang Chunchaou, who is waiting for the ap- pointment of a lewan in the treasurer's office, to meet and join with the said general and convey and deliver them to Leäng. I further beg that the vacant governor-generalship of the two Keäng provinces be immediately filled up, that the (present) weighty affairs may be superintended and managed. I have res- pectfully written this report, to be hastened on at the rate of 600 le a day, and looking up I pray for the holy glance. A respectful report.”
ART. VII. Journal of Occurrences: imperial edict urging on the war of extermination; new measures of the cabinet; Keshen again called into service; affairs in Chekeäng, at Hangchow, Ningpo, Chinhae, and Chusan; defenses at Teëntsin; Amoy ; Canton; admiral Kwan's family; captain Grattan; British forces; prospects of the war; commercial mission from France; death of an envoy from Lewchew. THERE evidently is a diversity of opinion, in the Chinese govern- ment, regarding the measures to be pursued towards the rebellious foreigners; Keshen and Elepoo are among the leaders in one party, and Yukeen and Lew Yunko are, or were, prominent in the other, and rival party. Both and all, for aught we know, are equally disposed to consider their own government as supreme, and to look upon the English as vassals, tributary to the court of the son of heaven. But one party, aware of the defenseless state and weakness of the coun- try, and of its inability to contend in war against the superior skill and discipline of the British, has prudently advised his majesty time- ly to yield to the necessities of the case, so as to preserve such de- fenses as they have, and concede only such things as they cannot withhold. Such a line of policy would have preserved the country in peace, and perpetuated the old exclusive policy-for how long a period no one can tell. However, prudence does not always dwell with counselors. The rebellious barbarians-proud, haughty, over- bearing, robbers,-must be caught, caged, beheaded, their skins given to the soldiers to sleep upon, and their carcasses cast out for the beasts and the birds to devour. With this party, Țin linked his destiny, and after reaching Canton, in March, 1839, swore he would not stop midway in the execution of his master's will. Clothed with extraordinary powers, he would listen to no overtures; entire surren-
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der, unconditional submission, trembling obedience, were his only terms. All ideas of equality between the parties, or of rights on the side of the far-traveled foreigners, were spurned. The spirit of re- bellion must be checked, and the proud humbled. The utter imprac- ticability of sustaining this line of policy, in dealing with the lion, was most plainly pointed out to Lin and those around him, during the visits we made at Chunhow in the summer of 1840; and its con- sequences were foretold. Such honest healing was by no means palatable. The die had been cast, and only one course remained to be pursued. To it the imperial government has adhered, and is still adhering if the paper we here introduce can be received as authentic evidence.
On the 15th of November, the Inner Council at Peking received the fol- lowing imperial edict.
“Ever since the English rebels, last year, rose against legitimate rule, caus- ing disturbances in the three provinces of Canton, Fulkeen, and Chěkeäng, the dwellers on the coasts have been sorely harassed; some have been plundered and spoiled of all things, while others have been dispersed and driven from their homes. WE cherish tender solicitude for all the inha- bitants throughout our wide dominions. The frequent perusal of memorials from every quarter, takes from our food and sleep all peace and repose.
"By our command, Yihking has been appointed majesty-bearing generalissimo, and Tih-e-shun and Wanwei have been made joint-assistant high ministers, to lead and direct the veteran troops from every region, and with promptitude to advance and exterminate. On reaching Chekeäng, at once the grand army assuredly must achieve great honors!
"Fearing lest our troops, in their march through the country, not being suf- ficiently under restraint, may excite disorder, the said generalissimo and his colleagues have been charged to give strict injunctions to all the command- ing officers, requiring them to instruct all under their authority, carefully to keep the regulations of the law, and not to offend in the smallest degree. If there be offenders, let them be dealt with according to the laws they have broken. If through indulgence or negligence anything be concealed, and subsequently brought to notice, the said generalissimo and his colleagues shall be answerable for the same.
"Along the whole coasts, let those who live in the villages and hamlets collect their brave men into, bands, and connect them one with another for mutual aid; and thus in behalf of their country cut off the robbers, while they afford protection for themselves and their estates.
Those who possess remrkable ability and talents, capable of being em- ployed in defense against the proud rebels, are permitted to repair to the encampments, and there submit themselves to examination; and the saiď generalissimo and his colleagues, having estimated their talents and deter- mined for what service they are adapted, will at once recommend them to our notice, and wait till We confer appointments.
Formerly, when the religious vagabonds in the three provinces made insur- rection, many bravely volunteered in the cause of righteousness, and rose to high offices. The said generalissimo and his colleagues, must needs use many expedients to arouse and encourage, so that none possessing valor and discretion, in any degree however humble, may be left in retirement.
"Ministers and people! Inhabitants of our dominions! Ye are all the children of our dynasty. For these two centuries, ye have trod our earth, and eaten our food. Whoever among you has heavenly goodness, must needs detest these rebellious and disorderly barbarians, even as ye do your personal
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foes. On no account allow yourselves to be deceived by their wiles, and act or live abroad with them.
"All who have dared to join with those robbers, and have been brought under their influence, if now of their own accord they will return, then their past offenses shall be forgiven; and, allowed to renovate themselves, they shall be permitted to aid in acquiring merit, and shall participate in the happiness of universal peace.
"Let all the governors and lieutenant-governors in the maritime provinces cause this edict to be printed and published on yellow paper, and let it be everywhere distributed, that all may know our earnest desire to save those who are abroad, and to give peace to those who are within our dominions."
Respectfully and carefully published, on yellow paper, by ·
H. M. minister, the rebel, quelling generalissimo Yibshan, H. M. minister, joint-assistant high minister, Tse Shin, H. M. minister, governor of the two Kwang, Ke Kung, H. M. minister, acting It.-gov. of Kwangtung, Leäng Paousbang. The original of this document reached Macao in an unofficial form,
a bookseller's handbill-about the 10th of this month; and ere this time, it has, we presume, been published in due course in Canton. It must have been written after the memorials of Lew Yunko and others had been laid before the throne, detailing the losses in Chěkeäng. But it shows no signs of blenching from the con- test. As in this province last year, so now in Chěkeäng, a grand army of veteran troops is to be assembled, "to advance and extermi- nate," and to achieve great honors! Hither, last year, the army came; and we know its results. It was a scourge to the country.. The soldiers were like wolves and tigers to the black haired people, and in some instances they actually devoured human flesh. Well, therefore, may his majesty feel solicitude regarding the march of the troops through the country.
Yihking, like Yihshan, is a member of the imperial family, and is high in office and high in favor at Peking; but we have no idea that he can or will exercise any more restraint in Chèkeäng, than Yih- shan has done in this province.-Tiheshun is the same person that was recently in Canton, called in one of our former numbers, Tike- shunpoo. Both he and Wănwei are Tartars.
The free and full pardon granted to traitors by the emperor, is the most remarkable feature in this 'yellow edict.'
Its effect, we appre-
hend, will be the reverse of what his majesty designs it to be. Tens of thousands of the black haired race are now under British protec- tion; and in the face of this proclamation, these not only will not with- draw from this protection, but, as things are going, they will induce many more to come where they enjoy a security which the Chinese government cannot afford. In Chekeäng, many villages and towns have declared themselves the obedient subjects of the British,
2. New measures of the cabinet. The heavy drafts on H. M.'s trea- sury, exceeding those of ordinary times by some tens of millions of dollars, per annum,-have induced the cabinet to have recourse to an old expedient,—the kae keuen, or the sale of official rank, by which means a person can rise to office without passing through the
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common course of literary examinations. The subject of opening sundry mines has also been mooted.
3. Keshen has again been called into the service of his country, but not in an official capacity. He was to accompany the majesty+ bearing generalissimo Yihking and the other commissioner on their new mission to Chekeang-at which place they had arrived early in this month: at least, so we are informed by letters from Ningpo,
4. Affairs in Chěkeäng are; in a very precarious state, so far as the Chinese government is concerned, as may be seen by the memno rial of Lew Yunko, and others which are in our possession. The defeat of the imperial forces, first at Tinghae on the 1st, and again at Chinhae on the 10th of October, gave a dreadful shock to the war party. In a memorial written by: general Yu Pooyun-one of the heroes of Leenchow, in the war of 1832-we have a most dolorous account of the state of things in and about Ningpo. The memorial was written after the fall of Chinhae, and before the advance.on Ningpo, but the date is not given, The old general labors to throw the responsibility of defending the city upon the prefect Tăng Ting- tsae. The consteruation was universal; and the cries of the people, flying in crowds in all directions, heart-rending.
Tăng Tingtsae is a brother of our late governor Tăng Tingching, now in exile. Of Yu Pooyun we have heard, nothing since he left Ningpo. There is a report that Luh Tseihchang is dead.
5. Hangchow, according to dates from Ningpo to the 4th instant, had not been attacked; and large bodies of troops were being col lected. We do not know whether to give credit or not to a rumor of an intention to march on that place; had this been done immedi- ately after the fall of Ningpo, little resistance, would have been made, Unless the Chinese answer the demands made on them, the place we suppose must, during the winter or in the spring, share the same fate that has befallen Ningpo. Lew Yunko's solicitude, for the safety of the provincial capital, was not without cause..!
6. Ningpo, on the 4th, was remaining very quiet, and good order was preserved among the native inhabitants.. No ransom had been paid.
7. Chinhae. Regarding the storming and taking of this place, by the British forces, on the 10th of October, we have collected a few more particulars, which we here introduce. The conduct of the Chinese at the tower on the hill, commanding the town, and under which it was difficult anywhere to land, their steady adherence to their guns, under a heavy and well-directed fire from the two line-of- battle ships, and the Blonde and Modeste, was indeed wonderful. While shot and shells were falling thick about them, making almost a complete ruin of the temple within the tower, and while their tents were burning around them, they were steadily laboring to put out the fire, until they saw it was rapidly approaching the magazine. So long as any hope for them remained they stood; but the soldiers on the opposite side of the river having been dispersed, all the forts on the north side taken, and their commaiuder-in-chief with the imperial commissioner both disappearing, then these brave fellows fled.
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On the south side of the river was a large encampment, two or three entrenched heights, and three batteries directed across the river. There the main body of the land forces debarked a little be- low the first tents, and advanced in separate columns, so as to sur- round the Chinese, and cut off their retreat. Officers, who were in the advance, speak highly of their courage, many of them fighting hand to hand. Many were driven into the water, where they were being fired upon-the poor fellows not knowing how to ask for quar- ter, when, Sir Hugh coming up, accompanied by Mr. Thom, two flags were displayed, on which were inscribed, in Chinese, Yield and be saved-Resist and perish.' By this means, many were brought out of the water, and about 500 were retained for two or three days as prisoners, who, ou the departure of the force for Ningpo, were released, having suffered only the loss of their tails!
8. Chusan. This year Tinghae and the other parts of the island are presenting a far more favorable appearance than they did last year. At Tinghae all, or nearly all, the people remain; the place is flourishing; and the season healthy. The city is kept clean; good order observed; and supplies are ample. By those now possessing it, it is pronounced a flourishing little country town.' With an external commerce, Tinghae may rise, and quite outstrip Hongkong and Ko- langsoo. The engineers were busily employed in making comforta- ble barracks for the troops.
Surveys are being carried on this year again vigorously by captain Collinson. These surveys will prove of great advantage, in future; and we hope they will be extended as far as possible, by sea and land. 9. Defenses at Teëntsin have, very naturally, been a subject of at- tention, with the imperial government, since the visit of the British squadron there last year. At Takoo on the south bank two new forts have been built, and three repaired on the north. New barracks have also been erected, and vast quantities of military stores. and many troops had beencollected. A body of water-braves-a class of marines-more than 10,000 strong, has been collected.
10. Amoy, by latest accounts, was continuing to enjoy quiet and prosperity, under its new masters. The following particulars, we bor- row from the Canton Register; they are from a document written by Lew Yuuko.
"I have respectfully inquired as to the affairs of the barbarians in the province of Fuhkeen; and I state them separately for your majesty's glance.
· 1.—I have inquired and found that the governor Yen, formerly directed all his subordinates to seize all the great and small vessels, &c., and to consult on and plan an attack (on the English ships) by fire. I have now heard that the said rebels, hearing of the rumors, were already prepared; the plans were there- fore stopped in the middle. I heard that he had also devised other different plans, the secrecy of which could not get bruited abroad, and I had no means of mak- ing an inquiry about them. Further, when he heard that the lieut.-governor (of Canton) E, had received the imperial orders to repair to Fuhkeën, all affairs were again stopped, and he determined not to move the troops, waiting for the Arrival of the new imperial envoy to superintend, and then he would again draw the sword; but in all places the water braves and the recruits are still constantly drilled; as to the rest of affairs, there was not the least movement; and I cannot make any inquiries on which to found a report.
Journal of Occurrences.
“2,—I have inquired and found, that, as formerly, the barbarian ships at Ko- langsoo are seven in number; and they remain there for the purpose of selling large quantities of opium and other goods. I have heard that one ship, having finished her sales, has sailed; afterwards another ship arrived for the pur pose of sales: thus, when one has finished another begins; the time of their going and coming is uncertain; they do not presume to carry on their trade at any other place than there; neither do they annoy or vex the natives; nor do they agitate in any other manner. I have heard that the said rebels, knowing that Amoy is as warm as Canton, said that they intended to remain there a year.
"3.-I have heard that all ferry boats plying between Amoy and Changchow, the rebellious barbarians have ordered to hoist the English flag; and then they are allowed to pass to and fro; and although the boatmen are unwilling to obey, still they dare not return to Amoy; yesterday I heard that eight sail of the peo- ple's grass boats entered the port, when they were forthwith seized by the rebels and burnt.
"4.--I have heard that the barbarians have privately ordered five native trai- tors, of the island of Kolangsoo to secrete themselves at Tseunchow, Tungyan, and Amoy; to make secret inquiries after news of the Chinese officers and sol diers; and that they pay them at the rate of $500 a month, for their expenses: therefore the said rebels cannot but know all our movements.
"5.-I have heard that the villagers in the near neighborhood of Kolangsoo, when carrying a bridal chair on the road, have been subjected to the abrupt attack and abduction of the barbarians, who have taken and forcibly detained the newly married bride, paying $100 (to the bridegroom), and ordering him to take another; and when the bride's relations, sorrowing and lanrenting, begged her release, they, the English, refused it; and only on appealing to the said na- tion pseudo public officer, (captain Smith), at his place of receiving petitions, was she sent back; and some presents, camlets, &c., were bestowed.
"6.—I have learnt on inquiry that the war-junks which the rebellious foreigners seized, have not yet been burnt, but are anchored off the Haeso hill. In the afternoon of the 19th day, some of the neighboring inhabitants cautiously went to set them adrift, intending to deliver them up to the public officers, and receive the rewards; but they did not think they were watched by the barbarians, who sent their boats in chase, opened fire from their guns, and killed three men, and brought the junks back."'
11. Canton is suffering much by the movements at the north. The Chinese have gone on with the repair of their defenses in and near the city; but we have no evidence that they meditate injury to those engaged in commerce. Fifteen or twenty British ships with a few others, are now at Whampoa, and some of their merchants are at the provincial city.
12. Admiral Kwan's family has been brought to the notice of his majesty, by Yakeën, late governor of the two Keäng (Keängse, Keängsoo, and Anhwuy). Kwan Teënpei, who fell last February at the battle of the Bogue, was a descendant of the god of war, Kwan te; The admiral's family resides in Keängning, the metropolis of Keäng. soo, the ancient Nanking. The eldest son is dead; and the second, a youth of eighteen, is ordered to repair to court immediately the period of mourning is over, that he may receive imperial favors. His mother, now above 80 years of age, is immediately to receive a peni sion from government.
13: Captain Grattan. We are indebted to a friend at Ningpo for the 'following
Extract from General Orders by lieut.-general sir Hugh Gough, x. c. B., dated Ningpo, Nov. 4th, 1841.
* « Lieut.-general sir. Hugli Gough is most happy to communicate to the
Journal of Occurrences.
forces the highly gratifying approval of the right honorable the governor-ge- neral in India conveyed in a letter, which his excellency has had the honor to receive from his lordship, and of which the following is an extract:
"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, through captain Grattan, of H. M.'s 18th Royal Irish, of your dispatch dated 3d of June last, reporting in detail the successful series of operations in the neighborhood of Canton during the last week in May, which ended in the brilliant triumph of the British arms, over an infinitely superior Chinese force, and the signal humi- liation and submission of the enemy.
"The great successes of the troops under your command, acquired, as they were, by a marked combination of skill, decision, courage and good conduct, and evincing throughout a zealous and cordial co-operation with H. M.'s naval forces, while they so highly redound to your own honor, demand also my sincerest congratulations and my warmest thanks and approbation.
I have not failed publicly to record the testimony of the feelings with which the government of India has learnt these remarkable achievements, and have the pleasure to refer you to the enclosed copy of the extraordinary Gazette of the 7th of August, for a knowledge of the terins in which it has been expressed.
"I would add, that while it has occurred to me that the possible contin- gencies of the military service may require the presence of every available officer with his regiment in China, (and the public utility of captain Grattan's return to head-quarters has been pointed out to me by that officer,) I have at the same time strongly urged on H. M.'s government, that any honors or benefit that might have resulted to captain Grattan had he proceeded to Eng- land with dispatches, may not be withheld from him on account of his speedy return, under the opinion I have expressed to him, to a field of service, where he has been so gallantly employed."
14. British forces in China are being augmented by frequent ar- rivals from England and India of transports and ships of war. Cornwallis, 74, having come in during the month, has proceeded north- ward with other vessels carrying troops, &c. In the course of a few mouths, the Chinese may expect to have some ten or twelve thousand barbarian troops, with an increased number of ships of war and steamers. Having destroyed all opposition in Chěkeäng and Keäng- nan, and advanced well up upou the Yangtsze keäng, so as to hinder communication between the north and the south, her majesty's high officers must then see Peking.
15. The prospects of the war are now seem to indicate that great revolutions must soon take place. The emperor is determined to "Filled with inexpressible indigna- resist unto the very uttermost. tion and wrath," he has sent down his decree to exterminate the rebellious tribe," and has ordered his ablest ministers and generals to take the field with their bravest, troops.,
› 16. Colonel A, de Jancigny, in charge of a commercial mission from the French government to Eastern Asia, arrived in Macao on the 8th instant, in the Erigone, French ship of war.
17. The death of an envoy from Lewchew is reported in a late Gazette: it occurred on the 14th of July in Keangsoo, as the embas- sadors (a principal and a secondary) were returning from Peking to one of the ports in Fuhkeen, where they were to reembark: their boat was caught in a storm and upset: the principal embassador was saved, the other was drowned.
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