The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-23 00:00:00

THE SLAVE TRADE IN CHINA.

The slave trade in He most odious mid unmitigated
form is now in action bet Ween the emits of China
:and those of Cuba. At first thete *ere foiind among
.the famishing populations of those. crowded coasts
,volunteers for this emigration. The Chinese were not
unwilling to go abroad if tkey thought there were reason-
able phancee of making money and eventually returning
home. But after a while this vohintary emigration
ceased. The relations of those who went heard nothing
of their brethren who left year after year for Cuba.
No letters came back, or, if they heard rumours that
letters had been received, they got none themselves.
No man, at least; returned. Naturally timid and
suspicious, they • hung back. Then accounts were
spread abroad that. the coolies were illstreated on the
.voyage, that many died on the passage, that those who.
*did arrive did not make their fortunes as had been
promised—far from it, unless, as, poor. wretches, they
no doubt esteemed it, it was good fortune for them to
die. Volunteer coolies could no longer be got. But
the trade was a paying Ole; it paid tiny hundreds per
cent. If coolies did not - come forward, agents
among 'their own countrymen might be got to
Pursuade *them. So much a head was Bid for every
reernit*not very much at twat; The .abonbiatiOn of
the 'traffic was still :hid; the coolie oiiee on Sears sous
safe. The European public in China still looked on
without much suspicion. All the crimp had to do was
to get the man on board; the captain would see
to the rest. Not much was required. It was easy to
make a man drunk and carry him off to the ship. The
supply was once more equal to the demand, but it•was
not long before every one in the neighbourhood became
S'easible of the means by IN;hic4 every ease was got to-
gether. diiinamen are obstinate &ilovi-s,. and thde
coolies were not to be persuaded that, once on board, it
was better to. ,remain there. They oftentimes deter-
mined to escape, were it by the massacre of the captain
and the crew, or by other desperate methods, adopted,
net once, but many times ; awakening all the Chinese
population at last to a sense of the nature of this trade.
goalies would . not now go on any consideration.
Many thitsirig their thildreti httilted e their
kidnappers to the death. There was a panic and a cry
of vengeance. The Chineie were seen in some villages
tying the Chinese agents to crosses, to be tortured to
their end with burning joss-sticks. Others were found
by passing villagers starved to death; sometimes a
sharp bamboo under their chins, their hands tied
behind them, acid a bowl of rice placed so that
they,
,could see it;, Well, it—tans:tiling but get it
it: Kidiiii3pitig lied its risks now, and was not to
be undertaken lightly. The price for men went up
25 dollars, 30 dollars, 45 dollars, 60 dollars, and
even more iand kidnapping went on brisker than
fiver. gong of respectable fathers were carried off,
sometimes of fathers connected with foreigners, eompra-
dores, • merchants, and the like. Kidnapping was
carried on in open day. ft was unsafe for a Chinaman
to *talk about at night. hid an Edrepean resident at
Canton want to scud kritesdage after dirk, his " boy"
would refthte to go. There was no possibility of s*;
t,O fo±row hire hone to reCeive, the
money for any purchased article. The terror of the
populace had become so great that a suspicion of
being a kidnapper was sufficient to arouse the
populace against any. indiiidual. Mr. Lay, the most .
popular European in China, was horribly mangled by
the knives of a Chinese mob for attempting to rescue a
wretch who was unjustly suspected of being connected
*ilh some liiditappere in the nerth. Now the inconve-
nience made itself felt to foreigners, silatlittiliint men
began to consider. While this was so—while the Can-
tonese, crushed and cowed by late events,' were still un;•
able to.muster up courage to cry out *against the Eu-
ropean slavers, the affair at Taku gave confidence to the
Northerners to denounce the system, which was no less
in operation there, and we fear wider the auspices of
official Pergend, who eompromised their own and
their hoiiiitry‘s hone& by theii Cottdtict in this mat-
ter, TW6 or three murders mid the threatening
of the whole Shanghai community, shoWed the
excitement that `'vas just bursting; arid' brought these
whose business it was to note Mid deal with thde
matters to a dente Of their danger. Then it *tie that
Lao, the Governor-General of the Ctuangs, sent down
a Commission of Mandarins, with an English intapreter,
to insist that the coolies on board the ships then lying
at Whampua should be examined by them before the
ships should receive their clearance. It is from this
tOmmissian that the depositions already published
proceed. Private correspon4ence describes the scenes
that took plate on board these, vessels as of the
most, frightfiil 'Character. The imericiart cif:tains *ere
bad enough, but the conduct of .a certain Von
Carlovitz, who represents the potent maritime State
Of Oldenburg, which may or may not have a sea-
-1 port, but which has, it seems, a 'flag to disgrace, is
related in terms which may not be repeated without Very
ample verification. - It seems certain, however, that he
resisted the proceedings of the Mandarins, and that
some of the captives, in despair, cast themselves over-
board, and were dro*ned, *hen they believed that they
were remitted to the hands of their Oldenburg Masters.
At letlgth lie *as driven off by the Coolies theriiselVes,
-who, difJetly they found they, bad idly One to syintuithise
with them, threatened to cut the throat of this ‘. noble-
man of the third class" of, we suppose, the nobility of
Oldenburg

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING THE CON-
DITION OF THE WIVES A4ND FAMILIES
OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. •

. ThS at this Fissociation was Meld on
Saturday at Willis's Roonis, fdt the piirpose of rectiOirig
the report of the committee, and traniatA lug the oidindry
business of the society. The chair was taken by Itis
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, and there were
present the Bishop of Oxford, Sir John Lawrence, Sir
Richard Dacres, and other friends of the charity.

His Royal Highness briefly stated the objects of
the charity, and stated that it was established
during the time of the Russian war, for the pur-
pose of affording assistance to the *Wes and fami-
lies df soldiers and sailors who were left at home,
too often in great distress. The society had rendered
great service in this . direction ; but it would be a
matter of deep regret if it were to cease to exist, as there
Was a large field in Which it might labour with great
benefit. The campaign in India, which had followed
the Russian war, had made considerable calls upon the
funds of the society, and he was happy to find that
groat good had resulted from its operations, and he
considered the society as, in every respect, deserving of
the support of the public.
The report read by the secretary gave a detailed state-
ment of the operations of the association bring the past
year.
The meeting was addressed by the Bari of Shaftesbury,
the Bishop of Oxford, and other speakers, and resolu-
tions, pledging the meeting to support the society, were
unazimonsly agreed to.

The beauty of women and the sweetness of the sugar-
cane bring satiety ; but with the words of wisdom you
can never be filled.

►STRENGTH OF ICE.--Recent experiments in Germany
show that when the thickness of ice is an inch and a
half, it will just bear the weight of a single man; when
about three inches and a half) it will bear detachments
of infantry with their ranks rather wide apart ; with a
thickness of four and four-tenths inches, eight•pounders
can be conveyed over it on sledges ; five and two-tenths
inches will bear twelve-pounders ; eight inches will
bear treutyfour-pounders ; and a thickness of tweh-e
inches will bear almost any weight.

CLOVER.—Every farmer should hare e piece of clover,
whatever other soiling crops he may raise; it not only
makes up the variety necessary to keep cattle in health,
but its yield is large and profitable; it takes less from
the soil, and more from the atmosphere, than most
other green crops, and the portion remaining in the soil
contains material to improve its mechanical condition,
as well as to progress the inorganic constituents which
it elevates from the eub-scrll after sub-6011 plouglziug,
and is almost sure of success on any soil 'worthy of
cultivation.
CATERPILLARS.'—With a little watchfulness and care
in searching for caterpillars' eggs, and destroying them
before the leaves of fruit trees put out, and before the
worms hatch, you thus sate the trees from injury, or a
greater amount of labour In killing the worms in the
nest after they hatch, and when other work is pressing.
A little practice will enable one to detect them on the
small branches of the cherry and apple trees. The eggs
are deposited end-wise in a little bunch around the limb,
and very ingeniously covered with a kind of gum or
cement to protect the embryo worms from injury by the
weather.

THE BEAUTY or THE FEMALE Eiri.---The fashion now
so prevalent among the ladies, in dressing the hair,
entirely conceals that beautiful organ the ear, and it is
to he feared that it will give rise in many' instances to
ear disease. It certainly was never intended by nature.
" It is as difficult (said Knox in his _Artistic Economy)
to find a perfect human ear, as it is a perfect human
being." But although we seek not for perfection in
human form and features, we are fully aware that
nature has provided us with those organs which arc
not only adapted to useful but to ornamental purposes.
The ear of itself is a beautiful relief to the sides of
the face, proportioning the symmetry of, the head to an
exquisite exactness. The use of this orgo is as much
dependent ou atmospheric influence as the eye. Air is
as essential to hearing as to seeing. and yet the air is
perfectly excluded from the ear by, the modern style of
dressing and encumbering the hair. Folds of bando-
line, horsehair, wool, and such like artificial commodi-
ties, which resemble an imitation of a bird's nest in
the cage of a goldfinch ov canary, are now employed
by lathes to give the appearance of a superabundant
crop. of nature's charming appendage to the peri-
cranium. "The auricle is beautifully adapted," writes
Mr. Harvey, "so to collect and reflect the rays of sound, as
to conducao the well-being of the race in various rays."
We have high authority for asserting that hundreds of
cases of deafness among our female population are
every week, in London alone, submitted to the opinion
of aurists, and are proved to have arisen from this
absurd and unnatural fashion of bolstering up the hair
with a large pillow of superficial matter, thereby pre-
venting a free and indispensable current of the external
atmosphere, and concealing that beautiful organ which
was designed to be one of nature's prettiest attractions.
Let young ladies take a hint from these facts, and cease
to deform the ear with a bundle of horse-hair and black
wool, continually pressing on it, to destroy its shape,
usefulness, and beauty,—Weekly Magazine.