The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 11, 1858.

884

European has ever yet sailed upon its higher waters, or
has, indeed, been much above Nankin. M. Hue has added
nothing to our knowledge for commercial purposes; but I
have obtained access to some reports of Chinese, who
traverse the whole distance frequently with commercial
objects, and I may be able to tell something mare of this
river than is yet known to Englishmen.
Having threaded our way through the shallows at the
mouth, we are in the largest, the deepest, and the most
abundant river in the world. We go for 200 nines through
the rich province of Kiangsu, passing towns and anchorages
less well known to ships of war. 'We will not linger at
Chekiang, or even at Nankin, for these great cities are now
nothing more than the seared and wasted strongholds of a
piratical power. All that was beautiful in the southern
capital of China—even the famous porcelain pagoda—hits
been wantonly destroyed. Shut in from the land by the
Imperialist besiegers, the rebels maintain themselves by
plundering the rieli eouritry up and down the banks of the
river, and the Imperialists are scarcely less hurdenr-ome to
the country behind their camp. Commerce has fled from
these parts. All we can ask of these plunderers is to let us
pass in peace.
Hitherto we have been in a tidal river. Henceforward,
although we must still reckon its width by miles and its
depth by tens of fathoms, our merchandize-laden steamer
must be content to labour against an unchanging stream.
We traverse the rich and thickly-peopled province of Anhui,
and in our voyage or :200 miles through that province we
find, besides a constant succession of towns, two first-class
cities, at which we nifty tarry awhile to display our mer-
chandize and lighten our cargo.
Now we reach the provinces of Hupeh and Honan, the
former on tile north, the latter on the south bank. This
is the country of the finest teas. It is here that the
Oopak teas are grown, which, by an unnatural route, are
forcer; itown to Canton, being borne on men's backs across
the mountains instead of being sent deftly down the
stream of the great river whose banks produce them.
Here are lakes, and broad streams running into them,
and networks of canals connecting them. But more than
this, here, just at this spot, is the confluence of the
Yang-tse with the great river Han, which is itself banked
with large cities and heavy with commerce.
At this confluence we have a congregation of enormous
cities—Wuchung on the one hank, and Hannan opposite,
with immense suburbs extending ter away. The popula-
tion of these cities is differently estimated at :1,000,000 and
5,000,000 souls ; lint, what is of still greater importance,
these two cities are undoubtedly the first great emporium
of Chinese commerce. Here is a market which may set
all Manchester spinning, all Leeds weaving, all Sheffield
grinding, and all Nottingham throwing, if we only have on
board samples of what these celestials desiderate. It
might be worth while, if they are ally of our new goods, to
anchor a depot ship in the broad waters,—for we are told
there are five miles of river from shore to shore—and
accustom them to the sight of luxuries and necessaries
which they may have iu exchange for their cheap and
abundant first-clan teas. Surely it would be better thus
to get rid of them than to send them down the Yuen
river to the Tnngting lake, then by the capital city of
Changteh, up the Siang river to the Ching district, across
the mountain on men's backs to Loh Chang, and then down
the northern river to Fatshan and Canton, for such is their
present route. What charges mnst accu:tAdate upn
English goods that should try to come up the long,
devious route by which these tens descend.
We are only half-way yet along our voyage. The river
leads us through the whole province of Hupeh ; and why
should we not do a little business at the great cities of
Kingehow and Tchang, the walls of which we must pass?
To this city of Tchaugjunks of 31K) tons burdens ascend
in great numbers, and the water is still deep, though the
bottom is rocky and dangerous.
A little higher up than Tchang we arrive at the town of
Kwei. We are now MO miles from the mouth of the
Yang-tse, and here fur the present our steamer must be
content to stop, fur here for the first time we meet with
rapids. When the summer sun has melted the snows of
Central Asia the trading junks shoot down these falls, and,
empty of cargo, they can be tweed up them. But if we are
ever to pursue an unbroken voyage beyond this point, John
Chinaman must add one other to his at present innumer-
able canals, and English engineers must teach him the
secret of constructing locks.
. .

It will nut do, however, to be stopped by these rapids.
The whole basin of the Yang-tse is one vast coal-field.
Frem Nankin to Sz'chuen we have difficulty in obtaining
the means of locomotion. There are markets higher up,
and thither, in a steamer to be put together above the falls,
we must go. Let us suppose this—no great labour fur us
AngloSaxous—to have been accomplished. The stream
is still deep and navigable. It is crowded with junks, as
M. Hue sill testify. Kwi.i wss just upon the boundary
line between Seelmen and Hupell, and Sz'chuen is the
last province of China. Beyond that are the snows of
Thihet and the swarnra of Hannah. Sz'chuen is the finest
province in all China. " You never see an ill-dressed man
from Sz'chuen," says the Chinese proverb. "It grows
more grain in one year than it can consume in ten," says
another native authority, addicted, 1 fear, to exaggeration.
This province appears to produce everything; more silk
than any other province, more and better wax and tobacco,
grass-cloth of the finest quality, tea of the coarsest, grain
in such quantities that its supplies act upon the distant
market of Hangchow. Moreover, the climate is variable,
extremely hot and extremely cold, just suited for our
woollens. My Chinese authority asserts that they pene-
trate there now even through' the difficulties of the transit
from Canton ; and lie says (I su:peet with some exaggera-
tion ), that one half of the long ells and shirting.' landed
at Canton find their tedious ray over the hills and up the
ricers to Sz'chuen.

We must go up, therefore, above the Kwei falls, and
must pursue our voyage till we reach the confluence of tee
Yang-tee with the Xifliug, a river which comes down from

the north. At this confluence stands the great city Cluing-
king, the second great commercial etuporiuin of China.
My authority states that under the walls of this city of
Chung-king the lusty young Yang-tse is already as broad
as the Canton river in front of the dear departed factories,
and very deep anti very rapid. You may go farther if you
please, fur there is the Western Soochow and'all the land
of poppy-bearing Yunan higher up. But the stream grows
rocky, and savage tribes from Thibet and Burnish make
the way dangerous. We are getting to the western.boun-
dary of China Proper. We have done our work ; we have
"opened up the country:" so here we will turn our
steamer's head—shall we call her the Yang-tae ?—and pass
swiftly back, towing our junk-loads of tea and silk and wax,
and satisfied, I hope, with oar speculative voyage. I have
said nothing of consuls or consular eqablishments. The
merchants appear to incl►ne to the opinion that they do
not want them, and are better without them. They say
that Swatow and Woochow are growing into importance
without consular protection, and that the want is not felt.
I differ a little here. If you do not want consuls to protect,
you want them to restrain. We must not allow a vagabond
European population to run riot in the internal cities of
China, Jr we s'►all change the peaceful character of the
people. Wuchang and Chung-king might, however, well
maintain each a consul or consular agent with extended
jurisdiction, and this would be ample for a commencement.
A consul may be a great nuisance. A fussy consul, not
now in China, drove the carrying trade at one of our ports
out of our hands. He made so many petty difficulties that
the Chinamen wrote up and down the coast not to chatter
British ships. We most have no dimes of the Circum-
locution-office in the Yang-tse.
Equally good in its way is the description of a
regular Chinese dinner given by the writer him-
self to some English friends at a famous hotel in
Ningpo, entitled "The Gallery of the Imperial
Academician," and kept by the prize cook who
came out first in a Pekin competitive examina-
tion. In the middle of dinner the guests were
startled by a loud cry of "Ey yaw," and looking
up saw that—

The opposite house, distant perhaps across the street
about eight feet from us, presented the spectacle of a small
crowded playhouse seen from the stage. It was densely
crowded with half•nsked Chinamen. They were packed
in a mass upon the gallery, anti they were squatted upon
the roof. I believe they had paid for their places. They
had sat orderly and silent all this time to see the bar-
barians dining. We might have dropped the grass blinds,
but it would have been ill natured; the Chinese did us no
harm, and the Winds would have kept out the air ; so we
went on eating, like Greenwich pensihners or Bluecoat
boys in public.

The dinner, which consisted of an enormous
variety of courses, including birds'-nest soup, sea
slugs, sturgeons' skulls, sharks' tins, and ducks
tongues, proved "in the highest degree whole-
some, nutritious, and light of digestion." The
soup is described as follows :

What these birtls'•nests are in their natural state I do
not know, for I have uo book on ornithology, and have
never been hirde-nesting in the Straits. Their existence
at table is apparent in a thick mucilage at the surface of
the soup. Below this you come to a white liquid and
chickens' flesh. It was objected that this was a fade and
tasteless delicacy. lint remark that these two basins are
only the suns of little systems. The same hands that
brought them in, scattered also an entourage of still smaller
basins. These are sauces of every flavour and strength,
from entitled tresh chilies to simple soy. Watch the
Chinaman. How cunningly he compounds.
The great national institution of China is
" squeezing." The mandarin squeezes the trader ;
the governor of the province squeezes the man-
darin; and the Emperor squeezes the governor;
the " dangerous classes" squeeze everybody :
The Chinese are a race of co-operative habits. They
form societies to rob, societies to resist robbery, and
societies for all or any fanciful object. But these societies
all have one tendency—to "squeeze" the non-members.
From the Triad Society, which was nt the bottom of the
present rebellion, to the Tailors' Union at Hong Kong, the
rules and regulations of which have just been published in
the North China Herald, all have the same practical object
in view. The " Teente Brotherhood," the " Triads," the
" Heaven and Earth Society," the " Queen of Heaven's
Company," the " Flood Family," the " Pure Tea Set,"
are all obnoxious to the general description given in a
memorial published in the Pekin Gazelle.

The affair of the Arrow no doubt was a squeezing
job. And now that we have Yeh in our power,
we are of course supposed by the population
to be squeezing that potentate severely.
The Chinese have little or no religion. They
treat their own idols with the utmost contempt.
When the ground is dry, they drag the god of
rain out of doors that he may feel the effect of
his own remissness. They have no morality. A
lie is regarded by them, says Mr. Cooke, much as
a pun is regarded by an Englishman. They have
no friendship. A Chinaman " split his sides "
with laughing in describing the accidental death
of his most intimate friend. And another seemed
highly delighted at suddenly recognizing an
acquaintance among a batch of criminals. They
are restrained by a selfish sense of self-interest,

but that is all. How such a people as this i
is s to
be influenced a problem that may puzzle the
wisest heads. On this subject it is not surprisinm
that Cooke is occasionally inconsistent, lie seems
to think that a closer acquaintance with Western
civilization will mitigate these features of the
Chinese character. We confess to considerable
doubts upon the subject. We have absolutely no
leverage. This singular people is totally destitute
of the slightest sentiment of veneration. Our own
axiom that habit is second nature, which here is
an hyperbole, in China would seem to be a
reality. What are we to do ? As for converting
a people like this by selling them more cotton,
the idea is a slight concession on Mr. Cooke's
part to Manchester theories of the universe, but
cannot be his deliberate conviction.
Mr. Cooke's amusing account of his voyage to
Calcutta in company with Commissioner Yeh
must be too fresh in our readers' recollection to
require further notice ofit now. The "governor" is
now comfortably located in a villa at 'roily Gunge,
and is being assiduously "coached" in international
law by Mr. Alabaster. But as Mr. Cooke well says
—" If we can conceive Lord Eldon to have been
" taken prisoner by the Cherookies, imprisoned
" in a wigwam, and instructed in the red-skin
" mysteries by a juvenile medicine-man, we
" should still not expect to find much of the
" Cherookie learning in Lord Eldon's decisions."