The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Livingston code, which is of a different
character from that extemporised by Mr.
Justice Lynch.
Some of the gambling•rooms at California
aro well described by the author; but we do
not like gazing on that class of pictures.
The revolting character of the personages who
throng them is seen in the following striking
sketch :

Occasionally one saw, jostled about unresistingly by the
crowd, and as if the crowd ignored its existence, the live
ca, case of some wretched, dated, woe-begone man, clad in
the worn-out greasy habiliments of quondam gentility ; the
glass). unintelligent eye looking as if no focus could be
found for it, but as if it saw a dim misty vision of every-
thing all at once ; the only meaning in the face being about
the lips, where still lingered the smack of grateful enjoy-
ment of the last mouthful of whisky, blended with a
longing humble sigh for the speedy recurrence of any op-
portunity of again experiencing such an awakening bliss,
and forcibly expressing an unquenchable thirst for strong
drinks, tlgether with the total absence of all power to do
anything towards relieving it, while the whole appearance
of she man spoke of bitter disappointment and reverses,
without the force to bear up under them. He was the
picture of sottish despair, and the name of his duplicates
was legion.

Mr. Borthwiek's description of the Chinese
camp at Mississippi Bar is curious. He
writes :

There were about a hundred and fifty of them 'here,
living in a perfect village of small tents, all clustered
together on the rot.ks. They had a claim in the bed of
the river, which they were working by means of a wing
dam. A " wing dam," I may here mention, is one which
first runs half-way across the river, then down the river'
and back again to the same side, thus damming off a
portion of its bed without toe necessity of the more ex•
pensive operation of lifting up the whole river bodily in a
" flume."

The Chinamen's dam was two or three hundred yards
in length, and was built of large pine•trees laid cne on the
top of the other. They must have had great difficulty in
handling such immense logs in such a place ; but they
are exceedingly ingenious in applying mechanical power,
particularly in concentrating the force of a large number
of men upon one point.
There were Chinamen of the better class among them,
w:io no doubt directed the work, and paid the common
men very poor wages—poor at least for California. A
Chinaman could be hired for two, or at most three dollars
a day by any one who thought their labour worth so much;
but those at work here were most likely paid at a still
lower rate, fur it was well known that whole shiploads of
Chinamen came to the country under a species of bond•
age to some of their wealthy countrymen in San Fran.
cisco, who, immediately on their arrival, shipped them
off to the mines under charge of an agent. keeping them
completely under control by some mysterious celestial
influence, quite independent of the laws of the country.

The author thought that the Chinese were a
distinct class, which enriched itself at the
expense of the rest of the community, without
contributing in a commensurate degree to the
prosperity of their neighbours. But the same
remark may be made on every half-advanced
or interior race in presence of superior civili-
sation. That the Chinese are not the barba
rians represented by our Premier is evident
from the following ne,!ount:—
This claim on the Yuba was the greatest undertaking I
ever saw attempted by them.
They expended a vast deal of unnecessary labonr in
their method of working, and their individual labour, in
etfect, was as nothing compared with that of other miners.
A company of fifteen or twenty white men would have
wing-dammed this claim, and worked it out in two or three
months, while here were about a hundred and fifty China-
men humbugging round it all the season, and still had not
worked one half the ground.
Their mechanical contrivances were not in the usual
rough straightforward style of the mines: they were
curious, and very elaborately got up. but extremely wasteful
of labour, and, moreover, very inetfactive.
The pumps which they had at work here were an in-
stance of this. They were on the principle of a chain-
pump, the chain being formed of pieces of wood about
six inches long, hingeing on each other, with crosspieces
in the middle for buckets, having about six square inches
of surface. The hinges fitted exactly to the spokes of a
small wheel, which was turned by a Chinaman at each
side of it working a miniature treadmill of four spokes on
the same axle. As specimens of joiner•work they were
very pretty, but as pumps they were ridiculous ; they
threw a mere driblet of water: the chain was not even
encased in a box—it merely lay in a slanting trough, so
that more than one half the capacity of the buckets was
lost. An American miner, at the expenditure of one-tenth
part of the labour of making such toys, would have set a
water-wheel in the river to work an elevating pump, which.
would have thrown more water in half an hour than four
and-twenty Chinamen could throw in a day with a dozen
of these gitu-crack contrivances. Their camp was wonder-
fully clean : when I passed through it I found a great
many of them at their toilet, getting their heads shaved,
or plaiting each other's pigtails ; but most of them were
at dinner. squatting on the rocks in groups of eight or ten
round a number of curious little black pots and dishes.
trcm whi they helped themselves with their chopsticks.
In the centre was a large bowl of rice. This is their-
staple article, and they devour it most voraciously. Throw
iug back their heads, they hold a large cupful to their

SATURDAY,

wide-open mouths, and, with a quick motion of the chop-
sticks in the other hand, they cause the rice to flow down
their throats in a continuous stream.

I received several invitations to dinner, but declined the
pleasure, preferring to he a spectator. The rice looked
well enough, and the rest of their dishes were no doubt
very clean, but they had a very dubious appearance, and
were far from suggesting the idea of being good to eat.
In the store I found the storekeeper lying asleep on a mat.
He was a sleek dirty-looking object, like a fat pig with the
hair scalded otf, his head being all close shaved excepting
the pigtail. liis opium pipe lay in his hand, and the lamp
still burning beside him, so I hupposed he was already iu
the seventh heavens.

" The camp was wonderfully clean ;'• and
cleanliness is a high test of culture and pro-
gress.
Several pages of this agreeable volume con-
tain graphic descriptions like the following
scene at San Francisco

Troops of newly arrived Frerchmen marched along ru
route for the mines, staggering under their equipment of
knapsacks. shovels, picks, tin wash bowls, pistols, knives,
swords, and double•barrel guns—their blankets slung over
their shoulders, and their persons hung around with tin
cups, frying-pans, coffee-pots, and other culinary utensils,
with perhaps a hatchet and a spare pair of boots. Crowds
of Chinamen were also to be seen, bound for the diggings,
under gigantic basket hats, each man with a bamboo hid
across his shoulder, from both ends of which were sus-
pended a higgledy-piggledy collection of mining tools,
Chinese baskets and boxes, immense boots, and a variety
of Chinese " fixins," which no one but a Chinaman could
tell the use of,—all speaking at once, gabbling and chatter.
ing their horrid jargon, and producing a noise like th a of
a flock of geese. There were continuous streams of drays
drawn by splendid horses, and loaded with merchandise
from all parts of the world, and horsemen galloped about,
equally regardless of their own and of other men's lives.
It is a volume of pictorial scenes, and based
upon reality. But we must say that there is
danger of matter being sacrificed to manner
by pictorial describers. In the lamented
Eliot Warburton's " Crescent and the Cross"
there was plenty of subject and spirit united.
The author did not sink into the artist; and
downright facts, and enough of them, are
necessary to every book of travels. With
these abatements we are justified in recom-
mending this volume as highly readable, and
we expect still better things from the writer's
graphic and vivacious pen.

A First Present for iVaral Cadets. Being a
Father's Advice to his Son on his Joining a
Ship. By a Captain R.N. Portsea: Wood-
ward and San.
FEW persons acquainted with our busy sea-
ports, or that marvellous piece of organisation,
a man of-war, can have failed to observe with
something deeper than curiosity the pretty
gentlemanly boys who wear the midshipman's
uniform of her Majesty's navy. Those
children, whose elder brothers are still learn-
ing Latin grammar and dreaming of " stick-
ups " as a glory yet to come, are nevertheless
invested with the duties, the responsibilities,
and the freedom of men, and are every day
exercising largo authority over weatherbeateu
seamen old enough to be their grandfathers.
And a noble school it is; requiring as it does
the full play of qualities so diverse and in-
valuable ; habits of command and of subordi-
nation ; of obedience and responsibility ; of
promptitude, conrage, order, and self-reliance.
But it is not without its dangers; the perils
and temptations which beset an inexperienced
lad on first joining the gun-room mess are
neither few nor light, and this short " Letter
to a Naval Cadet." written for the author's
own son, who was about to go to sea, has been
published "in the hope that an elementary
" knowledge of their position, duties, and
" responsibilities, may enable the naval cadets
" to avoid the shoals and quicksands upon
" which so many promising lads have been
" wrecked in their first voyage." Accordingly.
in the small compass of twenty-two pages, all
that a youngster has to do, and the best way
of doing it, is set forth in the simplest lan-
guage. The division of his time, the direction
of his studies. the demands upon his purse—
in short, his duty to himself, his superiors,
and his country, all find a place. coupled
always with the appeal to the one great
motive, "Do your duty, because it is your
" duty to God, and then von will be sure to do
"it well.- Here are no cut-and-dried generali-
ties ; no vague platitudes about " honour " and
" glory " ; no attempts to rouse or to stimulate
that sort of ambition which, save in the rarest

MARCH 21, 1851'.

Instances, flags under the dull routine in
which nineteen-twentieths of mankind must
live, and ends in disappointment at last. The
dullest youth might profit by and practice the
rules here laid down—the most gifted could
not neglect them with impunity—both would
gain largely in usefulness and happiness by
observing thorn ; and they are all so plactical,
and so evidently the result of great personal
experience, that they can be applied and
followed by every young officer who aspires to
rank among the useful members of his profes-
sion. And it is a profession demanding
higher qualifications in every respect than
half a century back were held sufficient. A
naval chaplain who should suggest a regular
Sunday service now could hardly be told as
Percival Stockdnle was by Captain Sir
Chaloner Ogle—" I think it is right that these
" things should be done sometimes, as long
"as Christianity is on foot." Naval schools
and sailors' homes are working a great revolu-
tion among our seamen ; and the reckless,
grog-loving,- oath-venting tar is' becoming a
thing of the past, as well as the traditional
" bluff old commodore," in whose place we
have the educated and accomplished modern
officer, whose scientific attainments are
found to be in perfect keeping with dauntless
bravery and unimpeachable seamanship.
Anunig such the author of this little manual
stands high, being as much distinguished by
important services and a thorough knowledge
of his profession as for moral worth ; we have,
therefore, the more pleasure and confidence
in recommending his advice to those whom it
most concerns, being well assured that every
precept has been tested by practice, and illus-
trated by example. It is difficult to quote
where so much is purely technical ; but the
following extract is a fair sample of the
styli, and spirit of this useful little book :
A sail r has so much to learn, and requires such varied
ant geu rid information, that he never cAu be at a loss for
a study :bat will be useful to him .... Always try to do the
right thing at the right time ; this is the art that insures
a tccess....Do not neglect to say your prayers night and
morning ; you need make no parade of them by kneeling ;
prayer does not depend upon the attitude, but upon the
bean. You can always retire to a quiet part of the deck,
and spend a few minutes in asking pardon for the past and
for grace and strength to do right ; a blessing is sure to
follow ; but "if you forget tiod, He will forget you." Do
not place yourself in temptation a ith the idea that you can
resist it, but choose for your companions those who wish
to do right ; you will always be judged by the characters of
your associates, and you would be sure to fall into their
vices.

The Election Manual. London : Shaw
and Sons.

MR. CHARLES EDWARD LEWIS, one of the soli-
citors to the Conservative Land Society. has
just published a very useful guide for persons
who are interested in the forthcoming general
election in England and Wales. The author
has condensed in his Manual the spirit of the
lor.ter but somewhat unwieldy books existing
on Electoral Law; and, by simply classifying
the laws and procedures relating to officers
and persons connected with the elections—
such as the returning-officer, the candidate,
the electors, the election auditors and agents,
also relating to the issuing of the writs and
procla►uations, the nomination, the poll, the
declaration and return, down to the peti-
tion against the return—has supplied ready
and concise information of what is to be done,
and what is not to be done. In the last-men-
tioned category comes, of course, the laws re-
lating to offences in connection with elections ;
such as bribery, treating, undue influence,
illegal payment of expenses, and personation.
The lists of constituencies, returning-officer and
auditors are also appended, together with the
texts of such Acts of Parliament as are of real
use and reference in the election.

Tile most curious and acceptable portion of
the Manual is a reference to the Corrupt
Practices' Act, with which electors in general
are but imperfectly acquainted. Mr. Levis is
evidently not lost in admiration of our legis-
lative enactments :
It is marvellous (he states in his chapter of Bribery)
bow the intelligent English people endure with such quiet
and sluggish complacency the scandals of such frequent
and common occurrence, arising from a system which
sends out as laws Acts on the face of them contradictory
and inconsistent, often absurd and unintelligible, and
always deficient in carrying out the intentions of the
ramers.