The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

port city like Canton, would be as consistent
as a Mandarin with his pigtail and fan, landing
in Wapping and estimating our character for
hospitality by the reception he would meet
with from the enlightened fraternity of that
district. The only! disadvantage Mr. For-
tune laboured under arose from the ignorance
of the people. He was looked upon as a
species of beast of prey. "Oh, if Igo near
" him ho will bite me !" said a child on one
occasion ; and the women of the family, he tells
us, at first always " bolted " the moment they
saw him ; but, so soon as they discovered
that being cooked and eaten was not a ne-
cessary consequence of his acquaintance, they
would sit out with him in their verandah, and
work and chat as agreeably as their civilised
sisters of Western Europe. Indeed, under
most circumstances in life, the Chinese deserve
to be regarded favourably. They are good
parents, good husbands, excellent wives, and,
when not cruelly overtaxed or starved, loyal
subjects ; then they are sober, regular in
their habits, industrious in business, and
faithful to their engagements. Then, again,
the coastmeu make capital sailors; whil as
emigrants in a foreign country, the Chinaman,
in his constant and steady application to
labour or business, where his spare diet,
sober habits, and muscular development give
him great advantages, rivals or beats all
competitors. Now, these are great qualities
for an Asiatic, and, when called a " barbarian,"
all must allow that John Chinaman has
been most unjustly characterised. He is a fine
type of the Asiatic race, and though ho has
his little peculiarities, is rather given to some
of the seven deadly sins, is a little obstinate
in his temper and bigoted in his opinions, and
perhaps partial to a pet prejudice or two—and
ho is not singular here—yet he is a very good
fellow after all, and, taken on the whole, is
quite as civilised as those who drink his tea
when they can get it, wear his silks, or pur-
chase his porcelain.
. .

In this view Mr. Fortune's adventures for
three years off the north coast and in the interior
fully bear us out. Here is his first visit by
water, in March, '53, to Tse-kee, a city about
ten or twelve miles north-west of Ningpo

Leaving my servants to prepare my breakfast and to get
their own, I sauntered into the city. I found it a very
ancient place, and famous as being the residence of many
of the wealthiest persons in this part of China.
Its walls seemed to be about three miles in circumference,
but they inclosed numerous fields and gardens as well as
houses. The dwellings of the rich were mostly surrounded
with high walls, and were not visible from the streets.
This is a common mode of building, as it secures the
privacy of the female members of the family in a country
like China, where it is the custom to keep them much
secluded.

I had entered the city by the north gate, and in a few
minutes had a crowd of people at my heels. " Where had
I come from ?" " where was I going to?" and " what was I
wanting to buy ?" were questions which were put on all
aides. The crowd appeared to be perfectly good-humoured,
and treated me with the greatest deference and respect.
Some ran on before me, and seemed to take a great deal of
pleasure in spreading the information of my arrival. The
consequence was, that every door and window was full of
people anxious to get a look at the foreigner. It was per.
fectly useless to remonstrate or to get angry, so I was all
smiles and took everything in good part.

One day a Mandarin, hearing of Mr. Fortune's
entomological tastes, inspected his collection.
A crowd collected, and as soon as the Mandarin
had taken his leave, incessant applications
were made to come on board the boat. The
only way to gratify the crowd was to throw
back the roof of the boat, and display in detail
to them each box :

My table, bed, the floor of the boat, and every inch of
space was completely covered with examples of the natural
history of the place. " Can all these things have been col.
lected here?" was on every lip; "for many of them wo
have never seen, although we are natives of the place and
this is our home." And when I pointed out some of the
more remarkable amongst the insects, and gave them the
names by which they are known to the natives, I was
complimented and applauded on all sides
And so the conversation went on, every one being
in the best possible humour. When I had shown
them the greater portion of my collections, the cover
of the boat was let down, and everything put away
into its proper place. I was now anxious to die.
perse the crowd, and for that purpose informed them
that, as the afternoon was getting cool, I was now
going out to make further additions to my collections.
" Thank you, thank you," said many of them, making at
the same time many most polite bows after the manner of
the country, which I did not fail to return. And so we
parted tho best of friends

This picture is not very like many which have been
given of China and the Chinese, but it is true

SATURDAY,

to nature nevertheless. I trust it may give g
higher idea of the civilisation of this people than we are
accustomed to form front the writings of those whose 'prin-
cipal knowledge was derived from views at the great
southern seaports of the empire.

At every town he stopped Mr. Fortune was
well received, and experienced " kindness and
civility" from the natives with whom ho
daily came in contact. He entered the cities
and their neighbouring villages, conversed
with the natives, looked into their shops, vi-
sited their theatres, and though regarded with
intense curiosity as a " white devil," ho
rarely met with anything like incivility.
One of the most agreeable traits in the cha-
racter of the Chinese is their reverence for tho
dead. The most beautiful spots are chosen for
the tombs, which are preserved with reverent
care:--

It is a pretty sight, and yet a painful one too, to see the
relations of the dead visiting the tombs of their ancestors,
which they do at stated periods for the purpose of burning
sycee paper and incense, and chanting prayers to the gods
or spirits of the departed. Sometimes a mother may be
seen with her children, the youngest probably still an
infant in her arms, assembled in front of the grave of the
husband and father. The widow is wailing and lamenting
her bereavement, and the poor little ones look on so
seriously, while every now and then they prostrate them-
selves befure the grave. Or, it m:ly be, it is the aged who
are paying the same respect to the last resting-place of
those who had been taken away in early life, and to whom
they had looked forward as the stay and prop of their
declining years. Or again, a so'itary individual might be
seen performing the same rites—young, middle-aged, or
old, as the case might be—which suggested the idea that
he was poor and friendless, the last of his race. It has
been asserted that there is little genuine feeling in all this,
that it is a custom which must be observed, and that it
would be just as well if such a custom did not exist. I
believe, however, there is as much genuine sorrow amongst
the Chinese for the loss of relatives as there is amongst
ourselves ; and if we consider the way they dote upon
their children, and the reverence and love they have for
aged parents, we can come to 113 other conclusion.

During the capture of Shanghae by the
rebels on the 7th September, 1853, Mr. Fortune
happened to be present, and he gives the
following account of the manner in which wo
observed our neutrality :
The sympathies of foreigners generally were all enlisted
on the side of the rebels and against the Government of
the country. It was no secret that we as a body, instead
of opposing an attack upon the city, would hail it with
pleasure, and wish it success, although we would otherwise
remain neutral. Civil and naval officers, missionaries,
merchants, and shopkeepers, all—with a few honourable
exception—were in favour of the debauched band of robbers
who took the city of Shanghae on the 7th of September.
The unprejudiced observer of these events had now to
witness a most extraordinary and anomalous proceeding,
namely, that of our men•of war gallantly putting down the
hordes of pirates which were infesting the coast, while the
land pirates, such as those who took the city of Shanghae,
were encouraged and applauded. And why ? Because the
latter spent their days and nights in smoking opium, in
drunkenness, and in all kinds of debauchery, and gave ont
they were followers of Tai•pingisang, or, as he was called,
the Christian King.

The rebels held possession for about a year,
closely besieged by the Imperialists. Again,
the conduct and policy of the British authori-
ties is worth noting:—

The object of the Imperialists appeared to be not so
much to drive them out by hard fighting as by gradually
cutting off their supplies to starve them into capitulation.
Here again their plans were to a certain extent frustrated
by neutral foreigners. l'he foreign settlement, as it is
called, occupies a large tract of ground situated ou the
northeast side of the city just outside the walls, and is
bounded on the east by the Shanghae river. Notwith-
standing the complaints and remonstrances of the Govern-
ment of the country, many persons were unscrupulous
enough to keep supplying the insurgents with arms and
ammunition of all kinds in large quantities, for which
they were liberally paid with the spoils stolen from the
public treasury or wrung from the inhabitants. Some
were in the habit of making large sums of money by
running cargoes of gunpowder, carrying it into the city,
advising and counselling the rebels, and then when danger
approached sneaking back to the foreign settlement for the
protection which the flags of England or America afforded
them. Nor was this conduct effectually checked by either
of these Governments for a considerable length of time,
although they had full power to have done so. And this
is what we call being neutral ?

After such conduct as this at Shanghae, can we
be surprised at the disinclination of Yeh to
admit us into Canton, when that province
is in a state of similar insurrection? We
have no interest, and infinitely less right, to
support rebels against their sovereign; and if
those principles of our Liberal European
foreign policy are to be transplanted to China,
we can readily conceive that our reputation only,
and not our rights, in any disputed question,
should be recognised by the Sovereign or his
viceroys.