The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of
China; melurling a I to the Ten, Silk, and Cotton
Countries; with an Account of the lg,-kuilure and Horti.
culture of the Chinese. By ROBERT Fontuxe, Botanical
Collector to the Horticultural Society of Laden.
The title of this book is a misnomer. With the
exception of the narrow strip of land that stretches
out towards Hai-nun, scarcely any of continental
China is south of the twenty-second parallel ; Pekin
is situated nearly upon the fortieth ; Ningpo is a
little north of the thirtieth, and Soo-choo of the
thirty-first. Now as this last-mentioned place is the
extreme north of Mr. Fortune's wanderings, it is ob-
vious that (even if China Proper alone, and not the
whole dominions of the Chinese empire, is taken into
account) they were confined to the southern provinces
of China. It may also be observed that Mr. Fortune
on one or two occasions speaks of having been in the
interior of China. This is rather n big word, con-
sidering that he was hardly ever a hundred miles
from the east coast, and that China Proper ex-
tends in breadth from the ninety-eighth to the one
hundred and twenty-first meridian west of Green-
wich.
The extent of Mr. Fortune's opportunities of per-
sonal observation in China may be briefly indicated.
He landed at Hong Kong on the Pith of July, 1843 ;
he left it to return to England on the 22nd of Decem-
ber, 1845. The intervening two years and a half
were occupied (with the exception of a short trip to
Luzon) by single visits to Canton, Namoa, Amoy,
Chinchew, and Foo-choo-foo •, and by repeated visits
of longer duration to Hong
.Kong, tiingpo, Chosen,
and Skanghae and its neighbourhood. With the
exception of an overland expedition from Chapoo to
Shanghae, an excursion from Shanghae to some
nameless and rather vaguely indicated hills to the
west of it, and a twenty-miles'iourney inland from
Ningpo (of which the direction is not given), none of
the ground gone over by Mr. Fortune can, strictly
speaking, be called new to Europeans. Bat what ho
has seen he has noted closely on repeated visits, and
with a professional eye. Within the region which
has its limits indicated by the points, Ningpo, Seo-
choo, and the eastern extremity of the Chusan
group of islands, Mr. Fortune has seen more, and
' more at leisure, than any preceding traveller in China
who hes published an account of his peregrinations;
and his practical knowledge of horticulture has
enabled him to observe and understand much that
would have escaped a mere general observer. He also
mixed much with the people • and natural shrewd-
ness, and business intercourse, enabled him to form a
judicious estimate of their circumstances and
character.
He has settled definitively some disputed questions
relative to tea. The only tea he saw cultivated in the
Canton province was the Thea Bohm, or what is
commonly called the black tea plant. But on the tea
hills near Foo-choo, in the heart of the black tea dis-
trict, as in the green tea countries near Ningpo, in
Chilean, and in the province of Kiangnan, be found
the Thea Viridis exclusively cultivated, and black teas
and green teas alike prepared from it. In the vici-
nity of Foo-choo, says Mr. 'Fortune, " I dug up a
living plant, which I took northward to Chekiang.
On comparing it with those which grew on the
green tea-hills, uo difference whatever was observed."
The tees of Fukien and Chekiang (and apparently
those of Kitagnan and Kiangsi, though our author
had not the same opportunities of observing) are
supe nor to those of Cantu. The reason appears to
be that the soil in Fokien and Chekiang "is a rich
undy loam," while that of Canton is poorer. " Tea
'shrubs will not succeed well unless they have a rich
soil to grow in. The continual gathering of their
leaves is very detrimental to their health, and in fact
ultimately kills them. Hence a principal object with
the rower is to keep his bushes In as robust health as
possible ; and this cannot be done if the soil is poor."
In the green tea districts there are three gatherings
of the leaves : the first consists of the young leaf bads
just as they begin to unfold, which forms a fine deli-
cate hyson, sent about in small quantities as presents
to Mends; the second gathering yields the teas of
commerce ; the third is an after crop, yielding a very
inferior tea, consumed in the district. In the black
tea districts there are likewise three gatherings: the
first yielding a small quantity of delicate tea, which
does not appear to come into commerce; the second
the export teas; and the third a come inferior tea
for home use. The black tea is rendered darker in
colour, first by being longer exposed to the air in a
soft and moist state; and, secondly, by being subjected
to a greater degree of fire-heat." " It must not be
supposed," says Mr. Fortune, " that the green teas of
Chekiang are the green teas exported to England. The
leaf has a much more natural colour, and has little or
none of what we call the' beautiful bloom' upon it,
which is so much admired in Europe and America."

That the green teas from the Canton district ar
simply black teas, coloured by an artificial process, i
well known; and, from the similar appearance of the
export green teas from the other provinces, Mr. For-
tune is inclined to believe that they are manufactured
in the same way. Indeed, from the real green tea
being subjected to a less degree of fire-heat, it may be
doubted whether it could be expected without suffer-
ing from fermentation during the voyage. "The black
teas can be, and in tact are, made from both species :
and with regard to the green, " as it is the result of a
dye, the Chinese, i doubt not, could substitute for that
colour either red or yellow, should our tastes change
and lead us to prefer more glaring tints."
With respect to the quantity of tea, fit for the Euro-
pean and American markets, produced in China, or
the extent to which its production can be increased,
Mr. Fortune Were no opinion. The facts he states,
however, are adverse to the supposition that it admits
of any immediate great augmentation. In Chekiang,
" the tea plantations are always situated on the lower
and most fertile sides of the hills, and never on the
low lands. The farms are small, each consisting of
from four to five acres ; indeed, every cottager has
his own little tea-garden, the produce of which sup-
plies the wants of his family, and the surplus brings
him in a few dollars, which are spent on the other
seminaries of life." Again, "being further south, and
of course in a better climate, the tea-plant of Fokien
is generally grown at a high elevation among the
hills. Every cottager or small farmer has two or
three patches of tea-shrubs growing on the hill-sides,
which are generally planted and kept in order by the
members of his own family. When the gathering
season arrives, the cottage doors are locked, and all
proceed to the hills with their baskets, and commence
plucking the leaves," The whole process of prepar-
ing site teas is conducted by the same parties. The
preparation of tea fur the market is, in China, a mere
domestic manufacture, a business of detail. Any
rapid or marked increase in the quantity produceds
can only be effected by carrying on the
process on a large scale by a combination of capitalist,
and labourers. But in China there are no agricultu-
ral capitalists: the merchants, the only wealthy men,
are regarded as an inferior nate, and checked by the
regulations of the most completely centralised and
vexatiously interfering government in existence.
These facts lead us to question the possibility of soon
materially increasing the quantity of tea tit for our
markets prepared for export in China. But for these
circumstances, it is pretty obvious that it could be
considerably extended. It is, to be sure, sufficiently ob-
vious from Mr. Fortune's observations, that the range
within which good teas can be grown is limited.
South of Fokien, the tea is of inferior quality. North
of Chekiang, we learn from other authorities, it is
again inferior. No exportable tea has yet been re-
ceived from any place west of the great road from
Canton to Nankin. Even within this range, it is
only on certain soils, declivities, elevations, and ex-
posures, that good teas can be grown. But it is clear
tram what Mr. Fortune saw, that within this range
there is much uncultivated land, and that which is
under cultivation is not economically tilled.
The cultivation of the only other articles of agri-
cultural produce capable of being exported that came
under Mr. Fortune's notice, were cotton and silk.
Like tea, they are produced by small farmers
or landowners, in small quantities, prepared
by their families for the market, carried there
by the growers, and disposed of in small
quantities. The cotton annually produced does not
suffice for the consumption of the country. A consi-
derable quantity is annually imported. There is not
in China, in any of these three branches of cultiva-
tion, that division of employment and combination of
labour which facilitates augmented production. Our
only notices of the sugar cultivation by eye-witnesses
date as far back as Lord Macartney's embassy; hut
they indicate the same primitive state of affairs in that
branch of industry. Manufactures (with the excel).
tion of a few articles of curiosity, embroidered silks,
and the like) China has none for export. All these
things indicate that our trade with Chins is likely to
increase slowly, and that great caution is required in
pushing it. It is not enough that a large population
is willing to receive our manufactures, unless it have
something to give us in return.
Mr. Fortune's sound natural sense has enabled him
to sec that of the new ports opened to us in China,
Shanghae is the only one that promises to become of
consequence. In Ningpo. he detected the marks of
former superiority declining. The banking business
of the provinces to the north centres there, but there
are few commodities. Ningpo has no extensive back
country whence to draw its supplies. And the curious
and interesting details of Mr. Fortune's visit to the
mountains south of that city show that a considerable
proportion of the soil is held in mortmain by incor-
porations of priests, which has ever been found un-
favourable to the development of commerce. The
staple article of export in Foo-choo-foo is timber,
which we can procure better and cheaper elsewhere:
even Ningpo is more favourably circumstanced for
collecting cargoes of tea than that city. But Shanghao
Is situated centrically in the Delta-land of the Yang-
tae-Kiang, and its water communications render it
capable of being made an emporium for the produce of
the whole of that great plain, and also of the adjacent
provinces of Chekiang and Kiangsi, and indeed, of
the whole basin drained by the great river we have
named.
We have alluded above to an overland excursion
made by Mr. Fortune from Chapoo to Shanghae. It
was of the utmost consequence for him on one occa-
sion to reach Shanghae in the least possible time
from Ningpo. Had he taken the regulated route by
Chum, this would have been impossible, He therefore
embarked in the passage-bed to Chapoo, and proceeded
thence by canal to Shanghae. The narrative of his
adventures by the way, of the timorous attempts by
the Mandarins at Chapoo, not to prevent his passage,
kat to contrive the means of extorting a penalty from
him, and of the obvious connivance of the town
governor at Shanghae, show that one main obstacle
to a more extensive and familiar intercourse between
our traders and the natives is our complicated and
cumbrous consular system. The main object of the
Chinese government in admitting these officials has
obviously been to obtain their assistance in preventing
free and easy intercourse between the English and
Chinese. English residents, with much less ostensi-
ble power, communicating with a resident at l'ckin,
would be invaluable; armed with the powers they
have, and communicating with a governor-superin-
tendent
at Hong Kong, it is with difficulty they
escape from being made instruments of vexatious
coercion of their countrymen.
Americana, and other nations who have no such
consular system as ours, can and will extend their
personal intercourse with the natives. They will
gain their friendship, and thus force the governors to
favour them, if they would avoid complaints at Pekin.
They will learn by their familiar communications
what commodities are likely to find a market among
the Chinese. All these things the English, immured
in the Castile of their consular system, will find of
more difficult accomplishment.
The facts and suggestions we have here gleaned
from Mr. Fortune's book will indicate sufficiently. its
real value. By his correct observations and judicious
remarks—as well as by his efficient discharge of his
professional duties—he has turned his visit to China
to excellent account. It would be unfair to coa-
elude our notice without a tribute to his heroism.
In the straits of Formosa, Mr. F., the only fight-
ing man on board a junk in which he had taken his
passage, with his double-barrelled gun, beat off on one
occasion four, and on another three, well-appointed
piratical vessels. According to his own phrase, he
" raked their decks fore and aft," and made them take
to flight. This country has of late expended a good
deal of money, and not a few lives, in attempting to
put down piracy by men of war, and armed steamers.
Would it not be better to substitute Mr. Fortune and
his double-barrelled gun ?

PHILHARMONIC Soctrrr.—The second Philhar-
monic concert last evening, was chiefly of a sacred character.
The first part consisted of the symphony in Q minor from
Spobr's oratorio" The Last Judgment;' a selection from
Mendelssoltn's " St. Paul ;" and Beethoven's Mass in C.
The second part was entirely enmpoacd of Beethoven's
ninth, or choral symphony. These pieces constituted one of
the noblest performances we have ever heard within
the walls of the Hanover-square rooms; though, from
their being all known to the musical public, they
do not afford-much subject for remark. Bpohr's " lAst
Judgmat " is his first oratorio, and it is generally esteemed
hie bat. Its fall of sublimity, without that excess of Nl-
tioa which makes some of his later works
sal yomileross. The symphony in C minor
is a IlsolhilliAiret etametral writing, full of 'grand effects,
which me maosced by the clearness and comparative sim-
plicity dew store. It was followed by the beautiful soprano
air from "8R Paul," " Jerusalem, thou that talon the

prophets," sung by Miss Birch with a superb voice and excel-
lent execution; but she was deficient ia expression, and
she made some variations on the text, which were any thing
but improvements. In the beautiful and most pathetic air,
0 God' have mercy upon me!" which was a'terwords
snag, very finely upon the whole, by Mr Phillips, he com-
mitted the name error of singing mon than was set down to
him. In music of this severe and lofty kind, the author's
teat ought to be religiously observed ; it affords no room for
the graces and fioriture of on Italian Opera air. Beethoven's
Mass to C is, to our feeling (hardly even excepting MOSart.B
Requh n), the molt beautiful work of this elaes that exists.
In respect to form, it is east in the same mould
with the masses of Haydn and Mozart; but, while it so as
plain, simple, and intelligible as any of them, it shoes in
every bar the strength and originality of Beethoven's genius.
A moos is not *dented for performance at c concert; to feel
its full effect, one most hear it in a foreign cathedral as pars
of the Hunan Catholic service: but in this country these
great orelvsiml compoeitions foe the church most either be
performed at concerti or not at all. The pertormance of
this mass was admirable in every reaped. The solo parts
were perfectly well sung by Miss Birch, Mir M:
Williams, Mr. Lackey, and Mr. Phillip,. The chorus
was suflicieetly powerful and very correct, and nrehing could
exezed the blended smoothness, delicacy, and force of the
instrumental orchestra. Beethoven's choral symphony bas
been se often performed during the last few year.' that it is
becoming somewhat familiar to the Philharmonic performers;
though its proportions are so gigantic that it is a matter of
extreme difficulty to grasp their extent, and the intricacy of
its detaib are net easily comprehended. Nevertheless, from
the admirable manner in which Costa brought out the author's
intentions, and the manner in which the performers sur-
mounted every difficulty of execution, the effect of the whole
piece was mach ter than on any firmer occasion. The
scherzo, in partienlar, was charming, and the latter pertinn,
of it, in consequence of being loudly called for, was pliyed a
second time. There is presumption in criticising a work
which, the better it is known, appears greater and greater;
but still we think the vocal portion cot equal to the instru-
mento% The voices of the singers are constantly strained,
and some of the passages, especially in the tenor solo, seem
almost impracticable. The condoling chorus, too, seems
too protracted and fragmentary. But these, like many other
remarks which have been made on this wonderful work,
very l robably arise from imperfect execution and imperfect
comprehension of it. The room was crowded and pleasure
and satisfaction teemed the anmingled feeling of the au-
dience.