The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-27 00:00:00

KOREA.

\Ve know of no country in the world which has
attracted less notice than Korea. Look wherever
VGII will on the wide face of the globe, and you
will always find some connexion existing between
cce nation and another, the tribes of the interior of
Africa not expected—only absolute savages like
tle aborigines of the Andaman Isles may be ex-
cused for refusing all intercourse with foreigners ;
but the Koreans who have come under the trans-
forminfr, influence of the Celestial Empire can cer-
taily offer no such plea. Trade removes the obsta-
cles, and binds nations by the firmest ties—self-in-
interest. But though Korea has many harbours and
is a peninsula, though in the neighbourhood of the
most industrious people of Asia, the Chinese
and Japanese, though rich in productions for a fo-
rei,4n market, it can scarcely be said to have any
commerce. Not a single junk, unless cast away by
:tress of weather, goes to Korea. The opposite
coast of Shantung is perhaps 36 hours' sail to the
next Korean island ; the former has neither fire-
wood nor timber, the laud abounds in both ; yet,
Poke, who is always in search of something useful,
never goes over to fetch such necessaries of life near
his door. For this we have never been able to ac-
count, for supposing even that it was not the will of
Government, when gain is the question Poke
finds means to evade all law. Nor was this
exclusive manner of dealing with foreigners
in such a summary way, old custom ; no, it is the
result of the policy of our enlightened times. What
simil we then say when all the intercourse which
Korea carries on is confined to a fair held in
anzurun and spring on the frontier of Montchouria,
and that, moreover, their tribute-bearer, who goes
thrice a year to Pekin, puts out there his wares in
a stall and returns with an exchange of goods.

traffic carried on between Japan and Korea,
ne of the intermediate islands, is very trifling,
an I rather deserves the name of barter. Now this
is the sum total of all the trade, of a country nearly
ge as England and Scotland. Thanks to
ational policy and misanthropy
,for these glo-
rc:sults.

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No foreigner has ever travelled freely in their
country. Even Chinese Ambassadors are anxiously
watched and treated as prisoners, and when the
Jesuits, by order of the Chinese Monarch, were
surv'ying Montchouria, they received strict injunc-
tions not to cross the frontiers of this recluse

nation. We only find a single instance in the case
of a Dutch crew being wrecked on the island Quel-
pacrt, in the seventeenth century, that people from
a far country were allowed to take up their abode
in the southern provinces. But though they were
not iii treated, they were not allowed to return
borne, a kind intention which they did not heed.
A Korean looks a very grotesque figure. Be-
sides the enormous hat, that which covers a pointed
cap, he wears a pair of sleeves of the moderate di-
mensions of a sack. This is quite in contrast
wain with ' his shoes made of canvass, which fit

coselv to his feet, and he is as proud of their

smallness as a Chinese lady. The males are re-
markable for their symmetry, the females for their
extreme ugliness, and they appear here to hold the
rank of beasts of burthen. The unmarried youth
wear a very long tail dangling down like Fokc s ap-
purtenance, with this difference, however, that the
forepart of the head is not shaven. The older
y have a mere tuft of hair hidden in a co

n:cai cap.

Old and young are gravity personified,
and the very children look care-worn. For hours
you may observe not a single change of the muscle,
their motions are stately, their gait the picture of
grandeur. From the highest Mandarin down to
the lowest fisherman this characteristic is the same.
It you wish to figure to yourself a true Korean,
you ought to imagine a man with a long
pipe, which is seldom left to cool, squatting
on the ground and fixing his eyes upon a single
i
object without moving his head. He s a very
Turk in many respects, though he may be on the
whole more industrious and less warlike. For
drinking liquor they have perhaps no equal as a
nation ; spirits do not affect them—they swallow
alcohol like water. If a stranger visit them,
they do not offer useless tea, but some raw

onions, dried fish and liquor, stronger than
and gin, of which a single man will
drink off one or two bottles without showing the least
symptoms of drunkenness. They arc very cautious
in their conversation, shy and timid in their whole in-
tercourse with all badges of despotism ; slavish
fear and servile submission await them. Their
language is full, sounding, and very distinct, their
literature that of the Chinese, and their common
w:itten medium a curious syliabary. In their
manners they show too much of the barbarian, but
they are at the same time haughty and distinguished
foreigners, inclusive of the Celestials with that
_
mourabte title. They have scarcely ever been in-
dependent, though the generosity of the Central
Eltipire permits them to remain merely tributary,
a.:11 to rule themselves according to their pleasure.
a 71.0 n Press.

whiskey