The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-02 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

China in 1857 and 1858: being the Times' Special
Correspondence. By George Wingrove Cooke.
Bvo., pp. 457. George Routledge.
It will be a satisfaction to many thousands that
those delightful articles, read with so much zest as
they appeared periodically in the columns of our
great morning contemporary—beginning on board
the Aden, under date May 21, 1857, being written
afterwards successively from Hongkong, from Fat-
shan, from Macao, from Honchow, from Ningpo,
from Chusan, from Shanghai, from Canton, and
from Calcutta—have been already collected together
and issued from the press in the form of a separate
publication. The anonymous is at length dropped
at the title-page of the goodly volume, in which
the thirty-three letters addressed to Printing
House-square by the Thunderer's Own Special Corre-
spondent are, as that same title-page informs us,
reprinted by permission." Those hitherto in
ignorance as to the author's individuality now learn
that this eminently graphic painter of the Chinese
as they are is no other thaii Mr. Wingrovc Cooke,
already favourably known as the writer of that
political magnum opus "The History of Party."
It is like the recognition of an old friend at the
close of a masquerade. To specify the particular
merits of this able and frequently brilliant corre-
spondence were altogether idle and superfluous.
One description we are, however, fain here

to revive to popular recollection by quoting it.
It is the author's description of a veritable " Chinese
Dinner," given by himself to a select portion of the
beauty and fashion of Ningpo. Votre Majeste est
serve ! or, as Bailey Junior quoth at Todgers's,
" Wictuals is up I." or, as Shakspere's Timon to his
deluded gu.s3ts, " Welcome, dogs, and lap." Here is
the record of as pretty a piece of gastronomy as
ever was dedicated au gourmet, with a predetermi-
nation to make the reader's mouth water :
" The salon was more like a slice of a verandah than a
room. Its front was open to the narrow street. The table
was laid with the preliminary trifles provocatives to the '
coming repast. There was a small square tower, built up of
slices from the breast of a goose ; a tumulus of thin square
pieces of tripe ; hard-boiled eggs of a dark speckled colour,
which had been preserved in lime, and whose delicacy is
supposed to be proportioned to their antiquity ; berries and
other vegetable substances preserved in vinegar ' • a curious
pile of some shell-fish, to me unknown, which had been
taken from its shell and cut in thin slices ; prawns in their
natural, or rather in their artificial red state ; ground nuts,
ginger, and candied fruits.
" Everything was excellent of its kind, and the unknown
shell-fish, particularly good in flavour. lam afraid to say
that the tripe, boiled to an almost gelatinous softness, was a
creditable piece of cookery, but I know many Englishmen
who would have devoured the small heap with great
avidity. There was at first an air of suspicion in the
manner we wandered over this light collation; but this

soon gave way as the fruits, the pickles, or the shell-fish
commended themselves to the several tastes.

" And now we sat down to the serious business of the
day. Each guest was supplied with a saucer and a porcelain
spoon—they had brought their own chopsticks. A folded
towel, just saturated with hot water, was placed by each
saucer—this is the Chinese napkin—and two tiny metal
cups, not so large as egg-cups, were allotted to every guest.
At my side, to share our feast, and see that the rites' were
properly performed, sat the gravest of Chinamen. He wore
his mandarin summer cap, for he was the interpreter at one

of the consulates.
" The first dish was, in accordance with all proper prece-
dent, the birds'-nest soup. I believe some of us were
rather surprised not to see the birds'-nests bobbing about in
the bowl, and to detect no flavour of sticks or feathers, or
moss. What these birds'-nests are in their natural state I
do not know, for I have no book on ornithology, and have
never been birds'-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 Jude and tasteless
delicacy. But remark that these two basins are only the
suns of little systems. The same haads that brought them
in scattered also an entourage of still smaller basins. These
are sauces of every flavour and strength, from crushed fresh
chilies to simple soy. Watch the Chinaman. How cun-
ningly he compounds.
" But, sir, you do not mean to say that you ate this
mucilage' with your chopsticks ?'
" ' No, madam, we scooped it with our saucers and ate it
with our porcelain spoons.'
" The next course was expected with every nervous excite-
ment. It was a stew of sea-slug. As I have seen them at
Macao they are white, but as served at Ningpo they are
green. I credit the Imperial Academician's as the orthodox
dish. They are slippery, and very difficult to be handled by
inexperienced chopsticks • but they are most succulent and
pleasant food, not at all Unlike in flavour to the green fat of
the turtle. If a man cannot eat anything of a kind whereof
he has not seen his father and grandfather eat before, we
must leave him to his oysters, and his periwinkles, and his
crawfish, and not expect him to swallow the much more
comely sea-slug. But surely a Briton who has eaten him-
self into a poisonous phethora upon mussels has no right to
hold up his hands and eyes at a Chinaman enjoying his
honest well-cooked stew of beches de suer.
" During the discussion of this dish our Chinese master
of the ceremonies solemnly interposed. We were neglecting
the rudiments of politeness. No one had yet offered to
intrude one of these sleek and savoury delicacies, deeply
rolled in sauce, into the mouth of his neighbour. Effort.
were made to retrieve the barbarian honour, but with no
great success, for the slugs were evasive, and the proffered
mouthful was not always welcome.
"The next dish was sturgeon skull-cap—rare and gela-
tinous, but I think not so peculiar in its flavour as to excuse
the death of several royal fish.
"This dish being taken from its brazen lamp-heated stand,
was succeeded by a stew of shark fins and pork. The shark
fins were boiled to so soft a consistency that they might have
been turbot fins. The Chinaman must have smiled at the

unreasonable prejudices of the Occidentals when he saw
some of us tasting the pork but fighting shy of the shark
He probably, however, did not know that the same Occi-
dentals would eat with relish of a fish which they had

themselves enticed to their angle by a worm or a maggot.
" Next in order came a soup composed of balls of crab.
I have tasted this better prepared at Macao. It assumes
there the form of a very capital salad, made of crab and
cooked vegetables.

" Meanvhile the ministering boys flew and fluttered
round the table, for ever filling the little wine-glasses with
hot water from the metal pots. There were three kinds--
the strong-samshu, for every occasional spike' ; the medi-
cated wine, for those who, having once• experienced its
yserie
who can drink that preparation may be very well satisfied
manyordinafi!yavwolres:
Nevhaehtios attempt ape t ith sherry
with its Chinese substitute.
" The Chinaman had drunk with each of the connives
almost in English fashion, but in strict obedience to the
Chinese rites, and ungallantly challenging the male part of
the company first.
" And now we became clamourous for bread er rice. After
a succession of not by any means gross, but certainly nutri-
tious and mucilaginous dishes, the palate and the stomach
craved some farinaceous food. Nothing was easier to pro-
cure. The boys—our own boys, accustomed to wait at our
English dinners—brought in loaves at the lightest intima-
tisn ; but our arbiter edendi interposed. Bread at a Chinese
feast is contrary to the rites.'
" We consoled ourselves by throwing at him a decisive
and unanimous opinion that this was the weak point of
Chinese gastronomy."
•

" So we continued our attentions to the ducks' tongues,
and passed on to deers' tendons— a royal dish. These deers'
tendons come, or ought to come, from Tartary. The em-
perors make presents of them to their favoured subjects.
Yell's father at Canton, recently received some from his
sovereign, and gave a feast in honour of the present. These
must have been boiled for a week to bring them down to the
state of softness in which they came up to us.
" Exhausted, or rather repleted, nature could no more.
When a stew of what the Chinese call the ear shell-fish
was placed upon the table, no one could carry his experi-
ments further. An untouched dish is a signal for the close
of the feast. The nzaiter d' hotel protested that he had
twenty more courses of excellent rarity, but our Chinese
master of the ceremonies was imperative, and so were we.
Plain boiled rice, the rice of Szechuen, was brought round
in little bowls, and of this we all ate plentifully. Confec-
tionary and candied fruits, and acanthus-berries steeped in
spirits, followed, and then tea. No uncooked fruit is
allowed at a Chinese dinner. They have a proverb that
fruit is feathers in the morning, silk at noon, and lead at
night. I was assured by competent authority that nothing
had been placed upon the table which was not in the
highest degree wholesome, nutritious, and light of diges-
tion. We certainly so found it; for, adjourning to the
house of one of the convkcs, we made an excellent supper
that night.
" The master of the ceremonies now looked round him
with a swollen and satisfied air, and—erupk moms—from
his mouth came forth a loud sonorous noise, which a certain
dramatist has not scrupled to bedeck with cnighthood, and
to christen Sir Toby. He, the Chinaman, seemed proud of
his performance. We sat uncomfortable on our chairs, did
not know which way to look, and some of us would have
run away, had there been anywhere to run to. Some one
who
him declare
vweohiulind baehainnt insultwhie t which
madeotathdee
h
founder of the feast it this testimony was not loudly
coulddecla
rsep
emphaticallye a thela
tahgaet
it gave
given
to the sufficiency of the entertainment, and the
pletion of the guests. It was with some difficulty that he
was prevailed upon to turn over this chapter of the book
of rites."

The whole work is written thus quaintly, gra-
phically, amusingly, delightfully.

CONVENTION BETWEEN ENGLAND,

FRANCE, AND VENEZUELA.

The following appears to be the text of the
arrangement by which the differences between the
representatives of England and France and the
Provisional Government of Venezuela, which
threatened to involve great discredit, have been
adjusted :
" Convention concluded by the Plenipotentiaries
especially named to terminate the differences be-
tween Venezuela and France and England, and to
re-establish the amicable relations of the three
countries, and Vice-Admiral Count de Gueydon, at
present commanding the Anglo-French squadron.
" 1. As regards General J. T. Monagas, the pro-
mise of the 26th of March will be carried out.
" 2 As regards S. Gutierrez, he shall be restored
to the Anglo-French legations, and placed at the
disposal of the Venezuelan Government on the points
they require, at least until he obtains his pardon.
"3. As regards St. Giuseppi, if the charges
against him do not allow of his being set at liberty,
the process against him before the proper tribunals
is to be finished as soon as possible.
"4. The indemnities required by the Britannic
Legation and for the assassination of a French
family, in April, to be the subject of amicable
negotiation.
of the convention all
hostilities to cease, the captured
"5. From the signing
ships to be re-
turned, the representatives of France and England
to continue their functions, and, to avoid any pos-
sible hurt to the dignity of the republic, the naval
forces are to leave her ports:,