The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-06 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

ROBEiti"THOM, ESQ. INTERCOURSE WITH

CHINA.

The following article, highly and deservedly compli.
mentary to Mr. Robert Thom. consul at Ningpo, for
many years a resident in this town, appears in the Jour.
nal des Debats of the 24th of June. It is understood to
be from the pen of Mr. Stanislas Julien, member of the
Institute, and Professor of Ancient Chinese in the Col-
lege of France, without question, the first European
Sinologue of the day.
" The Bibliotheque Royale (at Paris) has just had
transmitted to it from Canton a work, which, if we are
not mistaken, bids fair to open up China to us in a way
far more efficacious than even the force of arms has done.
And this, by enabling the inhabitants of the Celestial
Empire to acquaint themselves, without any other assist-
ance than that which itself affords, with the ideas and
scientific attainments which prevail in Europe. The work
alluded to is a "Chinese and English Vocabulary," pub-
lished for the use of the Chinese. It is headed by a
preface in Chinese, written in a moderate and conciliatory
tone, which the Emperor must have read with no less in.
terest than satisfaction, should it have been brought under
his notice. This last-named circumstance is by no means
improbable, as, according to the Hong Kong Gazette of
the 26'h of October, 1843, a considerable number of copies
had been forwarded to the Court of Pekin ; and as in-
formation has been received, since their arrival, of many
of the high functionaries of that capital having read, and
having been delighted with the work. Hitherto the al-
most exclusive object of Sinologues has been to compile
dictionaries for the service of Europeans ; but the opening
of four new ports has given birth to new wants, and,
among its other consequences, has created a sort of neces-
sity for the publication of the vocabulary, which we have
now the pleasure of announcing. It was an idea at once
happy and bold, to aim at furnishing the Chinese with the
opportunity of acquiring, through the medium of their
own language, an acquaintance with that of England.
But an immense difficulty had to be encountered, in at-
tempting to set forth to the eye the sounds of a foreign
tongue, the pronunciation of which is so arbitrary, by
employing for that purpose the signs of a language which
has no alphabet. To triumph over this obstacle, and
others which need not be enumerated, nothing less was
required than the learning and experience of a man who
has had his abode in China for the last ten years, and to
whom the spoken language of the Chinese is as familiar
as his vernacular tongue. The author is Mr. Hobert
Thom, whose abilities are well known throughout Europe
—the gentleman who, in connection with the younger
Morrison, acted as interpreter to Sir Henry Pottinger
during his negociations with the Chinese Plenipoten-
tiaries ; and this, not only in arranging the terms of the
recent peace, but likewise in since discussing and settling
the articles of that commercial treaty which now throws
China open to European enterprize and activity. To him
the public was previously indebted for his edition of
iEsop's Fables in Chinese and English, and for an inter-
esting tale translated from the Chinese.

" The volume now before us presents, first of all, a
paradigms, or specimen sheet, on which each letter of the
English alphabet, small and capital, written and printed,
is accompanied by its pronunciation in Chinese phonetic
signs, as well as in mandchou letters. The author then
instructs the Chinese in all those principles which are
necessary to be understood by them, in order to their
finding, in the conventional signs which he employs, the
pronunciation of the English words; a thing which he
does almost as accurately as if he had availed himself of
the sounds of the French language to give expression to
them. In this publication, which is merely the first part
of the work, all the words and all the phrases, are ar-
ranged according to an order the most methodical. Each
Chinese word is followed by Chinese phonetic signs,
which give the pronunciation of the English synonyme
placed opposite. The second part will contain the rules
of English syntax. We may add that Mr. Thom has
published this work at his own expense ; and that he has
distributed copies gratuitously to foreigners who reside in
China, as well as to the native merchants of the new
ports, henceforward to be brought into constant inter-
course with Europeans, and requiring the assistance
which such a work affords."