Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-06-25

winch distinguish them above the people OF ASIA tbs
SO possibly BE this as Ii may We cannot call too
nestly the readers attention upon this disposition Of
territory which is watered than any other Of the
world ntersected in every direction by canals
courses which numerous that all transportation in
China Is effected by means OF boats, which will allow
squadron OF steamboats, to penetrate every way to
form police duty and upon this Characteristic virtue Of
the Chinese which makes Of them the the
during Of labor that exists perhaps in the world. know
very well that the European laboreE polished bet
ter cultivated, aided in his labor by instruments of
Incompatible superiority may in given number OF hours
produce more than Chinese but am not so sure fhe
can give without becoming worthless perhaps succumb
ing the number of hours offague the Chinese fur
nish daily and the latter knows no Sunday. No mat
ter at what hour Of the night walked about the Chinese
towns visited have failed to be struck with the
number of workshops which found still open, with the
multitude of people in their shops or in their
houses, proongng their ygs until the latest hour or
anticipating the day in the middle Of the night 1t is not
in China they think of making laws regulating the
Der Of work hours in manufactures and upon the obser
vance Of one day Of rest during the week. Another
thing which oil foreigners have observed is that in his
perseyerng obstinate labor the Chinese always maintains
serenity of mind and camness which is really marvel
lous. The European laborer land especially the English
laborer) often works at his task with passion which
contracts his physiogomy, and indicates violent and
painful condition. only Of his muscles and members
but of his mind also. The Chinese is always gay and in
good humor He does not believe he never believed that
labor was imposed on him expiaton
In all other regards the Chinese like all other Asia
tics Like them they fond of Harding their discourses
with the finest moral phrases and like them they
cunning having very little respect for the truth, and
abandon themselves without shame to all the most
gnoble pleasures of the With them as with the
other nations of that continent the family is still const
tuted as in patriarcha times, with poygamy with the
absolute right of the head of the family over all the
women who live in his house, with domestic slayerythe
paterna power defined in theory but pushed in practice
to its last mitthe right Of life and death of the father
over his children The women, whom they call the nte-
ror ornament of the apartment strcter prisoners
than in the harems Of Turkey in zenanas of Hin
dostan and eunuchs have played in the policy Of the
peral Palace of Pekn not less important part than in
the Seragio of Constantinople You may no more ask
the Chinese than the Turk of his wife without
Tending decency and the Chinese, like the Mussulman
and the Hindoo when you question him about his family
will reply ne has no children if perchance he has only
daughters.
AS to the turn and worth of his mind it is the same as
of all Asacs it is the exaggeration of that class
OF minds He has pushed further than the others the
poverty ofimagnaton and the difficulty of eeyating his
to The comprehension Of the general laws
which govern the universal frame Of things and whose
practical consequences applied to morals to philosophy
medicine the exact Sciences industry political and social
economy have insured to the genius of Europe its ncon
testable superiority Among the which have at
tanned an eminent degree of civilization there is
SO hostile to theory the Chinese In this regard
they are very inferior the Arabs and the Hndoos
Both of these latter have cultivated certain branches of
the astronomy and chemistry for
example-to quite an advanced point The Chinese have
never seemed to suspect any thing OF the sort
but this knowledge comes to them from empricism ex-
clusivey it is pardon the expression long series Of
old women receipts, discovered by chance and between
which they do not imagine it possible to discover any
They have never made any attempt do So
Like many Others long sought to persuade myself that
the artisca and literary fantasies and philosophical
of the Asiatics the production of i'm
ignaton which could not contain ITSELF and riot with
uxurance like the nature and the vegetation of their eli
mate but have been cured of this idea with
aslacs themselves and especially with the Chinese, has
eaced 1t from my mind The truth is that
Intellectually they combine something of the child and of
he greybeard The stories of the Thousand and One
Nights" and the foolish cosmogony of Buddhism chill
ifens tales the absorbing Panthesm of the Brahmins
md the chmerca creations of Chinese are the sterile
ireams OF decrept imagination.
TINS incoherency of Ideas this incapacy Of rising
general views Of embracing any general law the Chinese
lave carried into their political order 1t is impossible
contest that they represent in the midst of the human
ace perfectly distinct unity; but it is unity which
acks cohesion and force of resistance 1t is like some
great sand mountain, of which all the component mod
Jules are very much like each other but disunited capa
ole OF being blown away by the least breath of air each
. turn without the others opposing any obstacle We
70 not sahceny appreciate seems so natural
low to frame doctrines TO lay hold ALWAYS of the con-
iexon OF the details of any general proposition or truth
gives 70 the humblest citizen of the State souuder
iouons OF government and OF society than the arsto
ratio Asatic possesses which has created the powerful
ehtncn OF PATRIOTISM and given this superiorty To onr
our arts our sciences Our industry, and our army
n a in
'oint OF personal courage the Arabs whom We combat
glers are not the equals of soldiers and IL Is more
certain that the of the Arabs would seem To ok
hem apter to military life than the conscrpts Of our rer
and yet the Arabs hold their ground against
ur battaons because in ranks the sentiment of the
collective mass mutpes the force of all by the force of
ZACH one, and gives to it irresistible power whatever
he enemies numerical force.
That which the Arabs have experienced on the battle
leid the Chinese have felt only in war but in all the
etais of their history What other reason is it possible
o give to the incredible which in the midst of
he 18th century, delivered empire which certainly
wen then reckoned several hundreds Of millions of nbab
tants, into the hands of horde tribe of shepherds in
intely less cultivated than they whose first army sent
nto China was perhaps not above some 80 900 men,
whose supremacy in the country established not after
ome OF those grand catastrophes which sometimes fell
nations and throw them at the feet Of their
,u after long series Of small victories Of detail for the
limited number Of Manchous did allowed them to
lerake great operations nay there are parts of the
ountry such certain districts of the Kwanp See and
almost all OF the Yunnan which they had not succeeded
penetrating when the of Europe shook the la
'oriously constructed cdifce Of their domination
Now, after the defeat and humiliation of the Manchous
~ foreigners the wind which blows from these provinces
las raised tornadoes of people, who for the last three
ears have been marching from the south the NORTH
bearing with them anarchy, plnge fire. and it may be,
he ruin OF their ancient conquerors We're this all which
mall spring from this movement might doubtless lend
but slight attention, the interest of curiosi
~ II is impossible, however but that there shall arise
Il consequences Of the gravet Importance the poll
y ana the commerce of the world.
correspondent Of the Cincinnati Gazette thus des-
tribes visit to the estate of Mr. PEABODY eminent
iorticulturist near Columbus, Georgia:
g Mr.. Peabody has very healthy location hill in
he pine woods-ovet six hundred and when they