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MOST of the good and bad traits of the Chinese character may, as usual, be traced to the advantages or faults of their social system. If those principles of government and those laws, of which we have given a slight sketch, have the effect of imbuing them with some of the vices connected with timidity of character, which are particularly disesteemed in Europe, it is only fair to give them credit, on the other hand, for the valuable qualities which they do really possess. The Chinese have, upon the whole, been under-estimated on the score of their moral attributes. The reason of this has probably been, the extremely unfavourable aspect in which they have appeared to the generality of observers at Canton just as if any one should attempt to form an estimate of our national character in England, from that peculiar phase under which it may present itself at some commercial sea-port.

It is in fact a matter of astonishment that the people at Canton should be no worse than we find them. They are well acquainted with that maxim of their Government, by which it openly professes to "rule barbarians by misrule, like beasts and not like native subjects;" and they are perpetually supplied by the local authorities with every motive to behave towards strangers as if they were really a degraded order of beings. The natural consequence is, that their conduct to Europeans is very different from their conduct among themselves. Except when under the influence of either interest or of fear, they are often haughty and insolent to strangers, as well as fraudulent; and such is the effect of opinion among them, that, even in cases where interest may persuade them to servility, this will not be exhibited in the presence of a countryman. A beggar has often been seen

who, though he would bend his knee very readily to European passengers when unobserved, refrained altogether from it while Chinese were passing by. It was some time before the very coolies, the lowest class of servants, would condescend to carry a lantern before a European at night; and still longer before they could be induced, by any wages, to convey him in a sedan even at Macao, where it is permitted. Is it surprising, then, that they should reconcile it, without much difficulty, to their feelings to overreach and ill-use, occasionally, these creatures of an inferior rank, who, as their Government phrases it, come to benefit by "the transforming influence of Chinese civilization ;" rather, is it not very surprising that so general a course of honesty and good faith, and so many instances of kindness and generosity, even, should have been experienced in their intercourse with us? If we deny to the Chinese their fair advantages, on a view somewhat more extended than the precincts of Canton afford, and if we condemn them ignorantly, it is the precise fault which we have most to censure on their part. We in fact become as illiberal as themselves.

or,

The following anecdote, from a miscellaneous volume,' by Sir George Staunton, is a favourable specimen of Chinese character, as it has appeared even at Canton. A considerable merchant had some dealings with an American trader, who attempted to quit the port without discharging his debt, and would have succeeded but for the spirit and activity of a young officer of one of the Company's ships. He boarded the American vessel when upon the point of sailing, and by his remonstrances or otherwise, prevailed on the Ame

1 Notices of China, part ii.

rican to make a satisfactory arrangement with his creditor. In acknowledgment for this service, the Chinese merchant purchased from the young officer, in his several successive voyages to China, on very favourable terms, the whole of his commercial adventure. He might thus have been considered to have fulfilled any ordinary claim upon his gratitude; but he went further than this. After some years he expressed his surprise to the officer that he had not yet obtained the command of a ship. The other replied, that it was a lucrative post which could be obtained only by purchase, and at an expense of some thousand pounds, a sum wholly out of his power to raise. The Chinese merchant said he would remove that difficulty, and immediately gave him a draft for the amount, to be repaid at his convenience. The officer died on his voyage home, and the draft was never presented; but it was drawn on a house of great respectability, and would have been duly honoured.

The late Dr. Morrison formed a very fair estimate of a people with whom he was better acquainted than most Europeans. "In China," he observes, "there is much to blame, but something to learn. Education is there made as general as possible, and moral instruction is ranked above physical." The consequence is, that industry, tranquillity, and content are unusually prevalent in the bulk of the population. The exceptions to this, in the tumults which arise from local distress in limited districts, are in some measure the consequence of the very means taken to prevent them. The Chinese are bad political economists: the Government, instead of allowing the trade in grain to take its natural course, erects its own granaries, in which there is much inevitable abuse, and prohibits the business of the great cornfactor, who, in consulting his own interests, would much better relieve the dearth of one season by the redundancy of another. The people, who are taught to look to the public granaries for relief, and have been led by their patriarchal theory of Government to refer the good, which they enjoyed, to the Emperor and his delegates, very naturally attribute the evil which they suffer to the same quarters; and the Government, aware of the danger, is pro

portionately anxious to guard against it. If it fails, in the pursuit of an erroneous system, there is no room for surprise.

Notwithstanding that his power is absolute, the Emperor himself on all occasions endeavours to prove that his conduct is based on reason, and originates in benevolence,-the truth of the argument being of course a distinct affair. From the habits in which they are brought up, as well as from the operation of certain positive laws already noticed, the people are more ready to reason with each other than to resort to the ultima ratio of force. The advantageous features of their character, as mildness, docility, industry, peaceableness, subordination, and respect, for the aged, are accompanied by the vices of specious insincerity, falsehood, with mutual distrust, and jealousy. Lying and deceit, being generally the refuge of the weak and timid, have been held in Europe to be the most disgraceful vices, ever since the influence of those feudal institutions, under which strength and courage were the things most valued. The Chinese at any time do not attach the same degree of disgrace to deceit; and least of all do they discountenance it towards Europeans at Canton. A true calculation of their own interest makes most of the merchants of that place sufficiently scrupulous in their commercial engagements, but on all other points "the foreign devil," as they call him, is fair game. Many a Chinese of Canton, in his intercourse with a stranger, would seem occasionally to have an abstract love of falsehood and trickery, independently of any thing that he can gain by it; and he will appear sometimes to volunteer a lie, when it would be just the same to him to tell the truth. Mr. Barrow has attributed their national insincerity to a motive which no doubt operates with the higher classes, as much as an ignorant contempt, and a mischievous malignity, do with the rabble. "As a direct refusal," he observes, "to any request would betray a want of good breeding, every proposal finds their immediate acquiescence: they promise without hesitation, but generally disappoint by the invention of some slight pretence or plausible objection: they have no proper sense of the obligations of truth." This

renders all negotiations with them on public matters almost entirely fruitless, as no reliance whatever can be placed on them for the fulfilment of engagements. They dispense with faith towards foreigners in a manner truly Machiavellian.

The traveller above quoted remarked also the cheerful character and willing industry of the Chinese. This is in fact a most invaluable trait, and, like most other virtues, it brings its own reward: the display is not, however, limited to their own country. The superior character of the Chinese as colonists, in regard to intelligence, industry, and general sobriety, must be derived from their education, and from the influence of something good in their national system. Their government very justly regards education as omnipotent, and some share of it nearly every Chinese obtains. Their domestic discipline is all on the side of social order and universal industry.

The important advantages which they certainly possess, more especially in comparison with the adjoining countries, have given the Chinese the inordinate national pride so offensive to Europeans. These illusions of self-love, fostered by ignorance, have inspired them with notions of their country, in regard to the rest of the earth, quite analogous to those entertained by the old astronomers, of the earth relatively to the universe. They think it the centre of a system, and call it choong-kuo, the central nation; nor is it a small increase of foreign intercourse and knowledge that will be required to set them right. The natural disposition of the people to despise strangers has been artfully promoted by the mandarins. A timid and miserable policy has led them to consider it their interest to increase the mutual dislike and disunion. Hence the slanderous proclamations exhibited by them against foreigners at Canton, and the penalties attached to a "traitorous intercourse" with Europeans. The most dangerous accusation against a native, is that of being subject to foreign influence in any way.

There is a positive law against the use of things not sanctioned by custom; partly therefore from fear, partly from conceit, they are very little inclined to adopt foreign modes,

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or purchasing foreign manufactures. Raw produce, or the materials of manufactures, find a better market among them; but the most marketable commodity of all are dollars. Indisputably superior as Europe is in science, and in the productions of science, yet to a Chinese, who sees few things brought from thence that really suit his peculiar and conventional wants, or that are in conformity with the usages enjoined by the ritual,--and who, until lately, heard little of the different states into which Europe is divided, but the indistinct rumour of their endless wars and massacres on a large scale,—it is not surprising if no very elevated picture presented itself, in comparison with his own immense and wealthy country, its hundreds of millions of industrious and intelligent people, and an uninterrupted peace of nearly 200 years, even if we go no farther than the Tartar invasion. Whatever there is of extreme poverty and destitution in the country, arises solely from the unusual degree in which the population is made to press against the means of subsistence, by causes which we shall notice hereafter; and not from any fault in the distribution of wealth, which is perhaps far more equal here than in any other country. There is much less inequality in the fortunes, than in the ranks and conditions of men. The comparatively low estimation in which mere wealth is held, is a considerable moral advantage on the side of the Chinese; for

'Magnum pauperies opprobrium, jubet
Quidvis et facere et pati."

Poverty is no reproach among them. The two things which they most respect are, station derived from personal merit, and the claims of venerable old age. The last was signally honoured by Kang-hy, the second emperor of the reigning family. An inferior officer, of more than a hundred years of age, having come to an audience to do homage, the Emperor rose from his seat and met him, desiring the old man to stand up without ceremony, and telling him he paid this respect to his great age. According to that connexion which exists between the languages and the usages of nations, the ordi nary address of civility and respect in China is Laou-yay, Old, or venerable father,"

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which, as a mere form of speech, is often addressed to a person half the age of the speaker.

The peaceful and prudential character of the people may be traced to the influence and authority of age. In consequence of the individuals of succeeding generations living entirely under the power and control of the oldest surviving heads of families, the ignorant and inexperienced are guided by the more mature judgment of the elders, and the sallies of rashness and folly easily restrained. The effects of example and of early habit are equally visible in their conversation. The Chinese frequently get the better of Europeans in a discussion by imperturbable coolness and gravity. It is part of their policy to gain the advantage by letting their opponent work himself into a passion, and place himself in the wrong hence the more than ordinary necessity of carefully preserving the temper with them. Gravity of demeanour is much affected, particularly by magistrates and persons of rank: it is styled choong, literally heavy, or grave (which in its origin means the same), in contradistinction to king, light, or levity. As this is, in some degree, promoted by a heavy, lumbering figure, it may be the origin of their partiality for bulkiness in men; while in women they admire such an opposite quality. Any under-sized individual, who does not fill his chair well, they jocularly style "short measure."

It is the discipline to which they are subject from earliest childhood, and the habit of controlling their ruder passions, that render crimes of violence so unfrequent among them. Robbery is very seldom accompanied by murder. Under real or supposed injury, however, they are sometimes found to be very revengeful, and on such occasions not at all scrupulous as to how they accomplish their purpose. Women will sometimes hang or drown themselves, merely to bring those with whom they have quarrelled into trouble. The people, quiet and submissive as they are, will, when once roused by intolerable oppression, rise en masse against a magistrate, and destroy him if they can. In such a case, should the obnoxious governor escape the vengeance of the populace, he seldom meets with any mercy at Peking, where revolts

prove serious occurrences to those under whom they take place.

To the system of clubbing together in families we might almost say in clans-is to be attributed that sacred regard to kindred which operates better than a public provision for the relief of the poor, and serves as one of the best means for the distribution of wealth; a valuable science, in which they perhaps beat our economists, though they do not equal them in the rules for its creation. Hence, too, that regard for the place of his birth, which always clings to a Chinese through life, often making him apply for leave to quit the honours and emoluments of office, and retire to his native village. The same feeling makes the colonists, who venture abroad in search of gain, return home as soon as they have acquired something like a competency, though at the risk of being oppressed under the forms of law for having left China. They have a popular saying, "If he who attains to honours or wealth never returns to his native place, he is like a finely-dressed person walking in the dark;" it is all thrown away.

We have now touched briefly upon the leading features of the Chinese character, which will be viewed and appreciated according to the peculiar tastes and opinions of readers, but which by most persons must be allowed to contain an admixture, at least, of what is good and valuable. It remains to notice one important circumstance which has very naturally rendered this people obnoxious to severe censure-the infanticide1 of female children. The presumed extent of this practice has been brought as an argument against the prevalence of parental feeling in China; but we believe that the amount of it has, by most writers, been overrated. No doubt but, in occasional instances of female births, infanticide does exist; but these cases certainly occur only in the chief cities, and the most crowded population, where the difficulty of subsistence takes away all hope from the poorest persons of being able to rear their offspring. The Chinese are in general peculiarly fond of their children, and the attachment seems to be mutual. The instances at Canton (a very crowded and populous place)

1 This subject is not mentioned in the penal code.

of the bodies of infants being seen floating are not frequent, and may reasonably, in some cases, be attributed to accident, where such multitudes are brought up from their birth in small boats. There never was a more absurd blunder than to charge to infanticide those instances in which the infants are found floating with a hollow gourd about their persons, as if the gourd were a part of the system of exposure! Why, the very object of attaching these gourds to the children living in boats is to save them from the risk of being drowned, and to float them until they can be pulled out of the water. That children should sometimes be found drowned, in spite of this precaution, is possible enough; but to consider the gourds as part and parcel of their fate, is about as reasonable and correct as if somebody should attribute all the deaths in England from drowning to the exertions of the Humane Society. 1

The Roman Catholic fathers, with all their complete and intimate knowledge of China, had a trick of giving their own colouring to such matters as bore in any way upon the honour and glory of the mission. We have seen that they dealt now and then in miracles: the mere over-statement, therefore, of the practice of infanticide was natural enough, when connected with the object; and Du Halde gives a pompous account of the fruits of the missionary exertions. The merit, however, was peculiar, and of an equivocal kind; for, instead of attempting on most occasions to save the lives of the children doomed to be drowned, they or their proselytes walked about to the houses, baptizing the new-born infants previous to death-a cheap, rapid, and easy work of charity.

-"Licebit,

Injecto ter pulvere, curras."

In their physical characteristics the Chinese are generally as superior to the nations which border on them, as in other points. It has often been remarked that a finer-shaped and

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more powerful race of men exist nowhere than the coolies or porters, of Canton, and the weights which they carry with ease on a bamboo, between two of them would break down most other Asiatics. The freedom of their dress gives a developement to their limbs that renders many of the Chinese models for a statuary. As sailors, they have been found always much stronger and more efficient than Lascars on board of English ships though the obstacles which exist to their entering into foreign service prevent their being frequently engaged. During the war, the difficulty of manning the Company's ships with English seamen was the occasion of great numbers being employed, though at a very heavy expense.

The superior physical character of the Chinese, in comparison with many other Asiatics, must in great measure be attributed to the lower average temperature, and the general healthiness of their climate, notwithstanding the existence of very considerable, as well as rapid, vicissitudes of heat and cold. The extent to which cultivation and drainage have been carried in all the lower levels throughout the country, must, no doubt, have its share in the effect; and the general prevalence of active, as well as sober, habits in the bulk of the population, is another important circumstance. It may be observed here, that if that terrible scourge the cholera could be proved to have existed at all in China, during the period in which it has occasioned such frightful ravages in other parts of the world, its extent and effects have been so inconsiderable as not to deserve serious notice. The idea which has prevailed in France, relative to the use of tea being a means of avoiding the disease, might seem to derive some corroboration from this general immunity in the country where tea is more extensively consumed than elsewhere.

When the cranium, or skull, of a Chinese is compared with those of a European and a negro, it is observable that what is called the facial angle, in the case of the first, is something of a medium3 between the other

2 The European shipping at Whampoa not included.

3 This expression must be understood with re