lessoned in behaviour and in ceremonies from his earliest childhood, and at four or five he commences reading. The importance of general education was known so long since in China, that a work written before the Christian era speaks of the "ancient system of instruction," which required that every town and village, down to only a few families, should have a common school. The wealthy Chinese employ private teachers, and others send their sons to day-schools, which are so well attended that the fees paid by each boy are extremely small. In large towns there are evening schools, of which those who are obliged to labour through the day avail themselves.

The sixteen discourses of the Emperor Yoong-ching, called the Sacred Edicts, commence with the domestic duties as the foundation of the political; and the eleventh treats of instructing the younger branches of a family. Dr. Morrison, in his dictionary, has given a selection from one hundred rules, or maxims, to be observed at a school, some of which are extremely good. Among other points, the habit of attention is dwelt upon as of primary importance, and boys are warned against "repeating with the mouth while the heart (or mind) is thinking of something else." They are taught never to be satisfied with a confused or indistinct understanding of what they are learning, but to ask for explanations; and always to make a personal application to themselves of the precepts which they learn. Scholars are not often subjected to corporal punishments. The rule is to try the effects of rewards and of persuasion, until it is plain that these will not operate; after which it is the custom to disgrace a boy by making him remain on his knees at his seat before the whole school, or sometimes at the door, while a stick of incense (a sort of slow match) burns to a certain point: the last resort is to flog him.

The object of the government, as Dr. Morrison justly observed, in making education general, is not to extend the bounds of knowledge, but to impart the knowledge already possessed to as large a portion as possible of the rising generation, and "to pluck out true talent" from the mass of the community for its own service. The ad

vancement of learning, or discoveries in physical science, are not in its contemplation. It prescribes the books to be studied; a departure from which is heterodoxy; and discountenances all innovations that do not originate with itself. In this we may perceive one of the causes, not only of the stationary and unprogressive character of Chinese institutions, but likewise of their permanency and continuance.

The process of early instruction in the language is this: they first teach children a few of the principal characters (as the names of the chief objects in nature or art) exactly as we do the letters, by rude pictures, having the characters attached. Then follows the Santse-king, or "trimetrical classic," being a summary of infant erudition, conveyed in chiming lines of three words, or feet. They soon after proceed to the "Four Books," which contain the doctrines of Confucius, and which, with the "Five classics" subsequently added, are in fact the Chinese scriptures. The Four Books they learn by heart entirely, and the whole business of the literary class is afterwards to comment on them, or compose essays on their texts. Writing is taught by tracing the characters, with their hair pencil, on transparent paper placed over the copy, and they commence with very large characters in the first instance. Specimens, of this species of caligraphy are contained in the Royal Asiatic transactions. In lieu of slates, they generally use boards painted white to save paper, washing out the writing when finished. Instructors are of course very plentiful, on account of the numbers who enter the learned profession, and fail in attaining the higher degrees.

Every principal city is furnished with halls of examination, and the embassy of 1816 was lodged in one of these buildings, at Nànheung-foo, a town at the bottom of the pass which leads northward from Canton province. It consisted of a number of halls and courts, surrounded by separate cells for the candidates, who are admitted with nothing but blank paper and the implements of writing; a part of the system which corresponds with our college examinations. The students who succeed in their own district, at the annual examination, are ranked as Sew

tsae, or bachelors, and according to their merits are drafted for further advancement, until they become fitted for the triennial examination, held at the provincial capital, by an officer expressly deputed from the Hanlin college at Peking. The papers consist of moral and political essays on texts selected from the sacred books, as well as of verses on given subjects. Pains are taken to prevent the examiners from knowing the authors of the essays and poems; but of course this cannot always be effectual in shutting out abuse.

Those who succeed at the triennial examinations attain the rank of Kiu-jin, which may be properly termed licentiate, as it qualifies for actual employment; and once in three years all these licentiates repair to Peking (their expenses being paid if necessary), to be examined for the Tsin-sse, or doctor's degree, to which only thirty can be admitted at one time. From these doctors are selected the members of the imperial

A man's sons may or may not be instru mental, by their literary success, in reflecting honour on their parents, or advancing them in worldly rank and prosperity; but the' mere chance of this, joined to the heavy responsibility for their conduct, is a great inducement to fathers to bring them up with care, and may serve to account for the great and universal prevalence of a certain degree of education throughout the empire. Such is the demand on every individual for exertion, in a country so thickly peopled, that the children of the very lowest classes, whom extreme indigence precludes from the hope or chance of rising by learning, are trained to labour and to the cares of life almost from! the time they can first walk. With a slight stick or pole, proportioned to their size, across

their shoulders, young children are constantly seen trudging along with weights, sometimes much heavier than they ought to carry, or busily engaged in other serious employments, as the assistants of their parents. In a coun. try where the youngest cannot afford to be idle, and where, as their proverb strongly expresses it, "to stop the hand is the way to stop the mouth," there is an air of staid gravity about some of the children quite unsuited to their years.

But it is not during his life only that a man looks for the services of his sons. It is his consolation in declining years, to think that they will continue the performance of the prescribed rites in the hall of ancestors, and at the family tombs, when he is no more; and it is the absence of this prospect that makes the childless doubly miserable. The superstition derives influence from the importance attached by the government to this species of posthumous duty; a neglect of which is punishable, as we have seen, by the laws. Indeed, of all the subjects of their care, there are none which the Chinese so religiously attend to as the tombs of their ancestors, conceiving that any neglect is sure to be followed by worldly misfortune. It is almost the only thing that approaches to the character of a "religious sense among them; for, throughout their idolatrous superstitions, there is a remarkable absence of reverence towards the idols and priests of the Budh and Taou sects. The want of ceremony with which they treat their gods is not more surprising, however, than the apparently impious expressions which are occasionally used in the ancient classics of Europe towards the whole family of Olympus:-:

"Tunc cum virguncula Juno!"

When a parent or elder relation among the Chinese dies, the event is formally announced to all the branches of the family: each side of the doors is distinguished by labels in white, which is the mourning colour. The lineal descendants of the deceased, clothed in coarse white cloth, with bandages of the same round their heads, sit weeping near the corpse on the ground, the women keeping up a dismal howl after the manner of

the Irish. In the meantime the friends of the deceased appear with white coverlids of linen or silk, which are placed on the body; the eldest son, or next lineal male descendant, supported on each side by relations, and bearing in his hands a porcelain bowl containing two copper coins, now proceeds to the river, or the nearest well, or the wet ditch of the city, to "buy water, as it is termed. The ceremony must be performed by the eldest son's son, in preference to the second son, and entitles him to a double share of the property, which in other respects is divided equally among the sons. The form of wash

ing the face and body with this water being completed, the deceased is dressed as in life, and laid in a coffin, of which the planks are from four to six inches in thickness, and the bottom strewed with quick-lime. On being closed, it is made air-tight by cement, being besides varnished on the inside and outside. A tablet is then placed on it bearing inscribed the name and titles of the deceased, as they are afterwards to be cut upon his tomb.

On the expiration of thrice seven, or twenty-one days, the funeral procession takes place, the tablet being conveyed in a gilded sedan or pavilion, with incense and offerings before it. It is accompanied by music closely resembling the Scottish bagpipe, with the continual repetition of three successive strokes on a sort of drum. The children and relations of both sexes follow in white, without much order or regularity, and, upon reaching the grave, the ceremonies and oblations commence. It being a part of their superstition that money and garments must be burned for the use of the deceased in the world of spirits, these are, with a wise economy, represented by paper. The form of the tomb, whether large or small, is exactly that of a Greek 2, which, if taken in the sense of "the end," is an odd accidental coincidence. Those of the rich and great are sometimes very large, and contain a considerable quantity of masonry, with figures of animals in stone. The whole detail of sepulchral rites, with the sentiments of the Chinese concerning the dead, are contained in the drama of "An Heir in Old Age."

After the interment, the tablet of the deceased is brought back in procession, and

if the family be rich it is placed in the hall of ancestors; if poor, in some part of the house, with incense before it. Twice in every year, in the spring and autumn, are the periods fixed for performing the rites to the dead, but the first is the principal period, and the only one commonly attended to. Unlike

the generality of Chinese festivals, which are regulated by the moon, (and therefore move able,) this is determined by the sun, and occurs annually 105 days after the winter solstice, i. e., the 5th of April. About that

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time (for a day or two before or after does not signify to them) the whole population of the town is seen trooping out in parties to the hills, to repair and sweep the tombs, and make offerings, leaving behind them, on their return home, long streamers of red and white paper, to mark the fulfilment of the rites. Whole ranges of hills, sprinkled with tombs, may at that season be seen covered with these testimonials of attention to the departed, fluttering in the wind and sunshine. Such are the harmless, if not meritorious

forms of respect for the dead, which the Jesuits wisely tolerated in their convents, knowing the consequences of outraging their most cherished prejudices; but the crowds of ignorant monks, who flocked to the breach which those scientific and able men had opened, jealous, perhaps, at their success, brought this as a charge against them, until the point became one of serious controversy and reference to the Pope. His holiness being determined to govern men's consciences at Peking, and supersede the Emperor's authority over his own subjects, espoused the bigoted and unwiser part; which of course led to the expulsion of the monks of all varieties, "black, white, and grey, with all their trumpery," and prevented those social and political mischiefs which have invariably attended their influence elsewhere. strict persecution of the Romish converts followed, that after the lapse of about three centuries, the number of them at the present

Such a

lations, and to the antiseptic effects attending the constant burning of incense, crackers, &c., in every house, we may principally attribute the remarkable healthiness of Canton and other towns, notwithstanding the drawbacks of a dense population, hot climate, low site, indifferent drainage of houses, &c. Indeed, were it not for the comparative coldness of the climate in European cities where such abominations prevail, the gorging the earth with corpses until it refuses to cover them, and the filling of churches with dead bodies, might work effects sufficiently evident to all, to expel prejudices which,

"Sans honorer les morts, font mourir les vivants."

No corpse is ever allowed to be carried up a landing-place, or to pass through a gateway which can in any way be construed as pertaining to the Emperor, on account of the supposed ill omen, concerning which the Chinese are so particular as seldom even to mention death except by a circumlocution, as "to become immortal," that is, in the modified sense of the Budhists.

On the occasion of a deceased officer from a British ship being taken ashore for burial at Macao, the sailors were proceeding with the coffin up the steps leading to the Chinese custom-house, when the inmates of the latter turned out with sticks and staves to prevent them. The sailors being, as usual, quite ready to fight, particularly on an occasion when they supposed some insult was intended to the dead, it is likely that mischief might have ensued, if a person on the spot, who understood the prejudice, and explained it satisfactorily, had not prevented the effects of the misunderstanding.

The importance which the Chinese attach to the spot in which a body should be buried, is sometimes the occasion of extraordinary delay in the performance of the funeral ceremonies. A Hong merchant at Canton, who was the eldest son of the family, and had deferred for various superstitious reasons the interment of his father's body, was prosecuted at law by the next brother, and finally compelled to commit it to the tomb. The principal scruples on these occasions arise from circumstances relative to the situation and aspect of the sepulchre, a sort of geomantic

science, in which the same cheats who profess astrology affect to be adepts. Their calling is a sufficiently secure one, since it is as difficult to prove the negative as the affirmative of those propositions in which they deal; and the dead make no complaints, being on such points, as the doctor in Molière says, "Les plus honnêtes gens du monde." The choice of a lucky spot is supposed to have a considerable influence on the fortunes of the survivors, and they will sometimes, after the lapse of many years, dig up the bones with care, and remové them to a distant and more favourable site. All tombs are sacred to How-too queen earth," an expression which has a most singular parallel, not only in the words, but the occasion of their use, in a passage of the Electra of Euripides, where Orestes, invoking the shade of his father at the tomb, adds,τ' ανασσα, χειρας η διδώμ' εμας. 1

Καὶ γη τ

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"And thou, queen earth, to whom I stretch my hands."

The original and strict period of mourning (according to the ritual) is three years for a parent, but this is commonly reduced in practice to thrice nine, or twenty-seven months, during which an officer of the highest rank must retire to his house, unless under a particular dispensation from the Emperor. The full period of three years must elapse before children can marry subsequent to the death of their parents. The colour of mourning s white, and dull grey, or ash, with round buttons of crystal or glass, in lieu of gilt ones: the ornamental ball, denoting rank, is taken from the cap, as well as the tuft of crimson silk which falls over the latter. As the Chinese shave their heads, the neglect and desolation of mourning are indicated by letting the hair grow; for the same reason that some nations, who wore their hair long, have shaved it during that period. On the death of the emperor, the same observances are kept, by his hundreds of millions of subjects, as on the death of the parent of each individual; the whole empire remains unshaven for the space of one hundred days, while the period of mourning apparel lasts longer, and all officers of government take

1 Electr. 677.