a short time and returned. Before leaving this scene of confusion, I had a fair opportunity of judging of the merits of one of their popular ballad singers ; and though the opinion I had formed was far from being flattering to the powers and taste of Chinese vocalists, I certainly saw no reason to change it. Of all grimaces and noises ever seen or heard, nothing but the wildest buffoonry could equal this. He stretched his mouth to the utmost tension of its elastic muscles, raised his voice to its most unnatural and grating key, and after a number of long-drawn shrieks and quavers, exerted it to a pitch as thrilling as though he felt determined to close either his own lips or our ears in perpetual silence. It was necessary to hear the effort, and see the listening concourse, to believe that such tortured faces, and torturing sounds could ever be endured. Another one whom I unfortunately encountered yesterday, left such a stamp of his ludicrous appearance upon my imagination, as I fear will haunt me for time to come.

25th.—This morning, the fifth day from its commencement, the splendid scene closed. The revel was kept up all the last night, and he who could gaze upon the living mass which it assembled, especially after the laborer was released from his daily task, and not feel the deepest compassion for the ignorance and infatuation of the nation, must himself be as truly pitiable as those whom he cannot pity.

One of the most intelligent Chinamen mentioned, that a priest belonging to the temple of the god whose tutelage they thus gratefully acknowledged and im

plored for the future, made it his business to go round, every day, and take notes of the manner in which the rites were conducted. At the close of the ceremonies, his observations were carefully written on one sheet, and passed into the invisible world for the information of the god, “altogether such an one as themselves."

CHAPTER V.

CHINA CONTINUED.

ume.

The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."

To give an adequate idea of the various and complicated miseries existing in China, would fill a vol

Female infanticide, we have reason to believe, is

very common. It is thought by some of the best Chinese scholars, to be greatly increased, if it were not produced, by their philosophical notions respecting the origin and continuance of all things. They believe that originally there was but one eternal principle, which was merely the first link of a great material chain, neither distinct from the universe, nor endued with any moral perfections. They represent this first cause—this first link of the chain, by a circle ; but as they feel it difficult to account, from what they see in nature, for all the absurdities which present themselves, on the supposition of a simple homogeneous body, acting on itself, they suppose that when the system of nature assumed its present form, the one eternal principle was divided, and became two powers, which is represented by a figure of a circle divided in two by a waving line across the center. (See Indo-Chinese Gleaner, vol. 3, p. 2.) On the reg

a

ular action of these powers, the harmony of the universe, both physical and moral, depends. Excess or defect in either, deranges the system of nature, and introduces disorder in the affairs of mankind. The one of them they consider to be of the masculine gender, the other of the feminine, and the difference between the two they suppose as great as between the 6 vis mobile” and the “vis inertia” of the old philosophers.

To what extent the inhuman practice of infanticide prevails in China, we have no means of determining. In the imperial city, after deducting more than one half for natural deaths, the number of exposed infants is, according to Barrow, about four thou

sand a year.

Some of the scenes he witnessed while at Pekin were almost incredible. Before the carts go around in the mornings to pick up the bodies of infants thrown in the streets-amounting to about four-and-twenty every night--dogs and swine are let loose upon them. The bodies of those found are carried to a common pit without the city walls, in which the living and the dead are thrown together. This, however, is a small proportion compared with other places.

In some provinces, not one in three is suffered to live, and in others, as the writer has been informed by the Chinese from those places, the difference between the male and the female population is as one to ten.

We believe the last statement applies only to the poorest parts of the empire.

« The most prevalent mode of perpetrating this

*

crime is by suffocation. A piece of paper, dipped in vinegar, is laid over the face of the child, so as to prevent respiration. It is said to be frequently done to the aged and afflicted, to cut the brittle thread of life."*

Infanticide is almost exclusively limited to the female sex ;

and the condition of that class of the community, when spared, is an evidence as well as cause, of the real barbarity and misery of the nation.

A writer on China, after quoting a large portion of one of their moral works on the inferiority and treatment of females, makes the following remarks: “The very dependent and degraded state of females in China, may be partly seen from this extract. They are, moreover, not allowed the confidence of their husbands, nor to sit at the table with them, nor to have a voice in domestic concerns, nor to visit the temples where the prayers of the unfortunate are supposed to find access.

Religion is denied them. Little attention seems to be paid to the peculiar circumstances in which, as wives and mothers, they may be placed. "Rise ; run ; work ; eat little ; spend little ; be silent; keep out of sight ; obey ; bear; and rather bleed, Starve, and die, than dare to complain,' is the genuine language of the above extract. Though fortunately for them, humanity, common sense, and interest in many cases, plead in their favor, and procure a relaxation of the rigor of ethical and legislative restrictions, yet where such restrictions have the sanction both of