China broke up the mission; while events in Europe rendered the protection of France unavailing, and reduced its intervention to a nullity. The collection never was completed, though it reached the number of four hundred subjects, from which we have a selection in the work before us.

M. Breton allows the English to send missions to Africa, America, and the Indies: but he thinks they will fail in China. Yet he acknowledges that the cause of offence taken by the Chinese against the Catholic missionaries at first, (their celibacy,) afterwards became the occasion of their highest reputation. The Introduction, which attempts a sketch of the productions, &c. of China, we must pass; together with the grandeur now departed of Kien Long, the late emperor, though "Son of Heaven, and Master of the Earth." Only the family of Confucius enjoys a kind of hereditary nobility: the other mandarins are raised by learning and services. As is well known the present imperial family are Tartars, who obtained the throne by conquest. The conquerors still maintain considerable differences in appearance from their subjects; as well the men as the women. E. gr.

A Tartar Lady walking on a Terrace.

The Tartars having, from their first invasion, evinced the greatest contempt for most of the customs of the conquered, it is not to be wondered at that their females should have rejected the fashions of the Chinese women; particularly that of having small feet. They not only give their foot its natural length, but even add to it by a long curved shoe, which the Chinese, in derision, call,Tartar junks, from the resemblance they bear to those vessels. The upper covering of their shoes is commonly of embroidered satin, and the sole of paper or cloth, doubled to the thickness of an inch.

The Tartar women have a frank and confident look; they appear willingly in public, and are met in great numbers in the streets of Pekin. They sometimes walk, and sometimes ride on horseback, sitting, not aside, in the manner of English ladies, but across, like men. They wear long silk gowns which reach to their heels. Their hair is fastened up and smoothed on all sides, nearly in the Chinese manner. Although they use as much paint, red and white, as the Chinese, it may easily be seen that their complexion is naturally finer.

They almost all ornament their hair with flowers. The custom of smoking, and sometimes of chewing betel, makes their teeth yellow.

They generally have a piece of wove silk, which serves instead of a shift, over which is a vest, and large silk drawers, which in winter are trimmed with fur; above this vest again is a long satin robe, with an elegant girdle round the waist. A fine shape is one of their characteristics of beauty.

They still further differ from the women of China, as the latter suffer their nails to grow, and only retain sufficient of their eyebrows to form a very thin arch.

The men also take part with the women in the uncomfortable vanity of suffering their nails to grow, for the purpose of showing that they can live without manual labour. The opulent, the learned, and the mandarins, usually let the nails of the left hand grow.

M. de Guignes saw the hand of a Chinese physician, whose longest nail was twelve inches and a half, and the others nine and ten inches; for the purpose of obtaining this singular species of gratification, he had been obliged to keep his fingers constantly in small bamboo cases.

We are not to suppose that the inclusion of the Chinese females, within the walls of their houses, is so perpetual and absolute as some Europeans have asserted. Our author.

stakes his credit on the veracity of his authorities in their endeavours to moderate the mistakes which have prevailed on this subject. One of his plates represents

A Chinese woman with her children in her inner apartment.

:

The ingenious missionary, Father Amyot, observes, in his Answer to De Paw's clever but erroneous Researches on the Egyptians and Chinese, "It is no uncommon assertion of different writers, that the women of China are treated like slaves, merely with a view to rail against the authority which is placed in the hands of parents there but these tale-bearers would be sadly on the defensive, if it were proved to them, which could be very easily done, that, taking all circumstances together, the sex, in China, enjoy more of that credit, that consideration, that ascendency, that power, and that authority which tend to insure the happiness of their whole lives as daughters, they must obey their parents; as wives, submit to their husbands; as widows, be guided by their sons: but a father, a husband, a son, confide to them all which is esteemed most valuable; place entirely in their hands all domestic affairs; undertake nothing out of doors without having first obtained their approbation; straiten themselves to procure them pleasures, and practise no concealments, except of such things as might pain them. The pictures which are drawn in scripture, of the Jewish manners on this head, give tolerably accurate ideas of those of the Chinese."

Not only the works of the missionaries, whose situation and character give them an access to the women, which is proscribed to other travellers, but the Chinese poems and books prove how much industry is esteemed in the fair sex. in proof of this I shall quote some fragments of a Chinese ballad :

"In vain is the female's apartment inaccessible to public view: if irregularity finds its way into it, the news of it spreads far and wide with rapidity; it is a fire, of which those who are not near enough to see the flames, are sure to perceive the smoke.

"Employment is the guardian of female innocence: do not allow women time to be idle: let them be the first dressed and the last undressed all the year round.

"No in-door household work is repugnant to a modest and sensible woman. The shuttle and the needle are only the occupation of her leisure: the neatness of her house is the work of her cares; and it is her glory, either to attend a sick person, or to prepare a repast.

"The pearls and precious stones, the silk and gold, with which a coquette so studiously bedecks herself, are a transparent varnish, which makes all her defects the more apparent.

"A hopeful reliance a family has on a young girl with carmine lips and painted cheeks! The more she resembles an idol, the less will be the number of her worshippers."

The lady represented in the engraving is of high rank: not only her own and her children's costume are correct, but that of the decoration of her room also. She is seated on a cushion in one of the alcoves where the beds are placed at night: the further end of this kind of recess is hung with tapestry.

In this apartment are two windows opening to a Chinese garden. At one of the windows the head of the oldest daughter is perceived; on a kind of table near the mother, are a tea pot, cups, and every preparation for getting tea ready: the saloon is ornamented with large looking-glasses and pictures on the left is a chimney in the Chinese style; the fire place consists of four pillars, with a wide space between each on the right is one of the porcelain jars: on which the Chinese often sit, instead of chairs.

In summer it is customary to place in the chimney a square vase, in which grows a dwarf tree; in winter they seldom make fires, except in close stoves. They scarcely ever burn wood, but coal, which is brought from the mountains of the province of Canton; before they use it, it is generally prepared, by mixing the coaldust with clay, which they also make into square bricks.

Wood is rather scarce in China: that which they fell in the mountains and neighbouring islands of Tartary is almost entirely employed in building junks and boats.

The history of the tea-tree is not only interesting, from our familiarity with the plant, but it affords an instance of sagacity among the Chinese in selecting their servants, which deserves insertion.

High and dry places are better adapted for the cultivation of the tea-tree than low and damp ground; the consequence is, that it is frequently very difficult to gather; particularly the best kind of it. Men could not keep their hold without great difficulty on perpendicular hills, where the least slip would subject them to serious wounds, and, at any rate, to shake and tear up the young trees. The situations are sometimes so steep that men could not even get up to them.

A very singular expedient has been resorted to for gathering the tea in places so difficult of access; it is the subject of the annexed plate, the original of which was transmitted by the missionaries.

Monkeys are trained to climb these heights, and to strip the leaves from the bushes. The leaves either roll off themselves, or are driven by the wind, from the top to the lower part of the mountain, where the proprietors of the plantations gather them.

It may be imagined that these kinds of assistants are not the most easy to be procured; for the monkeys, in this employment, cannot be guided wholly by artificial instinct. The tea-berries have no attraction for them; and indeed if they had, they could only be used for the autumnal harvest. The fruit of the tea is not only bitter, but somewhat corrosive. The monkeys follow no other impulse than that which they derive from an able instructor. When they come down from the mountain, which they have climbed by means of cords, they are rewarded by something which they are particularly fond of.

Thus it is that man turns the instinct and industry of the animal creation to his own advantage. We train the falcon, dogs, and even, in India, leopards, for the chase; and the Chinese, as will be seen in a subsequent volume, make use of the voracity of the cormorant to procure, from the very depths of lakes and rivers, that fish, which in vain defies both the hook and net.

We select a passage, which explains a particular observed in the conduct of Confucius. He conformed to the general sentiment of his country on an article of propriety.

The Chinese hats, at least those used by the higher classes, are made of a tissue of very fine cane; it is covered with fine light hair, taken from the belly of a particular species of cow; it is coloured of a bright red. In court or family mourning dresses, it is customary to take off the red turf from the hat for twenty-seven days.

That the emperor with his court might be struck with the excellence of the Gobelins tapestry, manufactured on purpose, and sent over as a present, we can readily believe but that in general, the officers of state, as well as the people at large prefer home productions, has been severely felt by many an adventurous Englishman.

Is the following assertion correct?

A singular, and hitherto little known fact as to the taste of the Orientalists for the embroidered works of European manufacture, is this: the cap of state which the Grand Lama of Tibet wears, is made at London, and cost four thousand piastres; a new one is sent every year. The person who undertakes to furnish this is Mr. Beal, an Englishman, settled at Macao, in the quality of Prussian resident, and who is at the head of a considerable commercial house there.

The differences of national feeling on certain subjects supposed to be matters of dignity, is a curious article of speculation, which would well justify the labour of some writer in collecting materials for illustrating it. Among ourselves that village is thought scarcely loyal which has not the sign of "the George," and "the King's Head," in it. No derogation is supposed to attach to his majesty by this publication of his portrait. Not so in China: there the head separate from the figure, is an object of horror: hence there is no effigy of the sovereign on his coin. And further, with a view to conciliate veneration, the Emperor of China keeps himself very much secluded. "Were it known," says a missionary, "that in Europe portraits of kings were suspended before public houses, exposed to dust, wind and rain, and to the witticisms, and, perhaps, the sarcasms of the populace, we should be held in derision." Perhaps the Emperor of China is not so blamable in this self-concealment as the King of England would be: for what of popularity or condescension to human affairs can we expect from a supreme ruler, who, besides the titles personal to himself, and marking his attributes, as "Son of Heaven, and Master of Earth," as already mentioned, is proprietor of an army, the divisions of which-six in number—are distinguished and dignified, as "Heaven-Earth-the Clouds-the Winds-Balance of Heaven, and-Pivot of Earth."

Our readers are now able to form their own judgment on the miscellaneous contents of these volumes. They do not admit of regular analysis; although some of the articles contain amusing and interesting information. Those purchasers who find four guineas a convenient price, will have the best bargain in the coloured copy.