the whole troop, to the number of between twenty and thirty, threw themselves over it head foremost, one after another, as fast as possible, and sometimes three and four plunging over at the same time like a shoal of porpoises. Another was the formation of a human pyramid, the men standing upon one another's shoulders, which, when complete, whirled round and round with wonderful rapidity. I think I have seen the same feat in England; it is rather singular that there should be such an exact resemblance between the modes of tumbling and tom-foolery at London and Canton. They also throw somersets very respectably, but I am not aware that any of them would undertake to leap over eight horses and a jackass, like the clown at Astley's.

The Fatee gardens are one of the sights of the place; they are about twenty minutes' sail up the river from Canton, and as a specimen of their style of gardening are certainly worth a visit. The paths are lined on each side with rows of orange trees and camelia japonica plants, in pots, arranged on wooden stands.

There is also a great variety of dwarf plants: by a process well known to botanists, the Chinese are able to dwarf any kind of tree in such a manner as to make the miniature exactly resemble the original, both in the appearance of age and in the general character. These little trees are sometimes made to grow out of small buffaloes' backs (made of earthenware), out of birds' heads, dogs' tails, &c. and the more absurd the more beautiful, according to their notions.

Indeed the monstrous and ludicrous have peculiar charms for the Chinese, whose standard of taste appears to be the reverse of that of other nations; for deformity, instead of symmetry, seems every where to be the object of art and of admiration. Their writing, language, manners, &c. all appear like a caricature of other nations; indeed, they present in their own proper persons a complete burlesque of the human form divine. They are, therefore, not only a laughterloving, but a laughter-causing race, and, during the two months I was among them, it was to me like witnessing a perpetual comedy. Wherefore ye disciples of Democritus, who think that true philosophy consists in laughing at, rather than in lamenting our misfortunes and imperfections, mend you to come hither and laugh your fill, for here there is ample food for those who have a keen appetite for the ludicrous.

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But to return to the Fatee gardens: after you have threaded the avenues of orange trees, &c. above noticed, you find the rest of the garden very neatly laid out. There is generally a large tank in the centre, and little wooden temples, or summer-houses, erected in different parts of the garden.

On the side of the river opposite the

factory, and about four miles from Canton, there is a small tea plantation, which 1 accompanied a party to visit: the tea-shrubs were of a dark green colour, very thick set, of an oval shape, and about the size of a gooseberry-bush; they were planted very regularly in little square patches, and were in full blossom, bearing a white flower, with a great many stamina, resembling the flower of the May, but much larger. In other parts of the country the tea-plant is said to grow to a tree, which I imagine must be another species, as these did not appear capable of such a metamorphosis. The green tea is made of the young leaves of the same plant which produces the black, but is considered "No. I." in the estimation of the Chinese, and is rarely drank. Indeed, during the whole time I was in China I never once tasted green tea, black being the only kind drank by the Europeans as well as the Chinese. Pouchong is considered No. I. black tea, gunpowder and hyson the best green. The Chinese are eternally drinking tea; in every shop there are always some small tea-cups on the counter; they put the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup, pour hot water on them, put a cover over, and let it stand till ready; they never add milk, and seldom sugar. Their own fondness for this beverage, united to our immense trade in teas, leads them apparently to believe that it is the staple of an Englishman's fare, for in one of the hoppo's edicts, issued while I was at Canton, that important officer expatiated on the liberality of the celestial empire, in permitting the "foreign devils" of Englishmen, "who live in a little island in the middle of the ocean, to come to Canton to buy tea for the support of their existence."

Both in going to and returning from the plantation every village we passed turned out its men, women, and children to stare and hoot at us, calling us "faukwi quisy (redhaired devils), canderoo, toonama," and every abusive epithet in their vocabulary.

Not contented with pelting us with hard language, they proceeded to try the effect of hard brickbats, sticks, and stones, to all which, however, we evinced a most stoic apathy, in compliance with the orders of the Honourable Court, which enjoin the principle, that "if thy neighbour smite thee on thy right check, turn unto him the left;" or, in other words, "if he break thy sconce with a brickbat, present him thy neck also, rather than that the trade be stopped." It is rather mortifying to the pride of an Englishman (who, except perhaps the stiff-necked generation we are speaking of, are the most conceited of human beings), that any nation, so far from regarding him with that respect and admiration which he conceives to be his due, as a being of superior order, should, on the contrary, look upon him as they would on an ooran-outang, as a raree show; in short, as

an object so strange and uncouth in appearance, as only to merit the ridicule, perhaps contempt, of the spectator. But it is some satisfaction to know, that the English factory are held in higher estimation by the Chinese than any of the other factories; indeed the hoppo (or governor of Canton) expressly declared, in an edict issued while I was in China, that the British typan, or chief, alone understood and acted upon the principles of moral fitness.

The tea warehouses of the Hong merchants, from which the whole of England is supplied, are, as may be supposed, very extensive, and present a busy scene at the period of despatching the ships. To avoid imposition, the teas are examined by the supracargoes in the following manner: two or three hundred chests are laid out for inspection, and the supracargo selects twenty or thirty at random, ascertains the weight of each, then taking the tea out, weighs the chest by itself. The regular tea examiners then proceed to ascertain the quality of the teas, by the smell and by the taste, and from habit they acquire the power of pronouncing to a nicety the different degrees of excellence in each. A magnetized steel rod is sometimes inserted into a chest, which, upon being drawn out, appears thickly covered with particles of steel filings, which are mixed up with the tea by the Chinese, either to increase the flavour or the weight, most probably the latter.

The Chinese are admirable cooks; their pastry, jellies, and sweets are excellent. The best fruits had not come in; the mandarin oranges, however, had just made their appearance; they are flatter than common oranges, and are of a most beautiful crimson colour, forming a great ornament to a dinner table. They have a very peculiar scented flavour, richer than that of our Indian oranges, or even of "China oranges" themselves; their red jackets sit but loosely on them, and are pulled off with great facility. The pine apples are very small, but tolerably good. The leechee, that we have in Bengal, was introduced from China. They are here dried in the sun, or baked, by which process they become something like raisins, and are very pretty playthings with wine after dinner. At Macao there is a great variety of very good fish; pomfret, salmon, rock, cod, hilsah, soles, &c. Where there is little business or amusement to occupy the mind, good eating and drinking is thought to be no bad entertainment for the body; accordingly grand dinners were all the fashion.

House-rent for a family is also very expensive, and the houses of the English residents are in general too small to afford accommodation to visitors. Their English habits also, perhaps, make them averse to putting themselves much out of the way to accommodate strangers, whom they probably look upon with the national reserve. But,

notwithstanding the indifferent name for hos pitality, which they have acquired from their Indian visitors, I will throw my grain of thanks and gratitude into the opposite scale, for the uniform kindness and attention which I met with throughout from every member of the factory; and, so far as it fell under my observation, I can testify, that, instead of being at all wanting in attention to strangers, their hospitality appeared to me to be only bounded by the nun:ber of persons within reach of its influence.

A PROPOSAL FOR THE CONSI DERATION OF MR. PEEL.

THE invention of the present circulating medium has generally been regarded as the foundation of that extended system of commerce which has contributed so largely to the happiness of mankind. Whether it was expedient, in barbarous times, to use such a method of facilitating exchanges, we cannot pretend to decide; but that it is not the best adapted to the present times, may be made obvious to the meanest capacity. The matured commercial energies of the nineteenth century need not lean on the props which assisted the infancy of traffic.

Pounds, we are ready to admit, would not be such bad things, if it were not for their detestable division into shillings and pence. There would be few objections to the revival of the ancient talent; but, as long as we have our present scale of small monies, so long must the great practical evil of existence, the demand for ready money and prompt payment, harass that unfortunate class of men, the payers. The payment of small bills is the greatest annoyance of man in a civilized state. For large bills he makes up his mind; these he generally incurs with some deliberation, and the prospect of being called on to pay them is always present to his mind, and induces him to shape his expenses accordingly; and, at any rate, he is generally allowed to take time to discharge them. But a small bill is an active poison; no long day is allowed by it to its victim, and their number makes up for their diminutive size, Their name is a legion; they come in quick and awful succession, like the train of phantoms that haunt the opium-eater. They do not, once and calmly, drain the life-blood from you with the deadly avidity of a vampire, but haunt your waking and sleeping hours with the pertinacious sting of the mosquito, and render life a constant and burdensome succession of petty but maddening annoy

ances.

And then, who is there on whom they produce that impression which the payment of money ought always to make on those who

a booty for America, or could he have lain hidden, as some suppose, in the heart of the city, without danger of being betrayed by the lowing and bleating of his animated Exchequer bills?

Dark as are the waters on which we fling forth our truth to be hid for a while from the view of man, we know that it will float on their bosom into a brighter channel, whose distant gleam now cheers our eye. The day will be (ay, and that a right early day), in which there shall be a great change in the currency of this our native land. Men, that is, Englishmen, shall not barter all that is dearest to them for idle and inanimate dross. There shall be a natural expression of a natural and unselfish commerce. The bustling haunts of traffic shall reflect some of the cheerful features of rural innocence and quiet. The pale and cunning visage of the stockjobber shall give place to the ruddy cheek and manly morality of the shepherd. Rustic sights and rustic sounds shall make glad our hearts with the memory of by-gone days. And the stranger, who shall visit the congregations of merchants, and the thronged halls in which the wealth of the world is bartered, shall find the Arcadia of ancient days in the Exchange of London, and recognise the visionary features of pastoral bliss in the monetary system of the 19th century.

Athenæum.

SKETCHES OF ITALY. (From Blackwood's Magazine.—No. CXLVIII.)

THE following sketches are principally drawn from the works of Winkelmann, Goethe, and other intellectual Germans, whose copious and valuable remarks on Italy have been hitherto a sealed book to English readers.

over again, and have had new blood and new vitality infused into my frame.

The gratifications of a residence in Rome are inexhaustible. At every turn I discover some new evidence of the power and magnificence of her ancient inhabitants, and vivid sensations of delight and awe rapidly succeed each other. This venerable metropolis is the tomb and monument, not of princes, but of nations; it illustrates the progressive stages of human society, and all other cities appear modern and unfinished in comparison.

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES.

I walked homeward in a reverie of deep and harmonious feeling, and passed under the three triumphal arches remaining, out of six and thirty which once adorned the Roman capital. There is a delicate and affectionate, as well as a poetical character, in these tributes of an admiring people to a successful chief. have been so honourable and enduring, as What monument of victory could one of these proud and exulting arches, decorated with the most heroic incidents in the life of the approaching conqueror? If, however, we may infer, from the comparative merits of these works of art, a corresponding contemporary people, and the reverse, what degree of public spirit and good feeling in the degraded puppets were the Romans under Septimius and Constantine, in comparison with the subjects of Trajan; and how ludicrous are the decorations upon the arch of the Christian emperor, to celebrate whose comparatively moderate achievements, the sculptors of his day inserted some masterly figures, stolen from the triumphal arch of the valiant and enterprising Trajan, the conqueror of the Dacians and the Parthians! But the

spirit of architectural spoliation which prevailed at that period was alike disgraceful to the sovereign and the people.

THE MORAL EFFECT OF ROME UPON THE TRAVELLER.

Those only who have lived in Rome can duly estimate the potent and lasting impression produced upon the mind of a thinking man, by a residence in this capital of the ancient world. The daily contemplation of so many classical and noble objects, elevates and purifies the soul, and has a powerful tendency to allay the inconsiderate fervours and impetuosities of youth, to mature, and consolidate the character. I am already so altered, and, I have the vanity to think, so improved a man since my arrival here, that there are times when I almost doubt my own identity, and imagine that, by some preternatural agency, I have been born

THE PANTHEON.

In the afternoon I visited the Pantheon, the majestic temple dedicated by Agrippa to the avenging Jupiter, to Ceres, and to all the gods. This matchless edifice is the only perfect specimen of ancient architecture remaining in Rome; and, in the harmony of its proportions, and the exquisite beauty of its columns, it surpasses every temple on earth. When I entered the deep and glorious portal, I could have fancied myself in a sacred grove, and surrounded by the regular magnificence of palm-trees, planted at the same moment by a divinity. The interior has a majesty all its own. Columns of the richest Corinthian rise in solemn and harmonious grandeur around the beholder, and the immense dome and circle strike him with deep, and devotional awe. The dusky light in the

recesses, the profound yet speaking stillness around him, impart to this wondrous edifice the shade, the repose, and the magnificence of a colossal mausoleum; but when he looks upward through the crowning orb, and has gazed awhile on the brilliant clouds which flit across the deep blue sky, this sepulchral tranquillity is changed, as if by magic, into life and movement. The stately columns assume a bolder swell, and a more glorious symmetry; the cupola appears to glide through the pure ether, and the excited gazer

dreams that he listens to the music of the spheres, and is careering with planets and constellations through universal space.

The rare combination of beauty and majesty displayed in this mighty temple, appears to have awed the successive spoilers of Rome, and to have preserved it from material destruction. The statues which adorned its niches, including the Phidian Minerva, of ivory and gold, and the plates of bronze and silver which lined the dome, were plundered by that superlative barbarian, the third Constantine, who despoiled Rome of its finest works of art, to decorate the palaces and temples of Syracuse. Succeeding robbers carried off the bronze capitals of the interior columns, mentioned by Pliny, and substituted capitals of white marble, which are, however, well executed, and harmonize agreeably with the giallo antico of the tall shafts. The colossal pillars of the portal, and the three columns of the campo vaccino, surpass in beauty and richness all other specimens of the Corinthian, and have supplied models to all the distinguished edifices of that order throughout modern Europe.

How glorious, how celestial, must have been the effect of this proudest of all the temples of Pantheism, when the deities of the heathen world filled every niche, with pale and silent beauty; the lofty Caryatides relieved the attic; and the majestic hemisphere above glittered with bronze and silver! The beauty of the existing edifice is of that dignified and serious character which succeeds the bloom and brilliancy of youth; but it is still beauty, and of that high and genuine order, which bids defiance to all criticism, and to all changes of architectural rule and fashion.

BATHS OF ANCIENT ROME.

The Romans sought the protection of their gods for every public and important undertaking; and their baths, in which a great national object was combined with the most lavish magnificence, were placed under the especial guardianship of some divinity, whose temple was the grand entrance to the splendid whole.

Consecration was also as essential then, as it is now, to protect public buildings from the filthy habits, the "Immondezzaio," which

has ever been the disgrace of Italy, and more especially of Rome. Indeed, the "Rispettate la Santa Croce," &c. of the present day, which so often meets the eye on the walls and porticos of churches and chapels, is but a modern version of the "Si quis hic min.rerit, &c. iratos Deos habet," of imperial Rome.

The baths of the Romans were suggested by the Gymnasia of the Greeks; but in the latter the athletic exercises were the primary object, while the Romans regarded them only as accessaries. The cheap and wholesome luxury of public baths was the only valuable privilege which the proud descendants of the vagabonds of Romulus enjoyed over the rest of mankind. The voluptuous Romans of the empire gratified the sense of feeling with frequent ablutions, as we indulge our nostrils with delicate odours, and our palates with rich wines and sauces. Commencing with a high degree of heat, they descended through the gradations of warm and tepid in alternate baths of water and steam, until they arrived at the coldest attainable temperature. This salutary practice degenerated at length into abuse, and, during the decay of public morals and decency under the emperors, the Roman females frequented the baths of the men, and certainly, from the time of Domitian, in a manner the most indecent and promiscuous. It is, however, to be regretted, that the modern Europeans have not similar establishments, which, under judicious regulation, would prove eminently conducive to public health, and would indeed altogether prevent no small proportion of the maladies which embitter and destroy human life.

Notwithstanding the colossal vestiges of the Roman baths, we can form but imperfect conceptions of their original extent and beauty. We know, however, that they were the most splendid and capacious edifices of imperial Rome, that a portion of the interior was devoted to athletic exercises, that they contained libraries, and were lavishly adorned with gilding, mosaic, variegated marbles, and the most exquisite paintings and statues; thus affording to all classes health and amusement; and to the unemployed and luxurious, a place of daily resort, and of infinitely varied gratification. Modern Italy is comparatively so destitute of every means of public and easily attainable amusement, that, could a generation of Romaus, born in the first Christian century, rise from the dead, they would all hang themselves in a week from absolute disgust and despair at so miserable a state of society.

PROHIBITED BOOKS.

The censure of new publications in Rome is intrusted to the Magister Sacri Palatii and his Vicegerents, and without the imprimatur of both, no book can be printed and pub-. lished. The Moly Office exercises a juris. diction over old and new works, both Italian