0mmm»>»»>m0mmmmtf»»mfi)mmmmmm * mt M t mmH»mAmt t fti i mM>Ai0,r m mmttrt mtiv,!,- ■,•; ; ,i ir, i ,vwiwnwtr<^ i '/ r' s- SOME OBSERVATIONS lU'ON TIIK CIVILIZATION OV TIIK WESTERN BARBARIANS, PAETICULARLY OF THE ENGLISH; MADE DURING A RESIDENCE OF SOME YEARS IN THO.SE PARTS, ^By AH-CHIN-LE, Mandarin of the First Clasi<, Member of the Enh'fjhtened and Exalted Calao. Translated fvtxm the ^iJiinese into English, Ey JOim YESTEE SMYTHE, Esquire, OF SHANGHAI ; AND NOW FIRST PUBLISIIEI) Ol'T OF CHINA AND IN OTHER THAN CHINESE. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR. 1870. LOKDO^f : UARRETT, SONS AND CO., PKliVTEKS, SEETHING LANE. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. This Translation of the Work of Ah-CIiin-Ie is trust- worthy as to the meaning of the Text — though the literal translation has not been, in many cases, attempted. Preserving the Spirit of the Author, the Translator has desired to be intelligible in good, readable English. Where it is impossible to give the precise thought of a mind so differently cultured, the nearest English is given. It is hoped that the inherent difficulty of the task may excuse errors of grammar and style. The Translator has been so absorbed in his Author, that he fears he may have often slipped in his Syntax, and been rude in his manner. However, with whatever faults, he hands the volume to his Countrymen— think- ing that they may be as much interested in it as he has been; and may derive as much amusement. If it do not commend itself for its Wisdom, it may, at least, for its novelty — that is, as a genuine expression of intel- ligent Chinese opinion, concerning the " Civilization of the Western Barbarians, and particularly of the English" The Author's own Preface explains the Origin of the Work, and its claims to consideration. The Eetreat, Shanghai, China, 1875. J. Y. S. AUTHORS PREFACE. Aii-uiiiN-LE, IMandariii, and ineinber of the exalted Calao, to the Illustrious Wo-sung, Mandarin, First class, President of the most Serene, the grand Council, Calao ; virtue, health, and the highest place in the Hall of your Sublime Ancestors .' Trained from my youth for many years in the school of the Foreigners [Fo-kien],' so as to be versed in the languages of the chief Bar- barians of the West, and particularly of the English, afterwards perfected in the latter at our port of Shanghai, and sent by your Illustrious command upon a private mission with the Imperial Embassy to the outside Barbarians of the far West to cm^ously seek into the state of those Peoples, and report upon the same to your Illustrious mind — that being so informed exactly, your Wisdom might, in those matters apper- taining to the Western Barbarians, enlighten the Son of Heaven (our Celestial and Imperial Majesty [Bang- ztse] most renow^ned and exalted) when, in Council, things touching those outer l.arbarians should be con- sidered : these, my poor words, in so far as to your Illustrious Wisdom it has been thought proper to make general, are now produced : that the happy subjects of our Central, Flowery Kingdom, may understand more perfectly the condition of those outside Bsu'barians, re- vi author's preface. specting wlioni so very little is known, and may the more cautiously guard the Sacred Institutions [Kam- phfe] of our Celestial Land — wise, peaceful, pow^erful, and teeming with an industrious and contented people, before the Western Barbarians had so much as the rudiments of learning. Ah-chin prostrates his poor body before your Illus- trious Benevolence, and craves forbearance that these, his unworthy Observations, are not better ordered — the circumstances of travel, fatigue, agitation of mind, hurry and confusion, have been unfavourable for that due ordering of the same which a respect for your Illustrious Wisdom required — in this particular the precise Eeport, submitted to the Exalted, the Ccdao, through the hands of your Illustrious Greatness, is more perfect. These are minutes, rather, jotted down and fastened for better reordering, if, at another time, it should be judged fit. May the Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Chang-ti] keep your Illustrious mind and body ! AH-CHm-LE. Note. — These Ohservations now following were made in England, and refer chiefly to the English Barbarians, who pride themselves upon being the most powerful and most enlightened of all the outer Barbarians, and, in fact, of any People in the whole, immense World. Ah-Chin. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. — OP THE RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ENGLISH 1 II. — OP THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE ENGLISH 45 III.— SOME PARTICULARS OF THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRA- TION 7(] IV. — UPON EDUCATION : A FEW REFLECTIONS 98 V. — OF THE LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH .. ... 109 VI. — OP THEIR TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT 131 VII. — SOME REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND BURIALS [hI-DI] 150 VIII. — OP ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SOME WORDS ABOUT SCIENCE [kno-TE] 170 IX.— OF AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, AND SPECTACLES 195 X. — OF EMPLOYMENTS OP THE PEOPLE, AND ASPECTS OP DAILY LIFE 214 XI. — OP THE HIGH-CASTES : SOME PARTICULARS OF THEIR DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 223 XII. — OF THE APPEARANCE OP THE COUNTRY, THE CLIMATE, AND OTHER THINGS ..." 246 XIII. — LONDON 257 XIV. — SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 278 OBSERVATIONS. chaptj:k I. OF THE KELIGIOX AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ENGLISH. The worship of tlie supreme Lord of Heaven [Clian^u,- ti], is not unknown to these Barbarians, though degraded « (J by many Superstitions. / The purity of the divine and original Worship (as with the vulgar in our Celestial Kingdom) is too simple. About 500 or GOO years after our Confutze, in the time of the Romans, there appeared in an obscure province of their Empire a new Sect of devotees, who asserted that they had among them a Son of Heaven. This Son they called Christ ; and those who adopted this new deity were ^called Christians. This was nearly 2000 years [met-li-ze] ago. The Sect increased and spread. One of the Emperors of the West adopted the new god, and enforced the M'orship of him upon the subjects of the Empire. All the Western Barbarians derive their knowledo-e from the liomans ; whose power, indeed, they over- turned, but whose civilization they imitated. Particu- larly, the Bonzes (Priests) of the new Superstition, joined to the Chiefs of new powers (which arose upon the ruins of the Eoman Empire), preserved some re- mains of the ancient Learning, and enforced the new B . 2 llELIGIOX AND SUPERSTITIONS tSuperstitioii. What little of letters remained was almost entirely witli tlie Bonzes. This event was much the same as the introduction from the Hindoos into our Central Kingdom of the worship of tlie Hindoo god, Fo; and, curiously, these events happened at ahout the same time. It is to be observed that in our Illustrious Kingdom there is a tendency to superstitious observances. We have several Sects [])lio-ti] ; but our Literati merely tolerate and do not worship. A simple and pure homage to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Hoang-chan-ti] is an act of the Wise : and even the Sects make their Spirits sub- ordinate to Him. The Western Barbarians, however, dishonour the true worship by strange " rites " — even by incredible superstitions, when the intellectual culture is considered. It is not long since, in the monstrous ere- dulity of the people, directed by the Bonzes, it was believed that the Devil (Chief of the Evil Demons) would enter into an individual — generally some old, ugly, and friendless woman — and, l)ij Jicr, turn the milk sour, drive the cattle mad, torture children, shrivel up the limbs, blast with the Uvil Uz/c ; and even plague with disease and with horrible death ! And these wretched women, and sometimes men, themselves often fancying that the Devil was really in them, were seized upon, dragged through mud and mire, fearfully maltreated, and put to death by the horrible torments of fire, upon this wild accusation : and this terrible scene was not caused by a maddened rabble of the common sort, but under the lead of the Bonzes, and according to the Laws of the Land The great, central figure of idolatry is the Pope, who OF THE ENGLISir. sits entlironed in Eome ; aud is, generally, a very old man, not always remarkable for wisdom nor -virtue. He •claims to l)e the sole vicegerent of the Christ-god, and only visible divine Head — all who do not worship lum are really not true worshippers. Yet, there are many Sects of this Siq^erstition; and in England, the .Sovereign is held to be the true Pope and Head ! The Englisli Pope now worshipped is therefore a wonian^ — the Queen ! .Such a thing seemed to me to be too wild — a phantasy —I could not comprehend. I knew that this Sect — the Roman — had long ago followers in our Flowery Jvinu'dom; and our annals show was tolerated: not, how- <3ver, for the Superstition, but for the Bonzes, who were masters of some useful knowledge. Personally, I never knew any native devotees of the Superstition — in fact it has steadily diminished in repute, and its few and scat- tered adherents are very obscure. So I was, and am still, puzzled Ijy this extraordinary Sect. I have read the Creed; a sort of verbal incantation, made by de- votees in the temples. One day, I begged of a good-natured, large-bellied, Priest to explain to me ; and ventured to ask him if the Creed was really an Article of Belief, or only a formal find meaninsj'less Invocation — like some of the mum- meries [phin-zi] of our Superstitious Sects. He looked surprised ; but when he saw that he was thus accosted by a " Heatlien Chinee " (as these Barbarians always y tlio mouth of tlio irigli Priest. This event took place in our dynasty, Slianf/; and onr annals, referring to the Western JJarbarians of the an- cient times, make mention of some thinus — obscure movements of tribes, and of tlie great works performed by the P^gvptians ; and of a servile race, ccuideraned to toil on these structures : and, possibly, this revolt of the Jews may have been contained in these references. However, the whole matter would have been lost ages ago, nor have left a trace, but for the singular circum- stance that the ancient records of these Jews have in a. good measure escaped destruction. This happened not by any chance ; but from the fact that the High Priest, pretending to be the very mouth of Jah, made all his utterances Sacred; and the Priesthood, inscribing and preserving the Jewish " Pites," worship .and institutes of all kinds, guarded these Avritings Mith extreme care ; which the reverence of the Superstitious people en- hanced. Thus these Institutes of the Je^vs, declared to be by the Priests the very will of Jah, came to be " I£ol]/ " [Kan-ti] — inviolable ! ISTow, the Barbarians re- gard this preservation of the Jewish Eecords as an evidence of their divinity, and a clear warning to man not to disregard them ; and when they assert (as, by the High Priest, they constantly do), " Thus saith the Lord- God-Jah," they accept the declaration, and bow before it, as the very word of Jehovali ! But we know that similar " Sacred Writings " are connnon in the East, and that these pretensions of the Priests are as universal as Superstition itself; in fact, form the chief features in it. 12 IlELIGIOX AND SUPEItSTITlOXS The new Christ-God was a Jew ; aud, though, sin- gularly enough, in the words ascribed to him, in those parts of the Sacred Writings assigned to him and his immediate followers, there are hitter denunciations of the spirit aud of the letter of much in the old, Priest- made part; and he distinctly says that his office is to give new and reformed rules; none the less, his imme- diate followers, being Jews, naturally looked upon him us Great High-Priest, speaking as did their ancient High- Pridst (High-Priest and Christ-God) — the very " mouth- piece " []\[u-te-pi] of Jehovah ! Adding to the High- Priest a Mcssiahsliip ; for they believed him to be the mysterious Messiah of their Sacred Writings, foretold by their wise *Sct'/w long ages before! The great High- Priest wlio should deliver them from all their enemies, and lead them to a universal dominion ! A^ery few of the Jews themselves, however, adhered to this opinion : in fact, Christ was put to a shameful death by them as an Impostcr [Kon-ti-fe]. And by the Jews, in general, he was and is still considered to be a misguided fanatic. The liomans at this time held the Jewish province, and continued to do so. ]\Ieantime, the folio Avers of the Christ-God, as I have said, spread by degrees, after his death, into other Koman provinces. New Superstitions were often greedily received; the "Western Barbarians had always readily adojDted new gods, and new Super- stitions. This idolatry was, however, held in contempt by the learned ; 1 )ut it slowly spread among the lower orders, and penetrated to Eome itself.' The Eoman soldiery, in some instances, made it con- spicuous; and, after some generations, a Eoman Emperor, OF THE KXGLI.^IT. 1,*^ tliiukiiig ]\v saw some miraculous evidence of its divine force (in the workings of his own dark imagination), forced this new Superstition upon his Empire. That Em})ire embraced the Western world. The Barbarians who succeeded to them adopted, largely, their laws ; their worship, and their religious rites. Thus, these AVestern liarbarians are Glirisiixms ; and, though they detest the Jews none the less, hold to their " Sacred Writings " as the A^ery words of Jah — whom they also worship ; This they do because they follow the few Jews who accepted Christ as Jehovah, rather than the whole iKO'jjIc who rejected him ! — follow the few who- accepted Christ as the Messiah-God promised in the " Sacred Writings ;" and hold with them that these are the only Bexdation of the will of Jehovah to man ! By Jehovah meaning the only Supreme Lord of Heaven ! The remarkable thing is that this enormous pretension is not ascrilied to Christ, but is ol)Scurely announced in certain writings of the early Christian Jews. Thus these Western Barbarians, scoffing the name of Jew, accept of his ancient and ferocious god, and adopt the barbarous rites of a blood-thirsty and obscure tribe of the desert, make the records kept by the Priests of the tribe Sacred, and curse to Hell the whole Jewish race for not accepting the interpretation of a fctr of tlicir nuiiibcr — the few, and only a few, worshipping Christ as the true Christ-God. That is, these Barbarians better rmder- stand the subject than the people into whose hands the matter was entrusted by Divine wdsdom. When one considers, then, the foundation of the great worship of the West, one wonders not at the Sects and 14 RELIGION AND SUPEHSTITIONS strife, rounded in dark and cruel institutes of imorant ^intitjuity, the attempt to engraft a better system failed, because in this attempt the Priests were still Jews, who, adoring- Christ, adored liim as Jehovah and a Jewish High-Priest. What follows becomes more intelligible, but not less astonishing. The new worship has its divine Rcvdation from Jah, interpreted by its Priests, who introduce Christ as their great High-Priest, and the Clirist-Jeliovah of the ncAV worship. All are damned to the everlasting Hell who do not believe these Priests, worship this new god, and accept as the very Divine Wori^, these Jewish ■writings. This superstition suited the dark imaginations of the Barbarians, and was, in truth, not unlike their own, and may have had a com- mon origin. The intellectual activity of succeeding ages has been mainly devoted to these Sacred Writings ; and the dis- putes, as to the meaning, never-ending. Every word has been criticised. Sects have lieen formed upon a syllable — appearing and disappearing. Now one would madly starve, another feast. 8ome fanatics would live in caves, some on inaccessible mountains ; some tor- tured themselves, and held women to be unclean unless they inarried Christ. Some would only shout their in- vocations, others would only commune with the god inside. Some would kneel, others vjould stand. Some- times a sect more wild than usual would organise vast bands of warriors, all wearing a symbol to show that they were Christians — usually a cross (because the Jews put Christ to death by lianging him upon a cross) ; and, |)laciiig Priests at tlic head, would rush to distant })arts to OF THE KXGLTSir. 15 root out ji(i(j(Aiis. Tliese dreadful slaugliters of distant ti'ibes were called Crossades (from the symbol refcirred to). ♦Some Sects destroyed society by another fanaticism ; they forced men to live in caves or in dark stone cham- bers, sliut off from all cheerful life, and from all inter- course with women ; where they should constantly make invocations, lash themselves wath thongs, and half-starve themselves ; having skulls to hold before them, and awful 23aintings of Hell and devils to horrify them, — if per- chance they may propitiate the Christ-God, Jah. AVomen also being driven into similar, horrid imprisonment in stone vaults, where the whole life is spent in inA'oca- tions and sufferings, without so nnich as seeing any man. These and numberless other things grow out of the interpretations, ever-changing, of the Sacred Writings ; Avhich, to the dark imaginings of Priests and devotees, seem ever to give such utterances as fit to their feelings. To the Priests they are an unfailing arsenal of power. For many ages nearly all the Books W'ritten — mainly l)y Priests — were in respect of the Sacred Writings; called commentaries, homilies, disputations, doctrines, invoca- tions, sermons ; endless in name, and nameless. This Literature is less in repute than formerly, and immense collections of huge writings are now rotting away in the dismal alcoves of Libraries [Buk-sti], as great stone buildings for keeping Books are called. This lAtcrature is rarely looked at now, excepting by the Priests and antiquaries [ol-olphoo] ; much of it is obso- lete in form, or in the Pioman— not now so much in vogue as formerly. A large portion of the writings, and IG EELIGIOX AND SUPERSTITIONS a larger portion of the "speeches" [phi-lu-tin], however, are devoted to the same subject ; but the style is modern, and less obscure, though not less deformed by a dark and irrational superstition. To my poor mind, Avere all these innumerable pro- ductions of gloomy and bewildered intellects — misled and crazed by a monstrous Idolatry — swept for ever away, nothing would be lost — nothing, unless the most astonishing monument ever builded by man. However, it is doubtful whether to lose even this is not better than to have anything left of so monstrous a Pretension. Wliilst thus the Barbarian hrain wasted itself in this wretched work, and piled up its ponderous tomes of use- less, and worse than useless, Literature — holding know- ledge in general as vain, and Science, when, in Priestly interpretation, not according to the barbarous SacrciJ Writings, as a thing to be accursed — activity of body, during the same ages, did its dreadful work. Directed Ity the Priests, one Sect denounced another as damnable, and the stronger attempted to destroy the weaker by " fire and sword." New contentions would arise, to lie crushed out by bloody execution ; only to spring uj) again, to be again extirpated. Every Sect as it appeared would fight for supremacy. All worshipped the Christ- God, and sought the same Sacred Writings ; and all invoked His aid, and pointed to those Writings for their authority — to exterminate a weaker /Seci; to deliver over whole provinces to rapine, slaughter, burning, destruc- tion ; cities in conflagration ; women, children, as well as men, not merely slain, but put to death with tortures unspeakable ; massacres, by treachery and surprise, of OF TIIK ENGLISH. 17 • thousand^ and tens of thousands ! To such work was the activity of hody largely directed by Priests and the savage chiefs. For ages these atrocities were perpe- trated. History has no parallel of horror ; human nature seemed to have become possessed by the Devil of the Superstition, and exceeded its diabolism [pau-di- ki]. In the name of Christ, lire, slaughter, and rapine, spread over the whole immense world. Wherever the Priests of this dark superstition Ijecame powerful, every- thing which op])Osed them perished. It was a cardinal principle that men could be saved from the dreadful Hell only by the aid of the Priests, and by accepting of their interpretation of the Sacred Writings. The system erected by the Priests was called the Church, and none could be saved unless they were in the pale of Hobi Church — unless they, in the manner directed by the Priests, performed all the rites of worship. These not merely were directed to the worship of the Sacred Writings, the Christ-God and Jah, but to the mother of God and to the Pope. In England, by and by, the Priests threw off the Eoman Pope, and set ^^p the Eng- lish Sovereign, for the time being, as Pope, and put men and women to death by fire and torture for still prefer- ring the older Idol. Nor is this madness, this fanatical fury, wholly ex- pended. Education has not yet raised these Western tribes into the enjoyment of a rational w^orship — of a rational morality — of a life, calm, tolerant, and benefi- cent. They have never attained the civilisation of our Central Kino-dom, and to the wisdom of our illuminated Confutse. c :j.8 RELIGION AND SUPEKSTITION.S . There is morality to be found among tliem, and a few worship, purely and simply, the God of Heaven, and look with untroubled hearts upon the senseless super- stitions. The masses are, however, still held in them ; and the High Castes either hold to the prevailing idola- tries, or pretend to do so. This old Jewish Worship, with its rites and pretensions, fastened upon tribes by Priests and the Eoman power, is still dominant in the West. In England to-day it is the same superstition, only the Queen is Pope, instead of the Man at Eome. For this the English are damned, as worthy of Hell-fire, by Ptoman Pope worshippers ; and the English return the curse. A constant Bufjhear [Do-uki] to the English mind is, that the more powerful Roman Pope may get into England again ; then, what horrors ! Xor does this frightful chimera alone alarm the lower people ; the most learned Englishmen, and their wisest, exert their minds in writing and in preaching against this terrible thing. To me this seemed strange — incredible. The English Barbarians are, in general, sharp enough ; they are learned in many things ; they can see the absurdity of Eastern superstitions ; they denounce the Ptoman- Pope worship as worthy of hell; but they worship a <^ueen-pope at home, and the same Christ-Jah-god and "sacred writings" which the Eomans worship. They believe, as do the Ptoman-pope worshippers, that all who do not worship the sacred writings and the Christ- Jah-god., and accept of the Priest- C/Mrrc7?, will inevitably burn for ever in fires of Hell ; yet, because of the separation as to Pope worship, each regards the other OF THE ENGLISH. 19 .^cd with a hatred ouly appeased by sending each the other to the dreadful Hell ' How incredible that the human niiud — the active and skilled human mind — should alarm itself and others for fear of the worship of a Pope — a man : and really think the condition of the human soul would be hopelessly wretched — if it mis- took the right object of w^orship — the idol of Eome, or the idol of England ! Tlie intellect truly employed would be directed to the overthrow of tlic suj^erstition and its objects of idolatry altogether. The Eoman or the English Pope — the Eoman or the English sect — what matter ? Both alike indifferent and worthless to an intelligent worshipper of the Supee^me Lokd of Heaven (Hoang-chan-ti). His worship is elevating, supporting a clean morality, tolerant, benevolent — a morality found Avherever man is found ; debased, more or less, as man be debased, or as he may be sunken in vicious or cruel superstitions. To restore a pure worship is to help on a better civilisation among the Barbarians. Nor would a respect for the morality ascribed to Christ do other than help in the same way. The misfortune is, that that morality has been overlaid with Jewish and Priestly additions and inventions. There are some of the English literati who dare to teach a purer worship, discarding the superstition in its grosser pretensions ; but they are not listened to. It is difficult to understand what is accepted as true by the differing Scets — but their differences may be dis- regarded — and I will refer to what all the Sects of the Great Superstition subscribe to, aside from the matter" of Pope. 20 IIELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS One, only God : in three parts — each part a very God! 1. The Judge and destroyer of mankiucT ; for all are damned to Hell ! This is the Jewish Jali. 2. The Sou, begotten of Jah upon an immaculate virgin. Sent to mediate with Jah and appease His fierce anger, so that some may escape Hell — that is, those few who have " heliered in" and vjor- shi]323ed the Son, the Father, and other things. For as to what is to be believed, form the points of endless contention, as I have hinted. 3. llie Holy Ghost, or Comforter, whose function I have never comprehended. It appears to be a divine Ejflucnce, entering into the devotee, to warm, exalt, and enlighten him ; especially to comfort him and to support him in his dire conflicts with " the flesh, hell, and the devil " (as the Superstition reads). It is an "awfiil mystery" in the rites, and has crazed many -a worshipper ; for those who fancy themselves to be in the possession of this Effluence feel like gods, and conduct themselves as scarcely accountable to mortal control ; though others feel an absorption, as they say, into the divine nature — a notion like that of some of the fanatics of the Hindoos and of the East. As* powerful, indeed more powerful over men, is the terrible Satan- — Devil, Evil One. There are many names and shapes. This monster was once (according to the superstition) chained down in hell-fire, for having raised a rebellion against Jah, who, however, let him loose again, and gave him wings to fly from his fiery prison to OF Till-: EXGLISII. 21 tlic world, where lie slionld Avage war with -lah, in a I'overt way, l)y his craft diawiii^- away niankind from Jail to his worship and to his designs ; that, however, he should never prevail to overthrow Jali, and the only result would he to increase the numljer of the countless devils of low degree already in Hell, hy adding to them nearly the whole human race ! — for to that torment all go who do not worship in spirit and in truth, according to the superstition. This a^^•ful strife between Satan and Jail always proceeds. The Priests say that, for " some wise purpose," Jah suffers Satan to succeed in Iiis snares ; and his victims continually fall into the everlasting place of Fire, prepared for the devil and his victims. The Priests say that this Avholesale destruc- tion of mankind was a thing predetermined by Jah, and that he created |the Devil to accomplish the work ; but they do not explain why the torments should be everlasting; as men are themselves short-lived, one would think a reasonalJe superstitition might have limited the fire-torture to, say, twice the length of mortal life • (3ur Literati will readily recognise some parts of this horrible superstition — perhaps the main features, as 'Oriental — going back to the dimmest dawn of tradition, and to the early and grotesque forms of the liuman imagination, dark and uninstructed. The Hell, however, is a terrific expansion of the horrible, suited to these Strange Barl)arians. Besides these great deities, there are Arch-angels, Angels, Saints male and female. Spirits good and bad — the latter Imps of Satan (whatever the word may 22 IIELIGIOX AND SUPEKSTITIOIsS mean), who eutev into human Ijeings, and take on the human form : in this disguise, called Crhosts, Wizards, Bogies, Witches. However, good people can tell these devilish Imps, and avoid them (so they be good, that is,. true worshippers of the Idols of the Superstition) ; for the smell of brimstone sticks to them, and the tail and cleft- hoof — inseparable from devil-imps — will always show somewhere to ilie good. But, if unawares the Imps catch them, they are only to say Christ, or Jelwvali, or call on some Saint, and the Imp will at once vanish like a vapor! It will be seen that this Superstition is as populous with gods and spirits as are any in the East, and some of the forms more frightful and ridiculous. There are dissentients — some, who, not dissenting to the chief gods, yet conjecture tliat the good and bad spirits merely symbolize good and bad propensities in Inunan nature. But real objectors are few and timid, afraid of punishment — if not here, then after death. For the Superstition so long rooted has engrafted its terrors in the very Ijlood, and men are born with the Horror in them ; they can never free themselves from it. A ,few, however, do dissent ; but, like our Literati^ they do not care to oppose vulgar ignorance openly, nor is it safe ; they feel a contempt, but repress its too- marked expression. " Why render themselves uselessly odious ? " they say. The Priests, very likely, often disbelieve much of what they say ; but not unlikely their emoluments (livings) have some effect upon their conduct,, though not upon their private convictions. In our Flowery Land there is a maxim : " A common man's Itrain is in his bellv." OF Till-: 1'L\c;msii. 23 I have had a High Bonze say to me, when I have suggested some ohjeetions, " Oh, we do not know any- thing about such things ; the morality is good, and we need a devil for women, children, and the common people : it is safer to let things alone." " But," I have rejoined, " is it quite well, in the long run, to teach falsely ? " " I do not say it is well to teach falsely. I said, I do not know — who does ? Men more learned than I believe strongly, men wiser than I have " gone to the stake and perished by slow torture of fire," made martyrs (we have no such word) of themselves, rather than deny these things. They were probably right. I simply take things as they are." " But," I replied, " surely misguided fanaticism, of which the world is full, is proof of nothing whatever, unless of the sincerity of the madman — not always of that." " My dear Ah-Chiu, you are ver}' quick, and no fool (I beg pardon), but you do not understand it. The Superstitious parts are mere forms; and as to the Jiorrors, as you call them, I think them iudispensalile ; they are better than the Police." (The Police are the officers who arrest offenders in the streets and public places.) The Bonzes who talk in this way are, usually, what are derisively termed " hunting and fishing " Bonzes, not remarkable for strictness of conduct, though quite as likely to stick to the Temples, like our Bonzes ; they are not likely to pull down the roof which shelters them. The Superstition is less revered than formerly, and its wilder parts arc less obtrusive. Its pretensions are not 24 RELIGION AND SUPEKSTITIONS moderated iu terms, but the practice is more moderate. Sects do not put each other to death, at present, though so much of the oki bitterness remains that no one can say what horrors might follow upon unexpected changes. Gradually wise men endeavour to drop out of sight the Jewish and Priestly creations, and, incidcating morality, take the Christ-God as symbol of Charity, and his moral precepts as the basis of a moral Philosophy ; or (to be less offensive to the Superstition) Christian Pltilosnphy. In this way they seize hold of M'hat is true in the Great Idolatry, and endeavour to ignore the grosser parts altogether. Tliey hope to bring al)out a rational w^orship without violence, liy a gradual disuse and forgetfulness of the irrational, and are willing to yield something to ignorance, if they can by that means, in the end, en- lighten it. They allow to Christ an exalted character, large in the divine faculty, and divine as man is divine in possessing that faculty — to say, tlic moral. In this, much as we see in our exalted Confutzc, wdio lived and taught long before the period ascriljed to Christ, and from whom the Western tril jes, doubtless, received their moral notions. The religion of wise men is the same at all times and everywhere. Wherever some intellectual culture exists, men will be found who understand and practise the rules of morality; and wherever this is general, there is the higher civilisation. This higher civilisation, resting upon a general morality among a people, has for its base a rational recognition of the Sovereign Lord and man's dependency and accountability to Him; Father of men; and Himself the source of this morality. He, OF THE ENGLISH. 25 in this faculty, reveals Himself, and shows to man his sole claim to a divine relationship. This higher civilisation does not mistake intellectual achievement as its title to enlightenment. The sharp and active brain is quite consistent with the base and low ; and may be indifferent to superstitions and de- grading idolatries. But the moral faculty, active and large, at once refines and exalts the intellect; then men are truly trlse, and degrading superstitions die. The object, then, to which the true worshipper aims, everywhere, is to bring man out of a debased into an enlightened recognition of the Supreme Lord and of this simple relationship ; to teach tluit the human race form one family, united indissolubly to each other, and to the Supreme Lord, by the divine moral faculty, to Avhich the intellect is subordinate; that by this they may be all truly enlightened, and worship simply and truly, with grateful and serene trust, the Supreme Lord and Father of all. This Avorship can never be other than beneficent. It is only the expression of gratitude ; the desire for Ijetter wisdom, for still larger charity, a Avell-doing and serene life, at peace with itself and all beside. To a civilisation resting upon this simple and direct worship and morality, few barbarians have any percep- tion ; their pride and gross superstitions have made it impossible. The temples are often very grand and beautiful, built ■of hewn stone, with lofty domes, towers, bells, and spires. The priests are very numerous, and divided into many ranks. The lowest are the curates, who do 2 EELIGIOX AND SUPERSTITIONS as the mongrel verse-makers of the Siqjcrstitmi have it ! And the Priests vehemently denounce all who do not worship upon that day. Some object to so great strictness; and the quarrel, as usual, is hitter between the strict and the not-so-strict Holy-day worshippers. Those not- so-strict think that the poor, who work six days, should be allowed to go to the places of amuse- ment on the seventh, and enjoy harmless recreations. The strict say they should be punished for desecrating the day by their neglect of w^orship ; yet the poor can- not go in dirt and rags to the Temples. The High- Castes go there in rich attire, and would lie incommoded by the poor — indeed, the High and Low Castes never mingle, not even in their worship. In truth, not many of any rank attend upon the Priests in worship. The devotees are mostly old women and older men, a few young people attracted by opposite attraction of sex, children and servants ; a few pau]ier children may be huddled into a dark corner for fear of offendino; the idols. o The Priests face the Idol, and make Incantations, which are repeated, age after age, without any altera- tion ; no Priest dare to make any the least change ; the wrath of the gods would follow. One peculiarity is, that the most abject confessions are made, by Priests and devotees, of heinous offences — making eternal punishment fitly their due. They beg for pardon and that salvation (meaning deliverance from the awful Hell) may be granted, not for any good in them, but whoUy for the sake of the Son — the Christ. Ui' THE ENGLISH. 37 On my first attendance in ii Temple, when T heard these I'eart'ul confessions and looked ni)on llu; line women, the ■carefully dressed Avorshippers, I thouglit, " How dreadful, tliese Hio'h-Castes such wretches — incredible ! " I after\vards discovered that the sins [ly-ie], the (ilfences confessed, were merely cedes last leal (we have no term like it) ; nobody ever really confesses any wrong which he may liave committed. The grand act of worship is, however, the Creed (here again in our llowery Land we have no term) — an In- vocation and lOeclaration wherein all sw^'ar, under the awful penalty of eternal burnings in Hell and torments of Satan for ever, that they believe and worship all points of the Hu2)erstUioii with tliankful hearts and undoubting minds. Eepeating after the Priest, all standing, facing the Idol, uncovered, with eyes down- cast and deep abasement. The Incantations do not differ from the Invocations, only they are onzes, for their services in this matter, obtain consideration and good fees [tin-tin]. After all, however, with the lowest Caste the Super- stition is not much more than a Friyht ; its morality does not touch them, nor those things which refine. They have only a dim and low idea of the Sovereign Lord — debased, in so much notion as they do have, by the Jewish debasement. The devil-and-Hell part is familiar to them, and, in truth, fits well to the origin of the Barbarous tribes, and to their rude and savage cha- racter. As I have said, the Upper Castes consider this portion of their Superstition the really valuable part, in practical use. All evidence in the Courts, and every sanction, touching important interests or statements, rest upon this hold upon the fears of the common people. " Oh " (as an Englishman once said to me), " we must keep the devil and his liot place in our ser- vice, I tell you, Ah-Chin; or we should have 'the devil to pay' in good earnest !" It is very difficult to change the Superstitions of a people, because rooted in their fears ; and, in a matter wherein the imagination has chief power, and nothing can be known, even honest men of wisdom fear radical changes ; they prefer to bear inconveniences, and dread the effect of neio doctrines npon ignorant masses. Priests, and the varied interests, and large establish- ments and revenues — in fact, a great portion of the 40 EELIGIOX AND SUPERSTITIONS whole community — are concerned in maintaining the Superstition, on selfish grounds, or think that their own interests are involved. The higher orders regard the EdaUished condition of things in Worship and in the State as too Sacred to be touched. They denounce all who endeavour, in any faint degree, to suggest reforms, as " infidel " [un-ti-dsi] — a term of deepest reproach — agitators, who covertly would overthrow " our Temples, our Idols, and the Queen-Pope herself." But they cannot wholly suppress the Thinkers ; [kog- ti-te] (as the reformers are called) ; and these honestly tliink that some revision may be made with safety and advantage. They are sneered at l)y the larger part of the literati, and by all the priests, as Tinkers. A tinker is one who mends and patches, not a real artisan ; and the majority will have it that nothing in England requires mending or patching. Tliey are also stigma- tised, sarcastically, as members of a Mutnal Admiration Society. A society where the members laud everything written or said by any other member ; and where, as the members think, all true wisdom alone illuminates the surrounding darkness. I suspect this society is a riiith [pho-gti] ; that the true sense of the sarcasm is, that the Thinkers overrate the value of their pub- lished thoughts, and that wisdom will not die with them. Certainly, some of the thoughts which I have seen in books, though not so gross and hateful as the Idolatry, are quite as useless. Only one thing I do respect them for — they do not subscribe to the pre- tensions of the priest; and are really influencing the people by giving them hints of value. They do act OF THE ENGLISH. 41 upon the upper classes, at least, with a reforming iiffect. I have not referred to obscure sects, of which there are many. Some of these shout and howl ; some keep absolute silence ; some lash themselves into a sort of "|)hrensy, and fall dowu in fits, fancying that they are possessed by the Holy Spirit. Some will only be hajj- tiscd by going into a river, and there, under the Incan- tations of the Priest, be violently plunged all over in the water, both women and men. Still, all of these, iind many others, hold to the Sacred Writings and the otlier Idolatries : the main points are alike in all. The Eoman Pope has many devotees among the English Barbarians ; and was, not long ago, the Great iind only Head. But a vile and cruel king, who wished to enjoy a woman and divorce his wife, with whom he had lived for many years, and by whom he had children, <[uarreled with the lioman Pope, because he would not suffer this bad thing to be done; and the English Barbarians, who disliked a foreign Pope, and the tierce chiefs about this king, even some of the priests of English birth, urged him to proclaim himself to be Pope in England, and to seize upon the revenues which the Pope had received from the English, and all the lands and properties of great value, which beforetime had been given to the Temples and to the Priests. This was done ; this king seized upon the wealth, and threw dowu the worship of the Eoman Pope in England, and declared himself to be the new o-od in England — the Pope ! And the English Barbarians worshipped, and have continued to Avorship, this new Pope accordingly. 42 KELIGION AND SUPEUSTITIONS And some who could not honestly worship the new idol, and dared to adhere to the Eoman, were burnt to dcatli .' Indeed this new idolatry was not introduced into England without terrible consequences. Massacres, l)urnings, imprisonments, wars, horrible crimes — perse- cutions, destruction of families, robbing, plundering — not even to this day have all the evil consequences ceased ; though tliis bad ruler made this change in this particular of the great Superstition more than 300 years ago. Tims, our Central Kingdom may see how powerfully Idolatry and Superstition are entrenched among the English Barbarians. A System interwoven with the very texture of their civilization ; supporting, and, in turn, supported by the State ; mixed up with customs and traditions, and endeared by its connection with family interests ; rich in its possessions ; powerful in all the Halls of Learning, and in its influence upon the fortunes and dignities of men ; boasted of for its learnino- for its history, and for its refining and reforming teachings - the English Church (as those Barbarians call their grand Idolatry) seems likely to stand for many generations. Yet agencies are, slowly, at work, which will remove the dark and horrible, and leave the simple and true. The Benevolence of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven never tires ; and the pure worship and less corrupted morality will make way. I hope I may be pardoned for the time which I have given to this subject ; it is one worthy of deep attention. Besides, a little study of the literature and manners of the Western tribes, fastened upon my mind the impres- sion that their History was mainly an account of the OF THE EXGLISir. 43 rise and progress of the Clirist-god Superstition ; and that, liereafter, whoever shall have the pleasing task of writing of their better civilization, will find it to be his main purpose to show the decline and extinction of that Superstition. To wise men who worship the Supreme Lord only, and accept of His simple .and direct Morality, there is, in all the broad and immense world, but a single- family, ruled by Him. When this family recognises and wor- ships Him, in direct and true sincerity, and practises the few and perfectly simple rules of His benevolent ]\Iorality, then it is an enlightened, civilized family. ® The Western Barbarians do not understand nor prac- tise this Benevolent IMorality ; until they do, their civili- zation Avill not be really better than a Barbarism. We are not to suppose that a perfect morality will ever obtain, because man, being two-fold in his nature — divine and bestial — will now be ruled by the one, and now by the other part. The oliject of all education (discipline) is, therefore, to teach man how he may order these two parts. There is no antagonism [ha-tsi] be- tween them, only it is indispensable that the divine part should rule. That this may be, the intellect must be cultivated, not in difficulties, but in habits of thinking, of looking, or seeking out ; of seeing the beauty, the order, the gran- deur of the whole divine world. Thus employed it delights in itself ; it feels the Mind like a bright thing, flying out to the great seas, and upwards to the ever- lasting stars. It loves to hear, to see, to look at and into everything. It can never cease to employ this 44 EELIGIQX AND SUPEHSTITIOXS. delightful mind, tlius stimulated in early youth, to exert itself; but it must be exerted innocently, benevolently. That the subordination of mind and the animal may be secured, the Supreme, the Moral faculty must, from the earliest years, be touched by wise fingers. Ah, liow it responds, this divine part; how it, in the pure and warm glow of unselfish youth, recognises and worships with filial love its Father, the Sovereign Lord ! — perceives the moral order and harmony, and loves to be orderh' and obedient — early perceives that the true business of life is to preserve this order, and enjoy this peace. Thus Man, a rnoral-mindcd animal, is first of all to be taught to understand his own nature, and to develop his distinguishing faculty. This done, the bestial part rises not above its office. It, too, performs its proper and useful end ; and man is not a divided, but a whole and happy being. All education, therefore, rightly considered, aims to this Integrity [Kom-fu] of a man — -this secured, there are no limits to the mere objects of study or of ex- amination. Our Literati, directed many thousands of moons ago, by our exalted Confutze and Menzie,Avho, themselves were imbued with the' ancient Wisdom, are familiar with these simple things. The Western Barbarians, mainly devoted first of all to the bestial part ; to the enjoyment of the appetites and the passions ; simk in gross Superstitions, only by a few minds begin dimly to see. HISTORY AND GEOGEAPHV. 45 CHAPTER II. OF THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE ENGLISH, Before commenting upon the Government, it is useful to speak of the geography and history of the English Barbarians. The Kingdom consists of the following : England with Wales and Scotland, forming one large island ; Ireland, separated by a channel of the seas, lying West ; and several small groups of islets, scattered about the Coasts. It lies Westerly from the great, main Land of the Bar- barians, from which it is separated by a narrow course of the seas. England and the Main Land form the region designated Europe. The whole Kingdom sur- passes not in area or population some of our Celestial provinces : the extent being in the English square miles some 110 thousand [Si-re], and in people some 32 mil- lions [Ken-ty]. In such narrow limits there are no rivers — only small streams, which, near the sea, owing to the flux and reflux of the great waters, become broad and deep. In our Science and in our Annals tlie whole region and people are known as one only — but the different petty tribes are distinguished in our waters by the forms and colours of the flags, shown upon the masts of the 46 HISTORY AXD GEOGKAPHY Barbarian vessels. The English are less in people and in lands than many others ; but by their fierceness in war, and the multitude of their big ships, they esteem themselves to be the most powerful of all. The first account of them is recorded by one of the Eomans, who, in our dynasty, Han, crossed the narrow sea from a Eoman province, and entered into the island. It was then a Wilderness, and among the forests lived a few savages, clothed in skins. Sometime after, the Eomans conquered the country, and established a Eoman province — their dominion lasting four hundred [qua- cet] years — contemporaneous with our dynasty, Hcw- lian. During the dynasties, Han and Hciuhan, the various tribes surrounding the Eoman provinces, grown more populous and better acquainted with the Military art, crowded, more and more, upon the Eomans ; and, gra- dually, destroyed their power. They were forced to leave England. On their departure, and for several ages after, down to our dynasty, Song, the history of the Country is merely a tale of ceaseless struggles among the different savage tribes from the ]\Iain Land, to plunder and sub- due it. The civilization disappeared. Nearly all signs of the Eoman occupancy became obliterated ; and the knowledge of letters would have l3een lost, l)ut that the Priests who accompanied some of the savage chiefs had among them some of the Eoman learning. These Priests and chiefs had adopted the worship of the new Christ-god. At length, one of these invading tribes liaviiig hiirly OF THE ENGLISH. 47 mastered the country, and establislied a show of regular authority, the germs ol' knowledge began to grow. The victorious trilie had lands also on the main jjarts ; herce and warlike, it endeavoured to extend its power ; and repeatedly made assaults upon others of the 1 bar- barians of those chief parts. In these, the remains of the Roman civilization were considerable, and the know- ledge of letters more common. The position of the English, and their need of connnii- nication, made vessels indispensable ; and they learned to build and to sail many ships. However, but little progress in civilization was made till our dynasty, Mliif); when the Sovereign, then a Woman, called by the liar- barians, Queen, sent the first Eml)assy to our Central Kingdom — bearing gifts, and humbly approaching our Illustrious, ])egging permission to trade at one of our ports on the sea. From that time to the present, the annals of these Barbarians are but little more than records of plundering expeditions into distant regions ; of their fierce slaughters ; their cunning or bold stratagems to extend trade, and establish dominion for the sake of trade and plunder. To obtain trade, by means fair or foul ; to get strong- holds abroad and subjugate others — these have been the great objects of the rulers and the people. By their ships, manned with the most ignorant and debased, taught only in the work of sailing and fighting; .stimulated by love of plunder, in which the meanest have a share ; the very name of these Barbarians has become terrible in all the distant seas. They first appeared within the waters of our Central 48 HISTOllY AND GEOGRAPHY Kingdom, in the dynasty Tsioig, but did not venture then to assault our unoffending people ; and only, by cunning and with low prostrations and humility, sought to traffic, in such way as should be acceptable to our Illustrious. Further time was looked to and greater force l)efore showing their fierceness ! They have since seized nearly all the maritime parts of the Hindoos, and, penetrating the country with savage bands, have slaughtered the inoffensive people, and robbed the treasuries of Princes and the Temples of immense riches. They have, finally, subjugated the chief provinces of the Hindoos, and yearly bear away from them the ancient revenues. Throwing off disguise, in our celestial seas, these Barbarians at length discovered their true character. To save our people from the effects of a dreadful poison, to which the lower orders had become habituated, our Illustrious prohibited the importation of this thing, called by the English, Opium (Zle-psi). But these dis- regarded the just request; wished to pour upon us enormous amounts for the sake of the gains which the bad traffic yielded, and which was monopolised by them; and, when nothing else would serve, assaulted our unoffending people, fell with fire and sword upon our province of Quang-tun, and, rushing upon other maritime parts with their great ships, armed with pro- digious cannon, threatened to burn and destroy. In our peaceful Kingdom we had no need of such things ; Ave had no means to meet these destructive engines, contrived by Christ-god worshippers ; and our Illus- trious, to save further dreadful mischiefs to our un- OF THE ENGLISH. 41) protected people, granted trade to these selfish and cruel Barbarians ! Yet this benevolence of our Illustrious only served to encourage additional demands ; and w(! all remember how, coming Avith more ships, swifter with steam, and greater guns and men, these impious defiers of the Sovereign and Heavenly Justice have more recently fallen upon the Northern provinces, and slaughtered and robbed our people, our palaces, and even the precincts of our Illustrious himself ! Who, awaiting and appealing to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, doubts not the due chastisement of crime, which, in due time, shall heavily fall ! <3 Meantime, in all other parts of the great Outer Seas, these English ^dsited the coasts with their fire-ships, and compelled the natives to trade, either by fraud or by open war. In the great Sea towards the sunset, they, in this way, settled upon many Lands; and, in the course of some generations, their settlements in those regions, wishing to trade with others beside the English (which these would not allow) revolted ; drove away the armed bands which ^vere sent to subdue them, and formed a new power. In this way, about 100 years ago, the Barbarian?, called American [Mel-i-kan], arose. Their ships arc known in our Central Kingdom by a flag, named " Starry," because of the Stars [Zen-ti] which are painted upon it. These people are ardent for trade, but not so mad and reckless ; and not aggressive in their intercourse with others. They are not so domi- neering and haughty — humbly submitting themselves, in general, to the Son of Lleaven, making tribute, and 50 HISTOKY AND GEOGKAPIIY seeking his Illustrious protection to their trade and to their ships in our Central Waters. During these events, the English Barbarians also sent their poor people and criminals into the Lands of the far South Seas, to make new places for their poor to toil in, to get rid of them, and to make safe, distant places, to keep their criminals in ; subduing the tribes in those parts — thus making more trade. And in this way, and with their many big ships and cannons, they boast that they will bring the wdiole immense world, either to be tributaries, or to be completely subjective. And they please their devotees, because they say that this subjugation will " Convert " all the Pagans to the worship of the gods of their Superstition — and this great boon will abundantly compensate for all the wrongs and atrocities committed ! In fact, they impiously pre- tend that they are commanded to subjugate the Heathen World, that it may be saved from the dreadful HeU ! The domestic events have not been important ; though the Barbarians themselves think eveiything to be im- portant which happens amongst them. They fancy that " Civilization and Progress " (famous words with them) depend upon the petty disputes arising — sometimes as to their Superstition, and sometimes as to some trifling- thing in their Customs. One of the main events, is the story of a son of one of their Sovereigns, who drove his father out of the Kingdom, and reestablished the Government in such manner, that, ever after, when the matter is referred to, one shall say Glorious [Twang-ba]. As well as I can understand, the things done were, that whereas, before, the Sovereign had been allowed to wor- OF THE ENGLISH. 51 «hip the Pope, if lie wished (but in secret), afterwards he should not, but Ic the English Pope, solely. And, instead of a native dynasty, a foreign, and very base and stupid one, hateful to the English, was fastened upon them. These events, an outside observer sees, were fol- lowed by long-continued discontents, and civil war — wherein innocent persons suffered in their persons and their property; and very many were exiled, and very many were brutally massacred and put to death — not because of any other offence than adhering to the ancient Laws, and to the Sovereign whom this base son had dethroned ! Yet, of this event, when one speaks of it, one shall say, Glorious ! The form of government has not changed; but the power has, during these periods, past into the hands of the Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. In the time of the Queen, who sent the humble petition to our Illustrious, the Englisli Sovereign was Master — being Pope and liuler ; that is, JHigh Priest and Sovereign. But the people, increasing and growing richer in ships and merchandize, began to feel the intermeddhng of the Euler. I'reviously, the people had been too poor and too few to be accounted anything ; and gTew up into an improved condition without notice. They now disliked to be taxed, and Ijegan a struggle with the Sovereign to limit his power in this thing — for they said, " If he can take a penny (a small coin), at his own goodwill and pleasure, he can take alL" Now this is an absurdity — yet, it looked sound; and, at any rate, became the ground of the tight between the well-to-do peophi (the Middle-Caste), and the Pailer, This would make his will absolute; the 52 IIISTOEY AND GEOGEAPIIY other would make its will absolute ! Tlie Sovereic:n who first liad this opposition seems to have been a fool, and the next, a knave — but neither had sufficient sense to arm soldiers enough to compel obedience, as was done on the ]\Iain Land — conse(|uently, after a good deal of wretched fighting between the Sovereign helped by nearly all the High-Caste, and the next Caste in the Aristocracy and well-to-do people, these last succeeded, and put the Sovereign to death. As is always the case, during a civil war, fanaticism arose. It based itself upon two points — the right of the people to rule, and the right of the gods of the Superstition, without any Pope, to be worshipped. This was a departure from the original dispute only in part ; because some had vehe- mently denied the whole notion of Pope-worshipping ; and as the Sovereign was English Pope, this pretension embittered the strife. ISTow, the Aristocracy (High- Caste) upheld the Pope ; but the Second-Caste and the people, opposed ; and these, at length, for the time, carried all l)efore them ; destroyed the King, overthreA\' his worship as Pope; and established the gods of the Superstition, with such severity of worship (especially as to the rites and as to the Seventh-day), that. Society completely changed. Even the name of the State was changed ! The point, of the Bute of the fcoiile, was in this vindicated ; for the name of tlie State was— Cc»??i- nionwealth ; and of the Ptuler — Protector. ISTow, this so 'radical change was not real. It was the expression of that extreme agony into which Civil War hurries. The strong passions sway^the strongest rule. And the very able military man wlio organized the troops into the OF THE ENGLISH. 5o ways of an invincible army, thougli of the Aristocratic, Itigli-Caste connection, happened to have adopted the most severe notions of the great Superstition ; looked upon Christ-god merely as the Jah of the Jews ; wished to make the Sacral Writinys the law of the Land ; and to get himself proclaimed to l)e the Higli Priest and ruler of this new Jewish State ! This remarkable man, witli liis invincible troops, could not absolutely do this — but he did completely overawe and rule the State, causing liimself to be declared Protector of the. Commonwealth I Witii the death of this strong man, there being no successor to his ability, repression soon relaxed ; the Aristocracy came out of their seclusion ; the gloom of fanatical worship brightened in the natural love of rational life. Sociciij rebounded irom the low depres- sion ; ancient feelings, habits, sports, reasserted them- selves. Communities do not radically change, at once — such a thing to be beneficial, must l^e cautious. A tree, though misshapen, may not be plucked up by the roots violentlv, and forced into uncongenial soil ; to im- prove its beauty and use, a different method must be sought : only, if the tree l)e actually dying, possibly, a €omplete and radical change may save it — at any rate it is the sole chance ! Tlie troops, wholly devoted to their late great General, found no one on wliom they could rely; and another portion of the Army in tlie far North, was induced iictively to assist the Aristocracy. These, joined by the middle classes, M'ho had wearied of the too gloomy Avorship and severe rites, hastened to recall a Son of him whom they had not long before put to death, and 54 IIISTOEY AND GEOGRAPHY place him upon the Throne. They declared him to be Sovereign-pope : they restored the old form and name of government; and rescinded nearly everything done by the Commonwealth. In this Restoration (as the English call it) is another event, considered by them, of great importance. In this Eestoration (a natural effect of the fanaticism largely charged to the greater ignorance of the lower castes) the High-Castes again became predominant. They again took influence and power everyAvhere, and retained the fruits of the civil struggle in their hands. They had aided the resistance to the arbitrary will of the Sovereign ; and they now grasped and enjoyed the power wrested from him. They, alone, could impose taxes. ~Eo Sovereign would again dare to tax the people (that is, the High-Castes) without their consent. But tlicij would levy and raise taxes- when they pleased. Thus holding the Purse of the State they had become supreme. On the death of this Eestored one (who turned out to be so base that the common people often deplored the loss of the late great General), a brother reigned. This man, as I have said (wishing to Avorship the Eome- pope) Avas driven out by his son, forming the epoch. Glorious. The present Queen is of the dynasty then established; and during this period the absorption of power by the High-Caste has gone on. Taught by the- Slaughter of the late King, his successor feared; and the new dynasty was compelled by the Aristocracy to submit to those limitations of power, which effectually placed authority in their hands. To secure this autho- rity, the Sovereign was not allowed any money to keep OF THE ENGLISH. 55 troops ; and, if, on any pretence, troops were raised, they were immediately refused pay, and forced to Le disbanded upon the least suspicion that they would be used to strengthen the Sovereign. The aristocracy had continued to strip him also of all private revenue ; and had, in fact, reduced him to a dependency upon them for his daily subsistence [l>ran-te]. Thus, the High-Caste, acting by the forms of the Grand Council, seized power. It is proper to explain the substance and form of this Council. It is divided into two parts — Uiipcr House, and Lower House. The JJpj)er are the Lords [Cheang] of Lands and Lords of the Temples — (High-State Sect.) The Lower are lords, brothers, sons, nejihews, rela- tions, and devoted servants of the Upper ; and are far more numerous. No rule can be made, nor law, without both these bodies consent to it. This they do by asking each one his opinion, and a majority decides. Everything of importance must originate in the Lower House, and first be settled there. Then, the will of the Lower House is communicated to the Upper House, and it is ordered to ratify it. The members do so, and the Sove- reign (or somebody requested thereto by him) approves (as the English politely phrase it) ; and the thing, so approved, is a new Law. ISTow, no Sovereign dares not a])inovc — it might cost him his head. The last one, many years ago, who thought he might risk it, soon gave up the attempt, and died in a madhouse. 56 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY It will be seen, that the power in the Lower House will necessarily fall into the hands of any one who can obtain adherents enonoli to his opinions to secure a majority of members. The most ready debater [Qu- iztsi], the coolest and self-possessed, who has made himself master of the wishes of the majority ; or, who, to these things, or with only a part of them, has great wealth and influence — one, in fine, who knows and divines what is wanted, and has the ability to lead ; — directs and orders the measures which are to be adopted. This man, who controls the Lower House, governs the State. He nominates those who shall assist him in the government, Ijeing the same who aid him in managing the House. Thus, the Lower House governs by its delegates. All these men, who are really a Committee [ty-gi-te] of the House for the ruling of the Kingdom, act in the name of the Sovereign, and receive the ancient titles of office from him. The ancient forms are preserved ; and these men, obeying the House, profess to obey the Sovereign — in fact, the Sovereign is pretended to be the source of honour and of authority ; and the very Laws which have been made against his wish are declared to be his Laws I Thus, both the Sovereign and the people are amused. The one, by the respect shown to him, the emoluments and influence of his high office, and of his Pope-ship; the others, by some semblance of political [in-tri-gsi] power. This consists in calling together a few of the people of second and lower caste, to choose a new mem- ber for the Lower House — but this is (juite a comedy, OF THE ENGLISH. o7 [sluuu-li] for the most jiart. It gives tlie ignorant Bar- barians a notion of seli-im]iortance, and tickles them witli the fancy that they really have a part in tlie government of the State. Whilst these changes in the ordering of things at liome were in progress, the usual fierce and bloody ex- peditions of these Barbarians had not been suspended. The Americans had succeeded in establishing tlieir independent power, but not till they had waged a second war with their late masters, scarcely less important to them than the first. Tor the Englisli, still looking upon them with disdain, insisted upon the right to stop any of the vessels of the Americans upon the high seas, and to seize and carry away to their own ships any one whom they pleased. They would do this, and force the victims of their insolent cruelty to fight for them in their horrible war-ships. The American Barbarians resisted this outrage ; and, forced to fight a bloody war, vindicated their just cause; so that never since have the English, or any other Bar- barians, dared to board or outrage the ships or the sailors [mer-tsi] of tlie Americans. This stul)born and brutal barbarity, love of plunder and traffic, have involved the English during the pre- sent dynasty in numberless wars beyond seas. They have internally avoided great commotion, although the low castes have occasionally perished in surprising numbers by famine and disease. In Ireland the de- population has exceeded anything recorded. The poor people of the Northern parts also, driven away from tlieir homes, have nearly disappeared, unless in the 58 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY armed bands sent over the sea. With these, the poor and despised Irish are in great numbers also ; and, indeed, the strength and ferocity of the armed bands depend upon these, the most degraded and lowest caste of the Barbarians. In this way, the most turbulent and ignorant have been drawn off, trained to use of arms, and used to spread and maintain the terror and power of the English. Many of the low- castes liave been shipped away in great ships to distant parts to form new settlements, and to add to those already begun. By these means, and from the increase of riches from trade, and frofii plunder of remote regions giving employment to the low orders, great disorders have been avoided. The plunder of the vast treasures of the Princes of the Hindoos, and the trade which has been forced upon them, and upon others, have contributed to this end. The result of increased wealth has been, however, mostly to the gain of the High- Castes ; who, holding the Lands, have found in the enormous increase of value in these an additional strength. Tlie numbers of the rich have increased ; and these always look to the Castes above, and draw away as far as possible from those below. The poor remained uneducated, and fell more completely under control. If one of their order benefited himself, he had no ambition higher than a desire to stand well with those above him. Thus Wealth, always joining itself to the Higher Castes, made the power of the Aristocracy [Fo-hi] quite complete, and tlie obedience of the com- mon people assured. Of this High-Caste the Sovereign is merely the ornamental top. The learning of the Eomans made but little advance, I OV THE ENGLISH. 59 until very lately. The great Schools had some of the nigh-Caste within their walls ; the mass of the people remained ignorant, fierce, and brutal. The laws con- tinued to be in a most dreadful state ; the prisons, foul dens of disease, cruelty and crime ; the administration of Law, and disposal of offenders, savage and barbarous in the extreme. The learning took mostly a fantastic [pa-ntsi] form — pedantic, busied with the mere shells of words, and names of things. It Inisied itself chiefly with the old languages of the liomans and the Greeks. A man Avho could repeat aloud from memory the modes of a Greek word was a man of profound learning. Of our Central Kingdom, of the wisdom and knowledge of the great East, they knew nothing ; but nursed an intolerable con- ceit in admiration of the trivialities of their own igno- ranee, and by disdaining to understand a civilization of which they knew nothing — branding it as idolatrous, dark, Pagan ! Still, gradually, intercourse and larger acquaintance with the main parts, revived the love of Eoman art ; and the Eoman civilization once more revived. Eoman architecture, sculpture, learning, laws appeared. The style of public buildings, houses of the High-Castes, Bridges, took on the Eoman forms. The Literati be- came more numerous ; and, with the increasing riches, larger numbers became instructed. A long, bloody and disastrous War, which ended only a few years ago, moderated the intolerant selfishness of the Barbarians. It left them so crushed down under the weight of innu- merable taxes, that it began to be seen that these inter- 60 IIISTOEY AND GEOGRAPHY iiiinaLle Wars beyond Seas, were not paid for by the gains of trade, nor by acquisitions of territory. This moderation was strengthened Ijy the lietter and in- creasing knowledge : and Wars are not, in general, so eagerly waged. The oldest child of a Eiiler succeeds— male first, and failing him, a female. Tlie direct descent from the eldest always succeeds, to the exclusion of the j^ounger. It is justly claimed that this is an element of sta- bility; though it contains a foolish omission. For there is no recognized authority which can set aside an heir in the direct Line for however good cause. Thus the danger of a violent succession is always imminent — and of this the English history has many examples. In our Elowery Land, this danger is averted by the wise cus- toms of the great Calao. In my lleport, I have explained at length the rules which govern in transactions with foreign tribes ; and showm the maxims needful for our Illustrious, in all negotiations and dealings witli the Western Barbarians. As trade (particularly by the English) is the grand ob- ject, I have pointed out how to deal in this matter, in such way as to yield no more than is convenient, nor sooner than is expedient. The Committee who govern, preserving ancient forms, administer tln-ough them, in the name of the Sovereign. These forms assume three great divisions, one of them being two-fold : spiritucd, referring to the great Super- stition ; and the other tem.poral ; this is quite nominal, for the " temporalities " always touch matters spiritual in some wav. UF THE ENGLISH. 61 The First is the Executive. The Second is the Parliament. The Third is the Judiciah The Executive— that is that wliich executes — has two parts. Spiritual, (the ghostly, the unlaiown,) per- forming all things concerning the Sovereign-Pope, the Temples, the worship, the Bonzes. Temporal, ordering the military forces by land and by sea, seeing that the laws are obeyed, and ruling the Hindoos and other distant peoples and settlements. Also arranging all matters with other Christ-god Barbarians, and with all foreign peoples. The Law-making, called Parliament, or place of talk- ing [Ba-ble]. This is the Grand Council already re- ferred to, divided into the Upper and the Lower House, together really forming one, where all Eules and Laws are made. Here rests the Supreme Authority ; and this body is controlled by the Committee, as before explained. The Upper House is composed of Lords, wdio sit there in right of birth, except the S]jiriiiial Lords, who are the great Bonzes (called Bishops) of the Superstition. For- merly, this Upper was, next after the Sovereign, most powerful, and often over-ruled, and even dethroned him. But the greater intelligence has reduced its influence, and made innoxious its mischievousness. Even its aristocraticalness could not blind the Lower House to an Imbecility inherent in its very constitution. Born Law-makers ! The proportion of idiots, worn-out and selfish Tou^s (we have no similar Avord), narrow caste- bound egotists, at last, wearied even its congeners, and they left to the Lords [Tchou] the ancient Eorms, but 62 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY deprived them of all real power. This might not have happened, l)ut that from the very nature of things the numbe]' of Peers (as a Lord is called, who has the here- ditary law-making right) who are active and young is inconsiderable; and, for the most part, these prefer out-door sports, pleasures of wealth and travel, to sitting among tlie elders to be snuhhcd for youthful inexperience. The result is that all warmth, life, and interest, all generous disinterestedness, are unknown hy these venerable egotists. They are sufficiently amused with hereditary titles, Avitli the respect shown to their rank, and with the playing at Law-making. They are too conceited to see that they are " puppets," and too small to desj)ise the Jwnours which conceal their insignificance. Are they not exalted above and separated from the " common-herd " 1 [kou-tong]. C> They are completely engrossed with the trivialities of their rank (High-Caste). They wait upon the Sovereign like menials, tricked out in furs, feathers, and robes, and jewelled chains, stars and garters, sparkling in gems, silk hose, and the very shoes resplendent with precious stones ! On great occasions they are allowed (and this permission must come from the Sovereign) to place upon the head a golden and jewelled " circlet," named coronet. With this head-gear glittering about their brows, they receive the respectful reverence of the people, and feel a greater exaltation than the gods. " Ah," as the Barbarians say, " who would not be a Lord ! " A special Superstition attaches itself to this head- ornament. That worn by the Euler is called a Croum. When he places it on in public, the trumpets give a OF THE ENGLISH. Go mighty sound, all the people how in hiimhle lioniage, and Nature is supposed to arrest the wheels of her majestic course to join in the rapturous shouts of de- light ! The act is rooted in the Superstition, and one of its most cherished tilings. The highest ambition of a subject is to be permitted to take Bank and wear this haublc. There is no mean service to the Ruler, no intrigue, no sacrifice which may not be done or suffered to get this privilege — the right to shine in this coronet. And such an ambition is so honourable, that success condones every contemptible thing by which it is secured. Men are blinded by the glare, and overlook the mean being below : in his Coronet he is unimpeached and unimpeachable ! Nor is this' ambition confined to the Lords temporal ; the High-Caste Bonzes will not be remiss in those duties to the Sovereign and to his family, in those to " Society" and to the exalted Lords, upon whom they have to attend on all occasions of baptising and marrying and feasting, to give the Ucssings [fihu-lsi] of the gods of the Superstition — in nothing remiss Avhich shall help them to secure the peculiar licad-guw given to those of their order whom the Sovereign raises to the lordly rank called Bishops. It is called a mitre. Ages ago, in the obscure days of the Superstition, poor and miserable, the chief Bonzes were distinguished by a head-covering like two bits of board, united or mitred together, typi- cal of the two-fold nature of their office. Thus arose the Mitre, now a resplendent and costly bauble, more lofty than the coronets, and showing the superiority of spiritual (priestly) dignity ! * 64 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 111 these coveted distinctions, the Sovereign finds the source of nearly all the power really enjoyed ; and by an artful use and distribution of coronets and mitres, often covertly manages the machiner}^ of government to his own wishes. An unscrupulous and able man may make himself respected ! I forgot to say that another jewelled symbol of priestcraft is bestowed with the mitre, so comical that one might suspect it originated in the love of coarse humour common to the Barbarians — but its true origin was in the same early and poor days of the Superstition, when the highest Bonze w^as only a "Keeper of the Sheep ; " that is, his duty^was to keep the poor devotees together and save them'from the idolatrous jja/zaws. The Christ was said to have called his despised followers " Sheep without a shepherd," and to have requested the chief of his followers " to feed his sheep." Thus it came about that these chief men took a staff, crooked at one end (similar to that used by a veritable shepherd), as typical of their duty. "With the mitre is, therefore, handed a costly Crosier — crooked and crossed stafi" — to enable the Lord Bishop to jJM^^ in the wandering sheep, or to catcii hold of any which may have slipt down into deep holes, or other rough places ! " Fancy a Lord Bishop catching sheep!" — said a jocose Barbarian to me once. The crowning of a new liuler is a grand ceremony, in wdiich all the w^earers of the little crowns {coronets and mitres) attend ; and no IJuler is a Euler unless he bo CROWNED, with all the superstitious rites. To this 1 may refer elsewhere. At present, I may mention that the history of all the Barbarians, and notably that of OF THE ENGLISH. 65 the English, is a story very ofteu of the wars, assassina- tions, plots, and cruel deeds done to seize the Grown : for whoever could contrive to clap this thing upon his head was at once King ! In the eyes of the supersti- tious invested with a sort of divinity ! This feeling is Avell expressed by their greatest poet: "What a divinity doth hcchjc a King ! " This is, doth encompass and protect a King. When the Law-making Houses meet, the custom is for the Sovereign to attend in all his State, and 02)cn the Houses. That is, to swing open the grand doors of the Upper House for the Lords, and especially for the Lower members ; who, on this occasion, are admitted to enter in and listen to the Gracious Speech. The rush of the Low-meml^ers is frightful, for the Doors are only opened for a very short time. The speech itself is nothing — merely some polite phrases as to the health and happiness of " our beloved Lords and gentlemen " (as the form is), and some Incantation to the gods of the Superstition, " on the prosperity and successful trade of our subjects." The great Lords sit like gods, effulgent, exalted; whilst the Low-members crowd like school- boys, and as rudely as school-boys, below. This is another thing by which the childish Lords are amused with a notion of power. The present Sovereign rarely opens the Houses, but delegates some great Lords to do it for her. And the ceremony is far less. - The Crown and the Crown Jewels are, therefore, so rarely seen, that the divinity of the Ituler is in danger ; for the Superstitious reverence and pope-worship attaches to the Crown. These Crown E D G6 HISTGEY AND GEOGEAPHY Baubles are, by the present Euler, kept imprisoned and guarded in a huge stone castle, so strong that no force but of nature can throw it down, and are cautiously shown to the admiring and dazzled few who are allowed by the guards to see them, at " a penny a-peep " (as an American Barbarian said in my ear, on the day of my seeing them). In this he referred to the fee [tin] which is exacted before admission, and which (I was told) went to the privy-purse of the Queen to buy pins. The Barbarians boast that these glittering fjcicgaws cost more than all the Halls of Learning ! The Judicial is the remaining great division of administration. In this the Laws are explained and applied. No law is, by this department, ever made. It has no such function. None the less, it really makes new laws, and unmakes the Statute Law (that is, the Law enacted by the gi-eat Council of Law-makers) just as it pleases. In fact the chief business of this depart- ment is to unmake the Laws, and the chief business of the Council is to make them over again. And between the two, of the making of Law there is no end, nor any possible understanding. Were not the Barbarian body and mind very tough, they would infallibly perish beneath the weight of this inscrutable and ponderous contrivance. No one is benefited by it, but the in- numerable officers who manage it, and the Lawyers, who fatten upon the fees [tin-tin] which it wrings from all the unfortunates who have to attend upon it. These Lawyers form a special and veiy exclusive Caste ; often at dispute among themselves upon points of personal concern, and as to the emoluments and offices which apper- OF THE EXGLISir. G7 tain to the Caste, "but always united (and so-called Brothers) as to everything outside, by which they can' more effectually conceal and mystify tlie nature of tlieir order, and the more adroitly plunder tlie uninitiated. This is the Caste which opposes every inquiry into al luses and every attempt to ref(jrni the administrati( m ; which shouts the loudest praises to the Superstition, puts in force all the terrors of the Caste and of the Law (as by them expounded) to destroy any one who does not adore the glorious event, and declare the Constitution and the Laws, the Crown and the Altar (meaning the Superstition), the most perfect of all human wisdom — indeed, Dicinc. I have explained the Glorious event. To the Lawyer-Caste glorious in fees and means of plunder; in abuse's wdiich, had the reforms introduced before that event been perfected, would have been swept away ; reforms which that event postponed, and the subsequent wars and civil dissensions made not only impossible, but still more difficult in the future. In another place I propose to refer to this department — the Judicial — when speaking of tlic Courts of Justice Avherein the Laws are expounded and applied : because, as in these the daily course of the life of a people may be studied, I wish to look curiously into them. It will be readily seen, however, that for a stranger to find, beneath the thick and manifold wrappings and pon- derous obscurities of the Lawyer-Caste, where Justice, lies smothered, is no easy task. The present Ituler is of the so-called ^/o/it)^^* dynasty, and is more wise and virtuous than lier ancestors, who were remarkable for obstinacy, meanness, stupidity, and 68 HISTORY AXD GEOGRAPHY debauclierv. If one had a virtue, it was so misdirected hy narrowness of mind as to be worse than vice. The best man of them was the most mischievous Sovereign and the wisest thing done by any of the dynasty was to keep away from England. When they did nothing they did well ; their activity was disastrous. The Queen now reigning is esteemed by the Aris- tocracy because she leaves them to do as they please, and gratifies them l)y bestowing upon them and their devoted supporters coronets. She only demands for her- self and her numerous children am2)lc 2Jrorisio')is ; if in o these she be gratified, she cares not to vex herself or her Lords by any disputes. She is very benevolent, filling the great palaces with 2^oor relations, where they are supported — not by her. On the marriage of one of her royal children her munificence is unequalled ; but she asks her devoted Lords to tax her subjects to pay for it ! Her allowances are, with wise iwlicy, made very ample, that a splendid Court may be kept up, to give places to the aristocracy, and to gratify the love of display. In this the Lords are generous ; it costs them nothing, the taxes upon the people cover the expenses. There are murmurs that the crown is never shown ; that Eoyalty is hidden from view, and that the reverence of the peoi)le wanes ; that the allowances designed and hereto- fore used to maintain a grand Court of respeet and honour are misdirected, and get into the ijrivate pocket of Royalty for merely personal objects. But he who should dare openly to say this, unless of a very High Caste, would assuredly have his ears cropped [ku-tof.] . The reign has not been without bloody wars ; one of OF THE ENOLISir. GO wliicli was to uphold a sick Turk (an outside Barba- rian, who liates the very name of Christians, and calls them dogs), and whom tlie English Barbarians them- selves despise. Yet, they rushed with great ships and armed bands to attack another Christ-god tribe, who threatened the sick Turkish chief; because, as they thought, their trade was best secured by helping the Turk I This foolish war cost thousands of the lives of the English sailors and armed bands, but what is far more consequential to the Ijarbariaus, many millions [li-re] of gold. It ended in nothing at all ; for the great tribe which h^st in the war some ships and some forts, taken Ijy the English, have now rebuilt them more strongly than before, and again threaten the sick Turk more than ever I When the American Barbarians had a domestic contention- — some of them wishing to deliver a poor people held in slavery, by a custom in some of their provinces, from the cruel wrong — the English Barbarians sided with those who wished to keep the slaves. They •did this notwithstanding that always before they had almost quarrelled with the American tribes for allowing this very thing ! jSTow, however, because they did not like to have that people great in ships, and because they thought it would be safer for them and better for their trade, to have the American tribes broken to pieces, insidiously aided those who fought to hold the slaves, in every way they could without open war. But the slave-holding tribes were overpowered, and the slaves set free. Presently, the American Barbarians demanded that they should be repaid some of the monies which 70 HISTORY AND GEOGRAI'IIY this treaclieroiis conduct had cost thein — the lives could not be repaid. The English Barbarians, fearing the American tribes — very valiant, and having many ships — finally submitted to pay a heavy penalty for their wrong doing 1 Lately, also, the English Barbarians have stood silent and seen another tribe on the Main Land (which aided them just before in the War for the Turk, and, in fact,, saved them from being shamefully beaten) completely overthrown and mercilessly sacked l)y another tribe — when a kindly word would have saved great suffering. But it does not displease the English Barliarians to see another tribe weakened — and their trade was not touched in this war — in fact, perhaps they had more to gain by pleasing the strong tribe which came out victorious. The English themselves complain that, lately, they have not distinguished themselves by their usual glorious expeditions ; that their war-ships and their fierce war- riors are getting out of use, and that the late Committee of Government, made the name of England inglorious. This feeling at length got possession of the Lower House, and a new Committee apjaeared. These say that the attempt to carry on affairs with other tribes, upon the moral rules of the Christ-god worship, although the tribes are devotees, is absurd. That the late Com- mittee, who had some slight notion of correct moral precepts, and thought possibly one might venture to trust the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, ^xero, pcace-at-any- priec men, milksops (a term of reproach equivalent to milkmaids) [kin-e-suk], and that, in their hands, the OF THE ENfiLTSIT. 71 English Lion had been muzzled — made an object of con- tempt ! (This bloodthirsty beast is the admired syndjol of English power.) This new Committee are pledged to seize the very first occasion which may offer to exhibit the .BritlsJi Lion (as he is styled) with his mnzzle off, his claws sharpened, and his frame well fed and strong. T'hc taxes are raised and the most exact attention is devoted to all needful things to perfect this beast to the standard of his ancient might. And the present Government — Covimittcc — watch with keen eyes for that opportunity, when they shall suddenly let spring this monster ! It is supposed that the angry grovi [heuien-ro] will suffi- ciently alarm ; if not, the terrific roar [Zuung-luu] cannot fail ! The only drawback to this ferocious pastime will be found in those members of the Lower House, who, themselves bearing a good weight of taxes without the emoluments of office, may oppose the majority and reduce the arrogancy of its temper. Xone the less, in the present brutal conceit of the Lower House and of the lower orders, a war may at any moment break out, if for no other purpose than to show other Barbarians that the British Lion is still a Lion in full vigour! The idea of a dull, toothless, blind old brute, which even a jackass (as one of the Barbarian fables has it) may kick with impunity, is too intolerable ! The morality of the present Eoyal Court is said to be admirable — when you can once find the Eoyal resi- dence. But this is quite a myth. There is, in this reign, no Eoyal Court, only a domestic circle — a Eoyal 72 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY Family — not kept up with so much spleudour as some of the homes of the High-Caste. It is said that no suitor of an improper moral colour may approach any Princess, unless he be a cousin of the Queen, when the blood sanctifies the taint, and all is clean. If a real cousin be not of these suitors, one as nearly related among the poverty-stricken princes of the Barbarians from the Main Land as can be had, is selected. He must profess to worship the great Superstition of the English Sect, and detest the Eoman Pope — at least, in public. His poverty is no objection — that is more than counterbalanced by the Illustrious obscurity of his race — that is, some family which ages ago contrived to live by plunder, and by making itself safe within the walls of stone castles, among steep rocks and hills. A family whose descendants feel more pride in these, now, old and ruinous wrecks of former insolence, than in any other possession — and whose alliance is acceptable to the English Queen ! The poverty of these petty chiefs is, however, removed ; nor do they marry a I'rincess of the English Queen unless they be paid for it. It is not the Queen who pays ; the occasion is seized upon to obtain that jJ^'ovision to which I have referred. And the paltry chief, and his new, royal bride, know poverty no more; they, and their children, and chil- dren's children, are provided for by the Lower House, wlio tax the people for this privilege, so much valued by them ! — this privilege of succouring and enriching the worn out, useless and decaying chiefs of foreign Bar- barians, who have any, the remotest, trace of kinship to the Eoyal House of England ! OF THE ENGLISH. 73 The more considerable events, therefore, in the present reign, as the Barbarians think, have reference to these marriages of Eoyal Princesses, births, christenings (baj)- tizings), deaths, and the like among them. The Low- House readily takes these opportunities to profess its homage and devotion. The Queen follows the Sacred Writings with great exactness, which commands " take €are of those of your own blood " — indeed, her devotion to this precept is, perhaps, more noticeable than her devotion in general. Her Illustrious presence is rarely known among the people. When she does appear, she is hardly more than respectfully and silently worshipped. She does not at- tract the love of the people — though she is (as a sly Barbarian youth of the Low-Castes once said to me, sarcastically), very dear [chean]. (A pun [phu-nsi] on the word ; which may mean beloved, or venj costly). "When, as rarely happens, to honour some Show wherein the Itoyal presence may bring money to a •Charity, the Queen appears, surrounded by Eoyal guards, and in State, there is always to be seen a gigantic ser- vant, dressed in the scarlet of the Eoyal household, seated immediately behind the Sacred Person, to watch over and rescue her from any danger. His body and mighty strength are always ready to be interposed ! This favourite servant, it is said, assists her Illustrious, when, among the hills of the Far North, she visits the great, high rocks, and climbs the sides of mountains — his strength is so ready, trusty, and invaluable ! To her, and to her subjects, a great loss was inflicted when Death destroyed the youthful Consort of the 74 HISTORY AXD GEOGEAPHY Queen, when she v/as still young. He was one of ancient family among the petty Barbarian chiefs to whom I have referred ; was near in blood to the Queen, and by her greatly beloved, it is said. He was never allowed any power in the State, and was a subject of the Queen, though her husband. It is whispered that he did not quietly submit to this condition of things — but it would not be worth the notice of a wise man to attend to this gossip. I could never learn that he was of any use ; but, none the less, the Barbarians exalt him very highly, and have built lofty monuments to his honour. I said use — I forgot — he gave a very numerous brood of princes and princesses to the English Barbarians. Of these they are very proud — not because they do, or can ever do, anything useful, but because it adds to the number of the High-Castes, and around them very many poor members of that caste can cluster, and live upon the cast-off clothes and other second-hand things of these exalted I On the whole, we may desire the long continuance of Her Illustrious' reign. If her will were law, dis- tant plunderings would cease ; and her intluence is better than may generally be looked for. She cannot prevent, but she may moderate those expeditions despatched to subjugate the Heathen, extend trade, and bring under the dominion and worship of the Christ- god distant tribes. Great guns, fire-arms, gunpowder, and a poisonous liquor called Paim, would, perhaps, under other sovereigns, even more frequently be sent to prepare the way for the Prince of Peace (as the Christ- god is often styled). OF THE ENGLISH ' 75 Some respect for Justice and some regard to tlie rights of others have been shown under the influence of this Ilhistrious; but, as we have seen, this, the most honourable distinction of the present reign, is likely to be oblite- rated. The old predatory instinct of the English Bar- barians again comes uppermost, and though caution and fear of taxes may make the Committee of Crovernment tardy and unwilling to attack (unless some weak tribe, M'here victory would be sure and its glory conspicuous), yet, such is the prevailing temper, that hlood-lcttiw) seems needful to cool those fierce and haughty Bar- barians. A ferocious war may be looked for ; nor is it by any means incredible that the war-ships of these Christ-god worshippers and their murdering bands should again be directed against our peaceful Central Kingdom ! 76 S0:\1E PARTICULARS OF THE CHAPTER III. SOME PARTICULARS OF THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. The whole country is divided into districts, in general governed, like our Provinces, in the Sovereign's name, by viceroys and governors. The heir to the Crown, if he be the son of the reign- ing Ruler, is Prince of Wales — a title bestowed upon his eldest son by an ancient king ; and which, at the time, gave the administration of that Province to this sou. The eldest son of the Queen now enjoys with this title also that of Duke, of Cornwall. These lofty de- signations confer no power, although they carry with them high distinction and great revenues. The Aristocracy in the case of the heir, as in that of the Sovereign, watch jealously anything which looks like intellect. They do not stint personal respect and ample revenues, Ijut take care that upon coming to the Crown, the new Sovereign shall be a " puppet." He is, whilst heir, not allowed to take any kind of share in government, but is surrounded liy flatterers, unkeys [pluc-ngi], idle young people of both sexes, and, from mere want of useful business, falls into every sort of sport and pleasure. He must, indeed, be strong in morality and in character, if, upon coming to his high office, he be not reduced to the selfish imbecile and INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. "77 puppet, desired by the Higli-Caste. Lucky if he have not become absolutely contemptible by his vices ! Ireland is governed by a High Viceroy, whose chief employment is to amuse the Irish with shows — the real power being in the liands of the General of the armed bands. Anciently, the Provinces were administered by Vice-roys, who possessed authority; but the pettiness of the Island and swiftness of communication have now concentrated all actual administration at the Capital city. The Provincial governors, however, keep up some show of the ancient order, and, nominally, command the Provincial Militia. This is a merely nominal force, composed of butcher-boys, farmer-lads and the like, who do not know how to handle ix fire-arm, nor how to fight, unless in the Barbarian pastime of the Ring : a combat wherein the young Barbarians, two being pitted against each other, try each to hit the other a terrible blow directly in the eye. This, done with the hand doubled up, nearly destroys that organ. He is victor who succeeds in hitting both eyes of his antagonist, and fairly blinding him ! This, a common and admired sport, is greatly esteemed by the English Barbarians, and considered an admirable training. It develops the ferocity and brutality required to make good soldiers (plunderers), and the powers of endurance indispensable in the distant forays. Even in the Halls of Learning, it is thought to be a manly science, fitting the young Aristocracy to match any man in personal conflict, and enabling him to be self-possessed and ready to fight his way through the world. As, in general, the lowest orders are badly fed and reduced in strength, and. 78 SOME PARTICULARS OF THE tliougli well used to brutal figlits, yet are not trained to the Science, the young Aristocrat is expected "to pummel the brute" upon the slightest occasion of dis- respect. The provincial Magistracy are mainly employed in keeping the Lower-Castes in order, and especially in punishing trespasses upon the lands, or upon the con- venience of the Higher-Castes. The most common form of trespass is that called PocicMng. The High- Castes own all the lands, and the Low-Castes, who till the soil, are the ancient slaves — slaves no longer under any law, but nearly as much so by custom. Very poor, but little better than beggars, and really beggars in large numbers, and hungry, the temptation to knock over the alDundant nearly tame creatures (birds, fowls, hares, and the like) everywhere around them in the fields and copses, is too strong to be resisted. To do this is to be a Pociclier — a criminal most detested by the High-Caste ; for he presumes to think, in some cases, that the right in these free creatures is not absolutely vested in the High-Castes. Yet this sort of property is most rigidly preserved, by the penalties of severe punishment, to the use of the High-Caste — for his sport in the shooting of them, rather than for food. The Poacher, who is merely tempted by hunger, and who abjectly begs pity and promises reformation, escapes in some instances lightly; but he who presumes to C|uestion the right to this wholesale appropriation feels the full wrath of the Law. Petty civil and criminal offences may be tried by the Provincial Magistracy; subject, however, in cases INTERXAL AU.MINIST15ATI0X. 79.' involving any interests of importance, to revision at the Capital. There is a sort of Provincial (and yet Metropolitan) Court called Coiivocation [Kal-ti-se]. In this, things touching the Christ-god Superstition are determined.. If a Bonze has not worn, or has worn improperly, his neck-tie, or his surplice [ro-bsi] ; if the table before the Altar (Idol) has been placed out of square ; for things of this sort — or if a Bonze be accused of departing from the ordered rendering of some word in the Sacred Writings, or of having said something contrary to the orders of Convocation or of the rites — for these and other things respecting the great Idolatry, Convocation sits. It is composed of High Bonzes and a few dele- gates of High-Caste devotees, whose duty is merely to ratify the decisions of the High Bonzes — these regulate everything. This High and Lofty Court was anciently styled Star Chamhcr, because exalted above mere mortal interests, and oidy concerned with the preservation of the Idolatry. Formerly it worshipped the Sovereign as Pope of the Superstition more devotedly than is the fashion at present, and burnt peojile to death for refusing to do so. Now it refrains from this severity, and is content (or tries to Tte) with depriving a Bonze who doubts, of his living, and all honours and emoluments. It still convenes in the old hall of its former glory. A venerable moss-covered pile, vast and gloomy, with lofty towers and turrets of rock, with hewn cells and deep dungeons. Here may be seen, fixed to the rock, the rings and chains, worn and rusty with age, where 80 SOME PARTICULARS OF THE the victims of superstition sufiered beneath the decrees of this ancient Court. Slow and proud, along the dark stone corridors, and beneath the dusky arches of this great prison-palace, the High Bonzes and the devotees walk in state. Ushered with pompous ceremonial, and with the OTand incantations to the gods and devils of the Superstition, into the lofty and obscure hall of the Star-Chamber, the Convocation sits. In deep alcoves around are stored the ponderous volumes, contain- ing all the mysteries and terrors of the Superstition. In these are the horrid imaginings of fanatical Priests and devotees ; the dogmas qm^ canons of the Superstition; the dreadful arsenal, whence were drawn those frightful weapons of superstitious terror, whence issued the chains and bolts, and scourges, the faggots and the flames. One hears the groans of the tortured, the steps of the jailers, the clashing of the chains, when, in these long and re- sounding aisles and arches, the winds moan, the distant footsteps fall, or the old casements in the ruinous towers shake and rattle. Xor is the arsenal wholly useless now ; the weapons are not all rusty ; anathemas may yet be found to terrify, and restraints to punish. Heresy [pho-phi], as any doubt concerning the Queen-pope and the Superstition is called, drives the culprit from Society, deprives the Bonze of all preferment, of liis employment, and turns him igno- miniously adrift, to live or to starve. Convocation watches over the Sacred Writings, to see that no change, not so much as of a syllable, be made ; not trusting to Jah, who may have himself, perhaps, £jrown indifferent to the matter. A curious thing. INTEUNAL ADMINISTRATION. 81 showing how irrationally men will act in respect of an irrational system. For the notion is that this Word of Jah (the Sacred Writings), being his Revelation (^Word), have always been by Him exactly pi'eserved. through all the ages and the changes of languages, and of transcription, and of everything to this liour. Why is it to be svipposed, then, that He will suddenly lose his power to preserve, or will be indifferent to preserve ? Punishments in the ordinary Courts are not very re- markable, only there is one so characteristic of the English, so comically barbarous, that I will try to de- scribe it. The offender is stripped naked to the waist, tied up with his hands widely extended, and with his face to a strong post ; then a man takes a large strong cat, kept hungry and savage for the purpose, and placing the creature at the back of the neck, draws it forcibly down the naked back. Of course the cat holds on with teeth and claws. This is repeated till the culprit faints, when the cat is removed. The back of the man is washed with vinegar and salt, and he revives, perhaps to undergo the infliction again. This astonishing mode of correcting offenders is called Jlogging with the cat. I may also make a remark upon another feature of criminal punishment. The crime of treason, not only insures the death, but the horrid mutilation of the culprit ; and, not satisfied with this, reaches to the innocent wife and children. All the estates, titles, honours, properties of the offender are sequestrated to the State, and his blood is attainted; that is, made incapable of giving honour and employment to his ofF- G 82 SOME PARTICULARS OF THE spring ! Thus the iunocent are disgraced, and reduced, not merely to beggary, but, as far as possible, placed in a condition of hopeless misery ! The Idolatry and Sacred Writings are, no doubt, responsible for this impolitic injustice and cruelty. For Jah is constantly made by the Priests to say, that he visits the sins of the father upon his child even to the tenth generation ! A natural development of the moral sense would fall short of this vindictiveness ; and in this false and horrible wrath, taught in their Sacred Writings, the fierce Barbarians are encouraged to outdo themselves ! The greatest of all the Courts, and which chiefly controls the others, is the High and Mighty Court of Chancery. It has many names — as Court of Equity, of the King's Conscience, and others — assuming as many styles and jurisdictions as the ancient Proteus of Egypt; who, as the Priests said, could take any form, or no form, be fire, or cloud, or invisible air. So this Court, feared by the Barbarians with a paralyzing dread, takes on any shape ! It stands for the King's conscience — which, as the conscience of a Pope-king, must be a doubly divine thing. For, as remarked else- where, "■Divinity doth hedge a King!" We, I think, should fear that this conscience would be as uncertain as the man. Its function is, therefore, to decide witlt Equity ; to relieve against the inexorable hardness of the ancient rules ; and give relief in cases of mistake, accident, and fraud. This looks admirable, but it is all aharti (phu-dgi). Not the least attention is really paid to equity, but INTERNAL ADMIXISTRATIOX. 83 only to the decrees of tlu' Court as recorded. A Suitor petitions for redress. The ])etition is not examined to he determined iipon the matters therein stated. First — The Petition must be in all respects in due form, according: to the recorded rules. Second — The matter •of it must be such as the Court will consider, and sucli iis may come before the Court. Tliird — Are the Parties in the Jurisdiction, and are all the parties who may be interested, duly notified and present ; or, if not present, £LCC0unted for. Fourth — Are the matters for the Court only, or must it be assisted by some ])etty judges to ascertain the facts. Fifth — The petition being at last before the Judge, he may not look into it, unless the Lawyers look into it with him ; and, then, no opinion (decree) can be given until the Records are fully examined, to discover if anything of the sort has hccn relieved. If a similar case be found, then the petitioner is called upon to prove his case as stated in his petition ; and, if he fail to prove his exact case (though he may make a stronger show for relief), he is ordered out of Court, and condemned to heavy costs (tin-tin). If the case be proved, then the Judge reserves Ids judgment. For he must very carefully compare all the cases, examine all the voluminous Records, besides examining the innumerable Papers which have grown up around the Petition during all the proceedings (often spreading over many years), before he dare to order the recording of his dcerec. For, this done, he has added another Case to the King's conscience ; that is, to the highest form of Law and of human Justice ! He dare not do this unless justified by the Records ; 84 SOME PAT.TICULAES OF THE interminable, stretching backwards to the first King who pretended to have a conscience ; obscure, contra- dictory — he dare not unless justified by the Eecords — Precedents. If he mistake, grossly, he will be certain to be called to account by the La%vyer-Caste, who make a business of seeking for discrepancies ; in fact, he is bewildered — not by the case ; that is simple, or was originally, simple enough ; but, by the arguments of the Lawj^ers, the documents overlying and enveloping the case, and hy the difficulty of deciding according to the Precedents. Could he merely announce his oivn judg- ment, there is no difficultv — but that is the last thins: to be thought of — in truth, if reduced to that, he is bound to refuse any relief, however clear it is that eqiiity requires it ! Thus the Judge, old and wearied; a man tottering- over his grave, feeble, irresolute, takes the course which may be looked for — and postpones, and postpones; other ike cases accumulate on his hands ; he dismisses some, " reserves " others, refers to another judge what he can decently, decides none ! Or only those which are petty, or those which are really unopposed, or those exciting no interest. Meantime, the parties to the Petition are dead, or absconded, or beggared. Years have elapsed; all parties are worn out or impoverished by the enormous expenses — at length, there is no one to pay Lawj'ers and the Com-t Officers — the thing lapses — dies. Term after Term (as Sessions of the Court are called), the Case is called. Some poor wretch struggles still to save something of the property tied up in the Court by the Case — he tries INTERNAL ADMINISTIJATION. 85 to call up from the mass of dusty and forgotten Records, a reminiscence of the lost Petition. In vain — the thing is a wreck, and has wrecked its builders ! The Case lies forgotten amid the interminable pro- cesses, affidavits, answers, pleas, replications, rejoinders, motions, applications, notices, subpcenas, summonses, commissions, bills of amendments, and of supplement ; documents of all sorts, making up the Case, mouldering away in the stone alcoves of the huge Eecords ; as the poor victims of it lie mouldering in similar forgetfulness ! Not, however, without profit to the Lawyer-Caste ; for some miscreant of this profession, perchance, discovering the Case, in his searches after means of spoil, sees how he may gain by it. He knows of an estate remotely touched by the matter of the old and forgotten Petition, and he knows quite well that there is really nothing affecting the property ; yet, he sees fees and spoil. It is merely to frighten the possessor of the estate by an intimation of a defect of title, and refer to this old Case, never decided. The handit [khe-te] sets in motion the machinery of the High Court of Chancery. One of its officers summonses the poor man to come into that Court, and ansAver to the allegations touching his right to possess the house in which, perhaps, he has lived for twenty years ! and lived without objection from any source ! Now it does not matter at all that there is no sort of ground for this attack ; the moment it is made, the title of the poor unoffending man to his own house is ruined — almost as completely as if by the sentence of the Court he had been deprived of it. The robber who 86 SOME PARTICULARS OF THE attacks wishes merely to force the owner of the house to buy him off. To secure this spoil he records his sum- mons in the Court, and from that moment no one will huy the house, nor will any one lend any money upon the security of it until that record be removed. If the victim of this oppression be in debt, or have but little money, or but little more than his house, or if he have borrowed money upon his house — in fact, unless he be a man quite rich, he is inevitably ruined ! He is ruined, because the lawyer has, h;/ the Becorcl, practically deprived him of liis estate. And this is done by a Petition to the Court, making allegations artfully and untrue. Yet, as they are not supported by any sort of evidence, and are merely bare insinuations often of any- body — it does not the least matter — is it not incon- ceivable that such a thing should be allowed ? That merely upon the Bccord of a Petition, without any evidence, without any character, without any surety for its truth, without any, the least, inquiry, or any, the smallest deposit in Court to cover the expenses to which the summoned party may be put, should it ap- pear he has been wrongfully summoned — this great injustice may be perpetrated, and perpetrated without risk of any punishment ! " But surely the Court will immediately dismiss this iniquitous case ?" !N"ot at all ; the Court cannot be reached; all the endless proceedings and delays already mentioned intervene. The fees and expenses are enormous — the decision far off. The vic- tim cannot get a hearing. He borrows monev and em- ploys lawyers — in vain. He can do no more — he is bankrupt. The lawyer who has ruined him gets. INTERNAL ADMIN ISTUATION. 87 nothing in such a case, because the victim prefers poverty to gratifying the rol)ber. He gets nothing, because he has no real case, and drops it as soon as he sees he can make nothing out of it. Should the party be very rich upon whom the robbery is attempted, he may light it out and finally clear his property, and get a decree for some costs (only a portion) against the other party. But this decree is worthless ; the party has no property and cannot pay. He has fought for luck, having nothing to lose, but all to gain. Usually, however, as the Lawyer well knows, the party attacked will hurry to buy off the suit ! In this way, old Causes are Mines, Avhich the Lawyer- Caste work to their own peculiar advantage. They have every facility, both from their experience and from the usages of the Caste. The very Judges of the Courts are of the same Caste, and give every assistance in matters of forms, continnances, motions, dilatory pro- ceedings, and the countless processes by which Lawyers make fees and their clients are robbed. Thus the Court of Equity, with a mocking irony, becomes a Court of Iniquity ! and the very tribunal designed to do more perfect Justice is perverted to the most scandalous use — made an engine the most oppres- sive and destructive ever contrived for the misery of Society, short of one invented to destroy it wholly ! The Court was originally organised by Priests who had acquired the Eoman learning, or some tincture of it, and endeavoured to strengthen their own Class, and to soften the barbarous harshness of the common Law, by erecting this Court. The laws of the Barbarians 88 SOME PAllTICULAES OF THE were savage, in civil as well as in criminal things ; and the Priests, more cnltured, endeavoured to soften and temper this harshness, or, at any rate, to get more com- plete control by it. They formed it, and administered it at first, and for a' long time. But the Lawyer-Caste have now its administration, and they have not so much respect for the opinions of the general public as had the Priests, and have made the Court a hyc-icord and a shame [Kri-mi] ! The expenses and fees are beyond belief. A Lawyer who gets one good Chancery Case into his hands, lives upon it luxuriously. I was once shown a Bill of Costs, as these items of fees are styled. I observed that one would be charged for a thins; done and for the same thing not done — in other words, for the doing and for the not-doing. Thus, if one requests a thing be done, the Lawyer will charge for " receiving instructions," " for reducing the same to writing," " for instructing a clerk," and the like — then, having sent away the clerk on another matter, he will charo-e for taking new instructions and ooino- over the same ground again. Thus, actually charging for the delay and obstruction caused in the affair. Again, if you ask a Lawyer something, he w411 pre- sently say, " I must take counsel," meaning he wishes to ask another Lawyer. When the Bill is examined you will find, say, " for being asked and not knowing, 6s. 8d. ; for taking your instructions to counsel, 6s. 8d.; for attending upon counsel, £1 Is. ; for fair copy made for him, £2 2s. ;" and so on. Your simply unanswered question has thus served the following purposes : — If it INTKUNAL ADMIKISTIIATION. 89 had been answered at once the fee wouhl have Ijeon, say, Gs. 8d. ; hut as it was not, hut carried elsewhere, it has given the first Lawyer five times more of fees, and his brother in the Caste also a handsome sum ! One may judge how ignorant the first Lawyer will be likely to be, and how often he finds it convenient to help his higher Caste brother, especially when in helping him he so greatly helps himself! We have some cunning rogues in our Central Kingdom, but such astuteness as this is beyond them ! I once visited this tribunal of Chancery to witness the proceedings — but they are so dull and prolix as to drive one away as soon as possible. The presiding Judge, and all the High-Caste Lawyers, wear wigs and gowns. The lower Lawyers, who are called Solicitors, sit in a sort of well, below and at the feet of the High, and have no badge of distinction. In fact, they are not respected, and only tolerated Ijy the higwigs (as the High Lawyers are often called) as the jackals who pro- vide them with prey. They immediately act in matters with the victims of the Court, and do all the dirty work, extracting the fees, and the like — the High Lawyers taking the most of the plunder, although, for decency sake, they will not see the victims of their rapacity if they can help it. The ivigs spoken of are very absurd, and make the wearers seem to be engaged in masquerading, or fooling. (We have no term corresponding to the former.) The lappets of thick hair come down over the ears of the Judge, to enable him (as it occurred to me) to take his naiJ [qu-iz] with less danger of being disturbed. 1)0 SOME PAETICULARS OF THE ^0 one can be a Judge, nor a High-Caste Lawyer, wlio does not wear the wig. It has a funny aj^pendage he- liind, like a pig's tail, exactly fitting to fall upon the small of the neck ; and is itself a curiously curled " frizzle " of horsehair, selected for uniformity oi' whitish colour. There is something cabalistic in this thing, which is carefully hidden . froni the outside world. If a Judge take it off, all business immediately stops, A Lawyer instantly loses his power of speech if his wig fall off. It was told me in confidence, that the tail (like that of swine) had a peculiar significance, to say ; the utter selfishness of the Caste and greed — another whispered a darker thing, referred to the Devil of the Superstition : that, anciently, this Caste struck a bargain with the Demon, and he made it obligatory upon the Lawyers always to wear this chief sign of diabolism ! This may be merely the chaff [pti-ni] of these Bar- barians. At anv rate, something; occidt is attached to the thing ; and a curious respect is shown to it, mixed of fear and contempt, even by outsiders. The Judge sits so highly exalted, as to be out of the way of hearing the passages occurring among the Law- yers. He is generally half- blind, half-deaf; quite worn out with age, and the ceaseless wretchedness of his Court and the Lawyers, and incapable of vigorously dealing with anything. In this Court the most im- becile is most fit ; for nothing is expected but imbe- cility (so far as the public is concerned), and fees for Officers and Lawyers. When a Case is on, the Lawyers begin to talk, and to INTKUNAL ADiMINISTUATION. 91 read from the big books, on one side, and tlien on the other. Neither tries to get at the trutli, but each in turn does his best to mislead the Judge. Both read from the interminable and conflicting Eecords, and both find ample records which lit the precise Case, which each contends for. The poor old Judge, now and again, takes a note of these quotations from the Big Books of records — for he is to decide not upon the equity but upon the records, as we have seen. By the time he has found his spectacles [Qu-iei] he has forgotten the Book, the number, the Eecorder's name, and the many other things, needful to find where the record is, and when he is again told, lifting up his wig-pallet, he only hears imperfectly, and mistakes. So, when, perhaps a long time after, he tries to make up a decree to fit the Case, the record to which he turns refers to nothino; in the world like what was intended ! Hour after hour, and sometimes day after day, these speeches of the Lawyers go on. For the longer the talk the larger the fees — nobody thinks of Justice ! The old Judge understands the trick of the farce going on, per- fectly well ; in his younger days he was famous for his skill in all the arts of the High-Caste Lawyers, and obtained his present position on that account, and be- cause others wanted to get a formidable rival out of the way; he "understands how very little (but fees) is in- volved in the endless talk and reading, and begins to nod — even, the gods would nod. The Lawyer observes, stops a bit ; the unexpected silence awakens the wearied old man — he opens his watery, blinking eyes, fumbles his papers, or takes a pinch of snuff, and says : " Go on. 92 SOME PARTICULAKS OF THE "brother Bounce, I'm with you " — meaning lie is attending to him; and soon falls asleep again. Perhaps one of the talking Lawyers is of the High Q.C. I am told that such is the dread of this Lawyer- Caste, that the Sovereign constantly flatters the tribe, and gives to them the fattest [phig-sti] offices. All Judges and the Keeper of the Sovereign's Conscience — this Court — and a great many other most important pdaces, and exaltation to the Highest Caste of Lords [Tchou], falls to them by established rule — in truth, the Caste is chief in the Law-making Houses, and, conse- quently, in Government itself. The Q.C. is, however, a thing done to many who cannot, as yet, get fees from the public treasure, that they may get them from out- siders more amply. The right to 8,ttach these symbols to the name of Lawyer also gives him a sillc yoion (during the present reign) worked by the sacred hands of Eoyalty itself! The honoured wearer of this is a Q.C. — that is. Queen's Champion — and binds all its wearers to defend the Sacred Head (Pope) of the Super- stition from the machinations of the Evil One, and those of their own order who, sold to the Devil, may possibly be put up by him to plot mischief, not only against the general outside world, l)ut against " Crown and Altar ! " Perhaps, after days of this weary work, one of the Lawyers suddenly discovers that somebody, or some- thing required in the intricate and dubious ])rocesses, is wanting ; or in some document some erasure is de- tected ; or something to hany a point upon is seized hold of- — and at once a wrangle between the Lawyers INTEIINAL ADMINISTRATION. 93 ensues. The Judge fairly awakes ; the whole case hrcaks down [kei-tz-se] ; and everybody, but the poor victims in the case, anticipate more fees. The victims, however, who have already beggared themselves in it, suddenly despair ; perhaps the case never again comes on, and the property involved in it wastes away in dark obscurity beneath the gnawing rats, which infest the Court. Sometimes (as I was told) some poor man, or woman, who had scraped together the last farthings to pay the Lawyers (for they will in no wise act unless paid beforehand, feeling that such service as they render is not likely to be gratefully recompensed, and it being the severest rule of the order never to show any pity for outsiders), being in Court when they see all hope destroyed, and themselves and their children beggared, have fallen down and been carried out of Court with reason for ever gone ; or with such a deadly blow that never more do they revive, but soon die, and are buried at the public charge ! You will see wretched creatures trying to look decent in well-brushed rags, darned and patched, with shoes through which the toes protrude, but over which the blacking [di-yte] is carefully smeared — you will see these victims of the Court, like ghosts, flitting about the passages, and watching for the entry of the Jndge. One will attempt to address him — but he is con- veniently deaf. He knows the victim is there, and though a party may speak, has the right to speak for himself, and the Judge is bound to hear, yet, such a thing is unknown. The mysteries of the Court deny 94 SOME PARTICULARS OF THE to any sane man the attempt. These poor creatures are insane — or, what answers just as well, have been branded by the Lawyers as Insane. So the miserable wretch, trembling, raises his voice, ''My Lucl " (meaning my Lord), "My Lud;" here the Court-officer cries out Silence ; or, if the man be, for the first time, attempting to call attention to his case, by the time he has got so far as to fairly say " ]My Lud ! " what Avith the jeering looks of the Lawyers, his own ignorance of the mys- teries, and his wretchedness, he either completely breaks down — or if the Judge, seeing a new face, asks him to "go on" — almost at once perceives that the man is only a " poor ruined suitor," and is entirely out of order, and cannot be heard ! He says : " You must sit dowm. Case Hoggs v. Piggs is in order. Mr. Clerk call Hogs and Piggs." Thus " My Lud " will be as far as any " poor ruined suitor will ever get !" Besides the numerous, worse than useless, idlers (Lawyers) who fatten upon the industry of others, and the loss inflicted by their voracity and by the other expenses, this Court devastates upon a scale beyond belief. I was told by an English Barbarian that he once tried to obtain one thousand of money from the Court, which the lawyers said there would be no diffi- culty in getting, as it was clearly his ; it would be only a matter of form, possibly some delay. "Well," said he to me, " I instructed my lawyer to go to the Court and get the money. He demanded fifty pounds to cover fees [tin]. To make a short story, he went to tlie Court, hut I never got any money ! After I had actualh- paid in fees more than half of the one thousand, the int]:knal administkation. 95 obstacles had grown to be so insurmountable that J merely dropped the matter." " But," 1 said, " the thousand — who has that V "Oh, it is in the Court of Chancery !" Another honest Barbarian told me that he had spent all liis life (he was sixty) studying and endeavouring to awaken attention to the abuses of tliis Court — but in vain. The attempt seemed hopeless. The Court was entrenched in the very frame of the body politic, and nothing but reconstruction would answer ; and that re- construction is probably only possible after first demolishing ! This man said that a prodigious sum — sixty mil- lions of English money — was directly locked up ; and that of property of all sorts, subject to the clutch or injured by the processes of the Court it was incal- culable, and, very likely, would represent a tenth of all the valuables in the whole Kingdom I In my walks and in my travels, sometimes in the city, I would notice many houses, with windows smashed out, the walls tottering, the doors hanging loosely, or wholly gone, the approaches filthy, the whole place a nuisance, injuring and depopulating all about it, or fill- ing the ever-spreading mischief with the vilest popula- tion. I have asked an explanation — " Oh, it is in Chancery." In the midst of a village, suddenly one comes upon a vacant space ; it is an abomination ; everything near catches the infection, all that portion of an otherwise pretty place becomes a oiuisance. The character of the village at length suffers ; it becomes known as a place ruined by the Court of Chanceiy. In 9G SOME PARTICULAES OF THE fine, whenever one sees a wrecked building, or any property marked by neglect and verging to total destruc- tion, the explanation is : " It is in Chancery." And the same thing is often said of ruined men and women : " Oh, they have lost everything in the Court of Chancery ! " To such an extent is the destruction of the Court carried, that the Law-making Houses are forced to in- terfere, or perhaps the Officers of Health. These may abate a nuisance, and sometimes mere filth and inde- cencies are removed. But nobody will improve a pro- perty to which he cannot have a certain and quiet pos- session. Therefore, when the evil becomes intolerable, the Law-making Houses make a Law by which a pro- perty of this sort is sold, under their guarantee that the buyer shall have perfect possession. This is a thing next to an impossibility ; and nothing less than a great public evil too great to be endured, v/ill eVer induce the Lawyers who control the Houses to interfere with the legitimate work of the Court. It is wonderful that the English Barbarians submit to this Court; but one must consider that, after all, it is not so inconsistent with Barbarian habits as it at first sight looks. Plunder is natural to all the tribes, and es- pecially to the English. As nearly all plunder, the thing is normal. Lawyers must live ; and the common English Barbarian makes a business to keep out of their hands. The Higher Castes enjoy so large a share of the gains, and are, in fact, so largely interested in pre- serving the Court, that they do not care to move. Then, to other causes, must be added the stolid conceit of the INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 97 English Barbarians, who really think everything Encjlish so much better than what can be found else- where, that, in respect of this very Court, admitting some abuses, yet, after all, " Where else can you find such Judges — men who cannot be bribed ?" On the whole, therefore, with that conceited stolidity of character, more remarkable in the English than in any other Barbarians, they come to regard even the worst of their institutions as better than the best of the rest of the world ! 11 98 UPON EDUCATION: CHAPTER IV. UPON EDUCATION : A FEW EEFLECTIONS. In our Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times long before the Barbarians beyond the great Seas existed, or, at any rate, had any name or place in the earliest records, it has been the established rule that Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour — that there is no nobility of birth. Under the Illus- trious, the Son of Heaven, all were equal subjects — children — and that which made one more distinguished than another was Wisdom. This Wisdom, a knowledge of men and things ; of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of morality and government, and their proper application to human affairs. The Central idea was to Icnow oneself, and thus to know others — to add to this, technical knowledge, and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals and customs. The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have no rights of birth. According to their class in the Schools of Examination, they are selected to advise, to administer, to govern in the Provinces, and order the forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the degree of the excellency of their registration in the great Schools of Examination. A FEW REFLECTIONS. 99 But it is very different with the Western Barbarians, where hirili gives a right to exalted place in Govern- ment ! Power, among the Englisli, is wholly in the hands of this hereditary class — called Nobility — else- where called Aristocracy [Fo-lii]. Thus, learning has been unimportant, unless as a sort of accomplishment ; and been mostly confined to Priests. With them, it was a means of increased influence, and added to the effect of the Superstitious pretensions. Porce and fraud being the main agents of Government and sources of dis- tinction, learning was not merely disregarded, but held in contempt by the High-Caste. AVhat learning there was (chiefly confined to the Priests j, busied itself with the Superstition, and with the ancient tongues ; because with these Superstition had its literary roots. Still, some grew more inquisitive, especially outside the Priestly order, and learning made some progress. Gradually, there emerged from the Halls of Learning, rules, which (countenanced by some Sovereigns), began to influence Society. For Sovereigns, and the High- Caste, had begun, in some measure, to affect a liking for learning — confined, however, almost wholly to the narrow range referred to. These rules were in fact DEGREES ; which conferred upon the possessor a Literary distinction. The Halls of Learning, which had been in good measure established by Sovereigns, out of plunder, upon the orders of Priests (who would obtain tlie money through the Pailer's dread of the devil, when appre- hending or near to death) ; these, alone, could confer the degrees. No power accompanied them. They, merely, 100 UPON EDUCATION: became requisite to any one ^vho wished to enter upon, what is called, the Learned professions. These are of the Superstition, of the Lmv, and of Medicine. Soon, in these employments, the degrees became quite Cabalistic; and made these callings mysteries to the rest of the world. What was intended to be evidence of fitness, was soon perverted to be a form of initiation into an exclu- sive Society ; whose members insisted, not upon fitness, but upon compliance with arbitrary rules. This was made especially the case with the Law, and with Medi- cine. The degree was supposed to refer to proper qualifications for the practice of Law, and knowledge of Medicine, with its proper use in the healing art. It did nothing of the sort. It gave a presumption (but by no means a true one) that its holder knew something of the ancient Eoman and Greek languages : not any pre- sumption that, in the case of Medicine, there was any knowledge of the articles of Medicine, nor of their proper ^^se ; or of the human body to which they were to be administered. Xor any, that in the Law, there was any knowledge of the Statutes, laws and customs of the Eealm, nor even of its Commpn annals ! Medicine and Law suffered from this Sham; because men natu- rally used what little they did know; and, as to the Eoman tongue, some, and the Greek, less, were in their heads ; and the whole practice of Medicine and Law was in their ignorant hands ; what could follow, but to muddle these with the useless obscurity and jargon of tlie unknown forms ! The Priests had also thrown around the Superstition A FEW REFLECTIONS. 101 the same jargon, and kept up the requisition for a degree — as if any true morality and worship were neces- sarily connected with a literature, denounced by them- selves as impure and pagan ! Notwithstanding these ignorant and selfish abuses, it was impossible to make the acquisition of even such narrow learning wholly useless. It was narrow, and even hurtful, by being perverted to selfish ends, and preventing honest and independent research. Still, it did work upon some minds to better use ; and it gradually evolved a better learning, when the Ancient Literature really worked in free and broader channels. The High-Castes are less indifferent to literary attainments; and learning, in a more comprehensive sense, is becoming more esteemed. It is no longer limited to verbal knowledge ; to ancient, dead forms — though these are still so paramount that, if a man were to be the wisest and most learned of mankind, and was deficient in these, he could not receive a Degree — he would be unlearned ! Useful, true and honest knowledge, outside the great Halls of Learning, is making some advance ; though in them, the old, pedantic, and superstitious notions yet prevail. The new Literati, founders of a larger and truer teaching, endeavour with difficulty to get some respect and honour to attach to the degrees which they timidly register. The High-Caste, in general, disregard this better knowledge, and adhere to the old Superstitions and traditions — regarding that man only as learned who has the ancient badge ; though, to any useful purpose, a fool. The High-Caste also stupidly support the old pre- 102 UPON EDUCATION : paratoiy scliools ; and will not, if they can help it, suffer any of the Lower-Caste to enter them. In these, the barbarous customs continue ; if one goes into them, he is at once carried backwards into the dark ages (as even the Barbarians call them) ; ages, when the Priests had all the Learning — wretched as it was — and when the Siqwrstition coloured and directed everything. Here, the dead tongues are the chief studies, Avith some- thing of the ancient 2'}uzzles as to Lines and Points — for the most part useless — with a style of administration fitted to the savage brutality of those times. The only part of the training cared for by the youths, is that which developes the forces of the body. The disgusting Jiing Fight, referred to elsewhere, is a common pastime ; and the lad is a milksop [kou-ad] who really avoids the rude crowd, and wishes to study. To be respected he must fight his way, and be feared. If, by chance, some lad of the Lower-Caste be entered, by the foolish wish of the father to bring the son into the j^olisJicd circle of the High-Caste, he will be ijolished off (as these young Barbarians say), in a manner never dreamed of. The poor lad will be beaten, humiliated, and driven from the School ; unless, indeed, he be strong enough to bully and beat his tormentors ! Yery comically, in one part of these brutal fights, when one has got his antagonist completely in his power, and can bruise him as he pleases, the position is called hcing in Chancery ! One of the fittest illus- trations possible, of the universality of the judgment which places that Court among things the most re- pulsive ! A FEW HEFLECTIONS. 103 The younger in these schools are the ^^lavcs, for the time being, to the older and stronger ; in fact, the whole .effect of the training is really to make these youths selfish, quick of quarrel, hardy of body, and barbarous ; to prepare them for the lives of predatory exploit, upon which fortune and all the best honours depend — learning being subordinate, and disregarded, unless it further the main purpose. Force is still the god of these Barbarians, and Jah is worshipped because he, in this, fits them. The intellect is improved only that Force may be developed and dis- ciplined to its most effective use. One sees this everywhere. To invent the most de- structive engines of war for the wholesale slaughter of the human species, to add to the swiftness of move- ment, to the durability and weight of action, to the means of assault and of defence, to bend the mind to uses based upon the idea that the normal condition of man is that of a tiger with man's intellect, to make the beast something inexpressibly dreadful ! The greater portion of the people remain sunk in the grossest ignorance — scarcely knowing (the most of them) much even of the Superstition, other than crude notions of Hell and the Devil. In this, probably, they are not much to be pitied; though in losing the precepts of Christ, and seeing around them the conduct of Christ- god worshippers, they are to be commiserated. They look with the contempt of ignorance upon foreigners, and call the people of distant seas Heathen, only fit for the Hell ! As I have said, in another place, some attempts are being made to give this degraded popu- 104 UPON EDUCATION : lace, at least, the rudiments of learning. The task is hard, and made nearly impracticable by the stolid indif- ference of the Low-Castes, and their positive hostility to anything which interferes with their habits. They are very English, not different from their betters, and resent any sort of change as an interference with their indivi- dual freedom of action. To make these degraded beings slaves, you must not seize the individual — you must act upon them as a class — and they resent the attempt to teach them. Compulsion will be resorted to. The English Barbarians have a proverb [li-tze], "One may lead a horse to the water, but who can make him drink ? " These people may be forced to the springs of learning, but who shall make them drink — unless hecr .? (This is the common drink, verv muddlinf;; ; used to an astonishing quantity.) The women are not admitted to the Halls of Learn- ing, though they are to be seen everywhere. Men do not wish them to be educated in those things admired by men — it would, as they think, make brutes of them. In this they are right ; yet there is no consistency of idea in the general treatment of the sex, as will easily be gathered from these observations. A learned woman — that is, one who has acquired the sort of education recognised by the Literati — is disliked by her own sex as well as by the men. The men will not marry her, unless she can buy a husband. This she may be able to do if she have money in abundance. The things which may make them attractive and entertaining to the men, and be likely to secure a desir- able husband, are the only things cared for. Some I A FEW EEFLECTIONS. 105 music, some drawing, a little acquaintance with the language of the chief tribe on the main parts, reading and writing, are the intellectual studies. But the en- grossing pursuits are tliose which are supposed to add to female attractiveness. To dress, so as to enhance the delight of form ; to cover, and yet to show with added suggestion ; to move with grace ; to carry the head ; to use with tender, or arch, or modest, or haughty expression, the eyes ; to turn the feet and arrange the limbs ; to make the shoulders beautiful, and the neck and bust charming ; to torture the hair and ornament the whole body ; the ear-tips, the fingers, the eyebrows and lashes — to do these, and innumerable other things by which the sex shall be made irresistible [Kou-ket], these are the real cares. Dancing [ma-d-Avo] is among the most admired of all accomplishments, and the game of Waltzing its most perfect development. In this art of dancing both sexes take part, and I may merely say to our Flowery Land, that we have nothing like it, and what little we have in any degree to represent it is ■confined to licensed girls, without, even with them, per- mitting men to take part ! In this dancing the utmost female art (blandishment) is permitted, and it is the one by which, and in the intricacies of which the male is most surely expected to be ensnared ! Women are, also, particularly among the High-Caste, taught in riding on horses, in driving them attached to carriages ; in running and walking ; and even in swim- ming. Also in rowing in boats, in the use of bows and arrows, and many other things, which are very strange to us. But the sex like passionately the outdoor sports 106 UPOX EDUCATION: of men ; and, in truth, show the barbarous instinct quite as clearly as do the males. They are attached to dogs, cats, and other creatures, which they fondle and clandh in the most disonstino- manner. The Avomen of the Low-Castes, to the best of their abilit}^, follow the example of their superiors ; and make such copy as they can. They imitate the dress, the gait, the airs and graces of the High-Caste, often with a ludicrous effect ! When they dance, they may not dance with the elegant abandon [lan-gu-tze] of the lazy and rich, but they can contrive to be quite as effective ! The male of the Low-Caste feels but cannot escape the snare ! Accomplishments, directed to the one object of finding a desirable man, who will take them at the least cost off the hands of their relatives, are the things which occupy the time of women ; the lower orders, in so far as pos- sible, giving to the poor imitations that time which ought to go to useful objects. A poor and obscure girl prefers to be something like a lady (that is, a bad copy in dress and bearing), than to be really instructed in letters : because she sees herself more admired by the male, and more likely to dispose of herself to a husband. The great pursuit among High-Caste families is man — a man who may be bought, and whom it is desirable to buy, to be a husband for a daughter, or relative. All domestic art and diplomacy are bent to this end ; and, as men do not like learned women, whom they nick- name strong-minded, women do not wish to be learned. If from exceptional circumstances a young woman be well educated, and wish to marry, she carefully conceals A FEW REFLECTIONS. 107 her knowledge, and displays licr a(3complisliments, and all " the power of her charms " (as the Ennlish poets have it). An educated female had Letter appear to be an accomplished fool, than a wise and learned woman — if she wish to buy a husband. For she must have a large sum, indeed, if she be known to be learned ! — a Bhtc-stochiny [Zu-re-to]. There are some women who have acquired knowledge, and look with disdain upon the arts, airs, and graces of their " weak Sisters." They appear in public Halls of debate (as talking-places are called) ; and, mixing with men, assume an equality of mental force and culture. They interest themselves like men, in all matters of general concern. They take in hand, or endeavour to take in hand, the care of Women; and demand an en- larged sphere for her action, and a reformed and proper recognition of her rights. Hence, these women are called, besides strong-minded. Women's rights women. They are nearly always old, ugly, and wholly and hope- lessly incapacitated from longer pursuing men ; even, in their inordinate vanity, that pursuit is abandoned. There are some trifling exceptions — of women who like to astonish, and of others who, in tallcing, find a means of living — to whom all personal comeliness is not yet a tradition. But for these, the Women's rights movement would dwindle away ; these sometimes com- manding an influence either of money or family, draw into their circle a few men — remarkable, in general, for eccentricity of some kind, or led very often completely by a woman of the order. The whole thing is inexplicable to our social usages ; 108 UPON EDUCATION. but is not an excrescence — only a natural outgrowth upon a diseased system. The position of women in the Barbarian Society is a feature very striking and very anomalous, and may receive attention in another place. On the whole, one may see that education in its true and exalted sense is scarcely comprehended among the Barbarians. The moral function and the mind sub- ordinate to that, and the body — its passions, its greed, its lirutality, wholly subordinate to the morally trained mind — education, grounded upon this central idea, has but feeble recognition. LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 109 CHAPTER V. OF THE LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. There are innumerable books ; and the conceit of these Barbarians attaches to them as to everything in their Enlightened World, (Litz-i-ten). Nothing outside of the Christ-god worshippers is allowed to be en- lightened — all else is darkness. This is true as to their opinion, strange as it looks ; and all the Literature in every part of it shows this. The attainments and the experience of all to whom this worship is unknown, receive no other than a curious attention from a few of the literati. But we know that this conceit is absurd ; ignorant and superstitious Barbarians really think that, without the adoption of their Jali-Christ-Jeiv super- stition, with all the Canons, no true morality, no real civilisation, exists, nor can exist ! This I must premise ; because we may dismiss at once the larger portion of the Barbarian Literature, inasmuch as it relates to the great Superstition. It is everywhere, striking into and permeating everything, to be sure ; but I refer to works avowedly devoted to it. It makes the Books largely unreadable to one having no sympathy with the author ; and it requires patience and a long use to get over the disgust caused by the offensive pretensions and ignorant references. 110 J.ITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. The Poetry of a people is generally placed first among the Barbarian Literati ; and of this form the Western tribes are very fond. The English boast that in this they excel all others ; though, for that matter, the same boast is made in everything. The larger part of the Poetry may be called trash, (ru-b-isti). Iterations and reiterations of the same con- ceits, the same shallow sentiments, the same metaphors, mostly of an amatory and indelicate sort. Poems, often tedious, verbose, strangely mixed with matters of the Superstition and of the ancient (Roman) myths ; laudatory performances, leslobbcrlng (spr-au-fo) great men with empty compliments, or giving lying exaltation to the fancied virtues of the eminently bad ; dull and long-winded reflections from minds too obscure to reflect anything, unless with an added obscurity ; an enormous Waste (Ban-s-he) which the English them- selves never traverse. Poetry with the Barbarians is far more esteemed than with us, although in our annals are found evidences of its immemorial existence. As with us, it takes many forms, and is reduced to an art. The two greatest names are Milton and Shakespeare. The first of these is esteemed as the most sublime of all poets, ancient or modern — but it is needful to fix the quality, the essence of the sublime ! Of the gloomy grandeur of the man, and of his power of suggesting the vast and the intangible, there can be no doubt. Nor is he want- ing in a mournful sweetness — the plaint of a beneficent being who feels an eternal despair ! Nor can it be otherwise, for the grand imagination of Milton is LITEIlATUllE OF THE ENGLISH. Ill wholly occupied with the devils of the Barbarian Superstition ! With its terrible images — with the Hell in which they and lost men for ever burn in eternal iires, and yet are never consumed ! He introduces the reader (in his great Poem) to Paradise [Kar-din], where man once lived in perfect wisdom and happiness- — and here the Poet is full of that sad, that tender, that inex- pressible, sweet despair ! From this Paradise (as said elsewhere) man w^as enticed by Satan, who had been set free from Hell for the very purpose ; and then follow all the surprising pictures, vast, terrible, indescribable — only possible to a mind fully possessed by all the horrors of the Jew Jah-god Idolatry. Shakespeare, with a healthier mind, one not distorted by the Superstition, and with a human, natural vigour and feeling, writes in a manner to interest man. On the whole, the English Barbarians place him far above all others of any time or place — call him the Divine Shakespeare I This is very easy wdth a people who know nothing of the poetry of the great East, nor of that of our Flowery Kingdom — in truth, have but a slight acquaintance with the writers of the other Bar- barians ! Disregarding this foolish conceit, we may admit that this man shows a broad and comprehensive intellect — he is one who knows something of himself, and that self is a manly self. And he simply exhibits himself in those creations of his fancy, wherein a great variety of men and women show the passions, follies, and chang- ing interests of life. He has the power of vividly see- ing and of clearly showing what in his mind he sees, 112 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. and in language often lo^v and uncouth, but frequently in fine and lofty tones. His certain knowledge of himself gives pithy form to his wit; and his expressions are the direct utterances of one who sees, not of one who does not nor cannot see. His, on the whole, was a very large and true manhood, which, in spite of un- favourable influences and some tarnish, manifested itself, and occasionally in grand and beautiful forms. In very garbage there are sparkling gems. He often offends decency, but is less indecent than his time — and when he is simply himself, the natural morality of a large man becomes conspicuous. Some of his minor things, based on the affectations of liis period, and formed on bad models, which he weakly copies, are not without marks of his rich fancy, yet are so indecent that in our Flowery Land they would be suppressed. None the less, you will find these objectionable verses in the hands of the youth of both sexes. This degradation of the moral sense is very common. It finds form in the versification of those poets whom the English style Amatory — chiefly with them, but more repulsively with the play-^vriters. Examples of this indelicacy and coarseness are lying about any- where. It seems to us verv strange : for to w^hat good ? ]^o doubt, poetry very properly deals with human emotions and interests ; but why should the poet dare to print what he would not dare to utter, unless amonir the shameless ! O Some of these trivialities are not wanting in sweet- ness and tenderness — and some have a very refined feeling. The great blemish is falseness. LITEKATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 11 o The "Western Barbarians addict themselves always to a false and affected mode whenever they address them- selves to the female : and the style is absurd. It is borrowed from the obsolete manners of ages ago, when it was the fashion [phan-ti-te] to pretend the most exalted reverence for the sex. They were addressed as goddesses, and there was a whole armoury of weapons of Love, from which these fantastic poets armed their divinities, and pretended to be pierced through and through, wounded, bleeding, at their feet ! Dying, transfixed, and rolling their languishing eyes in death, imploring the goddesses to save them, even if by one glance of their bright eyes ! The amount of this non- sense is perfectly astonishing ! I give a fair specimen here from a much admired writer of this class : — " Sweet Phillis, idol of my heart, Oh, turn to me those tender e3-es ! Transfix my breast with Cupid's dart, But listen to my dying sighs ! " I cling, imploring, to your knees ; Oh, cruel goddess, turn to me ! One kiss the burning pain will ease — Thy lips give Immortalitj^ ! " The Elegiac [mo-un-fu] is, perhaps, the most cultured among the refined poets. The most distinguished of the English living writers of verse is very elegant in this form. He cannot emancipate himself from the habits of his people — for the wretched he can find no solace but in the Superstitions of the Christ-god wor- ship. He demands a Sacrifice (^uite inhuman, when he 114 LITERATURE OF THE EXGLISH. suggests the only remedy for human grief. Possibly, he finds in this, a meaning of a different kind from what the language (used in the Superstition) itself im- plies. He may see a meaning common to aR sorrowful and thoughtful men — Self- Sacrifice, demanded by the highest perception of justice, and, therefore, inevitable. In this department some of the minor poets sing very sweetly, tenderly — with a nice refinement. Generally, however, there is a sort of despair wailing in an under- tone of pathos. It would seem to arise from the gloomy spirit of the Barbarian nature, intensified by the terrible Superstition. The comic poets are coarse, trivial, and not much esteemed. There is humour, but it is of the barbarous and unclean. It is frequently strangely fantastic, and delights in laughing at the terrific in the " Sacred Writings" or at the Priests, in a covert manner ; often in travesties of the prayers, rites, and other Iwly things, which no one would dare openly to ridicule. Poetry is not much read, unless by young girls and lads, who, in the season of the sentiments, find food to feed their desires, or to print their tender epistles and speeches, in the Sentimental Authors. Very rarely is there anything striking or true ; and the mass of Verses, after receiving the 'pakl-for attention of the daily writers, sleep a sleep of oblivion. The Prose writings are innumerable — largely, ho\\'- ever, mere re-hashes [mi-pi-stu] of existing works. It is a trade to make these new forms of old books — cutting- down, working over, and revising. History, accounts of bloody fights, forays, commotions, massacres, and LITEKATURE OF THE ENGLISH. ITS "bumings, now by one CJhrist-god tribe and now by tinother ; Biography, Travels, Lives of Great men (never lieard of out of some Barbarian tribe) ; these are many, <\nd read by the Literati. A few books, rarely read, devoted to Science and to Art, are printed, commonly to the ruin of the printers. fl Of romances and novels there are no ends. Witli these and the newspapers the English Barbarians almost entirely occupy themselves, when they do read. The novels pretend to portray life, in its usual vicissitudes and with a natural show of the feelings. But the feel- ing depicted is that of Love, and the Life, the life of a, Lover. In this curious creature, unknown in our Central Kingdom, the English young people of both sexes delight. I cannot describe him ; he has no ex- istence outside of a diseased brain. The great Shake- .speare describes him, " Sighing like a furnace, with a woful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow!" whicli will do as well as a more extended notice. There are Metapliysical works. We have no term to represent it. It is a book which dimly suggests ^jAa/^- toms — things unseen, and not to be seen — mere words without bodies. Usually, making the matters of the common Worship still more inscrutable. Close to these, and blended often in a confused mix- ture with them — a compound defying all reasonable analysis — come the Philosophical. This term is a grand one with the Barbarians, and embraces aU knowledge. The Philosophical Avriters pretend to the most exalted insight and outsight — they measure the whole infinite and finite, mind, matter, and tlie very natui'e of moral 116 LITEEATUKE OF THE ENGLISH. and divine things. The Philosopher loves Wisdom, and "Wisdom loves and teaches him ! Each philosopher, however, knowing everything, knows some things better than others ; and usually ex- hibits to the world that eccentricity by which he is known. He parades this on all public occasions of the Literati; and feels happy and serene mounted on his Hohby -horse (again we have nothing to fit this word) — he appropriates the name of the ridden Hobby. Thus, some time since, one of these discovered and tauijht that man was an Ape — an Ape of high form. This discovery was not very Avell received ; however, he was afterwards honoured by a title derived from his ancestor, and styled the Simian philosopher. In the old Eoman, Simia means Ape. He is vulgarly and better known, however, as the Hobby-horse philosopher, from his own name, Hobbs ! Just now, this speculation has revived again, with but slight change. One Darwin dreams of immortality from the usefulness of his theory. In this, man no doubt is found in the Simia, but he f^cisses through that type; it is well enough to find there the immediate origin, but the true germ lies further back among the tadpoles ! I do not know what tadpoles are, and did not think it worth while to inquire. This philosophy, called Darwinian, is greatly admired for its profundity — especially by the select circle of Mutual Admiring Thinkers — but is strongly denounced by the Bonzes, and by the Halls of Learning and Lite- rati of the Superstition. It makes man no immortal being at all, these say ; and dethrones all the gods. € LITEKATUKE OF THE ENGLISH. 117 In our Flowery Laud we may smile iit these specu- lations and eccentricities — for such and similar vagaries are as old as Literature ; and the special notion of Darwin, as to the Origin of Species, has not even the •attraction of novelty. The speculation of evolution, by which all visible forms are developed from a form less perfect below it, and this from another below that, and so on, down to the beginning, is a clumsy mode of stating that original forms were few, and contained wrapped up in them, many — and that possibly there may have been primarily only one, containing all ! The Sovereign Lord Himself ! In truth, it is the immemorial out of nothing idea ; for when a creator of worlds, in the shape of man, has got to a single form containing all, he has yet to account for that Single Form. The few, most advanced of the Barbarian Philosophers, •cut adrift entirely from the Superstition. They copy largely from the Greeks, Ilomans, and ancient peoples, who said, on such subjects, over and over again what these modern imitators say — and said it better. In Physics these moderns think themselves wiser. They may be, in the use of some things, but are not in the nature. Our Sect called Taos-se resemble these specu- lative writers in many things : the English may not •directly teach the Metempsychosis; l)ut in effect it is the same. Evolution may hold to an original germ which is fixed and indestructible ; yet what matters if to the observer this germ takes on every possible shape! The Metempsychosis does not contradict the notion of an original germ — it is entirely consistent with it. This specidative inquiry into the nature of things is as old 118 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. as man, wlio, even before lie knows liow to formulate his thoughts, has the deej) shadows of them. The Old Greeks introduced the Literature of these fancies to the Western Barbarians, though themselves were no more than bright and beautiful dreamers of old dreams. The human intellect will always, as it has always, search into the unsearchable, applying to it whatever of sharp- ness, of imagination, of culture, it may have. There will be the inquiry, but never the answer. The mind itself finds its advantage ; nor could the Sovereign Lord have designed otherwise, else the intellect would not persist in a vain task. Nevertheless, wise men rest satisfied with the inttdtions of the moral and intellectual nature. The origin and essence of the Sovereim Lord and of the visible world cannot be known. The source, the purpose, the end, and the nature of Things are beyond the scope of man. He may ask, and he may find delight in the asking ; for new ranges and glimpses of the infinite may flash upon him. But when he thinks he Iniows — that he has discovered — he is a fool ! Another department of what is called Philosojjhij deals with the mind, as the part just referred to more particularly affects to deal with matter. And writers upon the mind, when they speak of the moral function, call that by another name. Thus we have the Intel- lectual and Mo red philosophers, with their many books. Yery commonly this division is not sustained, and moral and merely mental evolutions run together. Indeed, there are those who deride this division, and assert that the moral has no real existence ; that the mind itself is but matter instinct of life, and has no LITEKATUKE OF THE ENGLISH. 119 existence independent of material organisms. They say- that man is an animal endowed with Life, and tliat this occult and hidden force is indivisible. That divisions of the faculties may be convenient to give exactness to mental movements, but are otherwise fanciful. They deny a " Moral faculty," asserting that it is only a peculiar refinement of the liiQ-instinct ; that the wish to do honestly is no more than this, and, educated to enlarged views, expands into all that man conceives of Justice. That you may just as easily train one to do dishonestly ; and then an honest act gives pain. This proves the very proposition denied — the faculty may be misinformed — the pain demonstrates the existence of the faculty. An animal has the Life-Instinct or mind, if you will ; but who imagines that the animal is ever pained by any remorse ! To this, these philosophers reply that the pain does not really exist only as the remains of a secondary instinct, remembering consciously or unconsciously the penalty awaiting disohediencc. The animal, they say, may be so trained that it will feel this pain or shame ; and man, for ages disciplined, transmits to his offspring this seconda7'y instinct of inherited fear ; and, licre, is the so-called moral faculty. I may be pardoned in this tedious attempt to give the Flowery Kingdom some insight into the thoughts of the Barbarians on abstract matters, not for their novelty, but as a further illustration of that which is so well understood by our Literati — to say, the cease- less activity of the human mind and its tireless inquiry into the things of the mighty world. A beneficent fact or it would not be. Perverted l)y vain thinkers, who 120 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. do not think, because egotist ; yet in humble men, con- scious of ignorance, a solace. These reverence the Sovereign Lord, never comprehending other than His infinite Wisdom (and this by delightful flashes), nor His works, nor His methods, nor the use of Man, nor of any the smallest thing, nor the origin, nor the design! Enough that He is, and that by some inscrutable, though certain sense, man, with a grateful joy bounds towards Him, claims to be His, and feels Immortal ! The Barbarian Literati have often rested upon the Greeks as final in Metaphysics. Plato, whom they call Divine, was very generally followed in his notion respecting the eternal and independent existence of spirit and matter. But the newer men insist upon one substance only, and remove the Sovereign Lord so far back into the deeps of an Unknown, that he vanishes, or becomes an unintelligent and unconscious Cause. Here again reproducing the Fate of remote antiquity. One school of Philosophers indulges in a curious form of materializing the mind. Pretending to fix all the mental and moral processes in the very substance of the brain, they declare that by a careful examina- tion of the head, the exact qualities of the individual may be discovered I Some of these pretend to be teachers and Indicators — for fees, giving a precise chart to any one who wishes of the forces of the brain, so that he may order his affairs accordingly. They profess to tell parents in what art or business a child should be placed, and in what manner certain good qualities may be made to grow and bad ones to shrink ! They say that over each thinking part of the LITEKATURE OF THE EXGLLSIL , 121 brain rises a corresponding luniiJ [Ko-be], that these humps contain : some, thoughts of music, some of hate, some of love, some of numbers, some of place, and so on. They make charts showing these bumps and the thoughts which lie beneath them ! These they sell, marking the bumps (after examination) to show the person what he is. If, for instance, his acquisitiveness (thoughts to take things) is a very large bump, he must develop a counteracting bump or he will as- suredly become a thief ! It is not quite clear how this development is to be brought about. Some carry this absurdity so far as to say that a man with bad bumps is not responsible — he ought rather to be regarded as an object to be cared for by the State. Before the bumps of the child be formed and hardened, any form may be given to them, by applying a gentle and con- tinuous pressure. Grovernment, therefore, ought to have all children examined in youth, and apply to the heads the proper moulds ! In this way a perfectly moral society would be assured ! I refer to this nonsense as the only novel speculation among the Western Barbarians. And any one can readily discover in this, old notions moulded into a defined and material shape, to give charlatans [Qu-ak-st] an opportunity to plunder. There are many books of the Moral Philosophers, who make a Science of certain movements of mind, and call it Ethical. But these books are to our habits useless or absurd — sometimes positively hurtful. The idolatries and superstitions colour and distort — distinc- tions are confounded, and a rational morality wanting. 122 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. A merely Jewish ordinance from the Sacred Writings is made as important as a plain moral precept. The human conscience is overloaded with arbitrary and unreasonable matters taken from the Siqycrstition, and, "bewildered, despairs of well-doing. To offend in some priestly dogma, is more terrible than to break an established law of honesty. Disobedience in the false demoralises the conscience as much as disobedience in the true, when both are received as true. In fact most of the moral books are merely books written to uphold the great Superstition, and the morality is debased by its injurious connection. By what strange perversion could the cultivated mind ever be brought to announce a principle like this, to say ; " Belief alone saves man from eternal Hell ; morality without it is only a snare of the Devil." Belief means an imdoubting acceptance of all the pretensions of the Superstition (as explained elsewhere). What must be the effect of teaching so false and presumptuous an enormitv ? The Sovereim Lord will not deio;n to look with pity. He is a consuming fire ! Heart and hands pure — a life of disinterestedness — worship warm, grate- ful. Nothing worse. First, Believe — in the most monstrous thing which the diseased human imagination ever created — the Jew-Jah theology and worship ! When a system of morals is based upon such a pre- tension, it can only be hurtful ; unless, as is largely the fact, the healthy human instinct unconsciously rejects the error. Still, great harm is done — must be done. And how much of prevailing licentiousness and barba- rism may be placed to account of this false system can- LITEltATUKE OF THE ENGLISH. 123 not be defined. It is the immediate father of Atheism. Men reject the tremendous assumptions and believe nothing. But tender consciences, those in whom the divine faculty is large and clear, in general, directed by a true consciousness, simply disregard the horribly false things and attach themselves to the true. In this, vindicating the nobilitv of nature, which rises to its true recognition of the Sovereign Lord, in spite of sur- rounding errors. But, others, not so strong, delicate in conscience and feeble in mind, become the victims of this dreadful system. Thus it is also the father of Idolatry. Tor these victims, fearful of eternal destruc- tion, place themselves entirely in the hands of the Bonzes, and adore all the gods and observe all the rites. They cannot be sure, of themselves, that they do pro- perly Believe; a thing of a very mysterious nature, con- cerning which (as I have remarked) the contention is ceaseless. Nor can these victims of the Superstition, ardent devotees though they be, always obtain satisfac- tory evidenee that their Salvation is sure. Then follow the self-imposed penances, and the sacrifices imposed by the Bonzes. They are victi^niscd by the Bonzes in an endless variety of ways. Some build Temples ; some go about begging, in mean garbs, to get money for the poor Bonzes ; and the like ; much as we see among our superstitious devotees. Superstition merely reproduces its natural effects, varied according to the circumstances. Still there remain those poor creatures to whom no escape is possible. They struggle in vain with the dark doubts which envelop them. They believe in all the horrors of their worship : that but a few are saved 124 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. from hell ; that goodness, charity, self-sacrifice, gifts to the Temples, to the poor, even to tlie Bonzes — nothing avails. Unless they have 'believed and been duly ac- cepted and enrolled among the Elcct-fcw, they are merely children of the Devil, awaiting death, when they become his associate in Fires of the tormented, for ever and ever ! These poor wretches feel already all the horrors of the damned. They find no solace in a moral life ; no peace in a grateful heart, turned to a benign, Heavenly Father. To yield to the natural emotions, to indulge in this peace, is vanity — is to be ensnared in the wiles of the enemy of Souls ! They catch sometimes feebly at a hope of Salvation, then fall again into a dreadful despair. At last the feeble mind gives way. They feel themselves already lost; they fancy they have committed the Sin which Jah himself will never pardon — (to use the words of the Sacred Writings) — the sin against the Holy Ghost, for ever unpardonable — they writhe, they cry, they beat their breasts, they fall down in unspeakable agony — " the pains of Hell have got hold of them 1 " This is again from the Sacred looks. The scene closes in death, or worse, in a mad-house; where in chains or under vigilant keepers (to prevent self-destruction or the de- struction of others), these wretches vanish from human hope and sympathy ! The frightful Superstition in these victims has been a recdity ! And no human mind can bear that and live ! I will close these remarks upon the Literature of the English Barbarians, by giving some examples of the different poetic compositions. LITEKATITIJE OF THE EXGLISII. 125 From an Amatory poet, who refers to the conjugal endearments of the Eoman Jupiter and his goddess — Queen Juno, on Mount Ida, where, according to the old traditions of the Greeks, these gods often resorted : — " When Juno makes the bed for Jove, And waits the god with blushing grace — Soft music charms the air above, And breathing fragrance fills the place. Mortals expect the deep repose ; Ocean is calm, the Winds are still, The heavenly rapture overflows, And Nature feels th' ecstatic thrill." I think our poorest poets could have improved upon " makes the bed." In cold England, however, bed- making is important. And for a wife of the Upper Castes to make the bed for her Lord, with her own hands, is to show a great love and devotion. It is laughable to think of the goddess so domestically em- ployed, though the top of Mount Ida must be cold enough ! The poetry of the Idolatry has much of an amatory sort, very curiously mixed with its terrors. I give a rather refined specimen, quite free of the diabolic': — " What grief, what darkness fills my breast, That coldly I have strayed from thee ! Thou art my Love, my Life, my Eest ; All other love doth fade and die. Oh, never may the joys of sense, Entice my ardent soul again ! Thou art my only sweet Defence — To love thee not is endless pain ! " 126 LITERATUEE OF THE ENGLISH, From an unknown writer I extract the following, who refers to a great Sailor of the Western Barbarians. This man, repressing the revolts of his crew, with un- daunted mind, day after day, and night after night, for weeks and weeks, still kept on, steering westerly across the infinite, big seas. Possessed with one great and fixed idea — that Land lie heyond. At length, when all hope had nearly died, far away like a cloud, the great Netc World was discovered ! We know of this in our Annals, in the dynasty Miny. " To be — this marks the nobler man — this Force, This visioncd soul, which sees the shadow cast Of a great Object in its every course, Urging it onward — common men will rest With common things ; such spirits are possessed ^y greater somethings, which will not be hushed "With ' lullabys ' — which are within the breast Like inspirations — sleepless as the rush. Of world-surrounding waves, and which no earth can crush ! " This is a writer who takes the Sea as the scene of his poem. The style is affected ; but much liked. I add below an example of Blank Verse, a form greatly in use : — " The Morn, exultant, on the mountain tops. Leads in the Day — and over all the World Delightful Joy spreads forth his glorious wings !" This appears to be a parody of >Shakespeare, who says beautifully : — " Oh, see where jocund Day stands tip-toe, On the distant, misty mountain tops !" LITEEATUKE OF THE ENGLISH. 127 Very much of the poetry is obscured, and spoilt by the influence of the Superstition ; and very much by arti- ficiality and affectations. And everywhere there are poor or indifferent imitators of the ancient Greeks and Komans ; upon whom the Literati mould their poetic •conceits. Of the Comic and common it is well to read little. Coarseness and indecency seem inseparable from all vulgar humour. The Descriptive, tinged with the melancholy of the Superstition and Barbaric gloom, is often fine and smooth — sometimes tender and elegant. I give an extract from an author of no repute, Imt agreeable ; and the more so to me, because inoffensive. It is not defiled by tlie Idolatry of the Barbarians : — " Spring-time of life, with, open-eyed delight, Wondering at beautiful earth and sky ! Budding in sv/eet expectancy, and bright With smiles and charming grace, and blushingly Unconscious of a Love, just to be born — A trembling Joy, which smiles and tears adorn ! " From the same, written in the open country ; which, though obscure sometimes, flows on finely, eloquently: — " Stretched to the brilliant sky, on all sides clear. Are hills, and dales, and groves, and golden corn — Whilst in the peerless air, all things are near ; And far or near they each and all adorn I Here, let us rest, on this fair, breezy hill. Beneath the shade of this high, spreading beech — And feel and see that we are Natui-e's still : Her Peace and Beauty ever in our reach. 128 LITEP.ATUKE OF THE EXGLISII. Her calm, majestic glory, harvest-crowned, Fills heaven and earth, and blends them into one. How vast and solemn bends the blue profound ; How sweet and strong th' immortal gods move on ! Move on, resistless, yet, with tender grace — Inflexible, yet soft as summer rain — Intangible — as where yon shadows race, With nimble Zephyrs, o'er the waving grain ! Ineffable, though murmurs everywhere. Swell into Anthems of delightful tone ; And smiling hill-tops, and the radiant air, Rest in expressive Silence, all their own ! And there, by Avon's stream, are Warwick's towers ; And, here, is laboiir toiling in the fields : For Lord [Tchou] or serf alike, the patient hours Give back to Nature all which Nature yields. Still human hope aspires and will not die ; Will rear aloft its monumental walls ; Informed by Instinct builds as builds the bee — Mounting secure where stumbling Reason falls ! So Temples rise Immortelles of the race ; Where mouldering with the stones tradition clings — Touching the landscape with ennobling grace. And giving dignity to common things . • • • • • • The day declines, and so my holiday ; Care slumbering by my side awakes again ; Grasps on my hand and leads my steps away — So rudely rules the Martha of my brain ! " The Martha is a scolding, busy liouse-ivifc [bro-mstij, taken from an incident narrated in the Sacred Writings. The writer refers to Temples in a pleasing way, and to the " mouldering stones," where, about the dead, innumerable legends survive. Burials are near to the Temples, and the graves are on Holy ground. His LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. 129 reference is comprehensive — meaning the universal JSoipc of Immortality, symbolized by the lofty Fanes. I give below a few of the absurdities from the Comic, taken from a greatly esteemed author in this Line. " Three wise men of Gotham Went to sea in a bowl [ton-se] ; If the bowl had been stronger, My tale had been longer ! " The meaning of which is, I suppose, that when wise men do foolish things they no more escape the con- sequences of folly than others. " I bet you a crown to a penny, And lay the money down, That I have the funniest horse of any In this or in any town. His tail is where his head should he — ' You bet ! Well, come and see.' And s;irc enough, within his stall. The horse was turned— axidi that was all! " Another, very ridiculous : — " There was a man of our town Who thought himself so wise, He jumped into a bramble bush, And scratched out both his eyes. But when he saw his eyes were out, With all his might and main He jumped into another bush, And scratched them in again ! " This would seem to suggest that a conceited man, having committed an egregious blunder, rashly under- takes to remedy it by one equally unwise. The folly of conceited impidsiveness 1 K 130 LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH. Another, and I have done, " Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating his Christmas pie; He put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, Oh, what a good boy am I ! " This is to encourage children with an idea that, if they be good, they shall have plums. It is very sig- nificant of the low culture. As if one were to imagine that the possession of a big plum (riches, or the like) demonstrated the moral excellency of the possessor ! Commentaries and parodies of these Comic trivialities have been written, and, forsooth, their beauties and meanings need exposition ! TRADE, AND REVENUE DP]11IVK1) FUOM IT. 131 CHAPTER VT. OF TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. We have ourselves, in our uiaritinie parts, some ex- perience of the English, as traders" [Kie-tee]. Some- thing of their moral character is known, not as traders only, but as representatives of the general civilization of their tribe. It will be a long period before tlie events of the opium war are forgotten — when these selfish and cruel Barbarians came with their big fire- ships and great cannons, and massacred so many of our province, Quantvmg ! Nor will the slaughters of tlie people of our Central Kingdom, and the burnings and plunderings at the Illustrious seat of our Exalted, pass out of mind for many generations. Trade ! yes, Trade is the Moloch [Kau-ni-bli] of the English ; there is no- thing (of character) which they will not sacrifice to this Idol. The god by which they mostly swear, and whose name they apply to themselves, knew nothing of trade, and his words, as recorded in the Sacred Writings, con- demn every practice customary in it. This inconsistency is always found in the devotees of irrational worship ; where formal observances stand for practical virtues. Perhaps dishonesty in trade is no more conspicuous, than immorality everywhere ; only traffic touching on all sides, and affecting nearly every interest, carries with 132 TKADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. it an almost universal debasement. Blind and con- ceited, it is the custom to speak of our Central Kingdom contemptuously, and to brand our people as Heathen thieves [ta-ki]. We have thieves, and punish them. But how strangely to those of our people who know these Barbarians, this charge sounds ! It is notorious that the vile stuff packed up as Tea by our knaves is for the gain of English traders ; and that the horribly obscene pictures of degraded artists find a market with the Bar- barians ! We punish these plunderers when we detect them ; but these Christians who would convert us en- courage this immorality ! The Law-making Houses are continually occupied (and occupied in vain) to find remedies for the almost universal crime of Adulteration [Kon-ti-fyt] of Food. Scarcely an article of food, or of drink, medicine, what not, escapes this dangerous cheat. To make a larger gain some cheap admixture, often poisonous and rarely harmless, is added to nearly every article. It is not easy to understand how general the moral debasement must be, when a thing of this sort, striking at once at health, and even life, is so common as to be scarcely con- temned ! To be cheated is a kind of comedy — one expects to be cheated — cheated in his clothes, his wine, his horses, his dogs, his meat, his drink, his beer, his sugar, his tea. Ids everything ! To have been honestly dealt with is a surprise — a thing to be remarked upon. To have been cheated — a shrug of the shoulder — an exclamation ^-" Of course !" In fact, almost always the cause of a hearty laugh, especially if a sharp trick — or at another's expense ! The very laws of trade are based on dis- TRADE, ANT) REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT, 133 honesty ; and a people will not generally be better than their laws. The High-Caste affecting to despise trade, do, occa- sionally, in the Law-making Houses (as I have said), feebly interfere with the general rascality. Yet, they are so dependent, indirectly or directly, upon trade or its gains, that they will not do anything to hamper it ; and any law which touches the utmost freedom of action in htiying and selling, in their opinion, has this effect. On the whole, they say, better a few rogues flourish, and a few people be poisoned to death, than that commerce, (an euphuism, for rascally traffic) be injured. That man has a fine nature which traffic, in its best ways, cannot tarnish ; and laws should take their colour from the best — not the sordid. The old Romans cul- tivated the land, and looked with contempt upon traffic. When riches and its corruptions lowered manliness, and Commerce spread through the provinces — still, the Roman jurisprudence based itself upon equity — it did not place trade upon a pedestal above Justice ! They made no such Barbarous mistake as to suppose that any business of a people could be more important to its prosperity, than the maintainance of right principle ! The English Barbarians say the interests of the public require a disregard of right ; and their famous legal maxim (in the Roman) is Caveat emptor — the buyer must take care — must sharply watch the seller. This is to say, " The seller is to be expected to cheat ; and, if the buyer be cheated, let him thank his own stupidity!" The old Heathen Romans made no such immoral rule ; they required the most exact good faith upon both 134 TRADE, AND EEVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. sides. The seller could not sell a horse blind of one eye, or incurably, though not always visibly, lame, and to the complaint of the buyer answer, " Oh ! I gave no assurance of soundness." The High-Caste, despising trade of any useful sort, none the less delight in traffic of a high- caste colour. They deal in pictures, equipages, horses, jewels, sculp- tures, books, dogs, nick-nacks of all sorts ; know how to bargain, and understand the tricks, especially in horses, dogs, paintings, and the like, as well as those whom they affect to despise. The English are, doubtless, successful traders and plunderers. They are rough, and brave, and reckless ; and in traffic are as unscrupulous as in predatory ven- tures. Their conquests abroad have been incidental generally, commerce being the immediate object. But they have never scrupled to use force when it has seemed fittest. The plunder of a people has been found easier, and the returns quicker and larger, than the slower gains of traffic. For this .shameful and cruel conduct, the English and other Western Barbarians find ample justification in their Superstition. For they believe that the peoples beyond the seas are Heathen, and under the ban of Jah. Their Sacred Writings so declare ; and that " the Heathen are given to the Saints as a spoil, and their Lands as an Inheritance." N'ow, these Barbarians affirm that they are the Saints ; that the people who do not worship their gods are Heathen ; and that con- sequently they (these Barbarians) have a right to the possessions and lands of these distant and unoffending TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM FT. 135 tribes ! And not only this, that these tribes, under the wrath of Jah, and subjects of the Devil and hell, ought to be grateful for the inestimable boon of the Gospel {the Sacred Writings), by which they may learn the way to be saved ; may, in fine, become Christians ! Thus it comes about that the intercourse of the Western Barbarians witli peoples beyond the seas has been aggressive and piratical. From the earlier part of the dynasty Ming, when these Barbarous tribes first visited the great seas and distant regions in the far West and mighty East, the Pope (then worshipped by all the tribes) gave to two of them, very devoted to his worship and powerful in ships, the whole world of Heathen. This meant all the wide world but that small region in Europe wherein the Pope-worshippers lived. To the one tribe, called Portugals, he gave the whole immense East, and to the other, styled Spaniards, the vast regions in the West. Thus the two were possessed, by the gift of their god, of the whole Heathen world — India and our Flowery Kingdom being portions ! In their many ships, these two tribes, sailing East and West, landed upon the distant shores, and seized upon everything which they could. They thought it pleasing to Jah to put to death those who had offended him, and were already under his wrath and con- demnation : the Heathen were justly extirpated, unless they Relieved and worshipped Jah I Not very long after this gift to the two tribes, the English and Dutch, having quarrelled with the Eomish Priests, refused to worship the Pope and denied his authority. The Dutch first, and then the English, 136 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. growing more powerful in sliips, made distant forays for plunder and trade ; and, following the tracks of the Portugals and Spaniards, disregarded their pretended exclusive title to the Heathen. They determined to have a portion of this general transfer of the world to Christians; they were in their own judgment the better, the Reformed Christians, and far better entitled ! Since this enormous Blasphemy [Swa-tze] of the Pope, History, as known to the Barbarians, has been, to a large extent, an account of its consequences. Wars between the contending Christians for the distant pos- sessions, and savage and cruel depopulation, plunder, and subjugation of the unoffending inhabitants. Whole races of men have melted away in the presence of these Christ-god worshippers ; and the horrors of the dreadful Superstition, which in the regions of Europe had made man more like the Devil of his Idolatry than anything hnman, spread, with fire and sword, over the wide world ! In the far West, beneath the setting sun, a beautiful and peaceful people, rich and numerous, suffered cruelties too shocking to tell ; and in the civilised and populous East, the very name of Christian became a synonym of all that is detestable. None the less, the English Barbarians, to this day, acting upon these Christ-god pretensions, will insist that this Trade ami Plunder is the handmaid of En- lightenment, the chief agent in the preparing of the World for a knowledge of the true gods, and the ultimate salvation of the Heathen! Trade is, therefore, a civilising agency and a powerful helper in the redemption of manldnd from the awful TRADE, AKI) IlEVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 137 Hell.-^A few poor Missionaries are sometimes added to the general eargo of means of conversion. The same ship which transports these Bonzes to convert the benighted 'pagans will, perhaps, have a few volumes of the Sacred Writings, some bad rum, worse muskets (more dangerous to him who shoots than to him to whom the shot is directed), gunpowder, flimsy articles too poor for home trade ; to these, add the licentious and degraded sailors ; and one sees how well the English Barbarians work to introduce their true worship and save the Heathen ! But this is feeble : only a trade-ship. The great fire-ships, with big cannons, full of armed and fierce barbarians, which devastate the populous coasts, and burn and plunder the maritime parts — these are illustrious workers in the spread of the Christ-god Salvation and a lofty Civilization ! Thus the very worship of the Barbarians has helped, by its cruel pretensions, to ingrain a wrong notion — one making them immoral and cruel. Taking the Jah of the old, huckstering Jews, as an object of idolatry, the whole people has, in trade, become Jewish, as in much else. - 1 have referred to petty cheating, and to that whole- sale criminality of adulteration. But fraud is very common, and often on an enormous scale. jSTor is there any remedy. In truth, it is so common, that, as all hope to have a turn at its advantage, none care to punish heavily him, who, by chance, has been too bold. The fraud must take the form of open robbery, or be of such grossness as to be hardly disguised, before the wrong-doer will be arrested. A man may enjoy un- 138 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. molested, and even with respect, a great fortune acquired by notorious trickery. So universal is this toleration of roguery, that the Plays and Pastimes are often enlivened by comical illustrations of the various arts, tricks, and deceptions practised. The charlatans, rogues, cheats, and the like, are shown in the Lawyer, the Doctor, the Bonze (low- caste), and other professions and occupations. Endless are the villanies of the Lawyer — the quaclc pretensions and impositions of the Medical man — the cant, hypocrisy and meanness of the Bonze. Among the professions and trades, the teacher is a / brutal ignoramus, who beats and starves the wretched children under his care ; the nurse quietly drinks her- self drunk and goes to sleep, leaving the sick man to gasp and die for the drink close at hand, but which he cannot reach ; the milkman stops at the pump, and fills up his milk-cans with water; the teaman shows and sells you one sort, but delivers a very difierent ; the grocer says his prayers, hurries to his goods, asks his servant if " the sugar be sanded," " the rum watered," " the tobacco wet down," " the teas mixed," " the small bottles filled," and the like ; the tailor sells you more cloth than he knows will be required for your garments, and cahbagcs the excess ; the cabman who knows you are a stranger demands quadruple fare ; the innkeeper gives you the meanest room, and charges you the price for the best ; and so on through every iDusiness of life. The learned professions take the lead in this exhibi- tion of roguery and immorality. The spectators never tire of these displays of the general rascality. The TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 139 roguish landlord, the villanous horse-dealer, the artful, knavish servant, the Priest of Low Caste, and the Doctor, afford the most common diversion. The Lawyer is generally dicibolic, the Bonze a hypocrite and knave, the medical man an impostor and dealer in medicines of infallible healing power. Much of this may be referred to the love of coarse humour — but its real base is to be found in the degrada- tion of morcds. These representations are ti/jjcs, and would only produce disgust, were not the rascalities represented familiar. The excesses and exaggerations are of the Play — but the types are normal and common. One great trading place is called the Stock Exchange — another, perhaps more important, styled the Merchants' Exchange. These places are established in every large town, and the husincss done in them absorbs the atten- tion of traders and people who have any property, throus;hout the Kino-dom. The dealings [Keet-sees] of the former relate to Certificates and Bonds. These are Pieces of Printed and Coloured Paper, which represent in the words and figures a sum of money invested in a trading concern, or a sum of money which somebody owes and promises to pay. The sum, may be quite a fiction, and is usually either never to be really paid, or paid at some very remote day. However, a small sum is promised to be paid every six moons, or in twelve moons — this is for not paying the big sum. The business of the latter relates to the buying and selling of every sort of merchandise, whether on land, or on vessels at sea. 140 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. Other great trading places deal iu money, or rather in bits of Pi'inted Paper, which promise to pay money to him who has one of these hits. These places get people to sell them these bits at a price, and then resell at a greater price — or they borrow and lend these bits, paying less for the use than they obtain. Very little money is seen — business is in Paper — another of the ingenious tricks of these trading and gambling Bar- barians, perhaps the source of more dishonesty and cheating than almost any other. As the like has no existence in our Flowery Land, it will not easily be comprehended. The chief of these places for dealing in this money- paper is called the Banh. The Government shares in the advantages of this invention. Its object is to bank up, or hoard, all the real money (gold and silver) which it can get iu exchange for the bits of paper. These promise that the Bank will always return the sum of gold which the bit acknowledges to have been received. The man hands the Bank his gold-money to be kept safely till he wishes for it, and the Bank gives him the hit of Paper (which is numbered and recorded in a book). He can carry this in his pocket, but the gold- money would Idc too burdensome and more easily lost. The Government pledges also that the gold shall always be safely kept, to be returned whenever the bits of paper are returned. This Bank-house is immensely strong and large, built of hewn stone, and is guarded by men armed with swords and fire-arms for fear of the savage and ignorant Low-Castes. Ordinarily, only now^ and again, a few persons go to TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM TT. 141 the Bank and wish the gold ; hecause if one wishes it, some one of whom he buys, or to whom he owes, will take the money-paper and hand him the difference — consequently, tlie paper goes from hand to hand for a long time. Everybody takes it because it is convenient, and because he thinks the gold attached to it is safe in the Government Bank-house. The confidence in Paper is called Credit. To which I shall more fully refer. Sometimes, when a great many demand the gold, it is suddenly found that the Bank-house has it not ! The promise of hanking up the gold till wanted in exchange for the Paper has hecn hrokm. Down goes Credit — every kind of value shrinks at once ; for the Bank has not the real money, and values have been measured by the paper ! The traders and everybody connected witli them have incurred debts — that is, made paper promises to pay, like those of the Bank, for property valued on the Bank-paper. It is found that this Bank-paper is too much by one-half — the property has been over- valued in proportion. Still the debtors are required to pay^the amount of tlicir paper promises ! It is impossible — ruin and Bankruptcy ensue — the whole trading world is convulsed, and tens of thousands are beggared ! The explanation is that the Bank is allowed by the Government (in consideration of certain advantages to itself) to lend out the gold for usury — tliat is, it lends a thousand pounds of gold to be returned in three moons,, for which use the borrower i)ays twelve or twenty 142 TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT, pounds ! It makes its gains by thus using the gold which it has promised safely to keep. It is permitted to do this, because the risk of having much gold de- manded at once is small, and from experience the Bank has discovered that if one-third part of its paper- promises of gold is in hand, it will be in little risk of having more demanded ! Backed by the Government, it deliberately, for the sake of gain, runs the risk of being a cheat and robber Then follows a curious contrivance of these dishonest Barbarians. To save its own moneys and advantages in the Bank, and to save loss or ruin to the owners of the establishment, who are very powerful and numerous, composed of members of the High Castes as well as others — in fact, to save the general wreck of the sham paper-money [Credit) upon which values are falsely based, the Government issues a Law, forcing everybody to receive from the Bank its paper precisely as if it were gold ! Thus, having assisted in one fraud, it resorts to another, to remedy in some measure the evils of the first — extending and perpetuating the evil, which a wise man would remove ! Another remarkable thing is the organised Betting. The Houses where this is done are splendid, and the many people supported in them and by the gains, live luxuriously, and are greatly respected. The gains are, in small measure, also shared by those who put in money from which bets may be paid, when the House loses the bet. The betting may be about anything. But the chief TRADE, AND EEVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. 143 Houses arc those where the bets have reference to length of life or injuries, to loss by fire, to loss by sea, and losses by fraud. If a man wish to bet that he will live say seventy moons, he pays down at once a small sum, and the House accepts the bet — that is, gives him a wriiinr/, iwomising to pay his heirs a very much larger sum if he die before the seventy moons expire. If a man have goods in a shop, he bets, say, one pound to 100 pounds, that they will not be' burned during twelve moons — he pays down the pound and re- ceives a writing (as before) that if the goods be burned during the time, he shall be paid the 100 pounds. So on, as to bets upon goods and upon vessels on the seas, upon buildings of all kinds, upon duration of life, and upon the life of another, upon accidents to body, upon honesty of servants — upon almost anything where the thing bet by the Houses is remote in time. This is the great point ; for these never pay anything down by way of stakes, but always receive in money the stake (bet) of the other party. 3 One may readily see how corrupting all this is in its nature, and how falsely conceived. The rascally trader burns the goods, the possessor of a building burns that, the owner of a ship has her wrecked, to get the sums promised upon these events ; and trade is promoted upon unsound practices. Even life has been taken by a wretched gambler, who has staked money upon the life of another. The tendency is to these crimes. Nor can there be anything but loss to the public at large ; for these expensive Houses and their numerous and richly- living inhabitants are supported by the winnings made, 144 TRADE, AND REVENUE DEKR^ED FROM IT. without rendering any useful service. This must be true, even when all bets made by these Houses are paid. But another great mischief follows : they do not pay, and are often only Sivindles [Kea-ties] on a great scale ! There are those which pay — that is, have so far paid — but as there are bets for enormous amounts far in the future, no one can say that final payments are certain. The great object of all the Houses is to secure as large sums in cash as possible upon events a long way off. The more remote the event upon which the bet is laid, the larger the sum demanded from the individual who bets. He pays — the House merely promises to pay, and cannot be called upon to pay for a very long time ! In this way, great sums of money having been got (some bets having been promptly paid to obtain confidence), the House shuts its doors ' The rogues share the plunder and deeamp. Decamp is to run away to distant parts to escape arrest and punish- ment. This is, however, rarely necessary ; for such are the cunning contrivances of the Lawyers, who organise these Betting Houses, that very little risk is run — forms of law, slack enough at best, have been so well adhered to, that the rascals escape, though everybody knows that they have used those forms as a cover to more effectually defraud, and then as a shield to more effec- tually protect ! These things are unknown in our Central Kingdom, and are only possible to a demoralised people. The dealing at the Stock Exchange is mainly only , another form of betting. It is hard of comprehension, unless by the Initiated. It is a distinct trade. Those TRADE, AND EEVENUE DErJYED FROM IT. 145 who deal constitute a secret and exclusive letting Ring, or community. If by chance, when the doors are open, a stranger inadvertently enters, he is greeted with caterwaulings, howlings, " Turn-him-outs," and the like. "Smash his hat!" some one cries; and suddenly the stiff head-covering is violently driven down, completely over the face and ears, tearing the skin off the nose, and reducing the thoughtless and astonished stranger to a state of ridiculous helplessness ! Betting is a passion with the English Barbarians. The women, the children, the servants — everybody bets about any and every thing. Horse races, boat races, swimming races, all sorts of games and sports, attended by both sexes, afford endless occasions for the indulgence of it. Yet, after all, extensive, ruinous, and debasing as are the evils of it in these sports and games, the mischief is vastly greater in the Marts of traffic — in the Stock and Merchants' Exchanges. In these, the dealings are, as I have said, either as to pieces of paper representing values, or as to merchandise in hand or at sea ; and, I may add, as to jneccs of paper, representing this merchandise, called Warrants and Bills of Lading. The betting in the Stock Exchange concerns itself with the Paper of the former class, and the betting of the Merchants' Exchange with the Paper of the second kind. All this grows directly out of the Bank paper and the Credit system, before mentioned. All values are founded upon these nominal promises to pay. But the promises themselves are ever under- going changes, according to the varying circumstances. L 146 TKADE, A^B REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT. The promise to-day looks well — it is estimated at so much ; to-morroio it does not look so well — and it is estimated at less worth. Besides, all the gold and silver in the world could not pay a twentieth part of these promises. Thus the iluctuations are incessant. The bettinfT at the Stock Exchange has reference to these fluctuations. One of the hcttcrs is interested to have a rise, another to have a fall, of value. One agrees to deliver at a future day, at a certain price; all are interested to bring about a change either one way or another. The man who desires a rise may not be scrupulous as to any means which may produce the rise; and he who wishes a fall of price will eagerly second anything which will have that effect. Consider the consequences upon the honesty and good faith of those who enQ,u2;e in this betting ! The Merchants' Exchange is not so devoted to absolute betting ; yet its largest business partakes of that vice. One buys a cargo at sea; another agrees to deliver a cargo three months hence. One sells what he has not, for a future delivery. Another buys what he never intends to receive, deliverable to him in the future. No money is paid, nor received. The buyers and sellers are merely gambling — betting (as in the Stock Exchange) upon the rise or fall of prices I And are interested — the one to advance the price, and the other to lower the price, of the thing dealt in ! Consider the temptation to unftiir practices, th® in- evitable tricks, false rumours, lies, and deviations from honourable conduct involved in such transactions ! Iteflect upon the consequences to the honest trader, TRADE, AND lll^YENUE DEIIIVET) FROM IT. 147 who is, ill I lis very lionesty, all the more easily tricked by the unscrupulous ! The stronghold of these various gambling Establish- ments, and tlie grand feature, in fact, of the English business life, is Chedit — to which I will devote some space. AYe have nothing like it, nor had the ancient Barbarians of the West. It is, perhaps, the most dis- tincuishino- thing in the Barbarian life. As already hinted, Credit means that a Promise shall stand for performance. It had its rise among the Barbarian tribes, not very ■long since, and grew out of their incessant wars. Par- ticularly the English, finding they could not pay the armed bands, contrived to get the gold out of the hands of the people in exchange for the Bank-paper, :and then, forcing the people to still accept the paper for gold, issued paper to such an amount as Government needed ! Erom that period the people, especially the trading classes, making directly or indirectly nearly the whole, found an advantage in resorting to the same fiction — and the Government could do no other tlian give to the trader, who could not pay his promise, the same relief which it took for itself — for the Bank. It allowed him to pay what he could, and go on as before ! No matter that he paid only one-third part — unless he had been guilty of some extreme roguery, he received a dis- charge from all his promises, and could begin to make new ones and go on in trade as before ! In this way, the Barbarian community is one wherein a false principle corrupts all. Boldness, recklessness, cunning, to say nothing of positive criminality, are eu- d 148 TEADE, AND KEVENUE DERR'ED FROM IT. couraged ; honour, delicacy, simple integrity, are driven into obscurity. Let him who would preserve his con- science smooth and clear, a mirror whence divinity be reflected, shun all the marts and ways of trade ! The Eevenues of the Government are derived largely from the dealers in the great Marts, and it is imme- diately interested in the upholding of the Credit of the innumerable paper-promises of all kinds made by these and by the Betting Houses. It is, in fact, the chief supporter of the wlioh sham — it cannot be otherwise, for the English State rests upon it. The promises of the Government to pay gold can never be kept, and it forces an acceptance of a mere fraction, from time to time, as a su^cient redemption of its promises made generations ago ! Other sums are derived from taxes upon the tea, sugar, and other things largely consumed by the lower castes ; whilst rich silks, laces, and costly things used by the High-Castes are not taxed. But then the taxes are levied hy the High-Castes ! A great revenue is collected from the excise, a tax upon the beer, drank in enormous quantities by the lowest Caste. To stimulate the consumption of this article and increase the revenue. Beer-shops are to be seen on every hand, and the drinkers everywhere. Drunkenness, wretchedness, riot, disorder — these flourish as the Beer-shops increase ; these are the associates of those places ! Yet in vain do good Englishmen try to remove these evil clens. What are the efforts of these few in the midst of a general debasement — a debasement wliicli takes, without shame, a share in a traffic so vile ! TliADE, AND llEYENUE DERIVED FKO.M IT. 149 I have spoken freely of the dishonesty of the Bar- barian trade and business — a dishonesty to be expected when one broadly views the whole ground of their Society. Still, natviral equity and its instinct, especially when the mind is more or less cultured, will ahvays prevent absolute dissolution— thieving and roguery will be restrained in tolerable bounds. A man of genuine integrity finds traffic no good moralist in the best of circumstances. He needs the support of the State, or he wiU fight an unequal battle, and be forced by dis- honesty to retire. The ]>arbarians are not yet suffi- ciently enlightened to raise the measure of honesty. The Government and the people are one in this. They do not perceive that the evils under which their in- dustr}^, their peaceful pursuits, and all their interests suffer, are those inseparable from a bad superstition and false principles — these extend everywhere and into •everything. Misleading in Statesmanship [Lan-ta-soa] , in dealings with distant peoples, in due ordering and •educating the people at home — stimulating wild specu- lation and extended confidence (credit) at one time, •only to be followed by disastrous collapse, excessive distrust, and WTetcheduess, soon after ! Giving, in fine, to Barbarian society that aspect of restlessness, that apparent but often vicious activity, that indescribable hurry and confusion, that unhealthy excitement, unknown to an orderly and industrious people, whose order and industry are grounded upon the simple and direct rules ■of reason and truth. 150 EEMAEKS UPOX MAEEIAGES, CHAPTER VII. some eemaeks urox maeeiages, bieths, and bueials,. [hi-dy]. Ix our Flowery Kingdom when a man marries he pays to tlie parents or relatives ; but witli the Barbarians the woman pays to the man. Women are such costly burdens that men demand some compensation for undertaking to keep them ; and the relatives of Avomen are glad to get them off their hands at any price. There are in Endand four OTeat Castes, which con- tain the whole population. The habits of the Castes differ, though you will observe certain characteristic features common to all. In order to understand more clearly the remarks Avhich foUow, it will be convenient to speak of the division of Castes. The first — High-Caste. Those who do nothing useful and pass their time in mere self-indulgence. The second — High-second Caste. Those who do but very little, and come as nearly as possible to the selfish existence of the first. The tliird — Hidi-low. Those who are obliged to work more or less, but are ever longing to attain to theidle s elfishness of those above them. The fourth — Lowest Caste (Villeins). Labourers, not long since serfs, and still so in effect. BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 151 The fourth Caste is so low domi us to be usually disregarded altogether, in any account of the people, though included in the count taken of the population by Government. They may amount to nearly a half of the whole. They are rarely styled 2^<^ople at all. They are designated by many contemptuous names, of v/liich the more common are my man, navvy, clown, clod-lwpper, loarisli-jpoor ; hoor, rough, hrute, and hcaM are frequent, especially when any of the despised Caste slouch too near, or happen to touch a Higher Caste. When a man of the hiizher orders thinks to take a wife, he sees to it that she will bring him money enough to compensate the cost. He dislikes to part with his easy freedom and yoke to himself a being as selfish, frivolous, and useless as himself. He may be broken in fortune and notorious for im- moralities, yet, connected to the Aristocracy, he knows that he may demand a large sum if he will take for wife a Avoman a little lower in family than himself. She must be of High- Caste, but not of the highest. The woman's relatives say, " Well, he is fast ; but marriage will settle him. His father, you know, is second son to the Earl of Nolands, and his mother was a sixth cousin to the Duke of Albania, who has royal blood in his veins. I think we may make a large allowance for such a desirable match." It does not occur to the speaker, at the moment, that the royal blood coursed through very impure channels in the case cited. It is an object eagerly sought by low rich to buy for their daughters a High-Caste husband; and men of 152 KEMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, this kind, ruined by gambling, loaded witli debt, often degraded by vice, deliberately calculate upon this ambition to repair their fortunes, and get comfortable establishments. The marriage ceremonies do not differ very much from ours, in some things ; but it is very different before the ceremonv. With us, the woman is unknown to the man ; but with the English, the man has every opportunity of seeing her, and knowing her very well indeed. Our notions could not admit of this, but it has a convenience ; it would prevent the disappoint- ment occasionally arising, when, on opening the door of the cliair, our new husband finds a very ugly duck instead of a fine bird, and hastily slams the door in the poor thing's face, and hurries her back to her relatives as a bad bargain ! However, this advantage to the English husband is not so great as it seems ; for the woman is too cunning to discover much till she has secured her game. Unless, therefore, the man be a very cool and practised lover [mu-nse], he is lilcely to be rather astonished when he sees his bride — and he cannot slam the door against her ! The Bonzes, generally, perform the ceremony before the Idol in the Temple. It is deemed to be important to have the marriage invocations pronounced. These are barbarous in the extreme; most indelicately alluding to those things which decorum hides, and calling the gods to aid the conjugal embrace — no wonder that the bride wears a veil ! The great bells ring in the lofty towers, the loud music strikes up, and the marriage procession enters BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 153 tlie Temple ; and any one may follow who pleases, so he be well dressed. In the great towns, the beggarly rabble — chieHy children and half-grown youths of both sexes, with old women and men — crowd about the Temple gates, but dare not enter. When the corWje leaves, this rabble clusters round the wheels of the <3arriages, turning over and over upon hands and feet, standing on head and liands, rolling and crying out, in the dust or mud of the street, begging for pennies (a small English coin). When these are thrown amongst them, they ridiculously scramble and tumble over each other, seeking amid the dirt for the coins, like so many carrion-birds upon garbage. Arrived at the home of the Bride, a great feast is •eaten, with wine and strong drinks. All make merry ; Avhether because it is so desirable to be rid of a female, ■or because of the liking wliich the Barbarians have for ■eating and drink, I know not. The feasting over, all take leave of the new pair, the bride being addressed by the title of her husband. The Bride is kissed, the husband shaken [qui-ke] by the right hand, and good wishes given. On leaving the portal for the carriage, old shoes [ko-blse] and handfuls of rice are thrown after them; the rabble roosting about the areas and railings rush pell-mell after the old shoes, begin their tumUings about the street, and howl for more pennies. The rice-throwing is no doubt Eastern in origin, and has an obvious meaning ; the old shoes refer to some- thing in the Superstition — probably to appease the evil imps, who delight in mischief and are amused by the absurd squabbles of the beggars. 154 KEMARKS UPON MAEEIAGES, The Honcy-mooii begins at the moment when the pair enter the carriaGje and the old shoes are thrown after them. The horses start, and the newly-married are whirled away into the deeps of an Unknown ! You may, perhaps, catch a glimpse of the bride, wistfully stretching her neck and turning her eyes, dimned with tears, to the door-steps where stand those with whom she has lived — and whom she now, it may be, suddenly finds are very dear to her ! But the husband has grasped the waist of his new possession, and is absorbed in that. He has before been the owner of horses, dogs, and the like, which have worn his collar — ?'7m is another and very different bit of flesh and blood ; none the less, however, branded as his own exclusive possession, and ever after to bear his name ! He understands so well the mere fiction of this ownership, that he is by no means sure that after all he have not made a had hargain — it may prove too costly, and be by no means either useful or obedient ! However, with his arm about his loife, just now he hardly realises these doubts, but feels, or tries to feel, ecstatic — as he ought. The Honey-moon thus begun, ends exactly with one moon. It is a received opinion that the Incantations at the rite exorcise the Evil One for the period abso- lutely, though he may (as the Barbarians express it) " play the very Devil " with them afterwards ! I was told that the Honey-moon was so called because, during the Lloon, the new couple fed wholly on honey and drank weak tea ! There is some mystery attached to it, for my questions were always answered with a doubtful look. I had no opjiortuuity of abso- BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 155 lutely solving it — though my observation led me to judge that the honey diet did not agree with people — in truth, I wonder at its use. I have seen a bride after her return, thin, pale, peevish, who had left round and rosy ; a bridegroom before the moon jolly [(Jui-ky] and devoted to his bride, return taciturn, careless, for- getful to pick lip a fan, or to place a chair for his wife, and even (on the sly) kick the very poodle which he before-time caressed ! and when the wife poitting has said, " Out again, George," he has replied, lighting a cigar, " Yas, I must meet the fellahs, you know ! " The best hint on this subject which I ever got was from a married Englishmen, who to my query said, "Ah-Chin, my dear fellah, call Honey-moon Matri- monial Discovery, and think about it, ha ! " As the honey-eating and tea-drinking are to go on, whilst the new couple are quite retired by themselves, away from their friends and all usual pastimes and oc- cupations, necessarily they have only each other to look at with attention. The honey-eating is trying enough, and needs, one would think, all the relief of gaiety and occupation possible ! But no, it is only to eat and to closely watch each other ! I wonder no more at the changes which I observed. Nor do I wonder at the improved appearance of the couple when, after a few weeks of rational life in usual pursuits, something like the health and cheerfulness of old returned ! Yet I was informed that very many couples never recover from the Honey-moon (as my informant had it. Matrimonial Discovery), but from bad grew worse. 156 EEMAEKS UPON MARRIAGES, soured and sickened entirely, could not, at length, endure each other, separated by consent, or sought the Divorce Court ! The thing, therefore, seems characteristic of the coarse humour of the Barbarians, who appear to find a comedy in an absurd, irrational trial of respect and affection, dangerously near the tragic at best, and often absolutely so ! Absurd and irrational after marriage — one can conjecture its use before ! However, it is quite of a piece with the general disorder, and want of knowledge and practice of sound principles. When a child is born, the event is duly announced in the public Gazette, and relatives send compliments. When the infant is about eight days old, it is taken to a Temple to be baptised and christened. It is a sin- gular rite, and one of the most astonishing in the Super- stition. The Bonze who officiates before the Idol, takes the little thing upon his arm and sprinMes some water upon its face. At the moment he does this, he makes a curious Invocation to all the tliree-gods-in-onc of the Worship, and pronounces aloud the Christian name of the babe, by which it shall ever after be known. This is called Christening, that is, making a Christian of the infant. The ceremony, it is believed, exorcises the Evil One, and makes it very difficult for him to get hold of the baptised (no matter how diabolically he may act) in after life — the water, duly made holy by the Priest, is a barrier over which Satan, with all his wiles, shall find it well-nigh impossible ever to get — some Bonzes say it is absolutely impossible! Women, as soon as strong enough to attend the BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 157 Temples, are churched (we have no term of the kind), a rite much like an ordinary tltanks ojferinq, for the happy- deliverance and new birth. The Bonze makes Invoca- tions, and refers to the various superstitions and bar- barous pretensions of the Worship, devotion to which is inculcated under fearful penalties. However, on all occasions in the Temples, these dreadful intimations of Hell and the Devil are most frequent ! When a death occurs, it is also announced in the public Gazette, with honours and titles ; and, if a High- Caste, with a long notice of the chief events of his life, and loud praises of his valour, as where he led, in his youth, a band of fierce Barbarians like himself to the plunder and burning of some distant tribe ! His virtues are also proclaimed — to the astonishment of all who hieio him ! The tombs of the High-Castes are somethiufr like those of our Literati — though, instead of being in the country amid the pleasing scenes of Nature, they are generally in the holi/ grounds of the Temples, and even within the Temples themselves — for the superstitious Barbarians think that, even after death, the body is safer from the Devil thei-e than elsewhere ! But the common people lie hideously huddled together, without distinguishing marks (or with so slight as to be quickly obliterated), and are soon totally neglected and forgotten — happy, indeed, if their despised dust may mingle with hohj earth within the precincts of Temples. The Bonzes pray and sing the usual invocations and prayers over the body of the dead, before it is placed in the tomb — but there is no real respect for the dead — 158 r.EJIAEKS UPON MAErJAGES, it is uot to be looked for in the rough, barbaric nature. In our Floircry Kingdom regard for the dead, respect for their memory, tombs carefully preserved amid the quiet groves of the country, tablets and busts set up in the Halls of Ancestors — these are ordinary things. "With the English, in general, the dead is a hideous object turned over to the undertaker and his minions to be buried out of sight, as soon as decency allows ! With us, the poorest will have the coffin ready, prepared, and carefully honoured and cared for. With the English, the thought of one is repulsive, and he looks upon it with loathing 1 Xo doubt the horrid superstition lias much to do with this feeling. The undertakers (a hateful crew) drape everything in black. They take possession of everything, and turn the whole house into a charnel. They place the defunct (as the Barbarians, with a kind of contempt, call the dead) in a black vehicle, drawn by black horses, and draped with blaclc cloth — black feathers and scarfs, hideously Haunted, with men clothed in black, attend — the dismal Hearse, with its wretched accom- paniments, disappears — but only to disgorge the body. Soon after these A'ultures may be seen returning, seated upon the Hearse, clustering there, like carrion birds, who have gorged themselves ! When they have feasted and drunk at the House of Woe (woe, indeed, whilst detiled by them), and generally spent as nmcli money as is possible — they, at last, disappear — and the family breathe again ! An English Barbarian once told me that these creatures, in tricks of plunder and cheating, surpass the BIRTHS, AND BUEIALS. 159 Lawyers ; in truth, the fashion is to show respect to the dead by a lavish expenditure in hlack clrcqKries, and is almost wholly confined to that. It is an object to speak of the cost as a measure of that respect! The whole thing being a sham, thougli a most disagreeable one, the Undertaker sees well enough that he miHit as ' CD O well pocket a large sum as a small one. A certain sum is to be spent, for respect, not for any tangible thing. The Undertaker takes care to furnish more respect than anything more tangible — and to charge for it ! In fact, the mode of plunder is reduced to a system ; and it just as well satisfies the real purpose — whicli is, to do all that is customary, and to submit to all the customary cheatiuG:. , After the family have really got rid of the Under- taker, then comes the Lawyer, with the Bonze, to read the Will of the deceased. This is a new departure (as the English call it) in the family voyage of life. The Barbarian law is so erratic and confused, tliat no one knows what the dead man may have ordered to be done with his money. His Land goes probably to the eldest son, or nearest male relative ; and, if it be all the property, younger children may Ije left quite beggared. The Will begins with some absurd superstitious formula; and, prepared by a Lawyer, is only intelligible to him. He, therefore, is present to read and to explain. For no one is supposed to comprehend its jargon but the initiated. The Will is read, therefore, to those who only imperfectly catch its meaning ; and when a name is reached, the party listens with an eager attention. He may be one who, by nearness of blood, or by the 160 REMARKS UPOX MARRIAGES, nature of liis relations ■\vitli the deceased, expects to receive a handsome gift. When he, at length, from the mass of verbiage, dimly gathers only a gold ring or a gold-headed urdJcing-sticl; and sees some one, scarcely heard of, carry oft' the goods long Avaited for, he scarcely appreciates the loving token of regard osten- tatiously bestowed upon him ! Xor is his smothered rage extinguished by the satisfactory expression of other relatives, who whisper, " Well, he cringed and fawned to little purpose after all ' " From this Eeading of the Will begins a new era in the family. Quan^els there may have been, but a common centre of influence and interest kept the con- testants in order. But now, nobody satisfied (or only those who expected nothing, and got it), all are in a mood to attack any one, to charge somebody with meanness, with treachery. So bitter animosities spring- up. Lawsuits, hatreds ; families are severed ; old friendships sundered ; the laAv;)'ers stimulate the broils : and, at last, very likely the Will and all the property covered by it get into Chancery ! WTien I have said this, I have said quite clearly, even to the Barbarian mind, that here all are equally wretched and equally impoverished, excepting the Lawyers ! The power of the dead man, by a Will, to cut off a wife or a son with a shilling (as the Barbarians express it), is monstrous. Then the unjust law, by which the next of kin takes all the Lands of a deceased, works endless misery. Think of younger brothers and younger sisters being forced to depend upon the cold charity oi" the oldest, who, by mere accident of birth, takes every . BIRTHS, AND BUIMALS. 161 thing! And not only this, hut some distant onale relative may cut off the very means of suhsistence from females very near, and throw them helpless, and too poor to buy husbands, upon the world ! A disgrace and shame too shocking for belief. Then, too, the wife's relatives may have paid to her husband the very money which, by the Will, is coolly handed to a stranger! Such anomalies are unknown to the customs of any well-ordered and civilised people. The new Widow usually remains shut up in her house, inaccessible to all but her children, her servants, her Bonze, and her Lawyer, for twelve moons exactly. During this time she devotes herself to the prayers and invocations of the rites ; and will not so much as look at a man, unless the exceptions named. She is wholly draped in black ; her children, her servants, even her horses and dogs, are in hlaclc. She entirely quits all the vanities of life ; she only allows her maid to smooth her hair. She suifers her hands and face to be washed, but never paints her cheeks, nor tints her eyelashes. If she go abroad, it is to the Temple to pray, or to the tomb (in some cases) of the " dear departed," covered from head to feet in thick black, followed by a tall footman, all black, bearing the Sacred Bites. If a man come too near, he is waved, with a solemn, gesture of the hand, to remove away : this is the special duty of the Jlunlccy. If, by any chance, the widow in her march happen to lift her thick veil, and catch the eye of a man, — ah! how dolorous must her prayers be ! Precisely at the stroke of time, when twelve moons M 1(32 REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, liave gone, the widow drops all the Jtabiliments of woe, and is herself again !— that is, a woman in search of a husband ! — 'if she have not, from clear, sheer desperation, and want of anything better to do, already pledged herself to her Priest or to her Lawyer. Now, free and at liberty to choose, she may wish to look further; but it is prol)able that "the inestimable ser- vices" of the Lawyer, in her time of misery, hold her to recompense ; or that the Priest, attentive to the precept of the Sacred Writings (which commands that Widoios shall he eomforted), has so well obeyed, that the Widow, completely solaced l^y the dear, good man, gladly rests with him ! The great l>ook of Rites and Customs regulating the conduct of widows, of widowers- — in fact, the ob- servances of Society generally- — I have never been able to see. It is in the care and under the constant super- vision of a High-Caste of exalted state, from whose authority there is no appeal, styled Missus Grundy. I think a strauQ-er can in no case be allowed to see this Illustrious, nor the Book. Indeed, I was told that no one, not even Eoyalty itself, could inspect the Book, nor challenge this authority. It is hereditary in the mighty Grundy family ; and the head of the House is believed to be infallible in social observances. Another remarkable thing is, there is never a failure in the succession — a Grundy is always on hand ! Now, Missus Grundy speaks with more tolerance as to Widowers : they are not absolutely lialjle to decapi- tation if they marry again iu less than twelve moons. Widowers, for reasons I do not know, are favourites BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 1G3 with tlie Barbarian females ; and yonug women with money will give all they possess to get a Widower, even when he have many children. It may be because of the love for the " 'prdtij dears,'' as the young ones are called ; l)ut, whatever the cause, the fact is certain. To gratify these gushing females, Missus Grundy allows a Widower to marry in a less time than twelve moons : it is so desirable that the -pretty dears should have the tender care of a new (step) mother ! As the Barbarians have no Halls of Ancestors, wlierc the family preserve w^th dutiful care the records of the virtuous dead — inscribed on tablets of brass or polished stone — and where, arranged in due order, stand the marble busts of those more distinguished — they soon forget the dead. The High-Castes sometimes set up monuments in jjublic places ; in Temples and the Temple-burial grounds ; and inscribe thereon lofty panegyrics, as false in fact as they are bad in style — and no more thought is given to them. In truth, these monuments are al- ways considered to be to the honour of the living — wlio take the occasion to display their own wealth, characters, titles, or taste. The Lower-Castes do but little more than hurry to the grave the dead body, and dismiss the " unpleasant topic " as quickly as possible — imitating as well as they are able the Higli-Caste, by setting up a Sto7ic-slah, carved with a ruder but not truer description. Couplets in verse are often added ; and, as giving an idea of the Immorous and coarse conceit of the Barbarian mind, I will insert some of these Inscriptions. 164 REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, Often the slabs are flat upon the ground, and the tombs ruinous and neglected ; in fact, very generally the burial-places, though holy, are in a wretched con- dition — tombs fallen, stones and tablets prostrated, graves quite worn away by the careless feet of passers ;, the whole place wearing a sad air of utter neglect and forgetfulness. One discovers a better culture making- some progress, by curiously regarding these stones, in- scribed with memorials of the dead. They have slowly become less uncouth, less barbarous, and less devoted to the wildest vagaries of the Superstition. However, this observation is to be taken in a very general sense. Often, in the country, I have stimibled upon a singu- larly-built old stone Temple — standing quite alone, with the tombs and the tablets of the dead, clustering beneath the shadow of the lofty, square tower of hewn stone. Upon the hill-side, with a loA^ely view of hills, and soft vales, and rich fields of ripening corn, and scattered groves — with green meadows divided by flow- ering shrubs, where the flocks and the cattle fed. Near by, orchards, white and pink in blossoms ; and all the air fragrant with a delicate perfume. At my feet, a few houses nestling among lofty elms — far away to the AYest, the sun shining above with slanting rays across a wide expanse of beauty — sitting upon a stone bench, beneath the ivy-covered Temple-porch, I have looked upwards to the serene sky, and outwards upon the tranquil and lovely scene ; and I have known no Bar- barian rudeness, felt no Barbarian Idolatry. The solemn 1'emple, eloquent in silence, the unbroken rest of the dead, the calm and delightful presence of Nature, these- BlllTllS, AND BUKIALS. 165 were here, these are there ; man unites his grateful worship across the wide world — the Sovereign Lord is worshipped, though darkly, by these Barbarians ! And in this worship (in time to be purified) we are one ! But I must give some specimens of Barbarian Inscrip- tions — by them called UjntapJis, when written to the dead — taken from tablets in places of burial. " Here lies an old maid, Hannah Myers ; She was rather cross, and not over pious ; Who died at the age of threescore and ten, And gave to the grave what she denied to the men !" Another : — " Poor Mary Baines has gone away, 'Er would if 'er could but a couldn't stay ! ^ 'Er 'ad two sore legs, and a baddish cough, But 'er legs it were as carried her off ! " Here is one which refers to certain mineral [zi-kli] waters, prized by the Barbarians for curative pro- perties : — " Here I lies with my four darters, All from drinking 'em Cheltenham Waters ; If we 'ad kept to them Epsom Salts, We wouldn't a laid in these 'ere waults." Here seems to be one, not uncommon, which covertly shows its disdain for the gods of the Su^pcrstition : — *• Here lie I, Martin Elginbrod — Have mercy on my soul, Lord God ! As I would on thine, were I Lord God, And you were Martin Elginbrod !" IGG ki;maeks upon MxVeriages, The followin[r is most al3surd : — " Here lie I, as snug As a bug in a rug ! " And some equally funny relative placed near, but not probably pleased witli liini, adds : — " And here lie I, more snug Than that t'other bug!" A slang term for a low, Ijrutal fellow. The following turns upon the word lie [pha-li], and the word lie [pu-si] : — " Lie long on him, good Earth — For he Iwi long, God knows, on Thee !" This is ridiculous in manner of quoting from the- Sacrcd Writings; and adding, without proper pause, the death of another person : — " He swallowed up death in victory And also Jerusha Jones Aged sixty ! " Here follow references to the Superstitious horrors: — " Whilst sinners [kri-mi] burn in hell, In paradise, with Thee, I dwell !" Another " When the last trump doth sound, No more shall I be bound Within the earth ; My soul shall soar above, To shout redeeming love, Which gave me heavenly birth ! " This I fear will be scarcely intelligible. The last trump r.IRTHR, AND P.UIJTAT.R. 167 refers to a statement in the Sacred IVritinr/s, where it is said that a great Trumpet shall awake the dead, and so on. Probably, the remainder may be guessed by atten- tive readers of these Observations. The next intimates that the couple had been quarrel- some, but had, at last, silenced their l)ickerings in a common grave : " Here lies Tom Bobbin, And bis wife Mary — Cheek bj' jowl, And never weary — No wonder they so well agree : Tim wants no punch, And Moll no tea !" These refer to occupations. By a cook : — To Memory of Mary Lettuce : — " If you want to please your pallet. Cut down a lettuce to make a salad." By a sailor [ma-te-lo] :- " Here lies Tom Bowline, His timbers stove in — Will never put to sea ag'in !" " Below lies Jonathan Saul, Spitalfields weaver — That's all!" Spitalfields is a famous place for silk- weaving [tni-se-ti]. I need not make any criticism upon these things. They would be impossible to our better culture and 168 REMAEKS UPON MAREIAGES, refinement. Our Book of Bites would not suffer such low conceits to see the light if, by any chance, any one should indulge in them privately. It may be said in fairness that these are specimens of the low, and with these there is less indecency than formerly. There are, however, abundant samples even among the Higher Castes, of things in really as bad taste, though in neater language — quite as offensive, but to the feelings of right reason rather than to those of literary delicacy. They refer to the canons of the Idolatry, and seem, to a stranger to that Presumption, quite incredible. However, one must reflect upon the effect of super- stition, long ingrained, and " born and bred " till its enormities are as familiar as the most harmless images ; and its blessings appropriated, and its curses distributed, with an equal equanimity ! I have not referred to the great Pageants when High- Castes are buried who have been famous as Braves, either in distant forays with armed bands upon the Heathen, or among Christian tribes of the Main Land. Or, perhaps, some high chief who has ordered the great Fire-ships in burning and plundering beyond the Seas. I have not referred to these, because they are merely shows, and do not in any sense apply any especial cha- racteristic. One thing I have remarked — there seems to be no respect for the dead, they are immediately forgotten, and the very momcments ordered to be set up probably never appear ; or after so long a period, that a new generation wonders w^ho can be meant by the figure which rises in some public place ! And BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. 169 when these are once placed on their pedestals, neglect falls upon them in a mantle of indescriljable filth. Even royalty cannot have the royal robes of marble so much as washed by the common street hydrant [phi-pi]. It is impossible not to feel that the cold and coarse feelings of the Barbarians are, in respect of the dead, rendered more repulsive by the horrid features of the Idolatry. In this there is so much to brutalise and render callous, that it is only as it is disregarded, that the natural human feelings come into play, and tender- ness and delicacy find expression. 170 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. CHAPTEE VIII. OF ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SOME WORDS ABOUT SCIENCE., [FvRI-OTE]. Until recently the Barbarians had no proper style of Architecture, unless in Temples, Castles, and Ships. The dwellings, even in cities, were as ugly and incon- venient as it is possible to conceive. When the great Koman civilisation disappeared, the barbarous tribes for many ages so slowly improved, that the aspect of common life remained savage. The Priests of the Superstition, however, saved some tinc- ture of Koman learning, and brought from Eome some of the older knowledge. These, however, directed their minds to the erection of Temples, and edifices designed for the objects of Priestcraft. Then arose those structures, truly wonderful, in stone, which exhibit so clearly the character of the gloomy Superstition : at first lilce those of Eome, but in time added to and changed, till at length the vast Temples, truly gigantic, called Gothic, arose. These are like huge^:>Aa9ztos7/i.s of carved stone, rising into the sky. Huge walls, buttresses, turrets, immense clusters of columns, vaulted and lofty arches, long aisles, lighted by strangely-tinted windows, carved masses of stone in prodigious strength, leaping, flying AET, auchitectuke, and science. 171 upwards, upwards, in grand confusion, and yet upon a strange, wild plan ! — giving expression to an imagina- tion onlv known to these dark and strontr Barbarians. Externally, on all sides these Temples are monstrous idols in stone, stuck most curiously upon corners, high up in niches, on turrets and hattlcmented [trit-ti-sy] walls, over the sculptured, grand portals, everywhere — chiefly diabolic, exceeding all the dreams of a mad and dreadful frenzy, yet borrowed from the Superstition and illustrating it ! Others surmounting these dreadful things, angelic and serene — as if, after all, the human instinct spurned all the low and horrible intimations of things too foul for expression, and yet so frightfully attempted, in ghastly and grinning stone ! The Eoman-Greek types knew notliing of such — how clear and beautiful these stood out, cheerful and clean, in the pure sky I As art found this sort of expression in the structures devoted to the Superstition, so in the buildings for the chiefs of tribes the same spirit directed, though modi- tied by the object. In these art found pleasure, and the barbaric mind delight, to pile up lofty Castles of huge stone — dark, menacing— where all was for strength and to symbolise Force, and nothing for refinement, nor even comfort. These great structures are now, for the most part, crumbling away; not from change of bar- baric spirit in the love of Force, but from the useless- ness of the Gothic forms in the presence of big cannons. The Eoman Architecture, somewhat altered, is gene- rally revived in buildings of importance. Yet the Priests build much as before — dropping off, however, 172 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. the more hideous of the grinning idols. In this uncon- sciously giving a sign of the decay of the Idolatry itself. For when all its horrors shall have disappeared, the morality and the simple worship of the Lord of Heaven may remain. The improving condition has im- proved dwellings, particularly of the Higher Castes. The i30or still grovel in huts and hovels, often too offensive for the healthy growth of anything but pigs. Among the Low-Castes, in great towns, the filth and stench are quite insupportable. In ships the English Barbarians pride themselves to be foremost. Upon this subject we may fairly give an opinion. There are others quite equal, and those of the Starry Flag often superior. At present the style is changing, and from wood are becoming iron, with such massive sides of thick steel, that no shot hred from any cannon shall be able to break through ' So these English think to sail with these huge iron machines into the waters of any people and force submission. Eor the mighty cannon, shooting out vast fiery balls of steel, are expected to knock to pieces any Castles and utterly burn and destroy any city. And sheltered in these impregnable, swift, floating fortresses of steel, these Barbarians expect absolutely to dominate over all the Seas, and to sink everything which dares to oppose. This supremacy is already vaunted ; and all the taxes which can be got from the people, from the tea and beer which they drink, from the tobacco which they smoke, from the letters and papers which they write and use in affairs, and from a share AIIT, AKCIIITECTUllE, AND SCIENCE. 173 of their daily toil, are devoted (after handing a certain portion to the Queen and the High-Castes for their pleasures) to these big, floating machines of war, to the huge cannons, and to arm and pay the sailors and soldiers, that this domination he absolutely assured ! Still, so far, none of these terrible vessels have proved of any use, as they can neither float nor fight ; or, if they float, turn bottom upwards at a small breath of wind, and, if moved to act in concert, are so unmanage- able as to be only terrible to each other ! The sailors, therefore, dread them as unfit for the sea, and as Iron Coffins to poor Jack, who is forced to go into them ! The introduction of Steam has only rendered the Western Barbarians more conceited and more miserable. On nothing do they pride themselves so much as upon the tremendous Force, which they have acquired in the various Arts, by the use of steam. They, in this, as in other similar inventions, mistake the nature of the thing used and its efiect. They think themselves vjuxr because they move faster — as if the hare be necessarily wittier than the ox ; and more civilised, because more powerful — as if the rhinoceros were to be preferred to the horse. At this moment, the Barbarian tribes of the West are devoting all their energies to this single notion of Supremacy. Eorce is absolutely the most coveted thing — to be strong, the only desirable thing. And the acme of that civilisation of which they boast, glitters only with polished steel, towering high, bristling with terrible weapons of destruction ! There are canals not much used, and not commonly 174 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIEXCE. of good deptli and width. The Higli-roads are nearly as good, in some parts, as those in our Flowery Land ; but more frequently quite inferior, being either very dusty or muddy. They have none of the conveniences for the shelter or rest of travellers, provided everywhere Ijy our Illustrious ; nor are the signal towers and fine shade trees, Avhich give such beauty to our roads, to be seen, excepting occasional!}', and quite l)y chance, the latter. The Bridges are insignificant, as a rule, owing to the littleness of the rivers ; but they are handsome and strong, built of stone, in the Eoman style. They span the rivers, the canals, and form viaducts [pa-se-gyt] for roads of Iro)i. Upon these roads, passing sometimes over the dwellings and streets of towns, move rapidly the long chain of carriages, drawn Ijy steam-engines, conveying many people and much merchandise. These iron roads are niimerous, and the works and buildings connected with them very great and costly. The Bar- barians greatly vaunt the usefulness of these roads ; but the rightfulness of their opinion is by no means apparent. They Ijreak up the quiet and the accustomed industries of the people ; excite agitations, produce rest- lessness and expense, accumulate too many here, and depopulate and render meagre thci-c. They crowd the cities with the poor, and leave the rural districts empty ; the towns are overburdened and the fields untilled. Tliey foster the extravagances of the rich and add nothing to the comfort of the common people. It is said that in the saving of time is a saving of money. But it is to be considered that this ease and rapidity AKT, AUCIIITECTUEE, AND SCIENCE. 175 of movement is not always usefully directed. It may be, and it is, largely used only to waste and dissipate money and time. It is said to save material measured in relation to effect. This is not clear ; for, although a ton be moved far quicker to a given point, who shall say that the ton moved by usual means would not, all things estimated, be as economically moved, and with as good result to the common weal ? The real question is not considered, w^hich is — Have Iron-roads added to the useful means of the people ? Consider the cost, and say wdiether such vast expense in other mode or modes of outlay would not have ])roduced means more beneficial. How much more numerous and better roads, vehicles, buildings for the poor, improved culture, tools, larger areas of recovered lands, new fertilisers, new and nume- rous schools — innumerable details of improvement — had the intellect, time and money directed to these roads been directed to the many needs of a people ! The good, then, is rather the good which activity of brain and outlay of money naturally effect — possibly that activity and expense have not been most usefully^ employed in Iron-roads — indeed, very probably not to the good effect of a more naturally ordered expenditure. But the English, seeing the effect of a prodigious activity and employment of money spread over many years, place it to the credit of a thing — Steam ; never consider- ing at all whether the thing lias been necessarily the cause, or only the accident. To what effect, during the same time, might that same energy and money have been applied ! The new power stimulated energy, and 176 ART, AKCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. possibly misled it. It may be said that steam did its service by giving this stimulus. Probably not so. The question is, Has Steam after all misled — fallen short, in fact, of those effects which the usual and less novel forces would have jiroduced ? This is an unanswered «|uestion. In the industrial arts the English, are not remarkable. They are good in fire-arras and curious in weapons, as may be expected. They are expert in making barrels and vessels to hold liquors from wood; need, which they call the mother of invention, made this art a necessity ; such is the prodigious quantity of hccr which they consume. In dress-fabrics, in tools, in furniture, in metals, they show no more skill than our artisans, and in many articles not so much. We have arts, use- ful and beautiful, unknown to the Barbarians ; they have things of mere show and luxury for which we have no use. In what is called Fine Art — that is Painting and Sculpture, particularly — we have but little to com- pare. By Fine Art is meant what is impossible to us ; it is for the most part intolerable to us. Think of the Illustrious of our Flowery Kingdom crowding into Halls, ghttering with gilt and showy colours, to see there, arranged upon the walls and standing upon marl»le tables, great pictures of women and of men, often naked or nearly naked — wholly nude figures, mostly of women, in all attitudes, carved from marl)le, or made of a fine baked clay ! Not only so ; but the illustrious mothers, wives, daughters, and female friends, accompanying the men to the spectacle ! The young man and the young woman together gazing upon ART, AUCIIITECTUUE, AND SCIENCE. 177 tlie nude and flesh-tinted voluptuous female, glowing in the picture ! No ; we give no such encouragement to fine Art ! Yet our painters compare favourably with those of the Barbarians, in sucli proper use of the Art as is allowed by us. For the same reason, as Sculpture with us is only permitted where useful or innocent, it does not reach after such effects as with the Barbarians ; where a naked figure of a young woman, done in marble to the luxurious taste of a wealthy High-Caste, will command a great sum. None the less, our Artists can execute with fidelity, as our Ancestral Halls will show. Copying from the ancient Romans, in their most wanton and luxurious period, the kind of painting and sculpture referred to is most highly esteemed by the Christ-god worshippers ! Many of the Eoman works have been discovered, and serve as models ; thus the ancients are imitated in their vicious taste, thou^-^6 " Ah, when 'shall he, so strong, see his true strength, and know hew to use it ! Arm no more — teach the other Barbarians the proper nse of Force ! Dreaming no harm to others, fearing no harm to himself, and using the revenues jof his great tribe to render it invin- eil.'le in virtue — how then invinciljle in all ! AKT, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCJENCE. 179 One day one of the High-Caste took me under hi.-^ TUustrioiis protection, and conveyed me to his grand House, built of hewn stone in the ancient Eoman method. It stood among fine trees, a long and glisten- ing fagade [phr-not] of white and ornamental marble. He presented me to his illustrious wife, who graciously saved me from the too great embarrassment of her pre- sence ; for, as I shall hereafter explain, the custom of the Barbarians in this respect shocks all our notions. Hanging upon the gilded walls were the costly works of painters— among them naked women, coloured and tinted, in most voluptuous forms, smiling down upon us — upon sculptured pedestals, stood white statues, in rich marbles, of exquisite maidens, nude, and attractive in every graceful attitude and personal charm ! All this was surprising, if not pleasing — but when this Lord [Tchou] took me into the gardens and Park, there, indeed, all was calm — the agitation of my spirit sub- sided ! Walking wi'th him, he took me by the arm, and said, "Ah, my dear Chin-le, how little we know of each other ; you do not understand hoio many things can be with us, nor can we understand many of your customs ; but heir we are not unlike — in this art we meet on common ground." I expressed my grateful sense of his goodness, assented to his happy reference, and then ventured to observe, " Your illustrious treats me like a relation— a brother." - "In what respect — 1 do not know." " Ah, you presented me to the exalted, the lady [da-mtsi]— with us that is to say, this is a son. or a brother" He smiled. " Well, perhaps you are 180 ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. right. I rather think you are, in respect of women, though her Ladyship would not assent." I delicately hinted my embarrassment. " The pictures, the ." He laughed good-humouredly, and replied, " Doubtless to eyes unused, such things look dazzling, and so on, but it is really only a matter of habit," But then, I suggested, " Is not Art misdirected when so employed." " Well, possibly ; but an elegant thing, a beautiful thing — why not give an expression to that beauty which is the most interesting, the most charming ? " " Does not that imply a purity above experience and above nature ? " "I see ; you lead into an ethical maze — look there ? " I followed his hand, and the noble Park extended on all sides ; yet, I said to myself, in our Flowery Kingdom, if a point be douhtful in morals we lean against the doubt. But is there any doubt as to these nudities t However, turning with admiration to the well-trained flowers, the spread- ing lawns of soft verdure, the beautiful vases of brilliant shrubs, the fine trees, with here and there a modest statue, or a marble fountain, I exclaimed, " How per- fectly satisfactory and pleasing are these effects of an elevated Art, where nothing is suggested but what calms, cheers, refines, and makes generous ! " " Ah-Chin, my dear fellow, your enthusiasm is ad- mirable ; but we need more than the serene, the cheerful, and the generous ! " As he said this he smiled at my look of bewilderment — for I was puzzled. Since then I have understood better. Art among the Barbarians must be suited to the restless eagerness of their nature, which demands excitement. And the ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SeilENCE. ]81 passions which ought to be severely repressed, Art, in a hundred ways, finds itself best rewarded to covertly gratify. Thus, all the strong emotions are most coveted, either as shown on the canvas or in the marble. Male figures, nude, writhing, wrestling, and in attitudes of force, or expressing hate, or pain, or fierce contention, or, if in repose, lapsing into the languor of desire. Female figures, for the most part, so managed as to stimulate those feelings, or to suggest those incidents which a wise man likes to ignore ; or in such methods as to suggest emotions of shame, of terror, of suffering, or of crime — often debasing or evil in tendency, and rarely to any good purpose. Pictures of bloody fights, of burning cities, of great ships sinking, or Mowing up with all on board ; of wretches tearing or cutting at each other, or struggling in blood and fury amid the waves. Statues distorted by agony, or paralysed by terror — in such. Barbarian Art greatly delights. In this, as in the sculpture of the Temples, showing, in another form, its fierceness and love of strong excitement. In the cities, there are occasionally statues to men who have been famous ; and, in some of the great Temples, Sculptures of High-Castes are sometimes set up. They are, as a rule, strange exhibitions. Many of the great pieces consist of a crowd of figures in marble — an astonishing jumble. There are figures blowing great horns ; other impossible ones representing huge human birds hovering about ; chiefly, however, naked women, with wings awkwardly fastened behind the shoulders, transporting the dead; and others (again 182 AllT, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. females) with rings of leaves held in their hands over the head of the dead or dying man ! All this is done, or attempted to be done, in marble ; and involved in it will be a great ship burning, or great guns being fired, and men and women being killed by hundreds ; or other dreadful scenes wherein the great man took fearful part ! Memorials or huge paintings, in honour of persons famous in fight and plunder, are thus exhibited in the Temples and public Halls. They are, in general, very astonishing ! In the street corners are sometimes placed, on pedestals of huge stone, carved effigies of a King, or of a Queen, or of some High-Caste man. Of some Brave, who has cut off more heads than usual, or who has seized more plunder, or carried fire and sword over the lands of distant tribes. He is sometimes on horse- back ; sometimes naked, with shield and sword, and very terrible ; sometimes so far aloft, on top of a high stone column, that nothing can be descried but a cocked hat and a pigmy figure under it. Earely there may be a statue to some High-Caste, who has been distinguished for wringing more taxes from the common people, and, by this means, keeping large armed bands at work abroad — to the glory of the English name ! more rarely a statue to the memory of any one renowned for a life useful to mankind. As works of Art, these tilings are not to be criticised. They are works of money — that is, paid for by weight ; merely meant to compliment a party or faction in the State, and not to honour, particularly, the subject of the Work, or to give a noble expression of human ART, ARCIIITECTUKE, AND RCIF.Nf'E. . ISo genius or skill. No purpose, perhaps, in the sordid workman other than to pocket the large sum for the big show ! Nothing wherein a grand imagination, in- spired by a fine enthusiasm and full of a noble con- ception, glows and breathes in the stone, and makes it imperishable ! Whether an unconscious disgust leave these pulilic statues and monuments alone in their ugliness, I know- not ; but they are totally neglected, begrimed, covered with filth — often made the roosting-places of the un- washed street Arabs (beggar boys) and loafers [na-sthi]. Even the statues of living Sovereigns are so totally forgotten and deserted, that the nose of Majesty may l)e a small pyramid of dirt, and the ermine robes more defiled and foul than the rags of the street mendicant ! The Western Barbarians are very fond of Science [kno-tu-ze] — (this is the nearest word in our language, though quite defective) — and consider themselves in this to be far superior to the ancients and to all the peoples beyond the great Seas. I have never been able to comprehend, nor do I think the Barbarians themselves comprehend very accurately, the meaning of the word. They will say of a man who is almost a fool, " Ah ! but he is very scientific." Of another, constantly blundering, and who has been famous for prodigies of mistake, '' His science is astonishing." A builder of a great ship, or of a great bridge, sees his ship upset or his bridge fall down ; none the less, he demonstrates to his admiring countrymen that, upon scientific principles, 184 . ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIENCE. the ship should have stood upright and the bridge been as stable as rock ! A doctor kills his patient [vi-zton] scientifically ; a dentist cracks the jaw in extracting a tooth ; a surgeon breaks the leg which he cannot set : Science is satisfied — " all was scientifically done ! " A man spends his life in looking at the stars ; he is a man of wonderful science. Another keeps a List of fair and rainy days during twelve moons ; his scientific attainments are respected and his observations recorded, as if the fate of the harvests were involved. You will hear of a man of marvellous science, before whom ordinary scientific men stand uncovered in silence ; he has discovered a new kind of tadpole, and added another to the already interminable terms of natural Science. I have heard one of these learned professors [pho-phe- sti] say wisely, " He is a benefactor of the race who makes two blades of grass to grow where one grew before ; " " but," he added, " he is a greater who teaches mankind how to do this." In this way, wishing to show that an idiot might chance to find a way to double his growth of grass, but would be incapable of discover- ing the cause ; so that, probably, the accident would die with the finder. A wise man would, at once, look for the reason, and finding that, be able to secure the benefit for all time. This knowledge of cause is the kind called Science. The explanation is familiar to us. In our Flowery Kingdom, the master teaches the rules, and the artificer puts them in practice. We call him an Artisan who ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND SCIEXCE. 185 has knowledge of an Art : we call liini who knows how thhiQ-s outiht to be done, and who examines into things so as to comprehend the best modes of doing, simply a teacher, or master. We do not see that his know- ledge, without actual performance, makes him a great man— a man of Science (as the Barbarians have it). Indeed, if a man do a thing merely mechanically, as a horse turns a mill, no doubt he is an ignorant artisan. Still, this stupidity does not exalt, in any degree, the nature of the knowledge of a brighter man : this one is only an intelligent artisan. On the whole, then, it seemed to me that the Barbarians, for the most part very ignorant, were easily imposed upon by those who, having leisure, mastered the multiform terms (or some of them) used by the teachers of Natural History in its various departments. These, too, idle and with some ambition to be known, easily fancied that the dry knowledge of words ivas knowledge ; and discovering with surprise at first, but soon with great complacency, how very little one need to know to be ranked with men of Science, at length prided themselves upon the very trivialities which otherwise would have been un- valued. In fact, finally imposed upon themselves as they imposed upon others, and really believed those trifles to he important, because confined to those who paraded them as Scientific. These busy, idle triflers in words become the men of Science. ^^<-