American devil, named Hot*, to whom a wolfish voracity has become nature. He monopolizes silks and various goods for the Americans. A gluttonous avarice fills his heart. There is long procrastination and money unpaid, -contracting for much, and then requiring little; with the concealed and villanous intention of picking and choosing. He would point at a gem, and call it a stonet, and then advance to administer the deadly potion of cutting down the price! And, again, when the time of payment arrived, he would enforce discounts. He scraped and peeled off from the trader both skin and fat. * * He, knowing that when the goods were once prepared there was none to take them but himself, forced his reduction upon us, and the Chinese brokers likewise servilely complied with his wish, joining and assisting in his wickedness; so that we have been torn by the wolf, and swallowed by the whale! We have become fish and flesh to himour property is wasted without a return-all our hearts unite in detesting him; and therefore we have issued this song of our discontent. All the weavers of satin, silk, and crape publicly unite in the above declaration."

The greatest risk to which the houses and shops of Canton are exposed is that of fires, which in frequent instances are not the results of mere accident. The Chinese have very generally adopted the use of our engines, which they themselves occasionally manufacture sufficiently well to answer the purpose. The foolish notion of fatalism which prevails among the people makes them singularly careless as regards fire, and the frequent recurrence of accidents has no effect upon * Chinese corruption of the real name. + Figuratively.

them, although the fearful conflagration of 1822 went far to destroy the whole city. When the dry northerly winds of the winter season have set in, the viceroy annually issues a notice to the people, calling on them to beware of the acts of incendiaries, who purposely set fire to buildings with a view to rob and plunder in the confusion: and that there is sufficient ground for the apprehension, seems proved by the fact, that fires break out most frequently at the season when they are most likely to spread, and most difficult to extinguish.

Vagabonds and beggars are very numerous in Canton, but not more so than in many large cities of Europe. In all cases of dislocation, fracture, or diseased limbs, the ignorance of anatomy, and abhorrence of amputation, render some of the cripples very pitiable, as well as disgusting objects. They have no levy of rates for the poor, but some small charitable institutions, which " are few in number and small in extent," according to the observation of the writer in a lately printed description of the city of Canton, published at that place. The following account of them is from the same little work*:-1. The “foundling-hospital" stands without the walls of the city, on the east. It has accommodations for two or three hundred children, and is maintained at an annual expense of 2,522 taëls, or about 8407. 2. Yangtse-yuen is a retreat for poor aged and infirm, or blind people, who have no friends to support them. It stands near the foundling-hospital, and, like it, enjoys imperial patronage, receiving annually 5,100 taëls. These sums are chiefly derived from the foreign ships that bring rice to Canton.

* Page 57.

3. Ma-foong-yuen, a hospital for lepers, is also on the east of the city. The number of patients in it exceeds 300, and these are said to be maintained on 300 taëls a year! The situation of lepers is peculiarly wretched in China, as they become outcasts from society, and from their families, from the first appearance of the disease. The object is probably to prevent its propagation.

The best maintenance of the poor, and the best provision for the due distribution of wealth, consists in the manner in which both law and custom enforce among them the claims of kindred. Public opinion considers it the duty of well-conditioned relatives to support or assist those who are allied to them by consanguinity, and the state refuses to maintain those who can work for themselves, or have friends able to relieve them. The attention bestowed by the Chinese on their deceased ancestors, and the prevalence of clanship, or extensive societies claiming a common descent, give to the lower orders some of that feeling which in England belongs only to persons of family, but which has characterized the Scotch people very generally. The natives of Canton province, and of Fokien, are the most remarkable in China o the extent to which this feeling of clanship is carried, and for the inconveniences to which it gives rise. In Fokien, two clans fell out in this manner in 1817. The name of one was Tsae, and of the other Wâng, and a gathering of each having taken place, they fought until many were killed, and a number of houses destroyed by fire. The police seized the most violent; but the worsted clan again attacked the other, and killed several of them, until the government called in the military to restore order. The Chinese even carry this feeling abroad with them. Their skill as cultivators has occa

sioned some hundreds to be employed at St. Helena, and when Sir Hudson Lowe was governor of that island, he informed the writer that two clans from different provinces of China, having quarrelled in 1819, met together to have a battle royal. A serjeant's party turned out to quell the disturbance; but the stronger side, running up the side of one of the steep ravines, began to roll down stones, while the weaker one joined the soldiers, who were at length compelled to fire in their own defence, by which several Chinese were killed, and order soon restored.

But the fraternities which are most dreaded by the government of China are those secret associations, under various mysterious names, which combine for purposes either religious or political, or perhaps both together. Of the first description, the sect of the "Water-lily" (a sacred plant) and that of the "Incense-burners," are both denounced in the 7th section of the Shing-yu; and with them is confounded the Roman Catholic worship under the same prohibition. The present weak state of the government renders it particularly jealous of all secret societies whatever, as well as cruel and unrelenting in punishing their leaders. But the chief object of its dread and persecution is the San-ho-hoey, or Triad Society, of which some description was given in 1823 by Dr. Milne. The name seems to imply that when Heaven, Earth, and Man combine to favour them, they shall succeed in subverting the present Tartar dynasty, and that, in the mean while, every exertion is to be used to mature that event.

In October, 1828, a paper, of which the following is an exact translation, was found in the Protestant burialground at Macao, by a gentleman of the Company's

service, who, understanding the meaning of it, sent the production immediately to the mandarin of the district, with whom he happened to be acquainted, and who entreated that the matter might not be made public, as he should be severely punished for the mere discovery of such a seditious paper within his district :

"Vast was the central nation-flourishing the heavenly dynasty, A thousand regions sent tribute-ten thousand nations did homage;

But the Tartars obtained it by fraud-and this grudge can never be assuaged.

Enlist soldiers, procure horses-display aloft the flowery standard,

Raise troops, and seize weapons-let us exterminate the Manchow race."

Dr. Milne's account of the Triad Society, whose nature and objects he took some pains to investigate, is so curious as to deserve particular notice. The name of this association means, "the Society of the Three united," that is, of Heaven, Earth, and Man, which, according to the imperfect notions and expressions of Chinese philosophy, imply the three departments of Nature. There is a well-known Chinese cyclopædia, arranged under these three heads. In the reign of Keaking, about the commencement of the present century, the Triad Society, under another name, spread itself rapidly through the provinces, and had nearly succeeded in overturning the government. In 1803 its machinations were frustrated, and the principal leaders seized and put to death, the official reports stating to the Emperor that "not a single member of that rebellious fraternity was left alive." But the fact was otherwise, for they still existed, and, with a view to secrecy, adopted the name which they at present bear.

The objects of the association appear at first to have