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Emperor is said to have distinctly affirmed that he witnessed the performance of the Ko-tou by Lord Macartney, in the presence of Kien-lung. On the return, Mr. Ellis

visited a small miao or temple, dedicated, as I was informed, to the God of Fire; his igneous godship was a short figure seated on a throne, holding a drawn sword in one hand and a serpentine ring in the other; two dwarf-like figures stood near him, each with rings: there were three other figures less perfect, on the side of the building. This miao was under repair, and the workinen were cooking their victuals in the very sanctum. Religion seems to sit very easily on the Chinese. In their feelings on this head they resemble the ancient Pagans; the worship of the gods forms part of their civil institutions and daily habits, but never deeply influences their passions. It would be wrong to attribute the late edicts against Christians to religious persecution; they arose from an alleged connexion with the malconten.s, not, I understand, without foundation.' p. 201.

As we shall probably have occasion to make, at no very distant period, some remarks on the state of religion among the Chinese, we shall limit ourselves in this place to a few brief statements. Mr. Ellis's assertion, that religion seems to mak but little impression on the feelings of the Chinese, appears to be sufficiently confirmed by the generally dilapidated state of the sacred edifices in China, and by the degraded condition and morals of the sacerdotal order. Even the temple of Kao-ming-sze, which is stated to be under the special protection of the emperor,' and to receive annually an allowance of 10,000 dollars, is described as greatly 'out of repair,' and it is subsequently intimated, that the benefactions from the present dynasty have ceased. The Chinese government is tolerant. Mahomedans are said to be eligible to office, and that ubiquitarian race, the Jews, inhabit, in diminished numbers, the province of Honan. Mr. Morrison made every pessible inquiry respecting them, but he could meet with only one individual who was, in the smallest degree, acquainted with their existence.

The man's knowledge was so confined, that he threw little light upon their actual condition. Their numbers are much diminished. Pere Jo ane, in 1704, describes them as paying the usual Chinese honours to the temple of Confucius, the tombs of their ancestors, and to the tablet of the Emperor. Their books did not reach lower than the Pentateuch; they were, however, acquainted with the names of David, Solomon, Ezekiel, and Jesus, the son of Sirach. Their entrance into China took place about two hundred years before the Christian era.' p. 283.

The best specimen of a Chinese temple, was visited at a subsequent period of the journey, and as it is an exceedingly, and intelligible representation, we shall extract it here.

It was, as usual, divided into courts, four in number, the two in

ner appropriated to the priests. The first contained two square pavilions with richly decorated roofs; on the several pinnacles were small figures of animals; the frieze looked like green enamel, and had a very pleasing effect; the tiles were of bright yellow. In these pavilions were large slabs of black marble placed upright on pedestals on which were inscriptions. Galleries on each side contained the usual figures of civil and military Mandarins. At the very extreme of this court was a colossal statue of the Dragon King. Having passed through the first court, we entered that containing the divinity representing the Emperor's mother, to whom the miao is dedicated; she was seated with two attendants standing near her, a yellow robe was thrown round the body, and on her head was a crown or large bonnet: the figure was richly gilt. The cross beams of the ceiling were decorated with golden dragons on a bright blue ground. Round the roofs of the temple were ornaments resembling spears and tridents. A lustre, composed of horn lanterns and strings of coloured glass beads, hung from the centre: two large horn lanterns were on each side of the altar, with polished metal skreens near them, used as reflectors to increase the brilliancy when the whole are lighted. Every part of the roof was richly carved and gilt, and surrounded by a frieze variegated with green, red, and black decorations. In the open area of the court, a metal vessel shaped not unlike a Ta or Pagoda was placed, where incense is kept burning; the gongs, drums, and other instruments belonging to the temple, corresponded to the superiority of the rest of the edifice. We found the priests very well disposed to do the honours, and they were perfectly satisfied with an offering of a dollar' p. 274.

When the party had reached Tien-sing, on its return, the junks, instead of continuing their course down the Pei-ho, turned into the Eu-ho for the purpose of taking the inland passage to Canton. At Lin-tsin-chow, they entered the Chakho, or river with locks, a stream whose navigation has been improved by art.

Our boatmen, on entering the Cha-kho, performed a sacrifice, either to the protecting deity of the boat, or to the god of the stream. A cock was killed early in the morning, and the bows of the boat sprinkled with the blood; it was afterwards roasted, and spread with other eatables, consisting of boiled pork, sallad, and pickles, upon the. forecastle, before a sheet of coloured paper: a pot of Sam-shoo, with two small cups, and a pair of chopsticks, were placed near the provisions. The son of the master of the boat officiated as priest, and the ceremony consisted in throwing two cups of the liquor and a little of the provisions overboard; some gilt paper was then burnt, and two strings of crackers discharged: the remainder of the provisions were taken away to feast upon. While this ceremony was carrying on, on the forecastle, the women on board were burning paper and incense before the idol that always stands in a shrine in the aftermost part of the boat. The master of the vessel and his son have their families in the boat, and I apprehend that they have never any other habitation." p. 248.

The water-road by which the Mission travelled, is, through great part of its track, familiarly known to all readers of travels, but the party was so far fortunate as to change the former route and to pass along a considerable portion of the Yang-tse-Kiang or great river of China. In an early part of their progress, they visited the extensive but decaying city of Nankin, which has not been approached by European travellers for more than a century. Mr. Ellis, however, did not succeed in reaching the celebrated Porcelain tower, which he describes, from a distant view, as octagonal in form, nine stories in height: The colour is white, and the cornices appear plain. It is said to have occupied nineteen years in building, and to have cost four hundred thousand taels, or eight hundred thousand pounds.' Mr. E., having been disappointed in his hopes of exploring the curiosities of Nankin, amuses himself with recapitulating some of the attractions which it does not contain: Here,' he exclaims, are no temples, once decorated, and still bearing marks of the genius of Phidias and Praxiteles, no forums,.... no plains' with other pithy and original negatives of the same

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The general scenery of the great river, including the Po-yang lake, is exceedingly magnificent, though Mr. Ellis complains of an unpleasant sameness, even in this picturesque part of his journey: we question if Mr. Havell would be of the same opinion. We shall extract the description of one spot visited by Mr. E., which seems to combine the grand and original features of nature with the peculiarities of Chinese architecture and habits.

I had a most interesting walk to the mountain: a stream, fed from the waterfall, wound through the valley, and was crossed by three bridges, one of which was of twelve piers; the bed was nearly dry, but the length of the bridges marked, that at certain seasons, either of heavy rain or melting snow, the stream must swell into a considerable torrent. The clearness of the water was truly gratifying to the eye, so long obscured by the muddy waters of the Pei-ho, Eu-ho, Yellow, and Yang-tse-kiang rivers. Leaving to our right a large temple beau tifully situated at the termination of the ravine, down which the cascade tumbles; we wound round a hill, and soon fell into a stony path leading to a small ta overlooking the waterfall. At this distance the building appeared like a child's plaything. Here I had an opportunity of witnessing the truth of the descriptions I had read of the features of a granitic range. The rocks rose in rude spiculated summits, survivors of the extensive degrading process, marked by the debris at the bottom. As we ascended by the path of stone steps which wound considerably to escape the steepness of the ascent, we passed several blocks of pure quartz, many of three feet in depth, and a few nearly five; midway a vein of quartz two and a half feet thick, seemed to cross the mountain horizontally. The ground glittered with mica, so as to give the surface an appearance of being strewed with span

gles of the precious metals. One stream falling over masses of rock, gave out the sound so sublimely applied in Scripture to the voice of the Almighty," the rush of many waters." Thus the pauses which the steepness of the ascent required were amply filled by a contemplation of the magnificence above and around, finely contrasted with the smiling neatness of the cultivated vale below us. An hour and a half brought us to the pagoda, which proved to be of seven stories, built of the neighbouring granite, and fifty feet in height; a small idol riding on a cow was placed in an aperture on the basement story. We stood upon an insulated pinnacle, separated by a deep ravine from the rocks, over whose surface the cascade tumbled in a perpendicular fall of four hundred feet. While resting ourselves, some priests were observed standing on an opposite cliff, belonging to the college or temple near the pagoda, the existence of which we had already conjectured from the cultivated patches near the summit: we had no hesitation in applying to them for tea, which they readily supplied us with. Their habitation was very beautifully situated in a small hollow sheltered by a few trees from the wind, that was even thus early in the season extremely piercing. The abstemious habits of their order, excluding meat, did not enable the priests to offer those solid refreshments required by so long a walk. Salted ginger and parings of dried fruit were all their stores afforded; the repast was truly that of an anchorite, and the whole scene well adapted to devout meditation. A plantation of bamboos, which I now have no doubt of being considered a sacred tree, overhung the cascade. Some large plants of the camellia were growing on the top and sides of a cultivated hill near the temple. Our descent only occupied three quarters of an hour: towards the bottom I observed some schistus, which, I could almost venture to assert, was below the granite: it was micaceous, with small embedded garnets. On our return we followed the great road, and near the city passed a temple of the Tao-tze, remarkable for some drawings descriptive of a future state, in which the rewards and punishments were represented by corresponding situations belonging to this life.' pp. 339-341.

In a subsequent visit to a temple and college, they observed a statue of Confucius, with the complexion and features decidedly African. At Nang-chang-foo Mr. Ellis was exceedingly fortu

nate.

In a walk round the walls I was most agreeably surprised, by coming upon the place where the examination for the advancement in mi. litary rank was holding. The place might be called a stadium of about two hundred yards in length: at the upper end a temporary hall had been erected, with an elevated throne or seat; a row of Mandarins, in their full dresses, occupied each side, but the distance at which I stood did not enable me to ascertain whether the raised part was occupied by some Mandarins, or by a representation of the Imperial presence. At the extremity opposite to the hall was a wall of masonry, intended as a butt for military practice, and, at a short distance in advance, a py-loo. from which the candidates, on horseback, armed with a bow and three arrows, started; the marks at which they fired,

covered with white paper, were about the height of a man, and somewhat wider, placed at intervals of fifty yards; the object was to strike these marks successively with the arrows, the horses being kept at full speed. Although the bull's eye was not always hit, the target was never missed the distance was trifling, not exceeding fifteen or twenty feet. It appeared to me that the skill was most displayed in charging the bow without checking the horse. The candidates were young Mandarins, handsomely drest; their horses, trimmings, and accoutrements were in good order; the arrows were merely pointed, without barbs, to prevent accidents, the spectators being within a few yards of the mark. On the whole the sight was interesting, and I much regretted that the pressure of the crowd, and the possibility of giving offence by any interruption that might thence arise to the ceremony, compelled me to remain only a few minutes. The circuit of the walls was five miles and a half.' P. 355.

In a former instance he had witnessed some of the parade manoeuvres of the Chinese troops.

Wang, the principal military Mandarin in attendance, having learnt that Lord Amherst wished to see the Chinese archers exercise, ordered a few of them out for his inspection. They shot tolerably well at a target, about the height of a man, using much gravity and ceremony in handling their bow and arrow; the distance was forty yards. This was followed by a few match-lock men, who kept up a running fire, round a man, upon whom they wheeled and advanced as the pivot. The movements resembled those of light troops, and were not ill executed: they loaded and fired quicker, and with more precision, than was expected from their unmilitary appearance in line. All these evolutions were performed to the beat of a drum. It is not unusual at the military posts to have the places where each file is to stand chalked, to secure their keeping equal distances.' p. 291.

During this journey, Mr. Ellis had frequent occasion to admire the powers of endurance manifested by the Chinese boatmen ; they were tracking against the stream, dammed in many places, so as to give it the rapidity of a torrent, the bottom, slippery and stony; and yet their sustenance of labour seemed to be unyielding. In one instance they worked for sixteen hours. The approach to Canton was in magnificent style; the boats of all the European vessels attended the Ambassador, and on the 1st of January 1817, our countrymen were restored to English intercourse and English accommodation. Mr. Ellis makes no allusion whatever, that we have noticed, to the previous engagement between the Alceste and the Chinese batteries, but it appears highly probable that the result of that affair, was, a great alteration in the conduct of the local authorities towards the Embassy they were evidently depressed and dismayed; they testified their displeasure by sulienness, but never ventured so far as open defiance. Though we are unable to satisfy ourselves as to Captain Maxwell's right to force his way up the river of

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