1331. The exterior view of the Imperial Hall of Audience, at Pekin.

This is a lofty building, and is about 130 feet in length. The interior decorations correspond with its external beauty. Yellow tiles are an imperial emblem, and are used only on the emperor's palaces, and the temples of Confucius. The ceiling is richly carved and adorned with gilt dragons, upon a green surface, highly varnished. The roof is supported with numerous crimson pillars of large dimensions. The walls are white and highly polished, but without hangings or ornaments of any kind.

The imperial throne, "the dragon's seat," stands nearly in the centre of the hall, and is simple in its form and style, having the inscription Taou Kwang, "Reason's Glory" inscribed upon it.

In front of the throne, stands a large bronze vessel, in which incense is offered on particular occasions.

1332. Emperor of China borne by sixteen officers.

1333 to 1335. These drawings are the continuation of the rearing of the silk worm and culture of the mulberry tree, as practised at

Nankin, and correspond with the Nos. 1028-9-30 placed on the face of the opposite pillar.

1336 to 1339. Four paintings in oil, representing the annual military re

view which takes place about the new year, near the “Tëen-how

shan," or Queen of Heaven's Hill," in the vicinity of Canton. In the almost total absence of actual warfare, says Mr. Davis, the Chinese soldiers are periodically exercised by their commanders. Their field-days consist in tumultuous and disorderly marches in the train of their mandarins, or in sham fights, which are conducted (like their theatrical performances) with the din of gongs and other noisy instruments. To this is joined some practice in drawing the bow, and in the use of the sword. Their reviews consist partly in the examination of their matchlocks, their swords, and arrows; and, when they have any, of their helmets or padded armour. As far as our experience went in the embassy, their offensive arms were always in a wretched condition. The greater number of soldiers are at liberty to follow some trade or occupation, as they are in fact a mere militia periodically called out.

Exceptions occur only among the Tartar troops, and those Chinese who are empoyed as a standing police or guard. So far from there being any necessity to enrol soldiers by compulsion, or by bounty money, the profession is eagerly sought after as a favor, and as an addition to the person's means of livelihood. The only occupation of the Chinese army, with very few exceptions, since the Tartar conquest, has been to over-awe popular revolts, and keep the people in order. The board at Pekin, called the Ping-poo, or "military tribunal," has controul chiefly over the armed police of the empire; that is, the Chinese, as distinguished from the Tartar troops. It has couriers always ready to be dispatched to the provinces, and to convey its secret orders. Banditti and malefactors of every kind are traced out with almost unerring certitude, and all experience bears testimony to the extreme efficiency of the police of the country."

In these paintings will be observed numerous shields, in the hands of the soldiery, of hideous devices, similar to those lately taken from the Chinese, and now placed in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. The design is evidently to strike their opponents with terror and affright.

1340. A theatrical representation by moonlight. For information on this subject the visitor is referred to the remarks made in p. 73.

1341. Four specimens of Chinese windows.

The substance used for transmitting the light is Anomia Placenta, or pearl shell. A variety of other materials are employed for the same purpose, as mica, horn, paper, silk gauze, and a semi-transparent paper brought from Corea. Glass windows are seldom seen. There is a frame-work in front of the translucent substance, dividing it into small panes of various shapes. This is the general style of Chinese windows, but the passion of the people for variety leads them to adopt an endless diversity of patterns.

CHINESE TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

OF THE

CITY OF CANTON.

THE Chinese Topographical annalists, say, that 2230 years antecedent to the Christian era, the region now called Kwang-tung, (Canton) was noticed in ancient records, under the names Kaou-che; Nan-kaou ; Nan-ee; Pa-yue; and Yue.

Tsin-che, the first universal Chinese monarch, about two centuries before our era, pushed his conquests to the south of the Mei-ling mountain, that bounds Canton on the north, through which a pass was subsequently cut in the eighth century.

This military conqueror (Tsin-che-hwang) i.e. Tsin, the first emperor, put Pih, "Shining white, or Resplendent," on the top of the character Wang, "a king," in order to make a new title for himself, meaning the glorious king, and which, in the poverty of European phrase, is translated Emperor; and who, to prove his title to the designation Che, "the first" -the "Beginning," burnt all the ancient records he could find, and buried alive the readers of books. This conqueror called Canton, Nanhae, "the Southern Sea," a name which is yet retained for the principal Hëen, or district, in the province. From that period till the Sung dynasty, about A.D. 1000, Canton underwent many revolutions, and was variously designated.

Tsin-che-hwang's successor, Urh-hwang-te-she, sent to it 15,000 unmarried women; and nearly four hundred years afterwards it was called Kweilin-tseang-kwan, "the region of cassia forests, and elephants." At the time above mentioned, (A.D. 1000,) whilst the court resided at Nanking, (or in the provincial dialect Nam-king) Canton, or Ling-nan, (as it was then called) was considered one of the worst places of banishment

"South of the mountain," as Ling

for refractory statesmen. To go
nan signified, was deemed certain death.

The present name of Canton, viz., Kwang-tung, was not adopted till the Mwan-chow, or Tartar dynasty, founded by the grandson of Genghis, Khan. Even till the Ming-chaou, which expelled the Tartars, and was in its turn expelled by those Tartars who now fill the throne of China, Canton was not called a sang or province, but a tow or loo, a "way or road." And then, first, about A. D. 1397, the metropolis was called by its present name, Kwang-chow-foo: previously to that time it was called Kwang-chow-loo. Under the Emperor Kow-te, of the Han dynasty, a self-made king, who held his court at Pun-yu, the modern Whampoa district, called Canton region by a name he thought applicable to himself-Nan-mow, "The southern warrior."

The Emperor Kow-te confirmed his title, and the king Ya-kung "offered tribute" to his liege lord. Under the same dynasty, a king of Man-yue, as Fokien was then called, made war upon Canton, and lost his life. By the interference of the Emperor, peace was restored; but he soon afterwards sent his own troops to subject Nan-man, “The southern barbarians," as the people of Canton were called by him.

A.D. 415, the pirate Loo-swan attacked and took possession of Canton after a hundred days fighting.

In 419, the people of Canton sent, as tribute to Woo-te, "The Martial Monarch," a piece of fine cloth. But the hardy warrior was so displeased at its luxurious softness, that he rejected it, and issued a mandate, forbidding the people of the south ever to make any more such fine cloth.

In 654, King-chow (or the Island of Hainan,) was first occupied by the order of the second Emperor of the Tang dynasty.

About 703, She-pih, "trading vessels," began to introduce "rare commodities," extraordinary or curious manufactures.

The ensuing year was remarkable, for the governor, Sung-Ying, "first teaching the people to burn earthenware."

And in 705, a statesman, called Chung-kow-ling, cut the famous pass through the Mei-ling mountain, to facilitate intercourse between Canton and the northern parts of the empire.

It is further remarked, to the credit of this statesman, that when, on the emperor Yuen Tsung's Tscen Tsew, "thousand autumns," i.e. his birth day, all the courtiers were presenting "ornamented mirrors;" Chungkow-ling offered a work, in five volumes, which he had composed to show "the causes of the rise and fall of former dynasties ;" and this work he called, "a golden birth-day mirror.”

In 795, a general, who commanded in Canton, wrote to court, stating that the trading vessels had all deserted Canton and repaired to An-nam, Cochin-China; and he added, that he wished to send a sort of consul thither.

Some of the ministers were in favour of the measure, but the imperial will was determined in opposition to it, by the opinion of one who argued to this effect:-"Multitudes of trading vessels have heretofore flocked to Canton; if they have all at once deserted it, and repaired to Cochin-China, it must have either been from extortions being insupportable, or from some failure in affording proper inducements. When a gem spoils in its case, who is to blame but the keeper of it? If the pearl be fled to other regions, how is it to be propelled back again?" The Shoo-king classic says, "Do not prize too much strange commodities, and persons will come from remote parts."

The spirit engendered by this sentiment is in unison with the general temper of the Chinese, inclining to the idea of affecting INDIFFERENCE in obtaining what they most desire. The Chinese studiously repress curiosity.

This same year those in power were forbidden, by imperial authority, to take, by force, the sons and daughters of peaceable subjects, to make slaves of them; which prohibition implies the previous existence of the unjust and cruel slave trade.

In 897, the Cochin-Chinese made war upon Canton by land; and a public spirited man obtained great credit for building large vessels to bring grain from Fuh-keen province.

After the fall of the Tang dynasty, (in allusion to which the Chinese of the present day call themselves Tang Yin, "a man of Tang,”) there were five short dynasties of from ten to twenty years' duration each; in Chinese history, called the Woo-tae, "five generations." To the first of these, in 904, Canton sent tribute of gold, silver, rhinoceros'