could not be wholly suppressed; and all seemed filled with admiration at the splendour of the scene, and the enterprise and taste which had called it into being. Our host did the honours of his station with refined and easy dignity, and with evident, though certainly pardonable, gratification at beholding his labours so happily terminated, and the long cherished object of his ambition crowned with so brilliant a success. The beverage extracted from China's most celebrated plant, of a richness and delicacy of flavour extremely rare among us, was served to the guests in cups of native manufacture, various in shape and size, though not without those heretical accompaniments of sugar and cream, which would destroy its value in the eyes, or rather to the palate, of a true Chinaman. The vineyards of France, and the skill of our own unrivalled confectioners, were also put under levy by our entertainer, to minister to the gratification of his guests.

The proprietor enjoyed facilities for gathering curiosities such as no foreigner perhaps besides himself ever possessed. He did not, indeed, go to China with this view originally, but, soon after his arrival there, the thought occurred to him that it would be easy to collect a cabinet sufficient to fill a small apartment, which would be both amusing and instructive to his friends in America. This happy conception, upon which he immediately proceeded to act, was the germ of that vast and astonishing gallery of rare and curious objects, which has now become one of the chief ornaments and attractions of our city. Most Americans who trade to China are more or less engaged in the opium traffic, which is contrary to the laws of the Empire. Mr. Dunn was never interested to the amount of a dollar in that illicit commerce. This fact was well known to the officers of the government, and

even to the Emperor himself, and created a strong prejudice in his favour. He always treated the dignitaries of the Crown and other gentlemen of distinction with the consideration due to their rank and standing. This tended still further to secure their friendship and cooperation. It was by availing himself of facilities thus obtained, that he was enabled to complete his Collection, and the extensive and powerful influence he had secured in high places, enabled him, when ready to embark with his treasures, to overcome obstacles which would otherwise have been insurmountable. It is thus that Mr. Dunn has reared a monument which will perpetuate his own memory, and has enriched our city and country with an exhibition such as cannot be matched elsewhere in any part of the world.

There are

We have called this the richest Chinese Collection in the world. Let us make good our assertion. but three others any where, so far as we are informed, between which and this one of Mr. Dunn any sort of comparison can be instituted. Those three are, the collection at the Hague, that in the rooms of the East India Company in London, and the Museum at Salem, Massachusetts. The first mentioned of these collections does not occupy more than one-fifth of the space devoted to our townsman's, and its main, nay, almost its only object, is a display of the national costumes of China. To this end, a multitude of miniature men and women, not likenesses, as are those of Mr. D., have been dressed in illustrative attire. In this one particular, viz: the exhibition of the distinctive dresses of the Chinese, there may be a difference in favour of the European over the American collection, but the advantage goes no farther. The gathering of Oriental curiosities displayed in the Rooms of the London East India Company is rich in whatever can

illustrate life and science in India, but boasts comparatively few objects, either natural or artificial, from the Celestial Empire. The same remark holds true, to a considerable extent, of that large, interesting, and valuable deposit of eastern curiosities in the Salem Museum, which has been accumulating through a long series of years by the intelligent and generous enterprise of the hardy sons of the ocean.

The Chinese Collection occupies the lower saloon of that noble edifice recently erected in Ninth street by the Philadelphia Museum Company. This apartment is one hundred and sixty-three feet in length, by seventy in , breadth, with lofty ceilings, supported by twenty-two neat and substantial wooden pilasters. Behind each column, on either side of the vast and well-proportioned hall, has been fitted up a capacious case, which is enclosed by plate glass windows of the purest transparency. The inter-columniations are each occupied by two cases exactly the width of the pilasters, in like manner enclosed with plate glass. Not far from the entrance are two octagonal glass cases, occupying a portion of the ample space between the two ranges of pilasters, one of which is completely filled with a superb Chinese state lamp, of huge proportions, gorgeous materials, and rich workmanship. At the extreme end of the saloon, are a large pavilion, a silk draper's shop, and a Chinese street, nearly filled up by a palanquin and its bearers. So ample is the space, and so capacious and numerous the receptacles of this grand apartment; and yet such is the extent of the collection of curiosities gathered by Mr. Dunn, during his nine years' residence in China, that a large residuum remains in the store-rooms, for want of sufficient space in the hall for their convenient display.

It is no longer necessary to measure half the circuit of

the globe, and subject one's self to the hazards and privations of a six months' voyage on distant and dangerous seas, to enjoy a peep at the Celestial Empire. This is a gratification which may now be enjoyed by the citizens of Philadelphia, for the trouble of walking to the corner of Ninth and Sansom streets, and by the citizens of other parts of the United States, at no greater peril of life and limb than is connected with locomotion by means of our own steamboats and railroads. The Collection is a splendid pageant, no doubt; and many, probably, will look upon it merely as such. To these it will be a mere nine days' wonder; an object to be stared at with idle curiosity, and remembered only as a useless gewgaw. For ourselves, we see it with far other eyes, and linger among its strange and multitudinous variety of objects for a widely different purpose. To us it is a volume redolent of instruction; the best we have ever seen on the Celestial Empire. It is, in effect, China in miniature. It almost realizes, in reference to the manners and civilization of that remote, unique, and interesting people, the fable of the woods moving to the sound of the lyre of Orpheus.

Some readers, perhaps, will regard such expressions as sheer hyperbole, a mere rhetorical flourish. We utter, however, a simple verity, which will be responded to by every person of taste and intelligence who visits and examines the Collection. And we are prepared even to express a stronger opinion than this of the merits of this unique exhibition. It is well known that an impassable barrier excludes foreigners from all but a small patch of the Celestial Empire. Considering these restrictions, and the very limited sphere of observations that can be enjoyed by any stranger not connected with a diplomatic embassy, we have little doubt that a better idea may be

obtained of the characteristic intelligence and national customs of the Chinese from Mr. Dunn's Collection, than by an actual visit, we do not say to China, but to the small portion of the suburbs of Canton, which is all that foreigners are permitted to see. Mr. D.'s Collection embraces innumerable objects from all parts of the Empire, the interior as well as the sea coast districts.

The many thousands of individual objects which this Collection embraces, are not, of course, susceptible of a perfect classification; yet the principal and most instructive of them may be ranged under the following heads :Figures, of the size of life, in full costume, representing Chinese men and women, all of them being real likenesses; implements of various kinds; paintings; specimens of japan and porcelain ware; models of boats and summer houses; lanterns; natural productions, including birds, minerals, shells, fishes, reptiles, insects, etc.; models of pagodas; with a numerous assemblage of et cetera, which refuse to be classed.

We do not propose a full description of these numerous, or, to speak more correctly, these innumerable curiosities. All that we can undertake is to throw off a few imperfect sketches, interspersing them with such items of information, gleaned in the course of our reading as may seem fitted to relieve our own dullness, and afford somewhat of entertainment, if not of instruction, to our readers. To our sketches of this kind, will be added a brief account of our trade with China-its nature, history, value, and prospects.