and all escape prevented. In the house were found six men and three women, who had for a long course of years carried on a successful system of kidnapping children, and sending them to other provinces to be sold as domestic slaves. Several hundreds had been thus stolen by them, and ten were actually found in the house. The gang were put to the torture, under which two died, and the remaining seven were chained together and paraded through the streets, receiving lashes from the youths whom they had kidnapped; after which they were either put to death, or transported to Tartary.

There is a peculiar turbulence about the character of the people on the sea-coast of this province, as well as the adjoining one of Fokien, which distinguishes them from other Chinese, and has frequently been noticed in the Government proclamations, especially in regard to that spirit of clanship which is a frequent source of so much disorder. This difference may be perhaps attributed to the sea-faring habits which distinguish them from the rest of the empire. The most notorious place for these excesses is the district of Chaou-chow, on the frontiers of Canton and Fokien, but still in the former province. One of the inhabitants some years since carried his appeal even to Peking against the magistrates, who either would not, or dared not, restrain the outrages, which resembled, in many respects, the horrors so frequently enacted by the Papists in Ireland. His kindred, having refused to assist two other clans in that neighbourhood to fight in their feuds, suffered the most shocking cruelties in consequence. Their houses were laid in ruins; several hundred acres of land seized and devastated; money plundered; temples of ancestors thrown down; graves dug up; and the water cut off from the rice-fields. Many persons were killed; more still were maimed and crippled for

life; and, notwithstanding the large rewards offered for the apprehension of the leaders, such was the organization which bound them together, that they escaped unpunished.

The immense fleets of pirates who have often continued for years to infest the southern coasts, and who at length have been put down only by a compromise on the part of the Government, may partly account for the existence of a maritime population in these two provinces, distinguished by a ferocity of character so different from the peaceable mildness of the other Chinese. To repress these, as well as to provide a safeguard against the European traders, is probably the object of the unusually large amount of Chinese troops and of war-junks, which are kept up in the Canton province. At a short distance below the foreign factories is the dock-yard, which seems continually engaged in building or repairing the vessels of the Emperor's squadron, whose inefficiency against European ships the Chinese never pretend to dispute. The Sovereign of China himself not long since issued a paper, in which he inveighed against "the falling off" of his navy, as he declared had been proved on several occasions. There is the name of going to sea, he observed, but not the reality. Cases of piracy are continually occurring, and even barbarian barks anchor in our inner seas,"-alluding to the European vessels on the eastern coasts.

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The land force retained about the city of Canton has been estimated at 7,000; but a considerable portion of these are a mere municipal police, and not regular soldiers, though the same term ping, in contradistinction to the common people, is applied to all alike. One of the viceroys of the province, subsequently to the ill conduct of the Canton troops in the operations against. the independent mountaineers, published a curious summary of the duties of a

Chinese soldier in warfare:-" Whoever runs away is to be decapitated. When an enemy advances, he who shrinks, or whispers to his comrade, shall suffer death. On commencing a fight, powder, shot, and arrows must not be thrown away at a distance, but reserved for closer action, as the want of them, when needed, is like waiting to be slain with the hands tied. When a mandarin is wounded or taken, the men must make every effort to save him, and if they neglect this they are to be put to death. The soldier who bravely kills an enemy shall be rewarded, but he who lies concerning his own merits, or usurps those of others, shall be decapitated. He who hears the drum and does not advance, or who hears the gong and does not retire, shall suffer the same punishment. Strict adherence to the severities of martial law is the only way to make brave men of cowards."

It may be reasonably doubted whether the above rules are the best that could be devised for such a purpose, and the proof is that the Chinese generally effect the objects of force by trickery and compromise. But, after this enumeration of the chief duties of a common soldier, it may be as well to give, from another quarter, the virtues of a good general in the selection of his men; some of which, it must be remarked, are rather of a speculative than of a practical nature. "The covetous he appoints to guard his treasure; the uncorrupt to dispense his rewards; the benevolent to accept submission; the discriminating and astute to be envoys; the scheming, to divine the enemy's plans; the timid, to guard the gate; the brave, to force the enemy; the strong, to seize an important pass; the alert, to gain intelligence; the deaf, to keep a look out; and the blind, to listen. As a good carpenter throws away no blocks, so a good general has no men unemployed. Each is selected according to his capacity: but favour (it is added),

and interest, and secret influence subvert the order of things, sending the blind to look out, and the deaf to listen." It has never yet, by any chance, happened to Chinese soldiers to be engaged with European troops on land; but, by the admission of the natives themselves, they have always failed entirely, and always must fail, against ships; and it can scarcely be doubted that they would be as easily discomfited in the other instance, did any European power ever find it worth while to make the trial,

The Chinese Government has expended very large sums in the vain endeavour to render the entrance of the Canton river impassable to European ships of war. The Alceste frigate forced her way, in 1816, almost without opposition; but, since that period, additional forts have been built, and all the guns that could be collected have been placed in them, with something like a determination to succeed in the object. When Lord Napier, in September, 1834, despatched a requisition to His Majesty's ships Imogene and Andromache to proceed to Whampoa and join the merchant shipping at their anchorage, it met of course with a prompt compliance, and a fair experiment of their strength and means was afforded to the batteries at the Boca Tigris, as they had been long preparing themselves. A comparison of the observations made on board the two frigates gave the following results as to the armament of the forts :

In the above account are not included two smaller forts, which may be passed out of gun-shot range; and, as the notes were made after the affair was over, it is probable that many of the guns in the larger batteries had been dismounted by our shot.

At half-past twelve, P.M., on Sunday, the 7th September, His Majesty's ships Imogene and Andromache, two eight-and-twenty gun frigates, got under weigh to proceed through the Boca, under the command of Captain Blackwood. A stir was immediately perceived among the war-junks in Anson's Bay, and at the forts nearest to the place of anchorage. All hands, on the Chinese side, commenced by firing blank cartridge; but this was soon followed up by shot, which, from the actual distance at the time, fell far short of the ships. The junks, about a dozen in number, fired away and made a terrible din; but in the mean time retired as far as they could within the shoaly recesses of Anson's Bay to the right, the admiral leading in gallant style towards the shore. As His Majesty's ships neared the entrance and got within range of the principal batteries, the wind, which had been right aft at starting, suddenly shifted to the north, and blew down the strait against us. It now became a working passage, through a narrow channel about a quarter of a mile in breadth; but the tide was running flood, and strong in our favour. The Imogene at once stood towards the island battery on one tack, while the Andromache, Captain Chads, C.B., approached Ananghoy on the other.

The Imogene waited until the double-tier fort had fired several shots, and when the last one had nearly reached her, it was answered by two guns in quick succession; the Andromache, in the mean while, returning the fire of the Ananghoy battery with several well-aimed shot, some of which plunged into the parapet with prodigious effect, while others passed