slowly as she has moved—so slowly as to be imperceptible to us by our own knowledge, China has a past, like the rest of us; and a past which, in some matters, went beyond the present. Odd as it sounds, China is absolutely in a state of decadence with respect to some of its arts, and the sons have not trodden in their fathers' steps: in one art especially-the porcelain manufacture- there is a serious decline. The manufacturers have lost their cunning; the old ware is not equalled by the new, and the secret of some of it is quite lost.

But the fact is, very much in China is decaying. The clay feet are crumbling at last, and soon the brazen image will come smashing to the dust. When our people entered Pekin they found the whole place in the most wonderfully ruinous condition. Private houses were mere hovelsmasses of rottenness flushed over with a little paint and gilding to make them look tolerably decent; the public buildings were even worse, for they were masses of rotten ́ness excepting an outside flush of superficial patching. The board of punishments, and all the other boards, were tumble-down sheds of lath and plaster; shams, hollowness, and lies, like so much else. Everything governmental is a mockery. The tremendous battles fought and gained by the Tigers, exist but on the papers given to the king to read; the overwhelming armies gathered everywhere, and the supplies necessary to feed and maintain them, are only so many figures representing the peculations of the mandarins, having no existence in reality; those "troublesome insects," the rebels, have been exterminated-on paper! over and over again, at the very time, perhaps, when they were making their most rapid strides towards supremacy; and we, the red-haired barbarians, were driven into the sea, or howling in our chains, when the Tartar generals were fleeing before us, and the Taku forts were in our hands. All the Year Round.

CHINESE POLITENESS.

A FONDNESS for polite and decorous behaviour has been long held to be a characteristic of the Chinese. Later travellers, Mr. Wingrove Cooke, for example, contradict this information. It is, however, allowed that on ceremonial occasions the Chinese are addicted to punctilious forms of etiquette. To what extent these conventional usages are symbols of genuine respect, the following anecdote of the Abbé Huc will show:

But

During the time when we were at our Northern Mission, we were witnesses of a most curious fact, wonderfully characteristic of the Chinese. It was one of our festival days, and we were to celebrate its holy rites at the house of the first catechist, where there was a tolerably large chapel, to which the Christians of the neighbouring villages were in the habit of coming in great numbers. After the ceremony, the master of the house posted himself in the middle of the court, and began to call to the Christians who were leaving the chapel:- Don't let any body go away. To-day I invite every one to eat rice in my house;' and then he ran from one group to another, urging them to stay. every one alleged some reason or other for going, and The courteous host appeared quite distressed; at last he spied a cousin of his, who had almost reached the door, and rushed towards him, saying, 'What, cousin! are you going too? Impossible! this is a holiday, and you really must stop.' 'No,' said the other; 'do not press me, I have business at home that I must attend to.' 'Business ! what, to-day, a day of rest! Absolutely you shall stop, I won't let you go;' and he seized the cousin's robe and tried to bring him back by main force, while the desired guest struggled as well as he could, and sought to prove that his business was too pressing to allow of his remaining. 'Well,' said the host at last, since you positively cannot stay to

went.

eat rice, we must at least drink a few glasses of wine together. I should be quite ashamed if my cousin went away from my house without taking anything.' 'Well,' replied the cousin, 'it don't take much time to drink a glass of wine,' and he turned back; they re-entered the house and sat down in the company room. The master then called in a loud voice, though without appearing to address any one in particular, ‘Heat some wine and fry two eggs !'

“In the meantime, till the hot wine and fried eggs should arrive, the two lighted their pipes and began to gossip, and then they lit and smoked again, but the wine and not make their appearance.

eggs did

“The cousin, who most likely really had some business, at last ventured to inquire of his hospitable entertainer, how long he thought it would be before the wine was ready.

“Wine!' replied the host, 'wine? Have we got any wine here? Don't you know very well that I never drink wine? It does not agree with me.'

666

"In that case,' said the cousin, 'surely you might have let me go. Why did you press me to stay?'

"Hereupon the master of the mansion rose, and assumed an attitude of lofty indignation.

666

'Upon my word,' said he, 'anybody might know what country you come from! What! I have the politeness to invite you to drink wine, and you have not even the politeness to refuse! Where in the world have you learnt your manners? Among the Mongols, I should think.' And the poor cousin, understanding that he had been guilty of a terrible solecism*, stammered out some words of apology, and, filling his pipe once more, departed.

"We were ourselves present at this delightful little scene, and as soon as the cousin was gone, the least we could do was

*Solecism, impropriety in language or behaviour (as here). [The word is said to be derived from Soli, a people of Attica, who, transplanted to Cilicia, lost the purity of their tongue.]

to have a good laugh; but the master of the house did not laugh; he was indignant. He asked us whether we had ever seen such an ignorant, stupid, absurd man as his cousin, and he returned always to his grand principle, that is to say, that a well-bred man will always render politeness for politeness, and that one ought kindly to refuse what another kindly offers, Otherwise,' he cried, 'what would become of us?'

We listened without deciding the question for or against him; for in what depends upon the customs of nations, it is very difficult to have one sure and certain rule applicable to all; and in looking closely at the matter, we thought we could make out their peculiar views of politeness. Both parties by this means obtain at small cost the satisfaction of appearing generous and obliging to everybody, and on the other hand, everybody can obtain the satisfaction of knowing that he receives a great many invitations, and yet has the delicacy to refuse them."

kind

Huc.

TRAVELLING IN THE AMOOR.*

to

FROM this point our course was directly south, and up wards the ridge. As we proceeded vegetation gradually diminished, till we left it behind us, and entered a rocky region with snow lying in patches around. An hour's ride brought us to the summit, whence we looked down into a small valley with another ridge beyond rising far above us. To the east the crest rose still higher, being deeply covered with snow, with dark rocks' protruding, while beyond were seen the white summits of the Ac-tau. We lost no time in

crossing towards some lofty crags, near the base of which a great gap was formed in the ridge. On reaching this we passed round the base of the peaks and saw the deep narrow valley of the Kora lying beneath.

As we stood looking into the depth, probably 5000 feet below us, the river appeared like a band of frosted silver; we could also hear the roaring of the water as it rushed over its rocky bed. Near this place we found a track formed by the maral, argali, and wild goat, but it seemed doubtful if we should be able to descend by it. Men were sent to the east and west for a few hundred yards along the ridge, searching for a better path, but they were unsuccessful. The side of the valley was exceedingly abrupt; indeed, in many parts the precipices were perpendicular; in other places the declivity was so steep that neither man nor horse could maintain a footing, nor were there either trees cr bushes growing on any part.

The opposite side facing the north was well wooded. The trees extended from the bank of the river upwards, till they diminished to dwarfs at the snow line; and a few were struggling to live even in the icy region. The bottom of

* Amoor, a rich mining district of Eastern Siberia, lately annexed by Russia.