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of retaining the feveral branches of a family under the fame roof, is attended with important effects. It renders the younger temperate and orderly in their conduct, under the authority and example of the older; and it enables the whole to fubfift, like foldiers in a mefs, with more economy and advantage. Notwithftanding this arrangement, the labouring poor are reduced to the ufe of vegetable food, with a very rare and fcanty relith of any animal fubftance; the price of labour being generally found to bear as small a proportion every where to the rate demanded for provifions, as the common people will confent to fuffer.

"The crowds of people at Pekin do not prevent it from being healthy. The Chinese live, indeed, much in the open air, increafing or diminishing the quantity of their apparel according to the weather. The atmosphere is dry, and does not engender putrid diforders; and exceffes productive of them feldom are committed.

"Great order is preferved among fuch multitudes; and the commiffion of crimes is rare. Every tenth housekeeper, fomewhat in the manner of the ancient tithing-men in England, is anfwerable for the conduct of the nine neighbouring families, as far as he may be fuppofed capable of controlling it. The police is obferved with particular ftrianefs within the walls. The city partakes of the regularity and interior fafety of a camp; but is fubject alfo to its conttraints. In the fuburbs only, public women are registered and licented. They are not indeed very numerous, being proportioned to the fmall number of fingle men, and of husbands abfent from their families to be found in the metropolis.

"The early marriages of men in eafy circumftances have been already mentioned; with the poor, marriage is a measure of prudence, because the children, particularly the fons, are bound to maintain their parents. Whatever is ftrongly recommended and generally practifed, is at length confidered as a kind of religious duty; and this union, as fuch, takes place whenever there is the leaft profpect of fubfiftence for a future family. That profpect, however, is not always realized; and children, born without means being had of providing for them, are fometimes abandoned by the wretched authors of their being. It must have been the moft dire and abfolute neceffity which led to this unnatural and fhocking act, when firft it was committed. It was reconciled, afterwards, in fome meafure, to the mind, by fuperftition coming in aid to render it a holy offering to the fpirit of the adjoining river, in which the infant was thrown, with a gourd fufpended from its neck, to keep it from immediate drowning.

"The philofophers of China, who have with equal ability and effect inculcated the maxims of filial piety, have left, in great meafure, the parental affection to its own natural influence, which does not always maintain its empire as effectually as fentiments enforced by early and repeated precept. Thus, in China, parents are lefs frequently neglected than infants are expofed. The laws of the empire, to corroborate the difpofition to filial obedience, furnish an opportunity for punishing any breach of it, by leaving a man's offspring entirely within his power; and habit feems to have familiarifed a notion that life only becomes truly precious, and inattention to it cri

minal, after it has continued long enough to be endowed with a mind and fentiment; but that mere dawning existence may be fuffered to be loft without fcruple, tho it cannot without reluctance.

"Female infants are, for the moft part, chofen as the lefs evil for this cruel facrifice, because daughters are confidered more properly to belong to the families into which they pafs by marriage; while the fons continue the fupport and comfort of their own. Those infants are expofed immediately on the birth, and before the countenance is animated, or the features formed, to catch the affections rifing in the parent's breaft. A faint hope, at least, is generally entertained, that they may yet be preferved from untimely death, by the care of those who are appointed by the government to collect thefe miferable objects, for the purpose of providing for fuch as are found alive; and for burying those who already had expired."

"The Chinese appear indeed to have ftrong claims to the credit of having been indebted only to themfelves for the invention of the tools, neceffary in the primary and neceffary arts of life. The learned and attentive traveller will have obferved, in relation to common tools, fuch as, for example, the plane and anvil, that whether in India or in Europe, in ancient or modern times, they are found to have been fabricated in the fame precife form, fcarcely ever differing, except perhaps in the roughnefs of the materials, or of the make, and all denoting a common origin, being almoft a fervile imitation of each other. In China alone, thofe tools have fomething peculiar in their conftruction, fome difference, often indeed flight; but al

ways clearly indicating that, whether better or worfe fitted for the fame purposes, than those in use in other countries, the one did not ferve as a model for the other. Thus, for the example, the upper furface of the anvil, elsewhere flat and fomewhat inclined, is among the Chinefc fwelled into a convex form.

"In the forges near Pekin, on the road to Zhehol, where this particularly was observed, another alfo attracted the attention of the tra veller. The bellows ufed by the common fmiths of Europe are vertical. The blaft is impelled, partly by the weight of the machine, rendered heavy for that purpofe; but it is opened or raifed by muscular exertion overcoming the gravity useful in the former inftance; and, during that operation, the blaft is difcontinued.' But the Chinese bellows are horizontal. The workman is not aided at any one time by the weight of the machine, but he is not burdened with it at another. It is an advantage that the labour fhould thus be equable and never exceffive. The bellows are made in the form of a box, of which a moveable door is so closely. fitted, as when drawn back to create a vacuum in the box, into which, in confequence, the air rufhing with impetuofity, through an opening guarded by a valve, produces a blast through an oppofite aperture. The fame is continued when the door is pushed forward to the oppofite extremity of the box, the fpace within it being diminished, and the air compreffed, a part of it is forced out through the fame aperture. When inftead of a moveable door, a pifton is placed within it, the air is compreffed between the pifton and both extremities of the box alter

nately,

nately, and forced out upon the fame principle in both operations. This double or perpetual bellows, is worked with equal eafe, and with double the effect of the common ør fingle bellows. A model of the Chinefe bellows, not eafily intelligible by defcription, has been brought to England, and will be fubmitted to the curious.

"The common plane of the Chinefe carpenter is, like the anvil, diftinguished by fome minute particulars which characterise it to be original. It differs not only in the way of fixing the chifel in it, but in the manner in which it is used. The ends of the frame itself serve, elsewhere, for handles by which the tool is held and applied to the wood of which the furface is to be made fmooth; but to the Chinese plane are fixed particular handles acrofs the frame, by which the fame purpofe is effected perhaps with greater eafe.

"The hiftories of the first rémote ages of Chinese transactions attribute the most useful inventions in fociety to the firft or oldeft monarchs of the country. It is much more probable that they were the gradual refult of the efforts of feveral obfcure individuals, who felt, in the courfe of their own labours, and endeavoured to fupply, the want of fuch mechanical affiftance; and that fubfequent hiftorians, not able to trace the real inventors, fubftituted the names of the encouragers or promoters of thofe arts There is, however, reafon to believe that not only the inventions of first neceffity, but thofe of decoration and refinement, were known among the Chincfe in remate antiquity. The annals of the empire bear teftimony to the faft, and it is confirmed by a confideration of the natural progress of

thofe inventions, and of the state of Chinese artists at this time. In the firit difcovery and eftablishment of an art, it is practifed aukwardly, even with the help of tools; and this ftate is fuppofed to be long stationary, until at length it advances to its fecond period, when it becomes improved, and the artist is enabled to avail himself to the utmoft of every tool and machine that can affift him. The laft reriod of perfection is that in which the artift is become fo dextrous, as to complete his work with few, or aukward tools, and with little or no afliftance. And fuch is the character of the Chinese potter, weaver, worker in the precious metals, and in ivory, and of moft others in the feveral trades commonly practifed in the country. And fuch attainment is, no doubt, the utmoft effort of the art, and the strongest test of a very ancient poffeffion of it.

"It is not furprising that the method of making gunpowder, and of printing, fhould be difcovered by the Chinefe long before they were known to Europeans. With regard to the first, in whatever country nature creates nitre (one of the chief ingredients for making gunpowder) in the greatest plenty, there its, deflagrating quality is moft likely to be first observed; and a few experiments founded on that obfervation, will lead to the compofition that produces fuch fudden and violent effects., Nitre is the natural and daily produce of China and India, and there, ac-cordingly, the knowledge of gunpowder feems to be coeval with that of the moft diftant hiftoric events. Among the Chinese, it has been applied at all times to ufeful purpofes, fuch as blafting rocks, and removing great obftrue

tions, and to those of amusement in making a vast variety of fire works. It was alfo ufed as a defence, by undermining the probable paffage of the enemy, and blowing him up. But its force had not been directed through ftrong metallic tubes as it was by Europeans foon after they difcovered it. Yet this invention did not prove fo decifive for thofe who availed themselves of it, as to mark diftinctly in hiftory, the precife period when its practice first took place. And tho, in imitation of Europe, it has been introduced into the armies of the Eaft, other modes of warfare are fometimes ftill preferred to it.

"In relation to the fecond method, or that of printing, important as are its effects in Europe; it is obvious that as its object is only to multiply copies of the fame writing, it could be fought for only in that fociety which produces many readers. The number of fuch would no doubt be increased wherever it were introduced; but where that number is become very confiderable, from other caufes tending to increase the civilized and lettered claffes of fociety, the various attempts to fupply their tafte, would naturally lead to to fimple an invention as the Chinese art of printing. It confifts in nothing more than in cutting, in relief, the forms of the written characters on fome compact wood, daubing afterwards thofe characters with a black glutinous fubftance, and preffing upon them different fheets of paper (itself a previous and ingenious invention), each fheet taking thus an impreffion of the characters upon which it had been laid. The art of engraving, for the gratification of the rich and powerful, had been carried to fuch perfection among many nations of

antiquity, that the invention of printing, as here defcribed, and coming fo near to mere engraving, was likely foon to follow whenever the number of readers should be fo great as to infure reward to the inventor. The state of fociety in China, from the most early ages, rendered that number prodigious. Unlike to the reft of the world, where valour and military talents, occafionally united with natural eloquence, were originally the foundation of all wealth and greatness, while literature was little more than an amusement: the ftudy of the written morals, hiftory, and policy of China, was the only road, not merely to power and honour, but to every individual employment in the ftate. The neceflity, therefore, for fuch a multiplicity of copies for all perfons in the middling as well as upper claffes of life in the most populous of all empires, was the early and natural parent of the printing art, as it is ftill practifed among them.

The paper

"The paper ufed by the Chinese for their publications, is too thin and weak to receive diftinét impreffions on both fides. The engraved board on which the paper is laid to take the impreffion on one fide, generally contains the characters for two pages. when printed off, is doubled together, the blank fides touching each other. The fold forms the outer edge, which thus is double, while all the fingle edges, contrary to the mode of European bookbinders, are ftitched together and bound into a volume. After the edition is worked off, the plates or boards are collected together, and it is generally mentioned in the preface where they are depofited, in cafe a fecond edition fhould be called for.

"It has fometimes been thought in Europe, that moveable types were a preferable invention to that of the Chinese; but they feldom can be applicable to the impreffion of writings in a language confifting, like theirs, of a vaft variety of characters, if each character be confidered as a letter in an alphabet. The compofitor in a printingoffice eafily diftributes the four and twenty letters of an alphabetic language. He at once perceives where each is to be found. He diftinguithes them at a glance. His hands even acquire the habit of reaching rapidly, without looking, for them, as the fingers learn to touch the keys of a harpficord with out turning the eyes towards them. Were there many thousands of fuch keys, it is obvious that no fuch habit could be acquired, nor could the keys be within reach. The practice were equally impoffible, in printing with eighty thoufand moveable types, for that number of different characters of which the Chinese tongue confifts. It has not, indeed, occurred to the artifts of China to form moveable and feparate types, for each of the minute ftrokes, or elements, of which fuch characters are compofed, as has been attempted fome years fince in Germany. It is poffible that fuch a practice might be found to anfwer, notwithstanding the difficulty which muft arife from the minuteness of the type neceffary for each particular ftroke; a difficulty which, when all the types are not neceffarily of fo fmall a fize, has been overcome by a very ingenious and learned gentleman, in printing the Perfian language in Bengal; and the further difficulty, of uniting, in the impreffion, the feveral ftrokes, marked by feparate types, of a Chinese character,

which does not exist in printed European languages, where the letters of the fame word feldom touch each other.

"The Chinese are fatisfied, whenever the fame characters very frequently occur, as in the public kalendars and gazettes, to use types for fuch, cut apart, and occafionally inferted within the frames where they are wanted.

Gazettes are frequently publifhed in Pekin, under the authority of government. The various appointments throughout the em pire, the favours granted by the emperor, all his public acts, his remiffion of taxes to diftricts fuffering by dearth or other general calamity, his recompenfe of extraor dinary fervices, the embaffies fent, and the tribute paid, to him, form a confiderable part of the public news. The domeftic details of his household, or of his private life, are feldom, if ever mentioned. Singular events, inftances of lon gevity, fometimes the punishments of offences committed by mandarines, are there recorded. Even fome inftances of the adultery of women, which is a punishable, tho not a capital offence, are occafionally published, perhaps, by way of deterring others from the commiffion of the like enormities. While China was at war, its victo ries, as well as the fuppreffion of rebellions were announced. In all other cafes the world, in point of intelligence, is confined to China.

"Befide the claffic works of the Chinese, of which the multiplica tion by printing is prodigious, the lighter literature of the country gives no inconfiderable occupation to the prefs. The Orphan of China, however improved in an English drefs, by a very refpectable dramatic poet, may be confidered as

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