166 DAVIS ON THE YANG-TSE^KEANG. [March 28, 1859. 



having. The Court of Peking probably hopes from us something 

 better for itself than perfect neutrality as regards the rebels, and 

 may have been confirmed in this hope by what our squadron, in 

 mere self-defence, was compelled to do against them up the river. 

 Should this tend to secure good faith and practical sincerity in the 

 observance of the new treaty, we may accept the results with satis- 

 faction, without troubling ourselves about the disinterestedness or 

 puiity of the motives. If they are encouraged to strenuous exer- 

 tions, and put an end to this chronic civil war, which has desolated 

 the country and paralysed trade, this will be a great common 

 benefit. 



It is only prudent, however, to note the extreme difficulty of 

 predicating anything of a people whose ways are so diametrically 

 opposite, in almost everything, to our own ; who designate the 

 compass as a " south-pointing needle," and who call the north-west 

 the west-north, and the south-east the east-south ; who mount a horse 

 on the off side, and mourn for their relations in a complete suit of 

 white ; with whom the left hand is the place of honour, and who 

 keep the head covered out of civility ; who begin a book exactly 

 where we end one, and read vertically from top to bottom, instead 

 of horizontally from left to right ; whose men wear petticoats and 

 necklaces of beads, and carry fans, and whose women smoke pipes 

 of tobacco,': but do not wear crinolines ; whose old men fly paper 

 kites, while their little boys study philosophy; and who, pour 

 renfort de potage, place the seat of the human intellect in the 

 stomach ! 



The President. — You will return your thanks to Sir John Davis for his 

 lucid description both of the geographical features of this river and of the 

 character of the Chinese. 



Then, pointing to a long Chinese proclamation which was suspended in the 

 meeting-room,- Sir Roderick said : — 



There is here a proclamation or something of that kind in Chinese, taken by 

 two English sailors, the sons of Mr. John Cleghorn, of Wick, who took it in 

 warfare in the neighbourhood of Canton. 



Sir John Davis, f.r.g.s. — The red letters are used indiscriminately, except 

 in the autograph of the Emperor himself to public documents. There is no 

 particular distinction attached to red letters among the Chinese on other 

 occasions. That appears to me to be a notice from the general of some body 

 of men, I think not Imperialists, but probably the braves at Canton. 



The President. — I entirely coincide with Sir John Davis in his eulogium 

 upon Lord Elgin's expedition. There is no Englishman who does not feel 

 that the efforts of Lord Elgin to open out China to British commerce are 

 deserving of all praise. Now, at present, however, I must call upon gen- 

 tlemen to speak to the geographical points of the paper, particularly to those 

 extraordinary physical changes that have taken place in the bed of this great 

 river, the longest in the Old World, and the only one that I have ever heard of 

 up which a squadron of armed vessels, one drawing sixteen feet of water, has 



