386 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



Letter the First, to the Governors of Christ's Hospital and the Pub- 

 lic on the Abuses of this splendid Institution, and in the Manage- 

 ment which has so long prevailed within i(s walls. By William 

 Bkacrstone Turbot, a Governor, &c. EflBngham Wilson. 



With the merits of the question discussed in this pamphlet, we are not suf- 

 ficiently acquainted to qualify us for the expression of any opinion, as to 

 whether Mr. Turbott or the Governors have the best of the argument. None 

 but persons conversant with the Institution itself, and the way in which it is 

 managed, are in a condition to pronounce an opinion either way. We are 

 chiefly induced to refer to the pamphlet as affording one of the many instan- 

 ces which are daily occurring of the great interest which the public are begin- 

 ning to feel in the due administration of the aflFairs of charitable institutions. 



The Present Position and Prospects of the British Trade with China. 

 By James Matheson, Esq. Smith, Elder, and Co. 



Mr. Matheson has been seventeen years resident in China, and may there- 

 fore be presumed to be well qualified for giving an account of the British trade 

 with that empire. The work affords abundant evidence of the fact. It is 

 full of interesting details respecting China, and the trade it carries on with 



this country. . 



His opening observations respecting the character of the Chmese are inter- 

 esting. He says : — . , , 



" It has pleased Providence to assign to the Chmese, — a people character- 

 ized by a marvellous degree of imbecility, avarice, conceit,'and obstinacy, — the 

 possession of a vast portion of the most desirable parts of the earth, and a po- 

 pulation estimated as amounting to nearly a third of the whole human race. 

 It has been the policy of this extraordinary people to shroud themselves, and 

 all belonging to them, in mystery impenetrable, — to monopolize all the ad- 

 vantages of their situation. They consequently exhibit a spW'itof eacliisiveness 

 on a grand scale. From what this has resulted, — whether from conceit, or 

 selfishness, or from a consciousness that the ancient but feeble frame-work of 

 their political system cannot bear the rude concussions of modern times, — 

 the too near inspection of inquisitive and ambitious fellow- nations, it matters 

 not here to enquire. Such is the fact ; and the result is that China remains, 

 at this moment, " a boundless field of indefinite curiosity and vague specula- 

 tion." " It is one of their principal maxims," observes Mr. Auber, "and one 

 v.'hich they believe contributes most to good government, not to suffer foreign- 

 ers to settle in the empire: for besides their contempt for other nations, whom 

 they look upon as barbarous, they are persuaded that a difference of people would 

 introduce among them a diversity of manners and customs, which, by little and 

 little, would bring on personal quarrels, and these would end in parties, and 

 proceed to rebellions, fatal to the tranquillity of their empire."* These no- 

 tions are carried to a surprising extent. They permit to Europeans no inter- 

 course but of a commercial character, and that only of the scantiest and most 

 ungracious description,— restricted to the veriest outposts and confines of the 

 empire. " Foreign trade receives no support from the government ; it is 

 barely tolerated"; for it is always at variance with that jealous policy which 

 draws a line of perpetual demarcation between China and the rest of the 

 world."t On no earthlv consideration will they permit a " barbarian" foot- 

 step to transgress the limits of Canton, almost the southernmost extremity of 

 the empire, fifteen hundred miles from the capital ; and in the pursuit of their 



* Auber on British and Foreign Intercourse with China, p. 56. 



t Encyclop. Metropolit. part xiii — See, however, the Second Appendix to the 

 Third Report of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, 

 p. 527. 



