ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



957 



ket by her parents, and publicly 

 sold for a slave. In cases of mutu- 

 al dislike, or incompatibility of tem- 

 per, the woman is generally sent 

 back to her parents. A woman can 

 inherit no property, but it may be 

 Jefr to her by will. If a widow has 

 110 children, or females only, the 

 property descends to the nearest 

 male relation on the deceased hus- 

 band's side, but he must maintain the 

 daughters until he can provide them 

 with husbands. 



" The prohibition against the fre- 

 quent intercourse with modest fe- 

 males, for there are public women 

 in every great city, is not attended 

 here with the eflfect of rendering the 

 pursuit more eager ; nor docs it ia- 

 crease the ardour, as among the an- 

 cient Spartans, who were obliged to 

 steal, as it were, the embraces of 

 their lawful wives. In China it 

 seems to have the contrary efTect of 

 promoting that sort of connexion 

 wliich, being one of the greatest 

 violations of the laws of nature, 

 ought to l)e considered among the 

 first of moral crimes — a connexion 

 that sinks the man many degrees 

 below the brute. The commission 

 of this detestable and unnatural 

 act is attended with so little sense of 

 ihame, or feelings of delicacy, that 

 many of the first officers of state 

 Kcemcd to make no hesitation in 

 publicly avowing it. Each of these 

 officers is constantly attended by his 

 pipe-bearer, who is generally a 

 handsome boy, from fourteen to 

 eighteen years of age, and is always 

 well dressed. In pointing out to 

 our notice the boys of each other, 

 they made use of signs and motions, 

 the meaning of which was too ob- 

 Tious to be misinterpreted. The 

 two Mahomedans, 1 obserre, who 



were in China in the ninth century, 

 have also taken notice of thi?i cir- 

 cumstance : and I find in the jour- 

 nal of Mr. Ilittner, a gentleman 

 who was in that part of the suite 

 who accompanied the British am- 

 bassador into Tartary, in speaking 

 of the palaces of Gehol, the fol- 

 lowing remark : " Dans Vicn de 

 " ces palaisy parmi (Taiilres chefs- 

 " W cent res de I'uri, on voi/ait deux 

 " stuiucs de gargons, en marbre, 

 " d''un excellent travail ; Us avaient 

 " les pieds et les mains lies, et leur 

 " position ne laissait poi'it de doute 

 " que Is vice des Grees n''eut perdu 

 " son liorreur pour les Chinios. Uii 

 " vieil eunuque nous les Jit remar- 

 " quer avec un sourire impudent." 



" It has been remarked that this 

 unnatural crime prevails most ia 

 those countries where polygamy is 

 allowed, that is to say, in those 

 countries where the affections of wo- 

 men are not consulted, but their 

 persons purchased for gold — a re- 

 mark which may lead to this con- 

 clusion, that it is rather a moral tur- 

 pitude than a propensity arising 

 from physical or local causes. 



" The appetite for female inter- 

 coarsc soon becomes glutted by the 

 facility of enjoyment; and where 

 women, so circumstanced, can only 

 receive the embraces of their pro- 

 prietors from a sense of duty, their 

 coldness and indifference, the neces- 

 sary consequence of such connex- 

 ions, must also incre.ise in the mei) 

 the tendency to produce satiety. I 

 think it has been observed that, even 

 in Europe, where females in general 

 have the superior advantage of fix- 

 ing their own value upon them- 

 selves, it is the greatest rakes and 

 debauchees, who, 



"—bred 



