ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



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baptism to such of the rest as might 

 be still alive, pour leur saitvcr Vume. 

 The Mahomedans, who, at the time 

 that their services were useful in as- 

 sisting to prepare the national calen- 

 dar, had a powerful influence at 

 court, did much better; these zeal- 

 ous bigots to a religion, whose least 

 distinguishing feature is that of hu- 

 manity, were, however, on these 

 occasions, the means of saving the 

 lives of all the little innocents they 

 possibly could save from this maw of 

 death, which was an humane act, al- 

 though it might be for the purpose 

 of bringing them up in the princi- 

 ples of their own faith. I was as- 

 sured by one of the Christian mis- 

 sionaries, with Avhom I had daily 

 conversation, during a residence of 

 five weeks within the walls of the 

 emperor's palace at Yuen-tnin.jjuoiy 

 and who took his turn in attending, 

 pour leur sauvcr Vame, that such 

 scenes were sometimes exhibited on 

 these occasions as to make the feel- 

 ing mind shudder with horror. 

 When I mention that dogs and 

 swine are let loose in all the narrow 

 streets of the capital, the reader 

 may conceive what will sometimes 

 necessarily happen to the exposed 

 infants, before the police-carts can 

 pick them up. 



" The number of children thus 

 unnaturally and inhumanly slaugh- 

 tered or interred alive, in the course 

 of a year, is dill'erently stated by 

 diflerent authors, some making it 

 about ten, and others thirty thou- 

 sand, in the whole empire. The 

 truth, as generally hajjpens, may 

 probably lie about the middle. The 

 missionaries, who alone possess the 

 means of ascertaining nearly the 

 number that is thus sacrificed in the 

 capital, difler very materially in their 

 statements : taking the mean, as 

 given by thoic with whom we con- 



versed on the subject, I should con- 

 clude that about twenty-four infants 

 were, on an average, in Pckin. daily 

 carried to the pit oC death, where the 

 little innocents that have not yet 

 breathed their lastj are condemned 

 without remorse. 



" To be stifled in the vault, 



"To vvhose foul inoutli no healthsome 



" air breathes in, 

 " And there die.'' 



This calculation gives nine thousand 

 nearly for the capital alone, where 

 it is supposed about an equal num- 

 ber are exposed to that of all the 

 other parts of the empire. Those, 

 whose constant residence is upon the 

 water, and whose poverty, or su- 

 perstition, or total insensibility, or 

 whatever the cause may be, that 

 leads them to the perpetration of an 

 act against which nature revolts, 

 sometimes, it is said, expose (heir in 

 fants by throwing them into (he ca- 

 nal, or river, with agourd tied round 

 their necks, to keep the head above 

 water, and preserve them alive un- 

 til some humane person may be in- 

 duced to pick them up. This ha- 

 zardous experiment, in a country 

 where- humanity appears to be re- 

 duced to so low an ebb, can only bo 

 considered as an aggravation of cru- 

 elty. I have seen the dead body 

 of an infant, but without any 

 gourd, floating down the river of 

 Canton among the boats, and the 

 people seemed to take no more no- 

 tice of it than if it had been the 

 carcase of a dog : this, indeed, 

 would in all probability have at- 

 tracted tlicir altcution, dogs being 

 an article of food commonly used 

 by them; the miserable lialf-"fa- 

 mished Chinese, living upon the wa- 

 ter, art! glad to get any thing in (he 

 shape of animal food, which they 

 3 Q 4 will 



