CHINA. 



269 



Pplire. holders act in turn as constables or tything men, each 

 N- ""y / of whom has ordinarily about ten houses, including his 

 own. under his inspection ; and should any riotous com- 

 pany assemble, or any thing contrary to good order 

 take place in his quarter, it is^is duty to give informa- 

 tion to the nearest watch without d'.-lay. Every father 

 of a family is a kind of inspector in his own house, and 

 is responsible for the conduct of all under his roof. 

 Neighbours also are considered as in some degree an- 

 ewerable for each other, and as bound to render mutual 

 assistance in cases of robbery or fire. Patroles go their 

 rounds, striking occasionally as they proceed upon a 

 tube of. bamboo, which emits a dull hollow sound ; and 

 the sentries mark the watches of the night by means of 

 a bell or drum. Individuals aLo, whose property might 

 attract robbers, generally place some of their domestics 

 to keep watch, and to shew, by beating upon small 

 sticks, that the whole family is not asleep. All who are 

 found abroad at unseasonable hours are stopped and ex- 

 amined by the watch ; and no one is permitted to pass 

 through the streets during night without carrying a 

 light. As the Chinese, however, frequently use in these 

 cases torches of resinous wood instead of lanterns, and 

 s they are extremely careless in the management of 

 these lights, the practice is attended with the greatest 

 danger, and often occasions destructive conflagrations, 

 which the Chinese are as backward in extinguishing 

 as they are negligent in preventing. In these cases the 

 barriers of the cross streets are thrown open, and every 

 on hastens to the spot, ome to be spectators, a very 

 few to gir assistance, and the greater part to pillage 

 those who arc endeavouring to save their effects. Even 

 the mandarins and solditrs use no means to check the 

 progress of the flames, which are generally suffered to 

 rage till there be nothing more to burn ; and, though in 

 the suburbs, they are happy to avail themselves on such 

 occasions of the assistance of Europeans j yet, rather 

 than admit them into the interior of a city, they will 

 abandon the houses to complete destruction. Prosti- 

 tutes are not permitted to reside in the interior of the 

 cities, and have their lodgings in the suburbs, or upon 

 the rivers, where numbers of them are associated to- 

 gether under a male supcrintendant, who is responsible 

 for their behaviour. But it is not, as has been imagin- 

 ed, from a peculiar sense of decency in the Chinese, 

 that these women are thus excluded from their streets. 

 On the contrary, the boats in which they have their 

 dwellings are to be seen in rows, alongside of each other, 

 where themselves and their frequenters are openly ob- 

 served by the public ; while parties of pleasure are form- 

 ed on the lakes and rivers by the more wealthy, in barks 

 for that express purpose, on board of which they invite 

 as many of these women as they choose. 



TliicYCt. Notwithstanding all the precautions and regulations 



of the police in China, pilferers and robbers are ex- 

 tremely numerous, and are not so readily detected as 

 might be imagined, from the multitude of officers and 

 institutions provided for the public security. Pick- 

 pockets abound in Canton, who are very expert in their 

 profession, and generally make their attempts upon 

 strangers. They go in companies along the streets, so 

 that the article stolen is rapidly conveyed from one to 

 another; while some of them are always re:idy to ob- 

 struct the way of the pursuer. They frequently lay 

 forcible hold, even in open day, of the person whom 

 th.-y wi,h to rob, empty his pockets with wonderful 

 dextprity. and make their escape before he can recover 

 from hi- surprise. In their nightly depredations, they 

 generally enter houses by the windows, with the aid of 



a light bamboo ladder, or by malting a hole in the wall, Police, 

 in which, that they may easily find it again, they place W "Y~ < " 

 a small candle made of saw-dust, which gives light with- 

 out flame ; surround the beds of the inhabitants with 

 tables, chairs, &c. in order to obstruct their passage 

 should they awaken and attempt to seize them ; and 

 even, it has been affirmed, burn certain drugs in the bed- 

 rooms, in order to cast the persons, who are at rest, into 

 a deeper sleep. These bands of pick-pockets and house- 

 breakers are said to have chiefs among them, invested 

 with a certain degree of authority ; and by entering in- 

 to a composition with these persons, it is said that a 

 stolen article may sometimes be recovered. There is 

 not wanting also a more formidable species of banditti, 

 w ho infest chiefly the sea-coasts and mountainous dis- 

 tricts ; who murder as well as plunder, and by whom 

 not only defenceless travellers, but even whole villages, 

 are occasionally massacred. These, however, are sel- 

 dom found in the cities and more populous districts, as 

 every robber apprehended with weapons in his hands is 

 punished with death. 



By the laws of China it is enacted, that all poor des- Pauperi. 

 titute widowers and widows, the fatherless and child- 

 less, the helpless and infirm, shall receive sufficient main- 

 tenance and protection from the magistrate of their na- 

 tive city or district, whenever they have neither rela- 

 tions nor connections, upon whom they can depend for 

 support ; and that any magistrate, refusing such mainte- 

 nance and protection, shall be punished with 60 blows. 

 Also, when any such persons are maintained and pro- 

 tected by government, the superintending magistrate 

 and his subordinates, if failing to afford them the legal 

 allowance of food and raiment, shall be punished in pro- 

 portion to the amount of the deficiency, according to 

 the law against an embezzlement of government stores. 

 But these distributions are extremely rare and limited ; 

 and there is no country where paupers and mendicants, 

 are found in greater numbers, and in a more wretched 

 condition, than in China. In some districts they are 

 not indeed very frequent, because they could not find 

 subsistence ; and either perish of want, or remove to 

 places of greater wealth. Multitudes, who may be re- 

 garded in the class of beggars, have no other habitation 

 than a little wretched boat, in which a family of fa- 

 ther, mother, and several children, scarcely covered with 

 rags, and of the most meagre and famished appearance, 

 row about the shipping at Wampoo, and procure a sub- 

 sistence by the charity of the seamen, or by selling the 

 ropes ends, or other articles of refuse, which they pick 

 up from the river. Numbers are destitute even of these 

 accommodations and resources, and have been seen in 

 the suburbs of Cantun crowding together at night, to 

 shelter each other from the cold j many of whom were 

 occasionally found lying dead among the timber and 

 stones upon the quay. " La pauverte," says M. De 

 Guignei, who had witneurd such spectacles, " se montrc 

 a la Chine tons des dchon cxlrememmt hideui." " Lett 

 mendiann, qu'im trotive dans lea rues dc Quanion, font 

 horreur a i-oir." And tiiey are so importunate, he 

 adds, in their petitions, as sometirms to lay hold of those 

 whom they supplicate, and seldom depart without re- 

 ceiving some portion of alms. 



The Chinese language is so entirely original and 

 unique, in its wh .le construction, and in its constituent 

 parts, that it may be considered as affording no inconsi- 

 derable evidence of the great antiquity or the nation. 

 The subject, till very recently, was but little understood 

 in Europe ; and a variety of opinions, or rather conjee- 



