284 [Assembly 



I add, that gentlemen who liave passed through the southern 

 portion of France, fjom west to east, are agreed in testimony as 

 to its unequalled beauty. The country, gentle in risings — varied 

 ■with moderate extent of level lands — road perfectly safe for horse 

 and carriage; cultivated fields everywhere ; fruit trees hanging 

 their houghs fall of fruit, over the road sides; abundant, cheerful 

 population ; perfect regard for the rights of the owners of the 

 fruit; men, women and children polite, cheerful, ready with 

 bouquets of rich flowers, or baskets of fruit, every short distance, 

 thankful for a few sous in exchange for fruits or flowers in most 

 liberal quantities. This scene, which extends through several 

 hundred miles, is no where else to be seen on this earth. Certain 

 it is, notwithstanding the fine painting of the self-loving French 

 writer, that France has long since established a character more 

 attractive to others than any other country, in taste, in science, 

 in amount of accumulation. Surely Paris is so far without a 

 rival, even in her double-sized neighbor London. Lord Macart- 

 ney's Secretary, when descending the rivers and canals from Pe- 

 kin to Canton, met in the heart of the empire a little talkative 

 mandarin, who had orders to see him through his district, astound- 

 ed Staunton by telling him that however great and respectable 

 England was, yet it was entirely well known in China that France 

 was the centre of arts and sciences, looked up to "^s such by the 

 ■world out of China. Staunton's amazement grew out of his lack 

 of knowledge of the educational system of China and the East, a 

 system which enables the Emperor to select for every office, men 

 ■who have gained the utmost amount of knowledge. Quite other- 

 wise in some civilized countries, in small states of which may be 

 50,000 or 100,000 persons who know not how to read or write!! 

 All persons above five years old in China, Birman, Hindostan, 

 Persia, Arabia and among the Mahometans of Africa, read and 

 write. A half-naked fisherman on the coast of Hindostan writes 

 beautifully. So do all the Mahometans wherever found in the 

 heart of Africa. 



