Chap. L 



SHANGHAE. 



II 



as to diet, drill, discipline, and quarters, which, if 

 tried on the civil community, would, in all proba- 

 bility, have produced similar disastrous effects." It 

 is satisfactory to observe that now the system of 

 treatment has been completely changed, and appa- 

 rently with the most satisfactory results. The editor 

 of the paper already quoted observes that General 

 Jervois " has done much to improve the condition of 

 the soldiers, by considering them as men, and not mere 

 machines. They have more freedom, and, it is said, 

 better food and more airy quarters. Something has 

 been done also to relieve the ennui of idleness, by the 

 introduction and encouragement of amusements."* 

 It is to be hoped that these measures will be crowned 

 with entire success, and that the soldiers will soon be 

 as healthy as the rest of the community. 



Having nothing to detain me in Hong-kong, I 

 took the earliest opportunity of going northwards to 

 .Shanghae. This town is the most northerly of the 

 five ports at which foreigners are permitted to trade, 

 and is situated nearly one thousand miles north-east 

 from Hong-kong. In 1844 I published an account 

 of it in the ' Athenaeum, 5 and in 1846 I described it 

 more fully in my 'Wanderings.' In both these 

 works I ventured to point it out as a place likely to 

 become of great importance both to England and 

 America as a port of trade easy of access from the sea. 

 " Taking into consideration its proximity to the large 

 towns of Hangchow, Souchow, and the ancient capital 

 of Nanking ; the large native trade ; the convenience 



* Overland Cliina Mail, June, 1851. 



