nese gong. This to a Chinese ear is the perfec- 

 tion of music, as they delight in a combination of 

 noises that would have driven Hogarth's " enraged 

 musician" to distraction. 



The morality of the Ciiinese settlers cannot be 

 placed in a very favorable light if we regard the 

 lower orders, which constitute the greater pro- 

 portioD of the body. The upper classes are, 

 however, distinguished by* probity in their deal- 

 ings, and this censure doe^ not apply to them. 

 Gambling and opium smoking are the favorite re- 

 creations of tiie idlers, and even the industrious 

 craftsmen, who work from dawn till dusk, are 

 particularly partial to their pipe* Perjury i^ fear- 

 fully common amongst them, although their me- 

 thod of s wearing is solemn enough to impress^ their 

 minds with a dread of the consequences of this 

 crioie. The oath 13 taken in the temple, a cock's 

 head being cut off, and the witness imprecates 

 the heaviest curses of Divine vengeance on his 

 head, if he violate the truth. It is said by tlie Chi- 

 nese that a few years since, a man who had taken 

 the oath and perjured himself by his evidence im- 

 mediately afterwards, had no sooner returned 

 home than he was seized with a violent vomiting 

 of blood ^d died. This has infused a terror 

 amongst, them with regard to perjury after this ce- 

 remony, although they do not scruple to commit 

 it after having taken the oath in the common 

 manner. Not many months since, a civil suit, of 

 great importance to the parties concerned, pend- 

 ing between two wealthy merchants, was about 

 to be brought forward in the British Court of 



Q t 



