5i8 COCPI IN CHINA. 
at ^perfection in any branch of the arts, or to extend his in- 
genuity or his industry much beyond the mere supplying of 
the necessaries of hfe. An Oriental sage has observed that 
" the proof of a just government and a well-regulated police 
*' is, when a beautiful woman covered with jewels can travel 
abroad in perfect security/' What would this sage have 
said of that government and that police, Avhere a helpless and 
vv'^ealthy old woman, surrounded by a set of lusty and indi- 
gent servants, commits herself and her property to them and 
to the world with as much composure and confidence, as if 
her physical strength was not in the least inferior to theirs ; — 
or, where the property of a still more helpless infant orphan 
is not only secured till he arrives at years of discretion, but 
cultivated and improved sometimes to the double of its ori- 
ginal value ? However strange such a relation might appear 
to an inhabitant of the eastern hemisphere., we have the satis- 
faction of knowing it to be strictly true in many parts of the 
western world, and in none more so than on the highly fa- 
voured island of Great Britain. 
That particular branch of the arts in which the Cochin- 
chinese may be said to excel at the present day is naval 
architecture, for which, however, they are not a little in- 
debted to the size and quality of the timber employed for 
that purpose. Their row-gall ies for pleasure are remarkably 
fine vessels. These boats, from fifty to eighty feet in length, 
are sometimes composed of five single planks, each extending 
from one extremity to the other, the edges morticed, kept 
tight by wooden pins, and bound firm by twisted fibres of 
bamboo, without either ribs or any kind of timbers. At the 
