STREETS OF CANTON. 
211 
falsehoods ; amongst others, the assertions that Lord Macartney had 
performed the ceremony of prostration, and that Lord Amherst had 
promised to do so, but afterwards refused. We felt no regret in 
learning that with a government so faithless, the delivery of the letter 
had terminated the Ambassador’s official intercourse. 
The Embassy employed themselves during the short time they re- 
mained at Canton, in visiting its numerous streets and examining the 
various specimens of ingenuity there displayed in a profusion and ex- 
cellence no where else to be found in China. A stranger having no 
other intercourse with the country than through the medium of Canton, 
would be led to form an inaccurate judgment both of the general 
ingenuity and luxury of its inhabitants. In looking at the different 
works in ivory, tortoise-shell, and lacquer, so minutely wrought 
that great time must have been expended in working them ; and 
seeing them of forms not less calculated for utility than decoration, 
he might suppose that the interior of Chinese houses would realise 
the visionary tales of eastern authors. But if he had passed through 
a considerable portion of the empire, he would conclude, that the 
accumulation of the beautiful objects that adorn the shops of Canton, 
must depend upon some cause quite unconnected with the common 
habits of the people : he would in fact find, on a close inspection, 
that they are in a large proportion formed on European models. 
Except in the houses of the Hong merchants, and these formed no 
wide exception to the rule, we always found Chinese dwellings more 
remarkable for the simplicity of their interior decoration than any 
other character. 
I have before had occasion to mention that the fans in use amongst 
the Chinese within our observation, were made of the rudest mate- 
rials, and I might make the same "remark respecting most other 
articles of Chinese manufacture so much admired in this country. 
At Kang-cho-foo, a city famed for its lacquered ware, we had hastened 
into its streets in the hope of purchasing some specimens of its 
manufacture, but although we found them in considerable abundance, 
could no where discover any that were worth our notice. The manu- 
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