MISCELLANEA. 
363 
thus cared for, but every device is employed for the gathering 
together of every article that can serve for manure. Sca- 
vengers are constantly clearing the streets of the stercoraceous 
filth ; the cloacae are farmed by speculators in human ordures ; 
the most populous places are often made offensive by the 
means taken to prevent the precious deposits from being lost. 
The fields in China have almost always large earthenw r are 
vessels for the reception of the contributions of the peasant or 
the traveller. You cannot enter any of their great cities 
without meeting multitudes of men, women, and children 
conveying liquid manure into the fields and gardens around. 
The stimulants to production are applied with most untiring 
industry. In this colony of Hongkong, I scarcely ever ride 
out without finding some little bit of ground either newly 
cultivated or clearing for cultivation. 
“ Attention to the soil — not only to make it productive, 
but as much productive as possible — is inculcated as a 
political and social duty. One of the most admired sages of 
China (Yung-chin) says : — 4 Let there be no uncultivated 
spot in the country — no unemployed person in the city;’ 
and the fourth maxim of the sacred edict of Kang-hi, which 
is required to be read through the empire on the 1st and 
loth day of every moon, in the presence of all the officers of 
State, is to the following effect : — f Let husbandry occupy the 
principal place, and the culture of the mulberry-tree, so that 
there may be sufficient supply of food and clothing/ Shin 
Nung, the name of one of the most ancient and honoured of 
the Chinese Emperors, means f the Divine Husbandman/ 
u The arts of draining and irrigating — of preserving, pre- 
paring, and applying manure in a great variety of shapes, of 
fertilizing seeds, indeed, all the details of Chinese agriculture, 
are well deserving of note, and all display evidence of the 
inadequate proportion which the produce of the soil bears to 
the demands for the consumption of the people .’ 5 — Sir /. 
Bowring . 
“NON CAUSA PRO CAUSA.” 
<c Here now I remember an anecdote of Master More’s* 
which he bringeth in a book that he made against Bilney : 
and here by the way I will tell you a pleasant tale. Master 
More was once sent in commission into Kent, to find out, if 
it might be, what was the cause of Goodwin Sands, and the 
shelf that stopped up Sandwdch Haven. Thither came 
Master More, and called the country before him, such as 
* Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More. 
