April 26, 1858.] LOCKHART ON THE YANG-TSE-KIANG, &c. 
205 
Mr. John Crawfurd, f.r.g.s. — I have never been in China, hut I have had 
much intercourse with Chinese, have even exercised authority over them, and, 
therefore, know them tolerably well, and I have even made China itself in 
some measure a study. The Chinese are a very ingenious people ; they in- 
vented tea, porcelain, paper, and printing ; but they have never been able to 
put two syllables together. That is a remarkable fact. Their oral language 
is extremely poor; but they have a written language which I believe is 
tolerably copious, hieroglyphics like our numerals — a language understood by 
the eye and not by the ear. The oral languages are said to be no fewer than 
eighteen, corresponding with the eighteen provinces of the empire. I am 
given to understand that not one of them contains more than 1200 words ; that 
is to say, not more than one-fortieth of the number in our own language. I 
have seen a Chinese play, and the language is so imperfect that the actor has 
been obliged to cut a hieroglyph in the air with his fan to indicate what he 
meant. With respect to the Yang-tse-Kiang being the largest river in the 
world, it is not so ; but it is certainly one that has the greatest population and 
the greatest amount of industry on its banks. I think the population of its 
great plain is somewhere about 100,000,000, or about three and a half times 
the population of the United Kingdom. In stating that the internal trade of 
China exceeds the trade of the whole of Europe with the rest of the world, I 
think Mr. Alcock has considerably exaggerated the real state of the case. 
From what I know of the Chinese, I believe it does not amount to one-tenth 
part of the internal commerce carried on by the nations of Europe among 
themselves, apart from international commerce. One advantage to us of the 
Yang-tse-Kiang consists in its affording us the means of controlling the 
Chinese, and dictating to them terms of fairness and justice in our intercourse. 
We availed ourselves of this means on a former occasion, and in my opinion 
we shall be obliged to do so again. The objection to going up the Yang-tse- 
Kiang, I am told, is that the Tye-pings, those vagabonds who have been in 
rebellion for six or seven years, who are far more barbarous than the Chinese 
themselves, and who are making a burlesque and tool of Christianity, are in 
possession of Nankin. No terms should be held with these people. What 
are the Tye-pings to us? We know nothing of rebellion in China; we re- 
cognise nothing but the legitimate government. If the Tye-pings oppose us, 
we must knock the Tye-pings on the head. One word upon the question of 
silk, and the vast importance of it to this country. When the commerce of 
China laboured under a monopoly, it was thought to be totally impossible to 
increase the quantity of silk obtained from that country. The annual export 
was 2000 bales, and for 150 years it was thought to be the utmost that China 
could supply for exportation. When the monopoly was broken up 10,000 
bales were obtained; then 14,000 bales. Within the last two years, in conse- 
quence of the failure of the silkworm in Europe, the supply from China had 
enormously increased. Last year it was 94,800 bales, showing that the supply 
had increased forty-seven fold since 1810. In the history of foreign trades 
there is not a more remarkable fact. 
Mr. Consul Alcock. — I do not speak altogether without proof upon the 
subject of the internal trade of China. In the port of Shanghae there have 
been as many as four thousand large junks at one time. It is estimated, and 
has not been called in question for the last century, that from three hundred 
to three hundred and sixty millions inhabit that vast territory. There is a 
larger population than all Europe to begin with, and taken as a whole they 
are the most industrial and productive race in the world. They are essentially 
a commercial and trafficking race. You cannot go on to any canal, large or 
small, in any direction, without seeing thousands and thousands of boats carry- 
ing the produce of one district to another. They are a self-sufficing race, 
possessing as they do every production and every soil. They are in truth the 
