308 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON’S ADDRESS— ASIA. [May 24, 1858. 
Though this is no place for political digressions, I must he for- 
given if I make public a fact which has come to my knowledge from 
two reliable and independent sources respecting a Chinese public 
character, the Mandarin Yeh. Looking to the rigour and ap- 
parent wholesale cruelty of his measures when governor of the 
province of Canton, the English public have been led to regard 
him as a monster of cruelty. I am, however, assured, by both 
Mr. W. Lockhart and M. Skatschkof, that Yeh simply carried out 
the orders of his Government, which shows no mercy to rebels ; — 
the latter, indeed, having spared none of the Imperialists, including 
a number of Yeh’s relations. On the other hand, my informants 
affirm that Yeh is an example of virtue in China ; inasmuch as 
though he might have become very rich at the expense of the 
natives, who are usually oppressed by the Mandarins, he is a poor 
man — further, it is stated that he is a very learned person, who, 
owing all his advancement to his superior knowledge, has larger 
and more enlightened views of government than most of the lead- 
ing men in China. 
Chinese emigration appears indeed to increase from year to year, 
and, in regard to our own possessions in the Indian Islands and 
Australia, we can already reckon about 150,000 Chinese settlers or 
subjects. Again, our imports of the two Chinese commodities, viz. 
tea and silk, amounted, during the last year, in value to twelve 
millions, whilst the two articles, of tea in England and opium in 
China, yielded to the English and Indian exchequers a revenue of 
nine millions sterling. 
These simple facts proclaim the vast importance of obtaining a 
better knowledge of an empire which contains at least one-third part 
of the whole human race, and whose inhabitants are more ingenious 
and industrious than any other Asiatic population. 
Asiatic Archipelago . — On the subject of the great Asiatic Archipe- 
lago, three papers have been read before the Society, to which I 
shall presently particularly advert. It is just three centuries and a 
half since this large portion of the globe was first made known to the 
civilised world, and the larger portion of it is still to be discovered 
as a field for future exploration. A few words, derived from my friend 
Mr. J. Crawfurd, will convey a notion of the geographical importance 
of this field of discovery. The high-road of nations to the empire 
of China, the Hindu-Chinese countries and Japan, lies inevitably 
through this Archipelago. It contains four of the largest islands in 
the world, Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, and Lu 9 on, with an united 
