is Chinese comedy is described, and the diversions given at court in honour of the emperor's birth-day; they were somewhat in the style of Sadler's Wells, but very inferior, only the fire-works exceeded any thing in Europe or in any other part of the world; for they have the art of colouring flame, probably by the combustion of metals. Their drama very like a burlesque on the Italian opera, just as absurd in its principles, and supplied with performers by the same atrocious means, though such means are more necessary to the Chinese theatre, no women being suffered to appear in public. Having no change of scene, they have a very ingenious method of representing change of place. If it be necessary to send a general on a distant expedition, he mounts a stick, takes two or three turns round the stage, brandishes a little whip, and sings a song; when this is ended he stops short, and recommences his recitative, and the journey is supposed to be performed. To represent a walled city, a parcel of soldiers lie in a heap to be scrambled over by the storming party. Thus easily do the spectators admit the excuse Of time, of numbers, and due course of things Which cannot in their huge and proper life Be there presented. Their dramas are as despicable in composition as in stage management. They complain as we do, that a depraved taste for modern productions prevails; but there seems no reason for believing that their classical stock pieces are materially better than the gross and disgusting medleys of filth and barbarity which delight the present generation. The account of the Chinese language is exceedingly curious. In this part of the work Mr. Barrow acknowledges his obligations to sir George Staunton, from whose rare or rather unequalled erudition in this particular subject, England and Europe have much to expect and hope. The characters of this language on which so much has been ignoranly or superficially written are here most perspicuously explained. Certain signs expressing simple objects or ideas may be considered as the roots or primitives of this language.. These are few in number, not exceeding two hundred and twelve, one of which, or its abbreviation, will be found to compose a part of every character In that language; and may, therefore, be con sidered as the key to the character into which it enters. The eye soon becomes accustomed to fix upon the particular key, or root, of the most complicated characters, in some of which are not fewer than sixty or seventy distinct line, and a point, are the rudiments of all the lines and points. The right line, the curved characters. These, variously combined with one another, have been extended from time to time, as occasion might require, to nearly eighty thousand different characters. "To explain the manner in which their dictionaries are arranged will serve to convey a correct notion of the nature of this extraordinary language. All the two hundred and twelve roots or keys are drawn fair and distinct on the simple, or that which contains the fewest head of the page, beginning with the most number of lines or points, and proceeding to the most complicated; and on the margins of the page are marked the numeral characters one, two, three, &c. which signify, that the root or key at the top will be found to be combined on that page with one, two, three, &c. lines or points. Suppose, for example, a learner should meet with an unknown character, in which he perceives that the simple sign expressing water is the key or root, and that it contains, besides this root, six additional points and lines. He immediately turns over his dictionary to the place where the character water stands on the top of the page, and proceeding with his eye diracter six occurs, he will soon perceive the rected to the margin, until the numeral chaone in question; for all the characters in the language, belonging to the root water, and follow successively in this place. The name composed of six other lines and points, will or sound of the character is placed iminediately after it, expressed in such others as are supposed to be most familiar; and, in the method made use of for conveying this information, the Chinese have discovered some faint and very imperfect ideas of alphabetic into a dissyllable, and again compressing the writing, by splitting the monosyllabic sound dissyllable into a simple sound. One instance will serve to explain this method. Suppose the name of the character under consideration to be ping. If no single character be thought sufficiently simple to express the sound ping, immediately after it will be placed two well-known characters pe and ing; but nosyllabic sound, it will readily be concludas every character in the language has a moed, that pe and ing, when compressed into one syllable, must be pronounced ping. After these, the meaning or explanation follows, in the clearest and most easy characters that can be employed. When, indeed, a considerable progress has been made in the language, the general meaning of many of the characters may be pretty ucarly guessed at by the eye alone, as they will mostly be found to have some reference, either immediate or remote, though very often in a figurative sense, to the sigui fication of the key or root; in the same man- "The sounds and various inflections incident to languages in general, are not necessary to be attended to in the study of the Chinese characters. They speak equally strong to a person who is deaf and dumb, as the most copious language could do to ene in the full enjoyment of all his senses. It is a language addressed entirely to the eye, and not to the car. Just as a piece of music haid before several persons of different nations of Europe would be employed by each in the same key, the same measure, and the same air, so would Chinese characters be equally understood by the natives of Japan, Tunquin, and Cochin-China; yet each would give them different names or sounds that would be wholly unintelligible to one another. When, on the present voyage, we stopped at Pulo Condore, the inhabitants, et Cochin-Chinese, had no difficulty in corresponding by writing, with our Chinese interpreters, though they could not inter change one intelligible word." The plan of bishop Wilkins, it is ob served, for a universal character, though more systematic and more philosophical, is so similar to that upon which the Chinese language is constructed, that it will convey a very complete idea of it. The roots are only 212 in number, but their combinations have been extended to $0,000 different characters. A European can only make out 342 monosyllabic sounds in this whole language; a native, by the help of aspirates, intonations, and accentuations,can increase them to 1331: 2 number so small, when compared to the written vocabulary, that, on an ave rage, 60 characters of so many different significations must necessarily be called by the same monosyllabic name. Hence a composition, if read, would be totally unintelligible to the ear, and must be seen to be understood. If a Chinese has not made himself intelligible, he draws the character, or its root, in the air, with his finger or fan, and the ambiguity is removed. The system of education is slow and laborious, and destructive of any thing like genius. The boys begin at about six years old to learn by name a certain number of easy characters without any regard to the meaning; for the name has no reference whatever to the meaning. The only object of the scholar is to acquire the sound; five or six years are employed in this stupifying process. A regular bred scholar is required to get by heart a very large volume of the works of Confucius so perfectly, that he may be able to turn to any passage from hearing the sound of the character only, without having one single idea of their signification, The next step is to form the characters, which requires four years more, and the last step is to analyse them by the help of the dictionary; so that at the end of his education he first begins to comprehend the use of the written characters. In proof of the absurdity of this wretched process, if any proof were necessary, it is stated that sir Geo. Staunton, at the age of twelve years, and in little more than twelve months, not only acquired a good colloquial knowledge of the language, but had learned to write it with such accuracy, that all the diplomatic papers of the embassy ad, dressed to the Chinese government, were copied by him. The excellence of a composition de pends on three points; that every character be neatly and accurately made; that each character be well chosen, and not in vulgar use; and that the same character do not occur twice in the same composition. Fine writing, therefore, would be a literal term of praise. The beauty of an expression depends entirely on the choice of the character, not on any selection or arrangement of sounds, This whimsical taste would render poetry impossible, even if the natives were not by their habits, and their want of all the better and nobler feelings, made to tally incapable of that noblest of all hu man arts. Poets, however, they have, after their own fashion. The emperor Kien Long was considered the best of modern times, and the following ode, in praise of tea, is the most celebrated of his compositions. It has been painted on all the teapots in the empire. "On a slow fire set a tripod, whose colour and texture shew its long use; fill it with clean snow water; boil it as long as would be necessary to turn fish white, and crayfish red; throw it upon the delicate leaves of choice tea, in a cup of yoaé (a particular sort of porcelain). Let it remain as long as the vapour rises in a cloud, and leaves only a thin mist floating on the surface. At your case, drink this precious liquor, which will chase away the five causes of trouble. We can taste and feel, but not describe, the state of repose produced by a liquor thus prepared." Some ludicrous errors, into which Europeans have been betrayed by their ignorance of Chinese manners and arts, are noticed in this volume. The famous lines or marks on the back of the tortoise, which, by one of the missionaries, were supposed to contain the sublimest doctrines of philosophy, are nothing but the schoolboy's musical square. And a copper coin which was found in an Irish bog, explained in the Collectanea Hibernica, proves to have been a common coin of the last emperor Kien Long: though a very able antiquary had pronounced the characters on the face to be ancient Syriac, and those on the reverse, talismanic symbols, and inferred that it must either have been imported into Ireland by the Phoenicians, or manufactured in the country, in which case the Irish must have had an oriental alphabet; in either case, he adds, these medals contribute more to authenticate the ancient history of Ireland, than all the volumes that have been written on the subject. Astronomy is little understood by the Chinese, though they affect to value it highly. The main business of their astronomical board is to prepare the national almanack; of this, whatever is scientific, is made up by the missionaries from European almanacks, and the chief business of the native sages, is to mark the lucky and unlucky days. An eclipse occasions a public mourning, and gongs, and kettle drums, and trumpets, are sounded to frighten away the dragon, lest he should swallow the moon. It is no part of the system of Chinese govern ment to interfere with the superstition of the people, so that this is solely the effect of ignorance. When Kublai Khan con quered the country, he invited learned men from every part of the world; and chiefly by the help of Mohammedans, who were not then the brutalized race that they are at present, he surveyed the empire, adjusted the chronology, and corrected the astronomical observations; he imported mathematical and astronomical instruments from Balk and Samarcand, and repaired the great canal. This is acknowledged by the Chinese annalists. They know as little of earth as of hea. ven, fully believing, as they were taught above two thousand years ago, that the heaven is round; the earth a square fixed in the middle; the other four elements placed at its four sides: water to the north, fire to the south, wood to the east, and metal to the west; and they believe the stars to be stuck, like so many nails, at equal distances from the earth, in the blue vault of heaven. For the good maps of their own country which they now possess, they are indebted to the Jesuits. They were certainly acquainted with gunpowder before it was known in Europe. Mr. Barrow quotes Mariana from bishop Watson, to prove that it was first used at the siege of Algeziras in 1342, but it had been used before this by the Spanish Moors. Zurita mentions it in the year 1331, as exciting great terror when employed by the king of Granada. It is remarkable that the balls discharged at Algeziras seem to have been red-hot; if the chronicle, who is Mariana's an thority, be accurate in his expressionvenian ardiendo como fuego, they came burning like fire. But though the Chinese know the use of gunpowder, there is reason to believe that, like the other eastern nations, they were unacquainted with the art of casting cannon, and that their matchlocks were imitated from the Portugueze. That their printing should have continued in its present imperfect state is more the fault of the language, than of the people; the component parts of the characters are sufficiently simple, but the difficulty of putting them toge ther upon the frame, into the multitude of forms of which they are capable, Mr. Barrow thinks is perhaps not to be sur mounted. The Romans were more stupid in this respect. The power of imitation which they possess is truly remarkable; a Chinese at Canton, on being shewn an European watch, though he had never seen any thing of the kind before, undertook to make one like it, and succeeded; only the main spring which he could not make was furnished him. All those ingenious pieces of mechanism which were formerly sent to China from the repositories of Coxe and Merlin, are now fabricated at Canton as well as in London, and at one third of the expence. Of this imitative power a ludicrous instance is related by Mr. Price. In the course of a very long passage to China, the chaplain's cassock had been so often patched and mended, that it was necessary to have a new one; it was therefore sent to a tailor at Canton, that he might make another by it. He so accurately copied every patch and darn of the old one, that, except by the freshness of the new cloth, it was impossible to tell one from the other. This ingenuity would probably long ago have introduced many improvements into the country, had it not been counteracted by the contented ignorance of the government, and the contempt for Europeans which it has so successfully inculcated. A native of Canton who began a ship upon the English model, was obliged to destroy it. Their music is despicable; of all their instruments there being not one that is tolerable to an European ear. A Chinese band generally plays, or endeavours to play, in unison; but they never attempt to play in separate parts, confining their art to the melody only. Du Halde relates an ingenious trick to which this custom gave occasion. A king of T'si was very fond of the instrument called Yu, and assembled three hundred men to play upon it in concert: a fellow who understood nothing of the matter, thought that, with a little impudence, he might pass in the crowd; accordingly he offered his services, and received wages safely for a long time. But the next king happened to be a still greater lover of the instrument Yu, than his predecessor, and he chose to hear each of the three hundred performers play singly. Several popular Chinese airs are given in this volume; they themselves have no other notion of noting down music, than that of employing a character expressing the name of every note in the scale, and even this imperfect way they learned from Pereira the Jesuit. Of their painting we have specimens enough in Europe; for though these be not the work of the best artists, they sufficiently show what progress has been made in the art of design. Their architecture is well explained as imitating a tent, the curved roof of all their dwellings, and the wooden pillars in imitation of the poles, forming a colonade round the brick walls, clearly denote the origin, and from this original form they have never ventured to deviate. Their temples are mostly constructed upon the same plan, with the addition of a second, and sometimes a third roof, one above the other. The whole of their architec ture indeed, "says this traveller," is as unsightly as unsolid; without elegance or convenience of design, and without any settled proportion, mean in its appearance and clumsy in the workmanship. This censure is perhaps too harsh; the inconvenience of their dwellings Mr. Barrow had experienced, and the meanness of appearance may probably result from bad workmanship and poor materials; but the view of a mandarin's house which he has given, is certainly picturesque, as indeed the buildings mostly appear in the prints published with sir George Staunton's account. The village in the same plate might be mistaken for an English one. Mr. Barrow could not discover for what the pagodas were intended; they are now decaying, and no new ones erected; that in Kew Gardens is not inferior to the very best which he saw. Their knowledge of medicine is contemptible, and quackery flourishes as successfully there, as in England. The hired sophists of tyranny in Europe have laboured to prove the propriety of absolute power in the sovereign,by deduc ing it from what theyare pleased to call the patriarchal system of parental authority. In China, the government is actually established upon this system; the son is the slave of the father, the subject the slave of the emperor. The Great Father is a title which the emperor takes; and being thus placed above any earthly controul, he is supposed to be also above earthly descent, and therefore, as a natural consequence, he sometimes styles himself the sole ruler of the world, and the son of heaven. The late emperor Kien Long, secmed indeed, in his latter years, to have been himself the dupe of this impiety, which was designed to impose upon the people. His reign had been unusually long and fortunate, and he conceived that the Lama had condescended to become incarnate in his person. This system, or more properly speaking, this language is carried through all the subdivisions of power; the head of every province, city, or office, is considered as the father; but, Mr. Barrow says, this fatherly care and affection in the governors, and filial duty and reverence in the governed, would, with much more propriety, be expressed by the terms of tyranny, oppression, and injustice in the one, and by fear, deceit, and disobedience in the other. To curb any disposition to abuse this parental power in the monarch, a singular check has been devised. "This is the appointment of the censorate, an office filled by two persons, who have the power of remonstrating freely against any ille gal or unconstitutional act about to be committed, or sanctioned by the emperor. And although it may well be supposed, that these men are extremely cautious in the exercise of the power delegated to them, by virtue of their office, and in the discharge of this disagreeable part of their duty, yet they have another task to perform, on which their own posthumous fame is not less involved than that of their master, and in the execution of which they run less risk of giving offence. They are the historiographers of the empire; or, more correctly speaking, the biographers of the emperor. "Their employment, in this capacity consists chiefly in collecting the sentiments of the monarch, in recording his speeches and memorable sayings, and in noting down the most prominent of his private actions, and the remarkable occurrences of his reign. These records are lodged in a large chest, which is kept in that part of the palace where the tribunals of government are held, and which is supposed not to be opened until the decease of the emperor; and, if thing material to the injury of his character and reputation is found to be recorded, the publication of it is delayed, out of delicacy to his family, till two or three generations have passed away, and sometimes till the expiration of the dynasty; by this indulgence they pretend, that a more faithful relation is likely to be obtained, in which neither fear nor flattery could have operated to disguise the truth. any "An institution, so remarkable and singular in its kind in an arbitrary government, could not fail to carry with it a very powerful influence upon the decisions of the monarch, and to make him solicitous to act, on all occasions, in such a manner, as would be most likely to secure a good name, and to transmit his character unsullied and sacred to posterity. The records of their history are said to mention a story of an emperor, of the dynasty or family of Tang, who, from a consciousness of having, in several instances, transgressed the bounds of his authority, was de termined to take a peep into the historical chest, where he knew he should find all his actions recorded. Having made use of a vi riety of arguments, in order to convince the two censors that there could be nothing inproper in the step he was about to take, a among other things, he assured them, he was actuated with the desire only of being made acquainted with his greatest faults, aɔ the first step to amendment; one of these gentlemen is said to have answered him ver nobly, to this effect: It is true your ma jesty has committed a number of errors, and it has been the principal duty of our employ ment to take notice of them; a duty," con nued he," which further obliges us to inform posterity of the conversation which your majesty has this day very improperly held with us." The press in China, we are told, is as free as in England; but Mr. Barrow's notions of the freedom of the press seem Laud and Mr. Pitt; for this liberty, he to be taken from the days of archbishop says, seems to excite no apprehensions in the government. The summary mode of punishing any breach of good morals, without the formality of a trial, makes a positive prohibition against printing unnecessary, being itself sufficient to restrain the licentiousness of the press. T printer, the vender, and the reader of any ibellous publication are all equally hable to le flogged with the bamboo. So much for th liberty of the press in China! The cersorial board of the inquisition is mercy, when compared with such freedom. A short account of the laws is given, which it is the less necessary to notier, as a compendium of the compleat co is likely to appear in an able and faith/ English translation. We have search the volume in vain for an account the state of property; a most importa subject, which will of course be fully e plained in these institutes. Birth and fortune are of no weight in China; lear ing alone, such as it is, leads to office and distinction. But such learning as can neither soften the manners or strengthca the intellects is of little avail, and th officers of government carry on a system of plunder far more oppressive than the regular taxation. They who have ac quired riches by their trade or possesofficer of the district would find no di sion, dare not openly enjoy them, for the ficulty in bringing the wealthy withis the pale of the sumptuary laws. To r press this act, a system of espionage ha been established; the magistrates kee watch upon each other, and secret in |