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From The Fortnightly Review,
POLITICS AND PROGRESS IN SIAM.

BY THE HON. GEO. CURZON.

as follows: An area of two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand square miles supports a population which the foolish fancy of writers has elevated to SIAM is a country which, though it from thirty to forty millions, but which lies but little off the beaten track of the best authorities and oldest residents Asiatic travel, is rarely visited by mem- estimate at between six and nine milbers of the globe-trotting genus. They lions, of whom probably one million or linger a week amid the enchanting more are Chinese. The bulk of this bowers of Ceylon, and they pass at population is concentrated in the valley express speed through the equatorial of the Menam, or "Mother of Waters, showers of Singapore. But for Bang- which is the Nile of Siam, diffusing, kok they seldom turu aside, and in their through numerous confluents, creeks, recollection Siam is merely a name on and canals, the rich waters over the the map, instead of a coign in the mem-country, whence the rice crops spring ory. Indeed, the extent of popular that are the staple source of occupation, knowledge about Siam in England did livelihood, and export. Great teak fornot a short time ago probably much ests line the banks of its upper tributaexceed the fact that it is a country ries, fish swarm in the lower reaches, which produces and cherishes white together supplying the second and third elephants, and once produced, while national industries and sources of leaving others to cherish, a peculiar wealth. The advantageous position of variety of twins. Even in writings the Menam valley, which is the geoupon the subject a singular embroidery graphical centre of the Indo-Chinese of fiction has been woven round the real Siam. Ludicrously exaggerated estimates of its population and resources have been given by writers claiming to be competent; and it is one of the regrets of the visitor that he can find no modern work with respectable claims to accuracy or research, The visits of Siamese princes to England in recent years, and their participation in the advantages of English public school and university education, have somewhat dissipated the prevailing ignorance, and have acquainted our countrymen with the fact that here lies another nation endeavoring to pass through the stubborn throes of a second birth, eagerly affecting the externals, if not really convinced by the spirit, of modern civilization, and aspiring to follow at a distance in the enlightened footsteps of Japan. A visit to the country and its capital will provoke surprise at the extent of the progress which has already been made, but will also disclose the long vistas that must still be traversed before Siam can claim to have successfully fortified her integrity against the dangers by which it is below the armpits, and of the Siamese threatened. panung, or petticoat, tucked up and

peninsula, has always given to the people that held it a superior influence and importance, and explains how it is that a nation with so troubled and obscure a history as the Siamese has extended and exerts its authority over regions so widely different in character and situation as the northern Malay states, the valleys of the Salwin and the Mekong, and even the remote highlands that border upon Tonkin and Annan. Many of these outlying portions are still unvisited and unknown; though yearly more and more of their secrets are being surrendered to the energies principally of French explorers, who, for motives of adventure, commerce, or politics disguised as either, have conducted for years a systematic investigation of eastern and north-eastern Sian). The characteristics of the inhabitants of the Menam basin are more familiar. The men are dark-skinned, lithe, wellproportioned, robust; the women have beautiful figures and busts and an erect stature advantages which are set off by the national dress, consisting of a linen cloth drawn across the bosom

Figures and facts may be summarized fastened between the legs (like the

Cambogian sampot, with which it is cardinal national vices. A Siamese will identical), so as to constitute a sort of stake money on anything; licensed breeches or drawers. This garment is gambling-houses exist in the cities, and worn by both sexes and all classes from are a large source of income to the govthe king to the bond-slave, the differ- ernment, who farm out the monopoly ; ence in material, cotton or silk, being a royal lottery is extensively patronized the only indication of rank. Both men in Bangkok. The gambling-houses and and women of the lower orders have the pawnshops, which are their corolbare legs and feet. In the upper classes | lary, and which are stocked with objects the men wear a white cotton jacket pawned or stolen, are a disgrace to the above the panung, and both sexes wear capital. In some streets every other white or colored cotton stockings and shoes.

house is a pawnshop, kept by a Chinaman. If suppression of these places were found difficult, at least a great reduction in their numbers might be made, while a substantial revenue would accrue to the crown by the im position upon them of a heavy tax.

The Buddhist priesthood in Siam is very powerful, and is the possessor of splendid temples, considerable endowments, and great privileges, a position which may be explained, not

To an European eye the good looks, if they anywhere exist, of both men and Women are irremediably destroyed By the universal use of the betel, which blackens and corrodes the teeth, and causes them to protrude, which renders the spittoon an indispensable article of furniture, and is responsible for the great splashes of red saliva that may be seen everywhere adorning the ground, as they have been ejected from the so much by the vitality of the relimouths of the passers-by. Like their gious spirit, as by the fact that every fellows in Annam, the Siamese women man in Siam, from the king downenjoy great freedom and influence. wards, is compelled at some period in Being of a most mercantile and man- his life, usually after he has attained his aging temperament, they become the majority, to enter its ranks, to shave self-constituted stewardesses, treasur- his head, and don the yellow robe, to ers, and hucksters of the home, or live in the monastery, and beg his shop, or store. They may be seen by food from door to door in the mornthe hundred going to market, caching, to eat nothing from noon to nightseated alone in her own canoe with her fall, and to take part in the prescribed wares spread out before her. The last temple ritual and teaching. The last king kept a bodyguard of Amazons, king served for over twenty years in with red coats and trousers and small the priesthood; and the present king carbines; but the present sovereign and the crown-prince have both filled has converted them into a species of their turn. So monk-ridden a country interior palace police. The national does not afford a favorable field for character is docile, indolent, lighthearted, gay. The Siamese are devoted to the holiday-making and ceremonies and processions which accompany the most important anniversaries or incidents of life, death, and religion, and which cause an infinite amount of money to be squandered and time lost. The capital, Bangkok, occupies a fine They love games: kite-flying, a sort position on either, but principally on of shuttlecock-football, and fighting the left bank of the Menam, at a diswith cocks, crickets, beetles, and fish; tance of twenty-five miles by water though it is to be surmised that the from the sea. It is not an old city, main attraction of these pursuits con- having been entirely built during the sists in the scope thereby afforded for last hundred years, after a change of betting and gambling, which are the capital had been necessitated owing to

Christian missions; and though the French Catholics have been long and honorably established in the country, and America has also a band of energetic workers, Siam is one of the few arenas from which British propagandists have wisely held aloof.

the complete destruction of Ayuthia, | little more closely, and see that the
the former seat of government, by the water of the river is surcharged with
Burmese in 1767. The Menam at and every abomination, or who follow the
below the city presents the uniform malodorous and shallow creeks, will be
characteristics of the rivers of Indo- inclined to share the opinion of the
China. It has a bar at its mouth, which English engineer who pronounced it
does not admit of the passage of vessels one of the dirtiest cities of the East,
drawing more than thirteen and a half the home of cholera, small-pox, and
feet, and which the Siamese are said to fever. Bangkok has, however, enor-
cherish as the palladium of their city mously changed during the last ten
from maritime invasion. The broad years; for in addition to the river-city
and tranquil bosom of the river is of which I have been speaking, and the
framed by bananas, palms, and bam-city proper, containing the palace, pub-
boos, elegant wats, or pagodas, gleam lic offices, and principal buildings, sur-
upon the water's edge; houses built rounded by a white battlemented wall,
upon piles or pontoons line the margin; a new land-city has sprung into exist-
and crowds of boats dart up and down ence, containing many miles of well-laid
the stream or attend the floating mar- streets, fringed by private residences
kets. At length the signs of life, and shops, and extending far back from
movement, and shipping become more the river frontage. The first street in
numerous; the chimneys of big rice- the city was opened by the last king;
mills are seen pouring a pitchy trail of but the bulk of these civic improve-
smoke into the air; spacious buildings ments has been executed by his suc-
in the European style adorn the bank; cessor, who may be termed the Hauss-
and the six miles of continuous city mann of modern Bangkok. Along the
life, containing a population which ex- principal streets runs a tramway, which
actitude compels me to reduce from the already pays fifteen per cent. to its
six hundred thousand to seven hundred shareholders; not content with which
thousand of most writers to the more return, the managing spirits are stretch-
moderate total of one hundred and fifty ing an overhead electric cable to su-
thousand to two hundred thousand, be- persede the Siamese ponies which at
gin to unroll. Bangkok is a city that present pull the cars. The streets are
has excited the most opposite verdicts, laid upon a substratum of brick, and a
according to the circumstances under steam-roller sustains European illu-
which it is contemplated. Those who sions. Telegraph and telephone wires
regard it from the picturesque or senti- line the roadway; and when Europeans
mental point of view will be fascinated are seen dashing by in well-appointed
by the broad and crowded river, with vehicles, the spectacle might well be
its hundreds of branching canals and one many a thousand miles removed
creeks, alive with canoes, sampans, from Siam.
market-boats, cargo-boats, houseboats, To an Englishman, undoubtedly, the
gunboats, shrieking launches, and big most striking feature of moderu Bang-
merchant steamers from Hongkong or kok is the predominance of English
Singapore. The gilded spires of the associations and ideas. Of the Euro-
temples, and the glittering tiled roofs pean population, who number between
of the shrines soar high into the air on six hundred and seven hundred, over
either side; and if this animated scene one-third are English, and of these
be further enhanced by the pageantry some forty to fifty are in the gov-
of the annual processions, when the ernment employ. The next strong-
king visits the temples in a flotilla of est commercial influence is that of the
barges and canoes of state - the nearest Germans, who, however, play no polit-
modern analogue to the aquatic festivals ical part. In the third rank stand the
of the Venice of the Doges-few pret- Danes, of whom some twenty to thirty
tier sights can be conceived. Those, are government employés, and are pop-
on the other hand, who scrutinize a ular with the Siamese, being capable,