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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 turn 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 for not 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 peninsula, has always given to the peoreal Siam. Ludicrously exaggerated ple that held it a superior influence and estimates of its population and re- importance, and explains how it is that sources have been given by writers a nation with so troubled and obscure a claiming to be competent; and it is one history as the Siamese has extended of the regrets of the visitor that he and exerts its authority over regions so can find no modern work with respect- widely different in character and situaable claims to accuracy or research. tion as the northern Malay states, the The visits of Siamese princes to En- valleys of the Salwin and the Mekong, gland in recent years, and their partici- and even the remote highlands that pation in the advantages of English border upon Tonkin and Annam. public school and university education, Many of these outlying portions are have somewhat dissipated the prevail- still unvisited and unknown; though ing ignorance, and have acquainted our yearly more and more of their secrets countrymen with the fact that here lies are being surrendered to the energies another nation endeavoring to pass principally of French explorers, who, through the stubborn throes of a second for motives of adventure, commerce, or birth, eagerly affecting the externals, if politics disguised as either, have connot really convinced by the spirit, of ducted for years a systematic investigamodern civilization, and aspiring to tion of eastern and north-eastern Siam. follow at a distance in the enlightened The characteristics of the inhabitants footsteps of Japan. A visit to the coun- of the Menam basin are more familiar. try and its capital will provoke surprise The men are dark-skinned, lithe, wellat the extent of the progress which has proportioned, robust; the women have already been made, but will also dis- beautiful figures and busts and an erect close the long vistas that inust still be stature- advantages which are set off traversed before Siam can claim to by the national dress, consisting of a have successfully fortified her integrity linen cloth drawn across the bosom against the dangers by which it is below the armpits, and of the Siamese threatened. panung, or petticoat, tucked up and

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 white or colored cotton stockings and shoes.

man.

capital. In some streets every other house is a pawnshop, kept by a ChinaIf 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 imposition upon them of a heavy tax.

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 Buddhist priesthood in Siam is the spittoon an indispensable article of very powerful, and is the possessor furniture, and is responsible for the of splendid temples, considerable engreat splashes of red saliva that may be dowments, and great privileges, a seen everywhere adorning the ground, position which may be explained, not 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, o 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, light- Christian missions; and though the hearted, gay. The Siamese are devoted French Catholics have been long and to the holiday-making and ceremonies honorably established in the country, and processions which accompany the and America has also a band of enermost important anniversaries or inci-getic workers, Siam is one of the few dents of life, death, and religion, and arenas from which British propaganwhich cause an infinite amount of dists have wisely held aloof. money to be squandered and time lost. They love games: kite-flying, a sort of shuttlecock-football, and fighting with cocks, crickets, beetles, and fish; though it is to be surmised that the main attraction of these pursuits consists in the scope thereby afforded for betting and gambling, which are the

The capital, Bangkok, occupies a fine position on either, but principally on the left bank of the Menam, at a distance of twenty-five miles by water from the sea. It is not an old city, having been entirely built during the last hundred years, after a change of capital had been necessitated owing to

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, enorcherish 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, pubboos, elegant wats, or pagodas, gleam lic offices, and principal buildings, surupon 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 existand 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 improvesmoke into the air; spacious buildings ments has been executed by his sucin the European style adorn the bank; cessor, who may be termed the Haussand 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 stretchmoderate total of one hundred and fifty ing an overhead electric cable to suthousand 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 illuwhich 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 modern Bangmerchant steamers from Hongkong or kok is the predominance of English Singapore. The gilded spires of the associations and ideas. Of the Eurotemples, 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 govof the annual processions, when the ernment employ. The next strongking 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 politmodern 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 popon the other hand, who scrutinize aular with the Siamese, being capable,