of the man who is said to have recovered it, is preserved in the temples; and once a year is borne round the walls followed by a large portion of the population. Tea, raw and spun silk, porcelain, sugar, rhubarb, naukeens, and ornamental works. are the principal articles of export. The tea plant, Thea Chinensis, is an evergreen hardy shrub, attaining the height of five or six feet, indigenous in China, Japan, and Upper Assam, where it grows in the open air. Its cultivation succeeds best on the slopes of hills, but requires extreme care. The districts which produce fine teas are limited portions of the provinces of Fo-kien, Quang-tung, Kiang-see. Kiang-su, and Tche-kiang; almost every other province producing a small quantity of inferior quality, consumed in the country. Fo-kien furnishes the greatest quantity of black, and Kiang-su, the greatest amount of green tea. Both kinds are obtained from the same species of plant, but the leaves are collected at different stages of their development, and colouring matter is employed in the preparation of green tea, chiefly Prussian blue and gypsum. The unexpanded shoots and very young leaves yield Pekoe, a black tea; and young Hyson, a green tea, by different preparing processes. The fully expanded but still young leaves produce Pouchong, Souchong, and Campor, among the black teas; and Imperial Gunpowder, and Hyson among the green teas. Older and firmer leaves yield Congou, a black tea; and Twangkay and Hyson skins, two of the green teas. The oldest and coarsest of the leaves produce Bohea, the lowest in quality of the black teas. Tea was first imported into Europe by the Dutch in 1610, and brought to England in 1666. The annual consumption in the whole world is probably somewhat more than 70,000,000 of pounds weight, of which 48,735,971 pounds, were entered for home consumption in Great Britain in 1848. Raw cotton, cotton and woollen fabrics, opium, furs, and edible birds' nests, are the chief articles of import. The edible birds' nests are formed by a species of swallow, common to the shores of the Indian Archipelago. They are composed chiefly of agal agal, a species of sea-weed, which the Chinese use in soup in the same way as Europeans employ vermicelli. They also prepare an elastic pellucid substance from the agal agal, which enters into the construction of their lanterns. The Chinese census is made up from returns received in detail from every village, in which the houses are provided with what is called a mun-pae, or "door table," on which are inscribed all the individuals of a family. The lists are transmitted to Peking through several channels, and are undoubtedly liable to falsification, but it is the interest of the people to diminish rather than increase their numbers. The Great Wall, one of the remarkable public works of China, extends from a fort on the Gulf of Pe-chee-lee, westward along the northern frontier, through a space of 1,500 miles, being carried over mountains, valleys, rivers, plains, and ravines. It is a rampart of earth, broad enough at the top to admit of several horsemen passing abreast, formerly cased with stones or bricks, which have now fallen down. The height varies from 10 feet on the mountains to 30 feet on the plains and valleys, where it is flanked with numerous projections like redoubts. There are gates at regular intervals for the convenience of travellers, and the levy of transit duties. It was originally constructed as a defence against the Tartars, but it is not now an impassable barrier. Smugglers pass openly through its crumbling breaches, and the gates are negligently guarded. The Grand Canal, another great work, extends from Hang-choo-foo in the south to near Lin-chin in the north, where it joins the river-system connected with Peking. Its whole course is about 700 miles, the width being 200 feet. Traversing the Chinese lowland, its construction required little art, but involved immense labour. The written language of China contains not less than 30,000 distinct characters, but most of these are obsolete, and only about 3,000 are in very general use, the whole being resolvable by analysis into 214 original characters or roots. The written character is everywhere the same, but the pronunciation remarkably varies, and originates a great number of spoken languages. A Chinaman receiving a written message from another in any part of the country would understand it, but it would be unintelligible, if spoken in the local patois of his correspondent, the native of a district at no great distance from his own. An exactly parallel case is, that of the English, French, and Italians, instantly understanding the figures 22, or any other Arabic numerals, but respectively ignorant of their vocal expression as twenty-two, vingt-deux, venti-due. Thus, while there is the same symbol for twenty-two all over China, it is called urh-shih-urh at Peking, gne-a-gne at Ning-po, and e-shap-e at Canton. Printing was known to the Chinese five centuries before the invention of the art in Europe, but it is performed by blocks, not by movable types. The explosive composition, which has received the name of gunpowder in Europe from its application to fire-arms, was known in China at a very early date under the name of "fire-drug," being used for harmless or useful purposes. The attractive power of the loadstone, with its property of communicating polarity to iron, was likewise known to the Chinese in remote times, but without enlarging the field of maritime adventure. The climate of China is of the excessive class, great seasonal contrasts marking the temperature; and the mean annual temperature is generally much lower than in corresponding European latitudes. At Peking, which is more southerly than Naples, there is a winter marked with daily frost for three or four months, and an excessively hot summer. At Nanking, in about the latitude of the mouth of the Nile, there is constantly frost and snow every winter. At Canton, under the tropic of Cancer, frost is not uncommon in January, and snow fell in the winter of 1835, a very rare phenomenon, while burning heat prevails in July, August, and September. For rather more than two centuries, or since 1644, when the country was conquered by the Mantchoo-Tartars, it has been governed by a dynasty of foreign sovereigns, of whom eight in succession have reigned. But a large party exists anxious to restore the ancient native line. Its members, supposed to amount to several millions, are formed into a secret society, like that of the Freemasons. They are bound by the most solemn oaths, have pass-words known only to themselves, with a common fund; and implicitly obey the commands of an unknown superior. Several attempts to accomplish their object have been made; and all the efforts of the government have failed to discover the leaders. The association is said to have been organized by the Jesuits. It bears the name of Pe-lien-kiao, "worshippers of the flower of the water-lily.” 340. Beyond the limits of China Proper, the empire embraces an immense space, chiefly on the west and north. 1. On the western side is Ching Hai, or the country of the Mongols of the Koko-nor, with a number of states comprehended under the general name of Thibet, all subject to the court of Peking, except Ladakh, which forms a small independent principality on the northern border of India. Scarcely anything is known of the interior, owing to the jealousy of the government respecting the intrusion of foreigners, but it appears to consist largely of very lofty plains, enclosed to a great extent by the Himalayan and Kuenlun mountain-systems. In this region many of the grand rivers of Asia have their origin, pursuing from it a widely divergent course, as the Sutledge, Indus, Brahmapootra, Irawaddy, Cambodia, Yang-tse-kiang, and Hoangho. The Thibetian language is supposed to be a link between the monosyllabic and the Semitic families. That modification of Buddhism, known under the name of Lamaism, is the general religious profession. The Chinese viceroy, and the Grand or Dalai-lama reside at Lassa. 2. North of China is the vast region of Mongolia, of which the great desert called Gobi is the characteristic physical feature, extending into Thibet, and into the districts next S mentioned. Thinly scattered tribes of Mongols, pastoral in their occupations, rude and nomadic in their habits, and Buddhists or Lamaists in religion, compose the population; subject to a council for foreign affairs at Pekin. 3. West of Mongolia, and north-west of China, are the two provinces of Thian-shun-pe-loo or the country to the north, and Thian-shan-nan-loo or the country to the south of the Celestial Mountains, a dividing range. The former province is sometimes styled Sangaria; the latter Little Bokhara; and they are often classed together as Eastern or Chinese Turkestan. There are many lakes and streams which render the country fertile, the principal river, the Yarkand falling into Lake Lob. The natives here consist of some wandering Mongol hordes, but are principally Mohammedan races of Turkish origin, more civilized and settled, who manage their own affairs, while the Chinese hold military possession of the country, and collect a revenue. 4. East of Mongolia, and north-east of China, is the native seat of the imperial family, Mantchooria, or the country of the Mantchoos, the most civilized portion of the Tungoose race, inhabiting a mountainous and forest region, watered by the magnificent river Amour, but very scantily peopled. Southward from it is the peninsula of Corea, the seat of a separate kingdom, acknowledging subjection to the emperor by an annual tribute, but otherwise independent, and completely closed to European inter course. Lassa, the capital of Upper Thibet, on a branch of the Brahmapootra, famed for its immense temple, the me ropolis of Lamaism, has a large but fluctuating population, being a place of pilgrimage. The Grand Lama, at the head of a numerous hierarchy of subordinate lamas, is a spiritual sovereign, and an object of adoration, as the supposed incarnation of a Buddhist divinity. In theory, he never dies, his gifted or inspired soul passing by transmigration to his successor. Ourga, on an affluent of the Selinga, which communicates with Lake Baikal, is the principal town in Mongolia. On the frontier, towards Asiatic Russia, is Maimachen, where the Pekin merchants and Russian traders exchange goods. A long wooden building serving as a mart, denotes the actual frontier, a narrow door on the northern side opening into the Russian dominions, and another at the opposite extremity into the Chinese. The change, says Erman, on passing from the one to the other, seemed like a dream, or the effect of magic; a contrast so startling could hardly be experienced at any other spot upon the earth. The unvaried sober hues of the Russian side were succeeded all at once by an exhibition of gaudy finery, more fantastic and extravagant than was ever seen at any Christmas wake, or parish village festival in Germany. The roadway of the streets consists of a bed of well-beaten clay, which is always neatly swept, while the walls of the same material on either side, are relieved by windows of Chinese paper. Sunset is announced from a wooden tower by gongs, at which time all the Chinese retire within their boundary line. The Chinese annually deliver here tea worth from 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 of Prussian dollars, and rhubarb to the value of about 600,000 dollars; and from the Russians, on the other hand, the Chinese buy every year a large quantity of Polish linen, woollen cloth, and furs. Karakorum, the ordinary residence of the first successors of Zenghis Khan, and the capital of one of the largest empires that ever existed, was in Mongolia; but it sunk into decay upon the conquest of China by Kublai Khan, in 1293, and no notice occurs of its modern existence. The tract called Gobi, a Mongol term for "naked desert," to which the Chinese Shamo, "sand desert;" Schaho, "sand river;" and Hanhai, "dry sea," are equivalents, extends continuously from the sources of the Amour, through Mongolia, into Little Bokhara and Thibet, in a direction from north-east to southwest. Its entire length is not far short of 2,000 miles, the breadth varying from 300 to perhaps 700 miles. Though called a desert it has no uniform character, but comprises some fine pasture lands, small saline lakes, districts of firm sand overgrown with rank grass, a central belt of loose sand shifting with the winds, and tracts of shingle unrelieved by the slightest vegetation. It forms an immense table-land, with a mean elevation considerably more than 2,000 feet above the sea, that part of it annually traversed by the tea caravans from Pekin to Maimachen rising above 4,000 feet. In the north division of Chinese Turkestan is Goulja, a considerable town; in the south, Yarkand, Kashgar, and Aksou, on branches of the Yarkand river. Yarkand, a great seat of commerce, has a population reckoned at 50,000; Kashgar, a chief military station on the frontier, has always a large Chinese garrison; but Aksou may be deemed the capital of the whole country, as being the residence of the Chinese military commander. In In Mantchooria, the viceroy resides at Kirin-oula, his government including the northern half of the large island of Saghalien, off the north-east coast. Corea, the capital is King-ki-tao, near the centre of the peninsula. JAPANESE EMPIRE. 341. The empire of Japan consists of several large islands and an unknown number of smaller dimensions, extending in a chain of a thousand miles generally from north to south along the east coast of Asia, being separated from the Chinese empire by the Strait of Corea and the close Japanese sea. They are traversed in the same direction by chains of mountains, containing many volcanoes in a state of activity, some of the peaks rising to a great elevation, and not unfrequently the subterranean causes of disturbance display their power in tremendous earthquakes. But the general surface, though bold, is not rugged, the greater number of eminences being cultivated to the very summit, while an ample space is occupied with rich valleys and fertile plains. The islands have a very beautiful flora, to which the gardens of Europe are indebted for the hydrangea, pyrus japonica, and other ornamental plants. The vegetable products mainly cultivated are rice, largely, ordinary grain crops more sparingly, various esculent roots, ginger, the tea and cotton plants, the pepper shrub, the camphor-tree, and the varnish-tree.-Gold is said to be plentiful; copper is extensively worked and exported, finding its way to India; porcelain clay abounds; and pearls are obtained from the neighbouring seas. The principal islands, traced from south to north, are Kioosioo Jesso or Matsmai S. of Saghalien island Chief Towns. Nangasaki, Sanga. Jeddo, Miako, Nara, Osaka. Kioosioo is separated from Sikoke by the Boungo channel; Sikoke from Niphon by the Kino channel; Niphon from Jesso by the Strait of Sangar; and Jesso from Saghalien by the Strait of La Perouse. Kioosioo is about equal in size to the island of Sardinia; Sikoke is much larger than Corsica; Niphon is considerably more extensive than Great Britain; and Jesso is nearly equal to Ireland. The total area of the Japan Islands and their dependencies is probably not less than 240,000 square miles. All observation is in favour of their dense population, but the commonly stated amount, 25,000,000, is quite conjectural. Jeddo, the capital, a very extensive city, said to contain upwards of 1,000,000 of inhabitants, is on the east coast of Niphon. It is the residence of the secular emperor, or kouba, who exercises all real power, but pays formal homage to an ecclesiastical ruler, called the mikado, whose subscription is necessary to the acts of government.—Agriculture is in a very advanced state; manufactures in metals, silk, cotton, china, paper, and cabinet work, are produced in great perfection; and in literature and science, the Japanese are not behind the Chinese, from whom they appear to have derived their civilization.-Among the forms of religion, Sintism, "faith in gods," allied to mythological naturalism, is the oldest superstition; Confucianism, imported from China, numbers a few adherents; but Buddhism is recognised by the state, and principally prevails. Owing to the jealous severity of the government, communication with foreigners is interdicted, except in the instance of the Chinese and Dutch, who have access to a single port, but are under rigorous restrictions. — The language is polysyllabic, but the Chinese is also partially known. - Miako, an inland city of Niphon, is the residence of the mikado, or ecclesiastical emperor, and had an estimated population of 500,000, in the time of Kaempfer. Nangasaki, on the west coast of Kioosioo, is the port open to the Chinese and Dutch, containing about 18,000 inhabitants, with populous and beautiful environs. The Dutch ships, upon their arrival from Java, are received as enemies, until |