duced that beautiful foot, and from the knee | Take a jujube and double it till two points of downwards her leg is but skin and bone. the lozenge nearly meet, and you will see

Do you ask how this strange deformity is produced? Stand back out of the crowd, inside the entrance to Mr. Heard's compound, and I will tell you.

what I mean. This is done very gradually. The bandage is never slackened-month by month it is drawn tighter the foot inflames and swells, but the tender mamma perseThere are small-footed ladies at Hongkong veres-as the bones and tendons accommowho gain a very fair livelihood by exhibiting date themselves to the position constrained their pedal extremities to sea captains and by the bandage so it is drawn tighter. At other curious Europeans at a dollar a-head; last the ball of the natural foot fits into the but, as so superficial an examination of this hollow of the sole, the root of the great toe national peculiarity did not satisfy me, I had is brought into contact with the heel. The recourse to some of my good friends among foot is a shapeless lump. The instep is the missionaries. By their aid I obtained where the ankle was, and all that is left to that some poor Chinese women should bring go into the slipper and to tread the ground me a complete gamut of little girls from the is the ball of the great toe and the heel missionary schools. Many of these female This is the small foot of the Chinese woman children probably owed their lives to the -a bit of toe and a bit of heel, with a mark, persuasion (aided by opportune donations of like a cicatrice left after a huge cut, running rice) of my missionary friend and his lady, up between them. Two of the girls were but their influence had been powerless to yet suffering great pain, and their feet were prevent the torture of their feet. On the hot and inflamed, but in the eldest the operaappointed day they were all seated in a row tion was complete. She had attained to the in my friend's library, and their feet, which I position of a small-footed woman, and her suspect had undergone a preparatory wash-feet were quite cool, had no corns, and were ing, were unbound by the mammas. The not tender to the touch. One of the mamfirst was a child of two years old. Her mas, influenced perhaps by a little liberality penance had just commenced. When the in the article of rice money, intrusted me bandage of blue cotton was taken off I found with a Chinese mystére de toilette. Somethat the great toe had been left untouched, times, it seems, when a woman is expected but the other four had been forced down to have to do hard work, her toe and heel under the ball of the foot, and closely bound are not drawn so tightly together as to proin that position. The child, therefore, walked duce the true "small foot." To disguise this upon the knuckle joints of her four toes. imperfection upon her marriage day she has The toes were red and inflamed, and the recourse to art. A piece of cork, shaped ligature caused evident pain. In the next like an inverted sugar-loaf, is strapped on to three children (all of ages advancing at small her foot, and the small part goes into her intervals) the preparation was only to the slipper and passes for her foot. Thus are same extent; it was confined to the four we poor men deceived! While we are gos toes; gradually however, these four toes, sipping about small feet the old lady's burial ceding to the continual pressure, lost their procession comes to an end. It would be articulations and their identity as limbs, and hissed at Astley's, and would be regarded became amalgamated with the sole of the with blank astonishment at the Princess', foot. In the eldest of the four the redness but it is very successful at Shanghai. The and inflammation had entirely disappeared, opium broker has done his duty as a good the foot was cool and painless and appeared son. If he keeps his two years of mourning as though the four toes had been cut off by properly, and if none of his wives should a knife. The foot was now somewhat the commit the indiscretion of having a child shape of a trowel. within two years, commencing from nine In the fifth girl I saw the commencement months after this time (for the present Emof the second operation-a torture under peror is supposed to owe all his misfortunes which sickly children frequently die. The to an unfortunate accident of this sort), he sole of the foot was now curved into the will be esteemed a very respectable, man for shape of a bow, the great toe and the heel evermore. being brought together as near as possible.

The Bund resumes its normal state, and

the "Ah ho's" are again in full chorus. | falling over their faces, and embroidered What shall we do next? It is half-past 1 satin tunics, and fans of gold tissue. They o'clock, tiffin time at Shanghai. You have are going, properly accompanied to their made your calls on arriving here, and your new homes. One of them is just entering cards have been duly returned, so you are the house of a distiller with whom I have free to go and come at tiffin time in all their some acquaintance. We shall be welcome; hospitable hongs. No lack of good dishes let us go in. The house is decorated for the or of pleasant iced drinks at a Shanghai fête. It is hung with lanterns inside and tiffin. Where the junior partner, with his out. The courtyard is full of relatives and employés of silk inspector, and tea-taster, hangers-on; and at the gate is the comand book keeper and clerks, holds a separ- prador, who receives the money offerings of ate mess, the allowance from the house to the visitors; the principal room opening that mess is never less than 50 Shanghai upon the courtyard is prepared for the feast. dollars per month per head, or something Lanterns are hung from the ceilings, a small more than £200 a-year to each employé for joss house with candles and incense before it the table alone. We may enter boldly. is at one end, and in the middle is the table There is no chance of finding people making on which stand the small basins of sauces shifts with small commons in China. There and sliced shellfish, and goose flesh and is a great charm in European society at all sweetmeats, and cakes, which are the precurthe ports. Everybody is able, and is, indeed, sive appetizers to a Chinese dinner. The obliged to have a lordly indifference to ex-bridegroom (the son of the proprietor) is pense. They cannot control it, and they lounging on a chair in his shirt-sleeves smokmust let it go. There is no struggling and ing; the bride is gone up to her chamber, where contriving to keep up appearances. The she is sitting on her nuptial couch and receiving profits are large and the expenditure is great her guests. We may go up if we please, but -laissez aller. it is less trouble to wait and look about us Tiffin, however, is a bad habit, if we can till she comes down. We crack a joke or keep out of it. Let us rather stroll towards two with the bridegroom, and he retires to the city and trust to chance for a light lunch. put on his gorgeous array, and then the 'A'Lin, get a coolie and follow us with some bride appears followed by her retinue of dollars and some cash "—the rascal wouldn't bridesmaids, and escorted by an old woman, carry a string of copper cash himself to save the go-between who has made up the match. his father's tail. It is a long stretch from We present ourselves in due form, and the the English settlement to the Chinese city. bride, who, in spite of her high crown and We must pass through the French conces- embroidered tunic and trousers, looks nervsion in front of Mr. Conolly's hong, wherein ous and twitchy and slightly convulsive, just that gentleman, with exaggerated Shanghai as she might if her name were Brown and if hospitality, has just taken in a distressed we had accosted her at the door of the vestry Singapore tiger, whose roaring attracts a room of St. George's, Hanover-square, recrowd of Chinese around his gates. A turns our salutation and would like to pass Chinese city is no novelty to us who have on. But such is not selon les règles. The journeyed together through so many of duenna insists upon our admiring the beauty them; but a festival day always has some of the headdress and the thickness of the objects of interest. In Pekin the "Board of embroidered satin whereof her tunic is made; Rites" busies itself about many things; and but, above all, she will pull up the trousers among others it sets apart two days in every to exhibit the faultless proportions of the month as the days upon which alone mar- little feet. They are marvellously small. A riages can take place. To-day is one of flea couldn't find room to hop in that slipper. these days, and in consequence thereof sev- "Chin, chin!" let us be off. There is

eral®

gorgeous palanquins, like miniature Lord another decorated dwelling on our way, but Mayor's coaches taken off their wheels, and it is a cottage, and presents a different scene: containing ladies all splendid in jewels and Three men are drinking samshu at table, gold, are passing through the narrow streets. while the bride, dressed in her borrowed These ladies have jewelled crowns upon bravery, sits on a barrel in the most distant their heads, and veils of strings of pearls corner, alone and unnoticed. To-morrow

and for ever more she will be a beast of bur- | China. A Chinese garden is usually about den. Perhaps, however, she will, in the ful- 20 yards square, but these cover an area of ness of time, create her own distractions. ten acres. It is an irregular figure flanked A few years may probably see a crowd of by rows of shops, rudely analogous to those mangey brats, exhibiting every form and of the Palais Royal. The area is traversed species of cutaneous complaint, fighting and in all directions by broad canals of stagnant yelling over their rice basins, and, aided by water, all grown over with green, and the mother's shrew voice and the grand-crossed by zig-zag wooden bridges of the mother's croak, making their neighborhood willow pattern plate model, sadly out of unbearable. repair, and destitute of paint. Where the

Such a family lived opposite to my bed- water is not, there are lumps of artificial room window at Ningpo. From early cock-rock-work, and large pavilion-shaped teacrow to sun-down the screams and shrill rooms, perhaps 20 in number. Here selfcries were unintermittent. The nuisance heating kettles of gigantic proportions are burst into being all on a sudden; but I always hissing and bubbling; and at the found, on inquiry, that it had existed in its little tables the Chinese population are present aggravated form about two years be- drinking tea, smoking, eating almond hardfore, and was then cured. After many vain bake or pomegranates, playing dominoes, or remonstrances an English merchant com- arranging bargains. There are interstices plained to the Toutar. Next day the lord of also of vacant land, and these are occupied the house was sent for to the Prefecture, and by jugglers and peepshow men. From the being suspended by the thumbs received 40 upper room of one of these teahouses we blows of the bamboo; he was then dismissed shall have a view of the whole scene, and with a warning. When that respectable A'Lin will order us a cup of tea and some housekeeper returned disjointed and macer- cakes for lunch. The jugglers and gymnasts ated to his dwelling he went in and shut his below are doing much the same kind of doors about him. What happened in the tricks which their brethren of England and bosom of that family no man may know; France perform. M. Houdin and Mr. Anbut thenceforward the rice was eaten inside derson would find their equals among these the house, and the screams did not vibrate less pretending wizards. I am told that in the street. When I heard of this I those peep-shows which old men are looking thought I would try what a threat of the into, and laughing, and which young boys Toutar would do; so I sent my boy down are not prevented from seeing, contain reprewith a message. He returned with the air of sentations of the grossest obscenity. Here an envoy who has failed. "Well, what does is a ventriloquist who, attracted by our Eurothe woman say?" "She talkee no care-pean costumes at the casement, has come up last moon husband dead."

We must on, it is not pleasant to linger in the streets of a Chinese city. The porters jostle you, and the palanquins push you aside, and the smells assail you. The French Jesuit, to whom a compatriote applied to send her specimens of all the finest scents of China, rather exaggerated when he replied, "Alas! Madam, in China, there is but one scent, and that is not a perfume." There are many scents, but with the exception of the white blossom wherewith they scent their teas none of them are perfumes.

We bustle our way through the narrow streets. We pass the temples and the yamuns, unentered, for we have seen a hundred such before, and we reach the tea gardens of Shanghai city. These are worth a visit, for they are the best I have seen in

to perform. "Give him a dollar, A'Lin, and tell him to begin." That dirty, half-clad wanderer would make another fortune for Barnum. He unfolds his pack, and constructs out of some curtains a small closed room. Into this he retires, and immediately a little vaudeville is heard in progress inside. Half a dozen voices in rapid dialogue, sounds, and movements, and cries of animals, and the clatter of falling articles, tell the action of the plot. The company from the teatables, who had gathered round, wag their tails with laughter, especially at the broadest sallies of humor, and at the most indecorous dénouements. In truth, there is no difficulty, even to us, in comprehending what is supposed to be going on in that little room. The incidents are, indeed, somewhat of the broadest-not so bad as the scenes in ou

our

orthodox old English comedies, such as The determination and devil-may-care go-aheadCustom of the Country, for instance, or The ness, he is a manly-looking fellow. He is Conscious Lovers; but still they are very looking ruefully, however, at this counterfeit minutely descriptive of facts not proper to be presentment of himself which is to go to the described. The man's talent, however, would girl of his heart at New York. It is a most gain him full audiences in Europe without laughter-moving caricature of all the salient the aid of grossness. points of his physiognomy. The Yankee swears that it is no more like him than hickory nuts are like thunder. The artist has produced a small looking-glass, which he places beside the portrait, and, pointing to the gray hair and the squinting eye and the pockmarks of the portrait, and then to the present originals from which they were copied, says triumphantly at each verification, "Hab got? Hab got? Hab got? How can make handsome man 'spose no got handsome face ?" let us leave these parties, for there seems likelihood of a hot dispute, and arming ourselves with another cheroot as a defence against bad smells, retrace our steps through the city, and out at the east gate.

"Ho lai"—"fire, there." Shall we light a cheroot and stroll about? Don't make too sure, Mr. Bull, that the gentleman in the mandarin cap, who is holding you by the button and grinning in your face, is saying any thing complimentary about you. In a journey up the country a fat Frenchman, who had equipped himself in an old mandarin coat, a huge pair of China boots, and a black wide-a-wake, was leaning upon a bamboo spear, while his boat was being drawn over one of those mud embankments, which Berve the purpose of our locks. He also was very much flattered at the politeness of an old man who prostrated himself three times before him, and chin-chin-ed him. Unluckily an interpreter was present, who explained that this old man took our French friend for the Devil, and was worshipping him in that capacity according to Chinese rites. In fact, the Frenchman in his antique disguise rather resembled a Chinese idol. But ask the French Consul at Shanghai about this; he can tell the story better than

I can.

We are again upon the Bund. The sun is down, and the European population are taking exercise in the short twilight. The merchants and their wives are returning in carriages or on horseback from their ride round the racecourse, or are walking; the missionaries and their wives are riding up and down on their ponies. The shadows grow deeper, and you can scarce recognize your acquaintances as they pass.

And now, Mr. Bull, it is time to go in and dress for dinner. I hope during our day's stroll I have given you some notion of the city and settlement of Shanghai, which, if you are a wise man, and open up the Yangtse-Kiang, will be a most important place both to you and to your descendants for many a long generation.

HONGKONG, OCT. 30.

Some of the best shops of Shanghai city open upon the tea-gardens; some resound with the buzz of imprisoned insects and the Song of caged birds; there are "curio " shops, where are to be seen antiquities of dynasties long anterior to the Christian era, carefully wrought by living hands; there are caricatures of the English barbarians, one of which I cannot refrain from buying; there are carvings in bamboo, very inferior to Canton; there are shops for fans, and embroideries and silks, decidedly inferior to Ningpo. There is also the studio of a portrait painter, not probably a dangerous rival to Lamqua, of Macao. There is 'oud talking in that studio. A Yankee captain is in- You will have heard last mail by the news specting a portrait of himself, which has been from Singapore that the Audacieuse and the painted at a contract price of some $20. French Plenipo had at last arrived. The The Yankee is a man about 40, with streaks day after the departure of the mail Baron gray in his bushy hair and beard, with a Gros steamed into harbor, and with polite slight defect in one eye, a large nose, and a or kindly haste immediately proceeded unpockmarked face. Yet, withal, thanks to his accompanied to the Aya, without even sendaffluence of hair and an expression of jauntying notice of his coming. The meeting of

of

After a rapid and most comfortable passage of four days I am back "home" in Hongkong, just in time to keep you informed of the only matters having the least importance which have occurred since my departure for the North.

the two Plenipos had the cordiality of the impressed all here with full confidence in him non-official and inceremonious meeting of as a leader of energy and conduct.

It is a pleasure to be able to congratulate our Admiralty. They may be honestly proud of the achievement of the Imperador. On the morning of the 28th that fine ship steamed into harbor in admirable time after a passage almost unrivalled of 61 days (at sea) from England to Singapore. She brings 500 marines, and she brings them out in the first-rate condition. Only 15 men in all were on the sick list. Yesterday she proceeded up the Canton river to the Wantung, where barracks have been provided, and where, it is to be hoped, the men will retain their present health and efficiency.

Comments of The Times, 15 Dec.

two private gentleman, one of whom had been accidentally kept waiting and the other anxious to express by his manner and em- IT will gratify all but a very small section pressement that he regretted the delay. of the community to know that the exaction Next day the harbor resounded with salutes, of proper amends for the Canton outrage is and the two Ministers met at dinner at Gov-likely to be no longer delayed. The course ernment House. The Audacieuse returned of action which was recommended by our to her anchorage off Lintin, and diplomatic correspondent some months since, no doubt communications have since then been fre- in accordance with the prevailing opinion of quent and, as it is said, most amicable. the English on the spot, is about to be The gunboats are arriving daily, but Cap-adopted. At the departure of the last mail tain Sherard Osborne, who has to keep his it had been fully determined to seize and chicken together, is not yet come in. It is hold Canton until reparation had been made necessary to tow these craft up against the for the excesses of YEH and his satellites. It north-east monsoon, but it is scarcely worth certainly show's the spirit and resources of while enumerating the actual arrivals for this country that in such an hour of national they will probably be all reported a short trial, with a vast army in revolt, and our distance off by the steamer which takes this Generals surrounded by tens of thousands of letter. enemies in one region of Asia, we are yet coolly preparing to attack the most populous seaport of the Chinese Empire, and, if necessary, to carry the warfare up to the capital of its secluded and mysterious Sovereign. Though it is wonderful that the country should at such a time be able to spare troops at all, yet, as might be expected, the force which is to avenge our insults is far from large. Even the full complement of sailors is not to be had. The Shannon, which, with two or three other vessels, has furnished forth Captain Peel's Naval Brigade, was despatched from home for China service, and diverted under the pressure of the sternest necessity. Several steamers have also been sent to Calcutta, thus still further diminishing the force available for any warlike achivement. But, on the other hand, some reinforcements had arrived, and our countrymen, It is no secret that something is now about who do not seem to count odds, are disposed to be undertaken. We shall probably wait to make the best of what they have, and to the arrival of the whole of the slender force commence operations at once. As a contrast allotted to us. 3,000 redcoats are not a too to the doings of the sailing transports, we numerous army to bring to reason an empire may call attention to the passage made by of 300,000,000 of people; but so soon as we the Imperador, an auxiliary screw steamer, have all we are to expect we hope to be able which arrived in 70 days from England, to tell you that Canton is in our hands. bringing 500 Marines. The Imperador's pa All our superfluous doctors and Commis-sage to Singapore was only 61 days. The sariat officers are off for India. It is under- Imperadriz, a sister ship, was expected a few stood that General Ashburnham and staff, days later. This timely succor seems to and Colonels Wetherall and Pakenham go have encouraged the authorities to deci le on by the next mail. General Straubenzee immediate action. Within a short time it remains with us, and I hear but one senti- was hoped that the General in command ment with respect to this officer. He has would have from 2,000 o 3,000 soldiers and

We are now in eager expectation of the arrival of the sister ship the Imperatrix, supposed to be about three days behind her. This mail will probably bring you more certain tidings of her.