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loins, and another across the nose. Women, especially at Nagasaki, perform their ablutions in tubs upon the public street, with the air of being Dianas enjoying the bath in some secluded fountain. Horses are shod with immense rolls of straw, and have their tails carefully enveloped in bags. One district of the capital is inhabited by three hundred and sixty princes, each with a house of the size of a public hospital, which he is forced to occupy for six months in each year, and to leave his wife and children to inhabit for the other six, during which he is obliged to reside on his vast estates. Ladies naturally favoured with tolerable features are condemned by an inexorable custom to pull out their eyebrows and blacken their teeth the moment they marry, for the express purpose of making them so hideous to other men that the most Othello-like of husbands has no occasion to be jealous. And all this city, and the great empire in all its details, are ruled over by two chiefs-a Spiritual and a Temporal king-with the principle of duality carried through all the inferior grades. Every official has a double, bound to observe and report on all his actions; every person whatever being obliged to give an account of somebody else; so that the Siamese Twins ought to have been the produce of this land of inseparable duplicates, where the combined titles of "Elgin and Kincardine" were naturally concluded to belong to the Ambassador in esse, and the "other man," who never made his appear

ance.

For all these details, and a hundred more, we must refer the Hindbads of the time to the narrative itself. They will hear more wonderful things than astonished the ears of that most fortunate of the porters of Bagdad. Who does not see that the following passage has slipt, by some chance, out of the Arabian Nights? "It is an ordinary thing for one of these princes to parade the country with a force of some thousands of men. When we remember that all these followers have to be lodged on the premises of their chief, and that there are three hundred and sixty of these dignitaries, we cannot wonder that

their residences are necessarily capacious, and cover a very great extent of ground. To judge from the noble trees we observed rising above the walls, spacious pleasure - grounds must be enclosed within them. The handsomest palace I observed in Yedo was that belonging to Prince Achi, situated on the steep side of a hill. The gates were tastefully ornamented; the walls surmounted by trellis-work, and numerous magnificent plane and other trees drooped over them into the street, tempting one to explore, if possible, the sacred precincts. Occasionally, in the course of our explorations of the city, we met men of rank riding along one of these silent streets, their retinue taking up almost its entire length, consisting, as usual, of men carrying badges on long poles-the insignia of the rank of their lord-umbrellas in bags and lacquered portmanteaus. When a great man wishes to move about incognito, his retinue is not decreased, but these badges of his rank are packed up in the aforesaid portmanteaus."

IfSchezerazade had had such a starting-point for an adventure, we should have had an interior view of the palace of Prince Achi as minute as of the bridal chamber of Bedreddin Hassan of Balsora. But the outside views are perhaps enough; for the contrasts between the proofs of civilisation and barbarism, which encounter you on every side, have the interest of the first and last volumes of a national history fused into one. It is as if the Druids on Salisbury Plain were contemporary with Dr Milman. We have spectacles, telescopes, cannon, steam-boats, fire-escapes, policemen, and special constables; and at the same time we have a privileged race of dogs, whom it is a capital crime to kill, who rollick about the town, fat and comfortable, with no particular owner, but all the world for their friend ; who are fed and caressed while they are in health, and conveyed to spacious hospitals, built for their accommodation, when they are ill. We have a manner of settling a "crisis" in political affairs, which would make a change of ministry a more serious occurrence than the mere loss of

office. When the Tycoon differs from his administration, the case is referred to a committee of three of the princes of the blood. If they decide against the Emperor, he immediately abdicates the throne. If they decide against the cabinct, the members instantly retire to a private apartment, and rip up their bowels with a knife. The population tattoo their skins with the most fantastic configurations, and yet the poorest of them can read, and all are very fond of books.

Luncheons and dinners ran their jovial course, and the dignitaries of the Empire became devoted to ham and champagne. They entered into our habits with the utmost facility, and behaved with a politeness worthy of Mayfair. When they understood that toasts in our country were received with all the honours, they "roared and shouted" at the name of the Queen and their Emperor, as if they had been in the London Tavern. One enthusiastic Commissioner, determining to show a greater acquaintance with Western practices than the rest, availed himself of a moment of profound silence to start up and utter a succession of cheers, with neither introduction nor explanation. But when two weeks were come and gone, and the articles of the Treaty were agreed on, a ceremonious meeting was held, and the signatures attached. Then Lord Elgin bethought him of the yacht; and that handsome craft was officially surrendered to the Japanese flag. Salutes echoed from all the ships and castles, and with many kind recollections of the interesting people and beautiful country, the vessels steamed out of the bay, and directed their course once more to the hateful Shanghai and treacherous Chinese. Mr Oliphant sums up the prospects of trade and intercourse with the enormous population of Japan, by a caution, that success depends upon the foreign merchants themselves. Caution and forbearance are required in our first transactions with a people so sensitive, and who have been shut up for so many hundred years from all knowledge of the outer world. Their resources are immense in all the main articles of commerce. They

have mines of coal and metal, and all the products of a land three or four times the size of the British Isles-silk, camphor, vegetable oil, and vegetable wax, cotton, wool, shiptimber, bread-stuffs, rice, paddy, steam-machinery, tin, lead, and raw silk. In return they want all that England can supply or carry. If we only keep them in good-humour, and abstain from offending their tastes and interest, by the violence and brutal insolence of our crews, the trade in a few years may be one of the largest we enjoy; and the Treaty of Yedo be looked back on as a starting-point of happiness and prosperity to both the peoples.

It is just possible that the natural dislike entertained for the celestial monstrosities of Canton and Takoo may have unconsciously given Mr Oliphant a bias in favour of their neighbours, the ladies and gentlemen of Japan; but the facts related, and the capital illustrations with which the volumes are supplied, bear out his highest encomiums. The fairy tale closes with the last look we get of Nagasaki, and we are brought back to the land of commonplace realities, where we resume our relations with the old Commissioners Hwashana and Kweiliang, with the addition of two other officials of the names of Ming and Twan. When all the points were settled, and the Treaty, with the additional articles, was formally signed, sealed, and delivered, Lord Elgin concluded his Chinese mission with an expedition up the Yang-tse-Kiang. Though this is perhaps the most interesting of all the experiences of the Ambassador, involving fights with the rebels and strandings on rocks, with other moving accidents by flood and field, we must bring the paper to a close.

Enough has been said in this brief compendium to show of what materials the work consists. It will in all probability provoke discussion on the topic so uppermost in the public mind

the best method of bringing the perpetual jarrings between the half-infantine civilisation of China and the ordinary rights of nations to a final and satisfactory close. These volumes will furnish materials for the supporters of all the various opinions

now afloat on the way to recover the prestige with which Lord Elgin surrounded the English name, from its temporary loss by the failure at Takoo; for though Mr Oliphant persistently and consistently maintains the original idea of his chief, that operations, to be successful, must be within the walls of Pekin, his descriptions of the country-the desolation and disuse of the Grand Canal, the nature of the ground between Tientsin and the capital, and the frightful character of the climate -leave ample room and verge enough for the advocates of a repetition of former successful efforts, of a general display of power along the whole of the Chinese coast, carrying the sufferings of war into the maritime towns; and of those more careful or

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less enterprising, who would content themselves with the permanent occupation of Nankin. Our great revenge hath stomach for them all; and with the aid of a French army, and all the nations of the West looking on, we see no cause to despair of so uniting these conflicting opinions that the supporters of each may be able to say, I told you how it would be; The bombardment of the seaboard did it;" "The seizure of Nankin did it ; "You would never have done anything if you had not taken possession of the capital." Whichever of these courses is pursued, or if all of them are tried together, we can only say with Shakespeare, "If 'twere done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.”

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ST STEPHEN'S.

PART THIRD.

WHILE States yet flourish, from the soil unseen
Mounts up the sap which gives the leaf its green-
Mounts and descends through each expanding shoot,
And knits the soaring summit to the root.

Thus, till the life-spring of a race expires,
The land brings forth the great men it requires ;
Duly as Nature, with returning springs,
Renews the crowns of her own forest kings.

And Pitt and War are past; a gentler time;
Peace on the world, and CANNING in his prime.
Beautiful shape, if lesser than the men

Who overshadowed his young growth—what then?
Those tall old giants now were out of place—
Politer days need elegance and grace :
Of lesser stature, but of comelier form,

He rides no whirlwind, he directs no storm;
But storms and whirlwinds are not in the air;
Consult the glass-Slight Changes, Showery, Fair!
The Throne and Altar safe from Paine and Clootz;
In times so civil, giants would be brutes.

Though then, the Many were, in fact, the Few;
Some 'liberal doctrines' are discussed, 'tis true-
Commercial Freedom,-not at once too much,
But that which Huskisson receives as such;
Emancipation,-not as yet in reach,
But still a glorious question-for a speech;
Reform in Parliament,—a coarse affront
To common sense-1
-the rubbish of a Hunt:
Over such themes, all telling, urgent none,
Skimm'd with rare wit Etona's brilliant son.

Mark well his time, or else the man you wrong— To times of danger earnest men belong :

Is the sea boisterous-must the storm be braved?
All hands to work, the vessel shall be saved:
Are waves becalmed-spreads tamely safe the way?
The captain treats the sailors to a play.

Burke spoke for abstracts in the good and fit,
Fox for all humankind, for England Pitt ;
None of those causes much required defence
When Canning culled his flowers of eloquence;
Each of the three had self-esteem and pride-
Canning had these, and vanity beside;
And (though no mind less false or insincere)
Schemed for the gaze, and plotted for the cheer.
Thus while beneath a weakness which, we own,
The noblest natures have as largely known,
Courage and honour dwelt immovable,
His charming genius missed the master-spell-
A vague distrust pursued his glittering way,
And feared self-seeking in that self-display.
Ev'n in his speeches, at this distance read,
Much finely thought seems superfinely said;
Something theatric, which the admirer damps,
Smells of the lamp? no, scholar; of the lamps!

Read him not, 'tis unfair; behold him rise; And hear him speak!-the House all ears and eyes; His one sole rival-Brougham-has just sate down, Closing a speech that might have won the crown, If English Members took their oaths by Styx, And the Whig front bench were the Athenian Pnyx. Canning is up! the beautiful bright face!

The front of power, the attitude of grace!

Now every gesture in decorous rest,

Now sweeps the action, now dilates the crest;
And the voice, clear as a fife's warlike thrill,
Rings through the lines, half dulcet and half shrill.
Fair was his nature, judged by its own laws;
Say it coquets to win the gaze it draws-
Views every strife in which its lance it wields
More as gay lists than solemn battle-fields--
Sports in bright pastime with its own high powers,
And tricks out serious laurel with slight flowers ;-
Granted, yet still, when candidly surveyed,
The jouster's art is not the huckster's trade ;
And love of praise is not the lust of gain;
And at the worst, repeat it, he was vain.

But what rich life-what energy and glow! Cordial to friend, and chivalrous to foe! Concede all foibles harshness would reprove; And what choice attributes remain to love!

See him the Arthur of his dazzling ring— Wit's various knighthood round its poet-king; Each from the chief, whose genius types a race, Catching some likeness in reflected grace. WARD, with coy genius critically fine, Afraid to warm, yet studying rules to shine, Neat in an eloquence of words well placedA trim town-garden, in the best trim taste. GRANT, linking powers the readiest and most rare, With one wise preference for an easy chair; Deliberate HUSKISSON, with front austere Lit into sunshine by the laugh of FRERE; Accomplished WELLESLEY, equally at home. In Ind or Hellas, Westminster or Rome, Vigorous in action, elegant in speech, Scholar and statesman, Lælius-like in each; Supreme in that which Cicero calls 'The Urbane ;'* Graceful as Canning, and perhaps as vain.

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