Wit, kindled by the sulph'rous breath of vice, Like the blue lightning, while it shines destroys.- POPE.

While considering the last example rather bold, it is nevertheless admissible. In short, the list of allowable rhymes given by Walker is of an extent to surprise all those who have not gone much into this question; and there is no doubt but the liberality becomes extended with one's experience. Yet, as before said, some kind of line should be drawn, how ever oscillating; - and however wide my notion of licence may have been thought, I am unable to go quite to the same lengths as the lexicographer. He quotes the following bit of Scriptural doggerel, referring to one of the Plagues of Egypt, frankly intimating that it does not offend his ear,

And how did he commit their fruits
Unto the caterpillar,

And eke the labour of their hands

ing observations as may seem necessary,
for the next instalment of the present
series.
R. H. HORNE.

From The Pall Mall Gazette. CHINAMEN OUT OF CHINA.

of "Chinese cheap labour" from various OF late years we have heard so much parts of the world that it is somewhat than 200,000 Chinamen are working in difficult to realize the fact that not more foreign countries at the present time. Even this number is quite an outside estimate. America and Australia have so far been the favourite resorts for Allowing 130,000

Chinese emigrants.

for the former country and 30,000 for the latter, 40,000 are left for Peru, the Sandwich Islands, and other places; evidently a more than sufficient margin. Yet the anxiety and alarm shown have been altoHe gave to the grasshopper. gether out of proportion to these figures. Anybody who can stand that, can stand We cannot help thinking that this is one anything. Walker's words are," I of those cases- - more common perhaps have purposely omitted many licences than is readily admitted-in which imI might have produced, as judging them agination plays a considerable part. in reality too licentious. Among these, Irishmen have emigrated and are still however, I do not reckon this of Stern- emigrating in far larger numbers than hold and Hopkins, of Gothic memory." the Chinese, and they are more trouHe then gives the verse just quoted. Our old Nursery Rhymes, with all their (unobserved) licences, never go to such a length. It is simply ludicrous, and the more so from its biblical gravity.

blesome to deal with in the countries in which they settle. Nevertheless the Irishman is looked upon as a necessary evil in new lands, and tolerated accordingly. The Chinaman, however, is We now come to the very intricate, always regarded as an intruder. They many-sided, opalescent question of Ver- are the only Asiatic race which, if they sification-metres, quantities, rhythm were secure from ill-treatment, would and we shall be obliged to go back to without special urging leave their native Chaucer, the first great master in our he- country freely. And even the most ignoroic couplets. As all that has been done, rant of those among whom they come in that way, since his time (A.D. 1400) by have a hazy notion that there are the Elizabethan poets and dramatists, 400,000,000 or more similar strange-lookthen by Milton, the first great master of ing people tightly packed at home and our blank verse,- then by Pope, and his ready enough to seek their fortune elsevery different school, then by Coleridge, where. The storehouse of labour seems Shelley, and Leigh Hunt (Cowper, Words- practically inexhaustible. A dread of worth, Moore, and others keeping in the what might happen if capitalists could regular metrical, and almost metallic, command and control these vast hordes grooves), down to the present day of of workmen as against men of their own Tennyson, and his peers, the mere race has made the labouring class, at any opening of the subject could not possibly rate, blind to their good qualities. The be rendered lucid and acceptable with- Americans, for instance, were fain to adout extending this paper to a greater mit that the Chinese came out grandly in length than I think it would be right to the construction of the Pacific Railway. intrude upon the courtesy of the Editor But that has nowise abated the sullen and Readers of the Contemporary Review. hostility with which they are regarded in I therefore reserve a remarkable Letter California, and it needs but little to stir from Miss Barrett, and another from up this enmity to take a much more Leigh Hunt, together with such connect-active shape than that of mere petitions

to Congress. We, too, insist upon for- of European gastronomy. In many a cing ourselves and our commerce upon bush township a Chinaman is the only the Chinese, but the most peaceful inva- human being who has the sense to devote sion on their side would, we take it, be his spare time to the cultivation and irriresented by our trade unionists in very gation of vegetables. Who would not practical fashion. It is well enough that have charitable feelings towards the man we should balance our Indian budget by who in a dry and thirsty land can for a debauching them with opium, and if need consideration furnish you with the crispbe we must support our position in that est of lettuces on a hot summer's day? respect by war as before. They had Give a Chinaman a bit of land, and if anybetter not emigrate to England none the thing can be done with it at all he will less. turn it into a.market-garden. His capaWe have been led to make these re- city for getting to places where his labour marks by the news of a little misunder-may be wanted, when once he has begun standing which has arisen recently in to roam, is remarkable. In 1869, when Victoria. The miners at the Lothair Fiji was not so well known as it is now, Mine struck for an increase of their a labour vessel chanced to call at one of already high wages. Other miners in the the remotest plantations. A Chinaman neighbourhood who at first were ready to at once stepped ashore, and, walking to take the wages then paid were persuaded the planter's house, inquired if any hands to stand aloof. As a last resort, the would be needed next season, as by that owners engaged a body of Chinamen time he and 300 more then at work in who were brought into the place accom- Taheiti (!) would be ready to take a fresh panied by police. The colonial miners engagement. He had come to Fiji, so were in no mood to put up with this. both he and the skipper averred, for that They attacked police and Chinamen to- particular purpose. Most of them have a gether, and worsted them, inflicting seri-"dead horse" to work off on first landing ous injuries on many. Eventually the in the shape of their passage-money and Chinamen were obliged to give way, the advances paid by some great Chinese original miners remained masters of the house. They are, therefore, let out into field, and the mine stands idle. The a sort of mitigated slavery until they have Victorian Government, afraid to lose the cleared this. Nothing but the most unremining vote in the colony, behaved in a mitting industry enables them to become most cowardly manner and took no ac- fairly their own masters. And when once tive proceedings against the rioters. they have got a little money they quickly Clearly, therefore, the line of democratic go out of the mere labouring class. In freedom in Victoria is drawn at indus- this respect they resemble the Jews and trious Asiatics, and if they seek work on genuine Americans. All of them being equal terms with European colonists educated to a fair point, there is nothing they do so at the risk of their lives. to keep them back. And it is noteworthy This, taken in conjunction with the that, passionately addicted as they are to harshness shown towards them in Cali- opium- and one of the best freights for . fornia and the massacre reported from the up-country coaches is the opium case South America, ought to keep the-they rarely take to it abroad to excess Chinese at home for the present. until they have made their "pile." Some And yet it seems a pity that this emi- of the richest and most influential imgration, small as it is, should be checked. porters in Melbourne, San Francisco, and A Chinaman is qualified to do much that Honolulu came out as common labourers, cannot be so well or so cheaply done by with their great round hats and coarse the white man. He can work, and work clothing. On the gold fields, of course, well, in a great variety of climates. A they are familiar figures, and many claims German, so the saying runs, will dine off which have been abandoned as too poor a bone which an Englishman has picked. have afforded them the means of returnA Chinaman will fare sumptuously after ing to China with a comparative fortune. both the Europeans have done their In short, for steady, dogged, persistent worst. It may perhaps be an exaggeration to couple the Chinese with the French as the best cooks in the world. But those who have most experience of their powers rate them highly, and in the capacity for making much out of little they are in no way inferior to the great leaders'

labour, under proper direction Chinamen are almost unequalled. To counterbalance their frugality, their industry, and, as a rule, their quiet peaceful behaviour, they certainly have drawbacks that, apart from the cheapness of their labour, account for the enmity felt towards them by

tation, inasmuch as each Chinaman who thus put himself out of the world had, counting his passage, outfit, &c., cost a good round sum, and was bound over to work for a certain number of years at a fixed rate of wages. It was found upon examination that the suicides took place because the Chinamen, who had gambled away all their money in hand and to come as well as their persons, thought existence a burden. All sorts of devices were tried to stop the gambling, but to no purpose. At last the manager hit upon the bright idea of making the survivors of each gang of twenty men pay the full value of the one who made away with himself. After this there were no more suicides. It may be observed that one of the difficulties in dealing with Chinamen both in Taheiti and in the Sandwich Islands, where they are much employed, arises from the fact that some of those who emigrate are skilled workmen, and are consequently much disinclined to devote their time to field labour unless they are offered special inducements. This the planter too often does not understand, and attributes their hesitation to laziness or determination to break their contract.

the rest of the population. In the first ill-famed Guano Islands. Still the mania place, they have until recently brought for self-destruction spread. This was a with them no women. This has often serious matter for the owners of the plangiven rise to serious troubles. A white woman who has once taken up with a Chinaman rarely leaves him. A famous and dramatic trial which took place some years ago at Melbourne threw some light upon this. Next they have a knack of carrying out their own peculiar system of law and equity quite regardless of the customs of the country in which they may be temporarily resident. Some singular instances of the secret and relentless way in which they enforce their rules among themselves have been discovered in California. In Victoria it is believed that in one case at least an innocent Chinaman has been hanged for murder by arrangement, his own confession confirming the evidence of his fellows and exonerating the guilty party. One Chinaman is so uncommonly like another to the eye of an unpracticed European that it is almost impossible to get valuable outside evidence on such a matter. Then, again, their districts in the cities are generally most abominably dirty and overcrowded. The Chinese quarter of San Francisco is one of the shows of the place. Little Bourke-street, which runs parallel to the principal business-street in Melbourne, is, too, beyond all question a most filthy hole. Still we could point to courts and alleys within a stone's throw of the Houses of Parliament, to say nothing of the waterside dens near the docks, which are worse even than these in way of dirt and unwholesomeness. Remissness on the part of the municipal authorities and greed on the part of the landlords are the causes in each case. Lastly, in the matter of gambling Chinamen are quite unmanageable. Gamble they will, though raid after raid be made upon their gaming-tables. And the extent to which they carry the practice is barely conceivable. Chinamen have been known to gamble themselves away when they had nothing else to play for. Their passion for gambling and their indifference to life were both curiously shown on Mr. Stuart's plantation at Taheiti-a plantation, by the way, which by means of the Moaroa and other vessels was responsible for much of what is called the South Sea Slave Trade- where at one time more than 400 Chinaman were employed. A complete epidemic of suicide broke out among them. They were not ill-used, nor were they ill-paid, nor was the labour painful and distressing, like that on the

There are such vast tracts distributed over the earth's surface which the Chinese could and would cultivate to advantage, but which are now quite useless, that it is impossible not to hope that ere long arrangements will be made to afford the security to their emigrants which is now lacking. If their numbers were increased a hundredfold, they would not suffice for the development of the idle wealth of South America, Jamaica, and the Southern States. And so far as can be seen, they are the only people who could be induced to undertake the work on a large scale. At present, however, all the steps which are being taken tend to their discouragement.

From All The Year Round. CHILDHOOD IN JAPAN.

THE Japanese, as a race, are gradually attracting more and more attention all over the world, for, notwithstanding their former rigid exclusiveness, not only are they now admitting much of our western civilization into their own country, but numbers of their youth are constantly

being sent to Europe and the United Accounts differ slightly as to when the States of America for educational pur-Japanese baby receives its first name. poses. Under these circumstances, and Some say that it is on the seventh, while because for many centuries the character Humbert asserts that it is on the thirtieth and habits of the nation have been to the day after its birth. According to the outer world as a sealed book, we venture latter authority, there is no baptism of the to hope that a brief account of some of child, properly so called; it is simply, in their customs and usages, with respect to certain cases, presented in the temple, children, may not prove unacceptable to which its parents affect, and without any our readers. ceremony of purification. The father gives three names to the priest, and he writes them on separate pieces of paper, which are mixed together, and then, with certain incantatory forms, thrown up in the air. The first that falls is the chosen name. This is written out by the priest

A Japanese baby need be constitutionally strong, for it is by no means overdelicately nurtured; its mother frequently carries it out in the open-air in a state of complete nudity and with its head shaven. Amongst the lower orders, the women, when at work in the fields and on other on consecrated paper and given to the occasions, may be seen with their infants child's parents to preserve. The priests, fastened, almost like bundles, between at these times, are usually very liberally their shoulders, so that they may be as dealt with by parents in the matter of little as possible in their way. In the presents, and they are expected to keep houses they are left to their own devices accurate registers of all the children who much more than with us, and there is no are thus presented in the temple. This need to be alarmed about their tumbling is the only approach to a religious ceredown-stairs, and eternally coming to grief mony, in connection with the naming of against fenders, coal-boxes, mantelpieces, a child. The occasion is celebrated by and similar objects of terror to a fond English mother, for such things do not exist in Japan. The thick mats, which constitute almost the only furniture of a Japanese house, are a splendid playground for the small atoms of humanity, for there they can roll and sprawl about to their hearts' delight, without any risk or fear of injury. There they play about with the fat pug dogs and tailless cats, without any restraint and to the great benefit of their tiny frames. They are freely supplied with toys and other infantine amusements, as Japanese parents have the reputation of being very kind to their off-ceives its name; the ceremony is called spring.

family visits and feasts, and the child receives certain presents, "among which," says Humbert, "two fans figure, in the case of a male, and a pot of pomade in that of a female child. The fans are precursors of swords, and the pomade is the presage of feminine charms. In both cases a packet of flax thread is added, signifying good wishes for a long life."

Mr. Mitford supplies a somewhat different version of the ceremony of naming a child; for he quotes a translation of a Japanese MS., which says that "on the seventh day after its birth, the child re

The second name is

the congratulations of the seventh night. One curious custom in connection with On this day some one of the relations of a Japanese baby is that some of the the family, who holds an exalted position, clothes that it first wears are made from either from his rank or virtues, selects a a girdle which its mother has worn pre- name for the child, which name he keeps vious to its birth, the material being dyed until the time of the cutting of the foresky blue for the purpose. The Record lock, when he takes the name which he is of Ceremonies says that "twenty-four to bear as a man. * baby robes, twelve of silk and twelve of cotton, must be prepared (for the new comer); the hems must be dyed saffron colour;" and that when the child has been washed, "its body must be dried with a kerchief of fine cotton unhemmed." For the peace of mind of parents of moderate means, it is devoutly to be hoped that baby robes are less expensive in Japan than in England!

See Mitford's Tales of Old Japan. Vol. 2. Appendix.

called the 'cap-name,' which is compounded of syllables taken from an old name of the family, and from the name of the sponsor. If the sponsor afterwards change his name, his name-child must alsò change his name."

According to ancient custom, baby clothes ought to be left off on the seventy-fifth or the hundred-and-twentieth day after birth, and at the latter date the child (in theory, though not in practice) is weaned. At the ceremony which takes place on this day, "if the child be a boy,

it is fed by a gentleman of the family; if the child has reached his fifteenth year, a a girl, by a lady." The account of the fortunate day is chosen on which the proceedings on this occasion, as given by forelock is cut off, and at this period, the Japanese Record of Ceremonies, is being considered a man, he is entrusted decidedly amusing to the European mind, with swords of ordinary size; and on this but is somewhat too long for quotation occasion in particular great family festivhere. ities and rejoicings take place in honour of the auspicious event. The lad then comes of age, and, casting away childish things, adopts the dress of a grown-up man in every particular. Japanese youths are said to be quite equal to the occasion, and, even at this early age, to adapt themselves most readily to the habits of manhood.

At the stages in his life which we have alluded to, the child has a sponsor, and certain wine-drinking customs and prescribed festivities have to be carefully attended to.

When he is three years old, the Japanese infant is invested with a sword belt, and four years later with two diminutive swords, if he belong to the privileged class. The child's head is completely shaved until he is close upon four years old, and then three patches are grown, one at the back and one at each side. On this occasion the Record of Ceremonies ordains that "a large tray, on which are a comb, scissors, paper-string, a piece of string for tying the hair in a knot, cotton wool, and the bit of dried fish or seaweed which accompanies presents, Some Japanese must have a string of one of each, and seven rice straws names, awful to contemplate, if strict these seven articles must be prepared." custom be always adhered to; for, beIn another year's time the child is put sides the name which he receives shortly into the loose trousers peculiar to the after his birth, Humbert tells us that "he privileged class, and he is then presented will take a second on attaining his majorwith "a dress of ceremony, on which are ity, a third at his marriage, a fourth when embroidered storks and tortoises (em- he shall be appointed to any public funcblems of longevity; the stork is said to tion, a fifth when he shall ascend in rank live a thousand years, the tortoise ten or in dignity, and so on until the last, the thousand), fir-trees (which being ever-name which shall be given him after his green, and not changing their colour, are death, and inscribed upon his tombemblematic of an unchangingly virtuous that by which his memory shall be held heart), and bamboos (emblematic of an sacred from generation to generation." upright and straight mind.)" Soon after

banker; and yet two or three do manage to live and die—without his taking charge of their little all.

SOMEBODY has been writing in one of the papers about the base sovereigns that are current composed of platinum, and very hard to detect; and he goes on to say:-"At present, if a man offers a false coin, having a similar false coin in his possession, the statute throws upon him the onus of satisfactorily proving his own innocence. But, if many of AFFECTIVE FACULTIES. - Having much of these false sovereigns are about, it is quite one of the affective faculties, we do not like possible that an innocent man should have to be exposed to the acute exercise of the two of them in his possession at once. In- same faculty in others. A person with large deed, the only practical advice of which the veneration shrinks from being an object of position admits is that we should never accept veneration to others. (To one with large selfa sovereign in change, except from our bank-esteem, the veneration of others is, on the ers." What practical advice! and what rich people we must all be! Pray, how many per cent. of our respectable population have banking accounts? We are reminded of the man in one of Mr. Gaskell's novels, who, out at dinner, was perfectly astounded that his hosts did not grow their own pineapples. "No pinery!" he said, in accents of condolence. Let us all join in pitying the man without a

contrary, agreeable.) One with large acquisitiveness detests being subjected to the action of powerful acquisitiveness in his neighbours. It has often been observed that individuals who are much given to jesting at the expense of their fellow-creatures cannot endure to be the subject of other people's jokes, and that great censurers and reprovers hate to be in the least rebuked or found fault with.