NANKIN.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 11, 18 October 1843, Page 4

NANKIN.

(From Davies' Sketches of China.) As the wind continued unfavourable, a party of us set out early to explore within the ancient capital of China, and we met with no opposition, notwithstanding the late edict from Pekin. The comparative liberty which we subsequently enjoyed was to be attributed to the firmness of the Ambassador, in resisiing an attempt to shut the gates upon him as he was entering them this day during a walk on slime ; and we were glad to ob serve a marked improvement in the behaviour of our conductors, as the con sequence of this little adventure. On entering within the wall, we walked to the top of a very high hill, whence we could see at a distance the inhabited part of the city, and the city and the famous porcelain tower; which/however, is porcelain in nothing but the tiles with which it is faced. The larger portion of the ar«a within the wall, though, no doubt, thickly inhabited when this was the residence of the Emperor, is now a mere waste, or laid out in gardens of vegetables, with occasional clumps of trees.. The space inclosed is more irregular in shape than almost any other .city of China, no doubt owing to the inequality of the surface, as the northern part, where we were, is composed in a great measure of lotty hills. In the small population the inhabited part bears to the whole area of the ancient walls, Nankin bears a striking resemblance to modern Rome; though the walls of Nankin are not only much higher, but more extensive, being about twenty miles iti circuit. The unpeopled areas ot both these ancient cities are alike, in as far as they consist of hills and remains ot paved roads and scattered cultivation. But the gigantic masses of ruin winch distinguish modern Rome are wanting in Nankin, since nothing in Chinese architecture is lasting, excepting the walls of their cities. As I stood at Rome o" the Ccelian Mount, in 1837, the resemblance of its deserted hills (setting apart the black masses of ruins) to those of Nankin struck me at once, bounded as they are in both instances by an old wall. The modern town of Nankin covers less than a halt ot the immense enceinte of the wails, and being at the southern extremity of the long shaped plain on which these are built, was the turthest removed from us, who weie at the northern. In the course of our stay, some of the par.«y walked as far as the modem city without interruu.ion, but weie deterred from entering by the immense Cfowds which came pouring out to view the strangers. The suburb on the outside of the gate nearest to our boats was well built and populous. Nankin is not precisely situated on the Kiang, but about three English miles from it, though a communication exists with the south of the city by a canal. All the ancient palaces, observatories, temples, and sepulchres, were destroyed by the Tartars. The existing ci«y, however fallen from its former state, is as large and populous as most other provincial capitals, and tortus the residence of the first viceroy of the empire, the Governor-general of the two Kiang provinces. It is celebrated as a seat of Chinese learning, and sends more members to the imperial college of Pekin than any other city. The books, the paper, and the printing of Naukin are celebrated through the country. The famous pirate, who so long possessed the island of* Formosa in the early period of the present Tartar dynasty, mailed up to Nankin, which he beseiged. Extract from a Yankee Leader. The New York Herald says " the couniry is prosperous ; and he who trades on the cash system and believes in God and woman, can always live happily and get rich slowly. This great republic is the garden of Eden among the nations. We have twenty millions of inhabitants ; one thousand million dollars' worth of aunual produce; tuirty or forty religions, and a new one every month; 200 broken banks ; 80,000,000 of specie ; 2000 financiers not yet in the States' prisons ; and any quantity of fine land, high mountains, splendid livers, and a sun and moon the best and brightest thateyer took the great circuit of eternity."