A CHINESE MANDARIN'S DIARY IN ENGLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3032, 15 March 1881, Page 4

A CHINESE MANDARIN'S DIARY IN ENGLAND.

His Excellency Liv Ta-Jen, who went to England as Joint Minister with Kuo TaJen in the iiutumn of 1576, after tho conclusion of the Chofoo Convention, kept a diary of all ho saw and heard, in accordance with general instructions issued to all China's representatives abroad, td' keep records for the information of the Home Grovernment, and this diary has been printed and circulated amonst the high offieor3 of'tho empire only. A copy appears, however, to have fallen into tho hands of a " red-haired barbarian," for tho Shanghai Mercury has been publishing some piquant translations of it, from which we make the following extracts. It is good at all times to see ourselves as others see us, and it, is 'more especially so, or at least, amusing to look through the eyes of the Ambassador of tho Son of Heaven : —

Railways in London. —London has no wall round it, but the railway viaducts have Bomewhat tho appearance of a city wall. The houses are so close together that in many places there is no room for a railway to pass, when recourse is had to a bridge made of hugh stones, which soars, as it were, over the houses. The framework of these bridges is of iron planked with wood, on which are spead earth and sand. People who are lying on their beds down below in houses 100 feet high are always conscious of a noise above them, and know when a train is passing over head by its low continuous rumble, as of thunder ; while to one seated in the train the people below look like (lie warp and woof of some texture, and the streets, Janes, and market-places like deep interstices in a mountain side ; or one is inclined to believe that they are channels cub out of the ground, and to forget that one is on a bridge so far above them. It is as if one were on a level wLh the topmost point of a pagoda, and able, by stopping, to touch the mastheads of tall ships as they passed. When I first readied London everything that I saw frightened and astonished me. A Reception at Buckingham Palace. — The women were nude about the arms and neck, and did not seem to avoid coming in contact with the men. They held flowers in their hands. Their caps and dresses were of several colours ; the latter are folded into many pleats behind, having the appearance of a wasp's nest, and end in trains which drag on the ground about five or six feet behind them. All who know one another shake hands without distinction of sex. The officers in waiting hold up the trains of the ladies who advance to be introduced, lest by stepping on them they should fall rvrer and lose countenance.

Assault on Legation Servant. Unexpected Civility of ' nglisli.—One of the Legation servants walking out to make purchases, when he met a drunken Londoner, who began to brandish his arms, and catching hold of our man, knocked off his hat. He was taken into custody by the police, and brought before tho lord Mayer for trial and punishment. The office of Lord Mayor is the same as that of Village Elder in China. In England the local business of government is all performed by such persons. Tho Lord Mayor considered this man's offence, in molesting a member of the .Chinese Mission before it had been many days in England, a grave one, and sentenced him to two months' imprisonment with hard labor, that others might take •warning. The people -were, moreover, requested, by a notice printed in the newspapers to unite in protecting the members of tho Mission. All official notifications are made known in England by means of the newspapers. The Minister Kou wrote to the Earl of Derby asking that the man might be pardoned ; but no reply was received. On our way to England a passenger on the steamer insulted my servant, upon which the captain put the former on land th Aden, and it was only through my intercession that the man was taken on board again. I had always regarded the English as a people living in small and contemptible islands, of unbridled violence, and •without an idea of deference or politeness. I was therefore surprised at the way in ■which high and low united to treat us with careful civility, to carry out to its full extent the national duty in this respect.