CHINA.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 40, 16 December 1842, Page 4

CHINA .

ORIGIN OF THE WAR. (Continued from No. 39. ) GOVERNMENT AND LAWS. The Chinese affirm that their Government is founded upon the model of the noblest visible part of nature ; the heavens —lienee China is called Teen Cliaou, the Celestial Empire ; one of the titles of the emperor, is the son of the Sun and Moon ; and the form of their cities, the economy of the palace, the manoeuvres of their armies, the blazonry of their standards, the arrangements and order of their feasts, and even the shape of their garments, were all anciently, mid are in the modern times, professedly an imitation of the visible heavens, of some star or constellation, or of some mighty change in the firmament, wrapped in the obscurity of the past. During an eclipse, the Emperor sacrifices in the temples, and imputing all the evils that are about to occur to his own peccability, implores the pity of heaven. The form of Government is absolute despotism : the will of the emperor is law, and every important act of Government must receive his signature. Weekly reports are made to him from the governors of the different provinces; and if he approve of them his approval is written in vermillion ; if he be displeased, with black ink.

The principal residence of the Emperor and Court is at Pekin, but he has several fine palaces beyond the Great Wall, particularly the palace of Gehol, which is the usual summer residence. The Emperor, like the Grand Seignior, has a well-appointed seraglio. According to the laws and customs of the country, lie is constituted the great object of his subjects’ idolatry, and he is the most despotic sovereign on earth. The following rather overcharged description of the despotism of the government is given by Malte-Brun : “ Considered in a moral point of view, we soon perceive that the Chinese possess the usual virtues and vices of the slave, the manufacturer, and the merchant. A despotism of the most absolute kind has either acquired or preserved for China the external forms of patriarchal government. But, the sovereigns having neglected military discipline, frequent revolutions occurred in former times, till at last the country fell into the power of foreign conquerors, the Mantchoos. From that period the whip of the Tartar has been conjoined with the paternal rod by which China was previously governed. The only institution tending to limit the royal power, is one by which the mandarins and the tribunals are allowed to make very humble remonstrances to the Emperor on the errors of his governmont. Under a virtuous prince, this liberty has been followed by the most salutary consequences. The Emperor is styled the sacred son of heaven, sole ruler of the earth, the great father of his people. Offerings are made to his image and to his throne ; his person adored ; his people prostrate themselves in his presence, and noblemen of his court, when addressed by him, and receiving his orders, must bend the knee; everything under him participates in the idolitary which is lavished on his person. His numerous concubines, and the eunuchs to whose charge they are committed, not unfrequently reign in his name. When this demigod goes abroad, all the Chinese take care to shut themselves up in their houses. Whoever is found in his way is exposed to instant death, unless he turns his back, or lies fiat with his face on the ground. All the shops by which the Emperor has to pass must be shut, and this prince never goes out without being preceded by two thousand lictors carrying chains, axes, and various other instruments characteristic of eastern despotism.” (To be continued.)

The Hindoo Girl. —The New Haven Register states, that Mr. Pierpoint made the following interesting statement in his lecture, before the Norwich Lyceum : —“At the present day, the uneducated Hindoo girl, by the use of her hands simply, could surpass in delicacy and fineness of texture, the pi*oduction of the most perfect machinery, in the manufacture of cotton and muslin cloths. In England, cotton had been spun so fine that it would require a ■thread of four hundred and ninety miles in length to weigh a pound—but the Hindoo girl had, by her hands, constructed a thread, which would require to be extended one thousand miles to weigh a pound; and the Daccale muslins, of her manufacture, when spread on the ground and covered with dew, were no longer visible.”

Nitrate of Soda. —The Edinburgh Quarterly Journal says, “That if a person’s name be sown on meadow grass with this singular substance, it will in a few days grow uf> very distinct above the rest. Nitrarte of soda' is sown by the hand at the rate of one cwt. per acre. Nothing is more certain than that corn is immensely increased by its use. On natural and artificial grasses, the crops are perfectly monstrous. How these decided effects are produced, is one of the inexplicable mysteries of chemistry. Evelyn, alluding to its almost

miraculous powers, terms it celestial nitre. Besides being much cheaper than any other manure in its original cost, the saving of carriage is at least 20s. per acre, as a waggon load of three tons will dress 60 acres.

Legal Eloquence. —The following thrilling specimen of bar oratory in the Far West, will delight and astonish our readers. Nothing can exceed the exquisite touch of natural genume feeling at the end—“ Judge, give us a chew of your tobacco !” “ Gentlemen of the Jury—can you for an instant suppose that my client here, a man that has allers sustained a high depredation in society, a man that you all on you respect for his many good qualities; yes, gentlemen, a man who never drinks more than a quart of likker a day ; can you, I say, for an instant suppose that this ere man would be of bookin’ a box of percusliun-caps ? Rattlesnakes and coon skins forbid !—Pieter to yourselves, gentlemen, a feller fast a-sleep in his log cabin with his innocent wife, and orphan children by his side—all natur hushed in deep repose, and nought to be heard but the muttering of the silent thunder and the hollering of the bull-frogs ; then amagine to yourselves a feller sneaking up to the door like a despicable hyena, softly entering the dwelling of the peaceful and happy family, and, in the most mendatious and dastardly manner, bookin’ a whole box of purcushuns ! —Gentlemen, I will not, I cannot dwell upon the monstrosity of such a scene! My feelings turn from such a picter of mortal turpentine, like a big woodchuck would turn from my dog Rose! I cannot for an instant harbour the idea that any man in these diggins, much less this ere man, could be guilty of committing an act of such rantankerous and imextrampled discretion. And now, gentlemen, after this ere view of the case, let me intreat you to make up your minds candidly and impartially, and give us such a verdict as we might reasonably suspect from such an enlightened and intolerant body of our fellow citizens —remembering that in the language of Nimrod, who fell in the battle of Bunker Hill, it is better that ten innocent men should escape than that one guilty should suffer. Judge, give us a chew of your tobacco.”

Advice to Young Ladies. —What a pity it is that the thousandth chance of a gentleman becoming your lover, should deprive you of the pleasures of a free and unembarrassed intellectual intercourse, with all the single men of your acquaintance. Yet such is too commonly the case with young ladies, who have read a great many novels and romances, and whose heads are always running on love and lovers. Some one has said, that matrimony is with women the great business of life, whereas with men it is only an incident; an important one, to be sure, but only one among many to which their attention is directed, and often kept entirely out of view during several years of their early life. Now, this difference gives the other sex a great advantage over you; and the best way to equalise your lot, and become as wise as they are, is to think as little about it as they do. The less your mind dwells upon lovers and matrimony, the more agreeable and profitable will be your intercourse with gentlemen. If you regard men as intellectual beings, who have access to certain sources of knowledge of which you are deprived, and seek to derive all the benefits you can from their particular attainments and experience—if you talk to them as one rational being should to another, and never remind them that you are candidates for- ihatrimony —you will enjoy far more than you can by regarding them under that one aspect of pdSsible future admirers and lovers. When thatfis the ruling and absorbing thought, you have not the proper use of your faculties ; your manners are constrained and awkward, you are easily embarrassed, and made to say what is ill-judged, silly, and out of place, and you defeat your own views by appearing to a great disadvantage. However secret you may be in these speculations, if you are continually thinking of them, and attaching undue importance to the acquaintance of gentlemen, it will most certainly show itself in your manners and conversation, and will betray a weakness that is held in especial contempt by the stronger sex. Since the customs of society has awarded to man the privilege of making the first advance towards matrimony, it is the safest and happiest way for woman to leave it entirely in his hands. She should be so educated as to, consider that the great end of existence—preparation for eternity —may be equally attained in married or single life ? and that no union but the most perfect one is most desirable'. Matrimony should be considered as an incident in life, which, if it' come at all, must come without any contrivance of yours, and therefore you may safely put ‘ aside all thoughts of it, till some one forces the subject upon your notice, by professions of a peculiar interest to you. Lively, ingenious, conversable, and charming little girls,. are often spoiled into dull, bashful, silent young ladies, and all because their heads are full of nonsense about beaux and lovers. They have a thousand thoughts and feelings which they would be ashamed to confess, though not ashamed to entertain: and their pre-occupation with a

subject which they had better let entirely alone, prevents their being the agreeable and rational companions of the gentlemen of their acquaintance, which they are designed to be. Girls get into all sorts of scrapes by this undue pre-occu-pation of mind; they misconstrue the commonest attentions into marks of particular regard, and thus nourish a fancy for a person who has never once thought of them but as an agreeable acquaintance. They lose the enjoyment of a party if certain beaux are not there, whom they expected to meet; they become jealous of their best friends, if the beaux are there, and do not talk to them as much as they wish: every trifle is magnified into something of importance —a fruitful source of misery—and things of real importance are neglected for chimeras. And all this gratuitous pains-taking defeats its own ends. The labour is all in vain; such girls are not the most popular ; and those who seem never to have thought about matrimony at all, are sought and preferred before them. —Sydney Herald.

Stage Coach Travelling across the Desert. —The daily papers announce, by advertisement, the establishment of a stagecoach communication between Cairo and Suez! Here is the march of civilisation. But a few years since it was supposed that camels or dromedaries, from their power of enduring thirst, could alone traverse those arid plains, and penetrate the solitude of the desert. Now we have hotels established at regular intervals, with relays of horses and a coach running, which performs the journey regularly in about eighteen hours. The announcement at the close of the advertisement is amusing—“ Refreshments and provisions supplied in the Desert at very moderate charges.” —Athenceum

The Commercial Steam Navigation Company—Dissolution of the Company.— Yesterday, July 1, at twelve o’clock, a meeting of the shareholders and governors of the Commercial Steam Navigation Company was held at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, to adopt resolutions with a view to the dissolution of the Company, Mr. Bleaden in the chair. The meeting was called, pursuant to a notice issued prior to the one preceding, which was convened for the purpose of laying before the proprietors a statement of its affairs, when it was proposed, in order to relieve the company from its liabilities, that the whole of its property should be disposed of. It then appeared that the sum of 111,000/. was offered for their vessels, which left the sum of 28,000/. to be raised. It was also stated, that it was proposed to raise two new companies, which would be open to the shareholders of the Commercial Steam Navigation Company, for the investment of their shares, on favourable conditions.