NATIONAL CUSTOMS. [From the Spectator, April 23 ]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 844, 3 September 1853, Page 4

NATIONAL CUSTOMS. [From the Spectator, April 23 ]

Hazlitt relates somewhere how two Lascars aud two chimney-sweeps, meeting each other in the streets, burst out with uncontrollable laughter ; each overcome by the grotesqueness of the other object. The reciprocal and contemptuous amusement of these two parties in the Mate of darkness truly typifies the condition of two countries suddenly made acquainted with each other's customs : the most usual thing in the one country becomes outre and ludicrous in the other. We, who have a plan of conducting our loveletters, it is said, on the principle of the commercial letter, are astonished at the Chinese plan of conducting such letters on the principle of the embossed card for advertisements in shops. The comparison is not perfectly easy to make, for this reason — that, excepting the very ludicrous compositions which occasionally make their way into the courts of law, English people have no general idea of the nature of English love-let-ters ; as it is the custom of the country to keep that species of literature entirely confined to the use of four eyes, so that a general style becomes impossible. In China, however, the polite letterwriter, whose influence is extensive, has this department also under hia wing, or " under the wing of the flying dragon," to use their own proper expression. Indeed, there is some resemblance befween a Chinese love letter according to this description and a species of love-letter amongst ourselves : only that the Chinese apply our peculiar form to the more ceremonious correspondence interchanged between the parents. The form appears to resemble a good deal our most ornamented style of " valentines." When a match is concluded between two meritorious young persons, their parents exchange these valentines. Politeness appears to require in that land, which is remarkable for its common sense, a form which strikes us as very singular ; the writer seems to be bound to say, rather early in his epistle, " I duly reverence your lofty door," or " I reverence your lofty gate." The distinction between England and China, here, is rather in the statement than in the fact ; for there is no doubt that many of our parents engaged in match-making are much impressed by veneration either for the street-door of the wealthy parent in a good quarter or for the gate of the country residence. We do not state it, that is all. We, like the Chinese, pique ourselves upon our modesty ; but it is not usual for an English parent to speak of his child, especially when he is the parent of the fair bride, as "my despicable daughter ;" nor doss the father of the bridegroom call himself " the mean one." We conduct our marriage business according to the rules of propriety ; but the Chinese, it appears, have arranged these rules of propriety into the number of six— -"the six rules of propriety;" which must be much more convenient than our indefinite number, so difficult to be understood by neophytes. How easy it would be to behave properly in polite society, if there were only " six rules of propriety" to bs remembered ! The Chinese promises that he will " reverently announce the business to his ancestors;" and here there is a distinction without a difference : we do not inform our anceGtors — do not include them in the circle to whoa we send silver-knotted cards ; but -W9 consult their feelings and precedents. If we do not reverence our street-door in terms, we rely much upon the hatchment. There is a naivet£ about these Chinese loveletters, which, as gentlemen connected with the press say, is " truly refreshing." In the midst of the business, one parent hopes that " the union will last a hundred years, and realise tbs light experienced by the union of the two cccntries, Chin and Chin," — the punning rogue! The other suddenly launches forth into a statement, that "the peach-flowers just now look beautiful the red plums also look gay. ' Much, however, in the right estimation of these customs and ceremonies nanst depend upon our translation of terms for which we have no equivalents: and perhaps of metaphors or other rhetorical figures. Our own customs, quite intelligible to us, must perplex the foreigner sadly as they are sometimes told. For example — at CUrkenwell a person accuses a woman of stealing gdods " under circumstances of gross ingratitude ;" and the prosecutor gravely proposes that the woman should be punishe.d as " a base impostor, who ought to be made an example of for the protection of others." Coupls this with the statement of Voltaire that Admiral | Byng was hanged "pour encourager les autres," and the Chinese investigator of EDglish customs would have a decided idea that we use punishment as a premium, and consider impostors persons to be protected ; especially if he has read Free-trade rhetoric about the imposture of "pro- i tection." But another paper relates a still more singular ceremony. Our readers are aware that small dealers keep stalls in certain streets of London, and that the police just now are engaged in trying to clear the pavements. There is a feeling of compunction for these poor persons ; and some tradesmen of Tottenham Court Road, not desiring this sudden ousting of their rivals,- have interceded with Sir Richard Mayne. He received the deputation courteously, but said be could only act as a coadjutor to "the Paving Commis-

sioners." " For bis own part, he was in favour of a gradual or natural abatement of the obstruction by death :" which the Oriental reader will understand to mean by the bow-string ; and he will then read— "This statement was received with satisfaction ;" whence hs will have an Oriental view of English humanity. But the last statement, as exemplifying the satisfaction of the deputation, will still more amaze him, if he has any practical knowledge of the coarse linen cloth from which one metaphor is derived. "It was agreed to canvass the shopkeepers on the subject, in the hope"— ["What strange people those English are !" the Chinese philosopher^ will cry] — " in the hope of making an impression on the Paving Board."