ally I consider them to be extremely poor. Their music, both
vocal and instrumental, is worse than rubbish; in sketching and
painting they are without sense of perspective; their architecture is
clumsy and coarse; their much-vaunted pottery is full of flaws and
blemishes, for which reason a perfect specimen is almost priceless and
over which connoisseurs hypnotise themselves; dancing, except by
flower-girls, is unknown; while in literature they are safe from
adequate criticism, owing to the impossibilities of their language.
Embroidery, bronzes, carving, and dyeing in both pottery and silks
are, in my opinion, their best artistic productions, although it is
said that the famous colouring of chinaware is now a lost art, as
those clans which held the secrets were almost extirpated during the
Taiping rebellion. Many articles of vertu are undoubtedly valuable,
but is it not rather owing to their antiquity, to their rarity, or to
the fact that they are good specimens of a certain workmanship,
however bad, rather than to any inherent artistic merits?

Quaint they indeed are from a European standpoint, but on more
intimate knowledge this quaintness resolves itself into a slavish
adaptability to the smallest circumstances in their daily struggle for
existence. To a man who has been some years in the country, and who
has tried to understand local conditions, the Chinese live on a dead
level with matters of fact.

To say that they are effeminate would be incorrect. In some things,
from our point of view, they undoubtedly are; in others they are
extremely virile.

The captain of a British man-of-war told me that he considered them to
be the poorest fighters in existence. That they habitually make a
feeble show in battle cannot be gainsaid, but then they are a most
matter-of-fact people, without any craving for military glory, and
knowing beforehand that there is no possible chance of success, take
time by the forelock and run away to escape a useless death.

Select one of our very best regiments and stop their pay for several
months, deprive them of officers, take away all doctors and medical
comforts, half starve them, arm them with flags, pikes and
muzzle-loaders, and then march them against a crack European regiment.
You may be sure the Chinese example would be quickly followed. I do
not say the Chinese are brave, but I do believe that, given a good
training, just treatment and a fair chance of success, they would
prove no