yet, within the limits of the Chinese
Empire is probably comprised one fourth of the human race. Strive as
much as we may to be fair and liberal, it is yet impossible to disguise
our strong dislike to the people whom we were now about to leave. A
sense of relief on departing from pestilential Canton was inevitable,
and there was little to attract us longer at Hong Kong, to which city we
returned in the steamship Powan.

It is not wise to shut our eyes to facts which have passed into
history, or be too strongly influenced by personal prejudice. The
Chinese have long been a cultured, reading people. Their veritable
records take them back to the days of Abraham. Five hundred years before
the art of printing was known to Europe, books were multiplied by
movable types in China, and her annals thereby preserved. Whatever of
ignorance may attach to the people as it regards matters extraneous to
their empire, the detailed and accurate knowledge of their own country
and its statistics is evident enough from the elaborate printed works in
the native tongue. Every province has its separate history in print,
specifying its productions, a brief record of its eminent men, and of
all matters of local importance. Reliable maps of every section of the
country are extant. The civil code of laws is annually published and
corrected. In the departments of science relating to geography and
astronomy, they have long been well advanced. A certain amount of
education is universal, eight tenths of the people being able to read
and write. The estimate in which letters are held is clear, from the
fact that learning forms the very threshold that leads to fame, honor,
and official position. Competitive examination is the mode by which
office is disposed of, those who hold the highest standard of
scholarship bearing off the palm. The art of printing has been referred
to as having its origin in China. In two other important discoveries
this nation long precedes Europe; namely, in the use of gunpowder and
the magnetic compass, the knowledge of which traveled slowly westward
through the channels of Oriental commerce, by way of Asia Minor or the
Red Sea. It is only just and fair for us to look on both sides of the
subject.

On the night of December 11th, being the day previous to that of our
departure from Hong Kong, a slight shock of earthquake was experienced,
recalling a similar event at Yokohama; but as these are not of uncommon
occurrence in eith