still more of the insolence of the Chinese, in designating such high-spirited visitors barbarians.

But how such parties as these voyagers, in the pursuit of objects so completely sinistrous, and totally regardless of the rights of others, can establish the charge of selfishness against a people whose only faults, if they are to be considered faulty, appear to have been their love of peace and loyalty to their Sovereign, we know not.

With still less propriety can the charge of a disregard of truth be advanced against the Chinese by parties, whose outfit and progress had been characterized by the daily reiteration of falsehoods. It is by no means easy to imagine in what way the mind of a Christian Missionary, such as Mr. Gutzlaff is represented to have been, could have been reconciled even ministerially to the daily utterance of such untruths as were contained in the description of the ship, of her commander, the port of her outfit, and her destination.

With respect to the appellation Barbarian—although it may not please the taste of these voyagers, it appears to us, upon perusing their journal, that they took uncommon pains to justify its application to them, both in the English and Chinese acceptations of the term. What more fit description could have been found of men, who having, without permission or previous notice, landed on the shores of a country, run wildly through its villages and through the streets of its towns, forcing their way into houses in some such unceremonious way as that in which an English bull would enter a china shop? The Chinese must indeed have possessed a very small portion of that shrewdness, for which even their revilers give them credit, had they conceived of such visitors any otherwise than as of barbarians.

In several places the journalists inform us that the sheet tract in the Chinese character, already mentioned, was liberally distributed, and that it was calculated to give a more favourable view of the English, and it was believed not without beneficial effect. Judging from the conduct of the Chinese towards the Amherst's crew, it appears to us that the former had previously made themselves acquainted with the English character, and that they had already formed an opinion of it. This some of them might have done by an attentive perusal of the history of British Colonization in different parts of the world, in the literature of their own country; and the opinion thus formed, which we presume to have been unfavourable, the proceedings of the Amherst and her crew were not calculated to change for the better.

It may not be here unworthy of remark, that the British, as well as other nations foreign to China, were allowed freely to navigate along her coasts, until the British Empire in India began to be formidable, and that then, and not till then, the Chinese government restricted the trade to Canton so rigidly, as to compel those foreigners who might come there to trade to quit Canton, and proceed to Macao during the portion of the year which is not actually employed in trade; thus denying them the opportunity of such a residence as would, according to the parochial law of Great Britain, constitute a settlement; that is, a residence of twelve calendar months in their own factory. It is not altogether improbable that the Chinese, who are found to possess much more knowledge than they have had credit for, are acquainted with this law.

There is one part of the narrative, and the only one which, in order that the justice of our observations upon it may be clearly perceived, we shall quote, which places the character of the English who were employed on this enterprise, and that of the Chinese, in juxtaposition, in a point of view

every way honourable to the latter, and by no means so to the former. It is a dialogue between the Corean Chief and the English Commander:

Corean Chief. "In traversing the ocean you have been exposed to perils and difficulties; truly we feel compassion, and hope you have sustained no injury."

English. "We thank you for your inquiry. By the protection of Heaven we have arrived in safety.

C.

"Wherefore have you come from a distance?"

E. "The cause has been already reported, to present a letter, and presents to the King of your honourable nation, hoping that our nations may be connected by friendship and commercial intercourse."

C. My nation has heretofore been completely submissive to the Tasing (Chinese) Empire. It is our superior. How then dare a dependant state clandestinely engage in intercourse?"

E."Siam and Cochin China are both tributary to China; Corea is on the same terms as these two nations; yet both China and those countries admit our ships to trade with them. Your honourable nation is the only one which holds no intercourse with Great Britain; why should it not do so like the others?"

C. 64 My nation borders closely on the Chinese Empire; therefore, without the command and sanction of our superior, it dare not presume of itself to establish new customs, either on great or small affairs."

"E. Siam and Cochin both border closely on China, yet they do not decline intercourse with foreigners."

"C. My nation does not act thus; from former times till now we submit to the imperial decision; as to your affair, decidedly we dare not presume to permit it."

There is a dialogue somewhat similar to that above quoted, with which: all our readers are acquainted. It took place in a garden, in the very infancy of society, when there were only two persons in the world; to one of whom an intruder addressed a proposition which was at first declined, on the same ground as that taken by the Corean Chief, viz. that the thing was prohibited by a competent authority; but there is this lamentable difference in the two cases-in the former the tempter succeeded, and the person tempted ultimately yielded to the temptation. The Corean, more happily for himself, persevered in his resistance, and finally triumphed over the tempter, who appeared in the character of an Englishman.

We shall conclude our review of these tracts, by laying before our readers the judgment of the Court of Directors on the Amherst's voyage, and the objects contemplated by its projectors. The decision of the Court was, as might have been expected, unfavourable: it would indeed have been surprising if twenty-four honourable and high-minded men, whose commercial transactions have for two centuries past been eminently characterized by truth and integrity, had expressed themselves in any other terms than those which follow, which form part of a letter written in May last, containing a temperate review of the whole proceedings.

"It is impossible not to perceive the stress which is readily put upon the apparent faithlessness of the Chinese, whilst at the same moment we were presenting ourselves in disguise under foreign names and characters, and acting in direct violation of the laws and usages of the empire. What, it may be asked, would be the course pursued by the Government of this Country were a Chinese vessel to arrive at a forbidden port, laden with prohibited cargo, and, on finding opposition to its reception, that the Commander was to distribute throughout the coast papers complaining of the conduct of the Government, and calculated to incite the people against their rulers? Would it be tolerated for a moment? Why then should we presume upon our power and influence, and act so decidedly in defiance of all common usage towards the Chinese, whose commerce we have sought and wish to retain?"

The pamphlet of Mr. R. Montgomery Martin, which forms the third article now under notice, we recommend to general perusal, and especially to those persons who may have read the preceding articles. It contains a fair GENT. MAG. VOL. I.

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view of the Commercial advantages which have resulted, and might still result from intercourse with China, if regulated as has hitherto been the case, with a due regard to the independence of the two parties between whom the commercial relation exists. T. F.

LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE TO SIR HORACE MANN.

(Continued from p. 28.)

WALPOLE was generally right in his critical opinions, if his caprice or his temper, or his personal antipathies and adorations, if the Conways and the Waldegraves, and the Chutes, did not cross the path of his judgment. With all its merits, we must confess that "Leonidas" is rather dull, but let us hear the Master of Strawberry Hill on the subject. "You will see the particulars of old Marlborough's will in the Evening Post of this week. It is as extravagant as one should have expected; but I delight in her begging that no part of the Duke of Marlborough's Life may be written in verse by Glover and Mallet, to whom she gives five hundred pounds a piece for writing it in prose. There is a great deal of humour in the thought; to be sure the spirit of the Dowager Leonidas inspired her with it.' Then comes a note, "Glover wrote a dull heroic poem on the action of Leonidas at Thermopyla"-as if the poem would have been extinct by this time, and only known to posterity by the annotation of the letter writer. But he had not yet done with him; in a few pages farther on we find the Catalogue of the Sons of Dullness much enlarged. "The town flocks to a new play of Thomson's called Tancred and Sigismunda: it is very dull. I have read it. I cannot bear modern poetry. These refiners of the purity of the stage, and of the incorrectness of English Verse, are most woefully insipid. I had rather have written the most absurd lines in Lee, than Leonidas or the Seasons as I had rather be put in the guardhouse for a wrong headed quarrel, than sup quietly at eight o'clock with my grandmother. There is another of these tame geniusses, a Mr. Akenside, who writes odes; in one he has lately published, he says,

"Light the tapers, urge the fire!"

Had not you rather make 'Gods jostle in the dark, than light their candles for fear they should break their heads.''

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Sir Robert Walpole was at this time suffering under that cruel disease which soon after destroyed him. His son says, My father has been extremely ill this week with his disorder. I think the physicians are more and more persuaded that it is the stone in the bladder. He is taking a preparation of Mrs. Stephens' medicine, a receipt of one Dr. Jurin, which we began to fear was too violent for him. I made his doctor angry by arguing on this medicine, which I never could comprehend. It is of so great violence that it is to split a stone when it arrives at it, and yet is to do no damage to all the tender parts through which it must first pass. I told him, I thought it was like an Admiral going on a secret expedition of war, with instructions which are not to be opened till he arrives in such a latitude!" Of this great statesman's death, the following account of his son will not be read without interest-"By this time you have heard of my Lord's death. You cannot expect I should enter into the details of it. His enemies pay him the compliment of saying 'they do believe now, that he did not plunder the public as he was accused (as they accused him) of doing, he having died in such circumstances.' If he had no proofs of his honesty but this, I don't

think this would be such indisputable authority. Not leaving immense riches would be scanty evidence of his not having acquired them, there happening to be such a thing as spending them. It is certain he is dead very poor. His debts, with his legacies, which are trifling, amount to fifty thousand pounds. His estate, a nominal eight thousand a-year, much mortgaged. In short his fondness for Houghton has endangered Houghton. If he had not so overdone it, he might have left such an estate to his family. as might have secured the glory of the place for many years: another such debt must expose it to sale. If he had lived, his unbounded generosity and contempt of money would have run him into vast difficulties. However irreparable his personal loss may be to his friends, he certainly died critically well for himself. He had lived to stand the rudest trials with honour, to see his character universally cleared, his enemies brought to infamy for their ignorance or villainy, and the world allowing him to be the only man in England fit to be what he had been-and he died at a time when his age and infirmities prevented his again undertaking the support of a government which engrossed his whole care, and which he foresaw was falling into the last confusion. In this, I hope, his judgment failed. His fortune attended him to the last, for he died of the most painful of all distempers, with little or no pain." It must be acknowledged that the tenderness of this filial eulogy, is accompanied with truth. As a pendant for the picture, we shall now extract a story relating to his great opponent, the famous Lord Bath. "I have a good story to tell you of Lord Bath, whose name you have not heard very lately. He owed a tradesman eight hundred pounds, and would never pay him. The man determined to persecute him till he did and one morning followed him to Lord Winchelsea's, and sent up word that he would speak to him. Lord Bath came down, and said, Fellow, what do you want with me?' My money,' said the man, as loud as he could bawl, before all the servants. He bade him come the next morning, and then would not see him. The next Sunday the man followed him to Church, and got into the next pew. He leaned over and said, 'My money, give me my money! My Lord went to the end of the pew-the man too, 'Give me my money.' The sermon was on ava

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rice, and the text, Cursed are they that heap up riches.' The man groaned out, 'Oh Lord!' and pointed to my Lord Bath-in short, he persisted so much to draw the eyes of all the congregation, that my Lord Bath went out, and paid him directly. I assure you this is fact."

There was not a wit about the Court at this time whose bon-mots Walpole's pen has not perpetuated, nor a beauty that he has not rendered still more fair, giving a new brilliancy to the diamonds by the lustre and skill of the setting. Of Frederick Prince of Wales many entertaining stories are told, and his Caligulisms are not forgotten.-" When the Princess saw company after her accouchement, the new-born babe was shown in a mighty pretty cradle, designed by Kent, under a canopy in the great drawingroom. Sir William Stanhope went to look at it. Mrs. Herbert, the governess, advanced to unmantle it. He said, ‘In wax, I suppose ?' 'Sir!' In wax, madam?' The young Prince, sir.' 'Yes, in wax, I suppose?' This is his odd humour. When he went to see the Duke at his birth, he said Lord! it sees !'"

There are few persons, we should conjecture, who read at all, that do not remember the entertaining manner in which Gray, in his letters to Dr. Wharton, has absolutely painted the trial and behaviour of the Scotch Lords: we meet with them again in Walpole, described in a manner scarcely less lively

and picturesque, and with touches not less interesting; indeed, the account of the trials form now the only amusing part of the whole rebellion, and Walpole and Gray are the best historians. "The first appearance (he says) of the prisoners shocked me! their behaviour melted me! Lord Kilmarnock and Lord Cromartie are both past forty, but look younger. Lord Kilmarnock is tall and slender, with an extreme fine person his behaviour a most just mixture between dignity and submission. If in any thing to be reprehended, a little affected, and his hair too exactly dressed for a man in his situation; but when I say this, it is not to find fault with him, but to show how little fault there was to be found. Lord Cromartie is an indifferent figure, appeared much dejected, and rather sullen. He dropped a few tears the first day, and swooned as soon as he got back to his cell. For Lord Balmerino, he is the most natural brave old fellow I ever saw; of the highest intrepidity even to indifference. At the bar he behaved like a soldier and a man in the intervals of form, with carelessness and humour. He pressed extremely to have his wife, the pretty Peggy, with him in the Tower. Lady Cromartie only sees her husband through the grate, not choosing to be shut up with him; as she thinks she can serve him better with her intercession without; she is big with child, and very handsome so are the daughters. When they were to be brought from the Tower in separate coaches, there was some dispute in which the axe must go. Old Balmerino cried, Come, come, put it with me.'

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At the bar he plays with his fingers upon the axe, while he talks to the gentleman gaoler; and one day somebody coming up to listen, he took the blade and held it like a fan between their faces. During the trial a little boy was near him, but not tall enough to see; he made room for the child, and placed him near himself." The votes of the Lords are thus admirably sketched : "Lord Windsor very affectedly said, I am sorry I must say, guilty upon my honour!' Lord Stamford would not answer to the name of Henry, having been christened Harry. What a great way of thinking on such an occasion! I was diverted too with old Norsa, the father of my brother's concubine, an old Jew that kept a tavern. My brother, an auditor of the exchequer, has a gallery along one whole side of the court. I said I really feel for the prisoners! Do you,' old Isacchar replied, 'Feel for them! Pray, if they had succeeded, what would have become of all us?' When my Lady Townshend heard her husband vote, she said, 'I always knew my lord was guilty, but I never thought he would own it upon his honour!' Lord Balmerino said, that one of his reasons for pleading not guilty was, that so many ladies might not be disappointed of their show.' The description of the execution, though a little longer than we have room for, we cannot persuade ourselves to omit.

Lord Kil

"Just before they came out of the Tower, Lord Balmerino drank a bumper to King James's health. As the clock struck ten, they came forth on foot. marnock all in black, his hair unpowdered in a bag, supported by Forster, the great Presbyterian, and by Mr. Horne, a young clergyman, his friend. Lord Balmerino followed alone, in a blue coat turned up with red, his rebellious regimentals, a flannel waistcoat, and his shroud beneath; their hearses following. They were conducted to a house near the scaffold. The rooms forward had benches for spectators. In the second Lord Kilmarnock was put, and in the third backwards Lord Balmerino. three chambers hung with black. There they parted. Lord Balmerino embraced the other, and said, 'My Lord, I wish I could suffer for both.' He had scarce left him before he desired again to see him, and then asked him, ' My Lord Kilmarnock, do you know any thing of the resolution taken in our army, the day before the battle of

* "Pitied by gentle minds, Kilmarnock died." JOHNSON.

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