Many of the beautifully embroidered stuffs we see in our shops at home are made by hand in China, and yet they can be sold in London at prices that defy competition. The oppo- sition to the introduction of the machines used in Bradford and Manchester comes mostly from the operatives themselves. It is noteworthy that the Chinese in this province have adopted Pasteur's method of detecting and eradicating disease in the silkworms. Machinery is also being introduced in reeling the silk, notwithstanding the native dread of innovation. It is per- fectly astonishing to see what these Cantonese can accomplish on their own inferior looms. Give them almost any pattern or design, and they will contrive to weave it, imitating its imper- fections with as much exactness as its beauties. I like to linger over these shops, and to meditate on these scenes of ceaseless industry, where all goes on with a quiet harmony that has a strange fascination for the observer. Amid all the evidences of toil, the poorest has some leisure at his command ; then, seated on a bench, or squatting tranquilly on the ground, he will smoke or chat with a neighbour, untroubled by the presence of his em- ployer, who seems to grow fatter and wealthier on the smiles and happy temperament of his workmen. Here, too, one can see how the nucleus of this great city is more closely populated than at first sight one would suppose. Most of the workshops are kitchen, dining-room and bed-room too ; here the workpeople breakfast on their benches ; here at nightfall they stretch them- selves, out to sleep. Their whole worldly wealth is stored here too. An extra jacket, a pipe, a few ornaments which are used in common, and a pair of chopsticks — these make up each man's total worldly pelf ; and indeed his greatest treasure he carries with him — a stock of health and a contented mind. The Chi- nese operative is completely content if he escape the pangs of
