the patient husbandman, to enable him to continue his toil without fainting, to supply his own modest wants and to fill the local treasury. But some seasons the crops fail, and the farmers having no resource whatever, perish in multitudes, of famine and disease. In some of the Western provinces, the people, noted for their independence, resist extortion by the ruling classes and live in comfort and even affluence. This limitation also applies to the merchants at the ports open to foreign trade ; many of them amass wealth and enjoy the protection of the local authorities, who, some of them, have money profitably invested in native commercial enterprises. The bulk of the officials, however, while they view commerce with contempt, do not scruple to levy extortionate exactions on trade, and to accept bribes to condone offences against the law, even to the extent of permitting a criminal to procure a substitute to suffer capital punishment in his stead. *
My first excursion into China proper was an ascent of the north branch of the Pearl river of Kwang-tung, accompanied by three Hongkong residents. This northern affluent joins the main stream at a point called "San Shui," or Three Waters, lying above Canton, about forty miles inland. To reach it we must pass through the Fatshan Creek, where Commodore Keppel fought his famous action in 1857. The town of Fatshan exceeds a mile in length ; the Creek passes right through its centre, and it is the nucleus of the great manufacturing districts of Southern China. Cutlery and hardware are the two chief industries, hence it is said to be the Sheffield of Cathay. It appeared strange to me after examining the native wares, that similar articles of superior English make had done so little to supplant the industry of the
- Meadow's Notes on China.
