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EFFECT OF RESOLUTION AND PRESENCE
OF MIND.

MANY years ago, a fire broke out in the brick part which
was built as an addition to the old gaol of Newgate. The
prisoners were in consternation and tumult, calling out
We shall be burnt, we shall be burnt! Down with the
gate !-down with the gate!" Mr. Akerman, the keeper,
hastened to them, showed himself at the gate, and having,
after some confused vociferation of "Hear him! hear him?"
obtained a silent attention, he then calmly told them, that
the gate must not go down; that they were under his care,
and that they should not be permitted to escape; but that
he could assure them they need not be afraid of being
burnt, for that the fire was not in the prison, properly so
called, which was strongly built with stone; and that if
they would engage to be quiet, he himself would come in
to them, and conduct them to the further end of the build-
ing, and would not go out till they gave him leave. To
this proposal they agreed; upon which, Mr. Akerman,
having first made them fall back from the gate, went in,
and with a determined resolution ordered the outer turnkey
upon no account to open the gate, even though the prisoners
(though he trusted they would not,) should break their word,
and by force bring himself to order it. "Never mind me,"
said he, "should that happen." The prisoners peaceably
followed him, while he conducted them through passages
of which he had the keys to the extremity of the gaol
which was most distant from the fire. Having by this very
judicious conduct fully satisfied them that there was no
immediate risk, if any at all, he then addressed them thus:
"Gentlemen, you are now convinced that I told you true.
I have no doubt that the engines will soon extinguish this
fire: if they should not, a sufficient guard will come, and you
shall all be taken out and lodged in the compters. I assure
you, upon my word and honour, that I have not a farthing
insured. I have left my house that I might take care of
you. I will keep my promise, and stay with you if you in-
sist upon it: but if you will allow me to go out and look
after my family and property, I shall be obliged to you."
Struck with his behaviour, they called out, "Master
Akerman, you have done bravely; it was very kind in you:
by all means go and take care of your own concerns."
did so accordingly, while they remained, and were all pre-
served. BOSWELL'S Life of Johnson.

DEFECT OF SMELL IN SOME BIRDS OF PREY. Ir has been generally asserted that Vultures, and other birds of prey, are gifted with a highly-acute sense of smell; and that they can discover by means of it the carcass of a dead animal at great distances: but it appears to be now sufficiently established by the observations and experiments. of Mr. Audubon, that these birds in reality possess the sense of smell in a degree very inferior to carnivorous quadrupeds; and that so far from guiding them to their prey from any distance, it affords them no indication of its presence, even when close at hand. The following experiments appear to be conclusive on this subject. Having procured the skin of a deer, Mr. Audubon stuffed it full of hay; after the whole had become perfectly dry and hard, he placed it inthe middle of an open field, laying it down on its back, in the attitude of a dead animal. In the course of a few minutes afterwards, he observed a vulture flying towards it and alighting near it. Quite unsuspicious of the deception, the bird immediately proceeded to attack it, as usual, in the most vulnerable points. Failing in his object, he next, with much exertion, tore open the seams of the skin, where it had been stitched together, and appeared earnestly intent on getting at the flesh, which he expected to find within, and of the absence of which not one of his senses was able to inform him. Finding that his efforts, which were long reiterated, led to no other result than the pulling out large quantities of hay, he at length, though with evident reluctance, gave up the attempt, and took flight in pursuit of other game to which he was led by the sight alone, and which he was not long in discovering and securing.

Another experiment, the converse of the first, was next tried. A large dead hog was concealed in a narrow and winding ravine, about twenty feet deeper than the surface of the earth around it, and filled with briers and high cane. This was done in the month of July, in a tropical climate, where putrefaction takes place with great rapidity. Yet, although many vultures were seen, from time to time, sailing in all directions over the spot where the putrid carcass was lying, covered only with twigs of cane, none ever discovered it; but in the mean while, several dogs had found their way to it, and had devoured large quantities of the flesh. In another set of experiments it was found that young vultures, enclosed in a cage, never exhibited any tokens of their perceiving food, when it could not be seen by them, however near to them it was brought.-DR. ROGET.

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THE MACKEREL FISHERY.

LONDON: Published by JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND; and sold by all Booksellers.

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THE

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PRICE ONE PENNY.

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF CHINA.-A FEMALE OFFENDER BEFORE A MANDARIN.

CHINA; ITS PEOPLE AND PRODUCTIONS. We have already furnished some occasional information on China and the Chinese people, but our relations with that distant empire are rendered so much more important by the recent alterations in the trade of the East India Company, that a thorough knowledge of the country, and of its inhabitants, has become more than ever interesting. We are, therefore, about to proceed with a series of Papers, which has been long in contemplation, on the manners and customs of the people, and on the history and productions of that remarkable country. The writer has been for some years resident in China; and the various subjects of his communications will either be founded on personal observation, or obtained from sources of acknowledged authenticity.

I. ON THE CRIMINAL LAWS OF CHINA. THE Chinese people are generally spoken of as destitute of principle, and addicted to crime-the opposite of whatever is either great or good; naturally disposed to petty theft, lying, and avaricious; the government as cruel and tyrannical; and the laws as sanguinary. Such representations are, in the opinion of the writer, who was long resident among the Chinese, overcharged, prejudiced, and erroneous; and far from conveying a correct notion of their real character. That the history of a nation, which has existed from the days of Fuh-hě, to the present time, a period of nearly five thousand years, should be disgraced by acts of tyranny, cruelty, and other crimes, need not excite surprise, for similar features disgrace the early history of European nations. Nor can we but regret, that, in so extensive an empire as China, where even their language and manners render the inhabitants of one part almost a distinct people from the other, and where there is an abundance of wealth, as well as the greatest destitution, there should be a mean and servile class, who sell themselves to work wickedness, and prey upon all foreigners who enter her ports.

China is, however, a nation that has existed for five thousand years. During centuries she was governed by a single sceptre, but afterwards became divided into two hundred petty states; these united into three states of equal power and influence, and, after forty years of carnage, again acknowledged one monarch. Though she has yielded to foreign force she is now wealthy and powerful, and, above all, she is, from the magnitude and variety of her resources, literally independent of all the nations in the world. During these periods, China has had her faithful, valiant, and able statesmen and warriors, as well as her traitorous ministers and despots; she has had her poets, her moralists, her historians, her lexicographers, her philosophers; men who have, in their works, left behind them imperishable treasures—who, for the general good, sacrificed their lives and whose names would throw an halo round the page of European history. Look at the extent of her empire, her populous cities, her thousand canals, intersecting the country and watering it as a garden, whose surface teems with human life, and is laden with immense treasures-look at her standing, though effeminate, army-the splendour of her court -the majesty of HER MONARCH, whose words, RESPECT THIS," act as a spell throughout the empire; and all this is achieved by her own means, unaided by foreign influence or policy. Can such a nation "the father of nations," as they not inaptly call it, be looked upon as uncivilized and despicable?

But, owing to the peculiar construction of her language, and the few industrious persons who have applied themselves to her literature, we may with shame be said to know little of China, beyond the translation of a few novels and some detached papers.

So strangely, indeed, has the public mind been stultified in regard to China, that even if works calculated to throw real light on her history and her literature are prepared for the press, they are suffered to remain unpublished, and the writer unnoticed, by many, even of those who profess to take an interest in Asiatic literature. "We must not," says Sir George Staunton, in his excellent preface to the Chinese Penal Code," expect to meet with characters [in China] as illustrious as those of a Newton, a Locke, or a Bacon; nor even, perhaps, generally find any tolerable proficiency in [the higher branches of] science, which in Europe the writings of those great men have contributed so much to advance and establish; but nevertheless, there is such a sufficiency, in all ranks and conditions, of the information essential or most useful to each-such a competency and suitableness of the means to the end-as might, upon a general view of the whole population, fairly entitle the Chinese to be put in competition with some at least of the nations of Europe, in respect to all the essential characters of civilization.

The founders of the Chinese empire, and their immediate descendants, are always spoken of as delighting in mild punishments; but, as plunder, and rapine, and commotion, prevailed, severer punishments were had recourse to-such as banishment and the loss of life. Revolt, or attempting the life of the emperor, "Heaven's Son," (he who is appointed by God to govern,) crimes of the greatest kind, were punished by strangulation, and slowly mutilating the body; exterminating the whole kindred, not excepting infants; or sawing asunder the offender; the wearing of the congque, or pillory, during life; and solitary confinement. During the Han dynasty, at which time the criminal code was revised, the ancient punishments,-especially that of exterminating a whole family, consisting sometimes of several hundred persons, for the crime of one ambitious man-being considered as unnecessarily severe, were for ever abrogated, hy an act of government. The ancient punishments for the ten capital crimes, have of late years been a source of profit to the painter; for pictures drawn on what is termed rice-paper have been imported into Europe, as confirmatory of the barbarism and cruelty of the present race of Chinese judges and mandarins; but the fact is, these cruel punishments have long since ceased to exist.

Anciently for treason, murder, and adultery, the prisoner and witnesses were subject to torture, in order to compel them to confess all they knew, and their depositions were laid before the emperor and the judicial board at the capital, before punishment was inflicted. The Chinese lighter writings often detail instances in which the friends of the accused have succeeded in defeating the undue influence of the magistracy, by appealing in person before this board; and such magistrates have consequently been degraded and imprisoned. The practice of torture to obtain confession, can now hardly be said to exist.

The Gan-cha-tsze, or provincial judge, who ranks next to the viceroy, has not the power of punishing a person capitally, except for piracy and a few other heinous crimes, but must report all cases to the emperor, and wait the decision of the Peking board; he can transport, imprison, levy fines, and punish by bastinadoing, congque, &c. The magistrate being always in court, a culprit is no sooner taken, and his accusers in attendance, than he is put on his trial. If it be a light offence, and he is unable to pay a fine, he is laid on the floor, and the punishment of blows inflicted with a long flat bamboo. If the punishment is not excessive, the culprit rises

and walks home, and the following day he is able to follow his employment. For a corresponding offence in this country, a person might be imprisoned a month, to the injury of his connexions and family, but in China the whole affair-accusation, trial and punishment is gone through in a few hours. I remember seeing one morning, while residing next door to the Heen magistrate's office, at Macao, a respectable-looking Chinese, who had on thin shoes, rush down three flight of steps, and along the street as fast as he could run; he was followed by the petty officers of the court, who wore thick shoes, like those represented in the accompanying cut, and had they not made a great noise, inducing other persons to stop the prisoner, he would have effected his escape. Having got hold of him, four of them shouldered him, while the fifth held him tight by the tail, at which he tugged most unmercifully. In an hour's time I saw the culprit limping homewards at liberty; he had been well bastinadoed, and the five petty officers who accompanied him, were laughing heartily at the joke, and calling him a fool for attempting to

escape.

atrocious offenders as are expressly directed to be executed without delay, are retained in prison for execution at a particular period in the autumn; the sentence passed upon each individual being first duly reported to, and ratified by, the emperor.

In all towns and cities, the mandarins have their public courts, with a number of clerks and retainers. The annexed engraving represents the examination of a female offender before a mandarin, in one of the country districts; the officer has hold of her by the hair, as the only way in which he could force her into the presence of the magistrate. The ordinary punishment for women, is slapping them on the cheek, with a solid piece of leather; but generally speaking, as they live a secluded life, few women are punished in China. The magistrate is habited in what is termed a court, or full dress, with court beads; the badge which appears on his breast is repeated on his back. The military wear badges also, the one a dragon, and the other the felicitous bird Fung. The knob on the top of the cap indicates rank, which is known by its being a gilt knob, a white glass knob, or a cornelian stone; the peacock's feather attached to his cap, has been given him by his sovereign, in consequence of merit. The secretary who is taking down the accusation, wears in his girdle, a handkerchief, a case containing his chopsticks, (two long slips of ivory or wood, with which he lifts his food,) and his purse for containing a few coins, or a little tobacco; having on boots made of silk. The officer in charge of the woman appears to be one of those persons who precede the magistrate as he passes through the streets, making a are to be noise, that all may know who approaches; at the foot of the table is an umbrella, used to keep off the sun as well as the rain. P. P. T.

The following scale of punishments is taken from the Penal Code alluded to above; it shows the manner in which punishment is increased according to guilt. Ten blows with the bamboo was anciently the lowest punishment; it is now repealed to four blows, and so of the others, the last column being the repealed code, viz., The first 10 blows The second nominally 20 blows The third a punish-30 blows The fourth ment of 40 blows The fifth (50 blows)

of which
only

4 blows 5 blows 10 blows 15 blows (20 blows

inflicted.

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Perpetual banishment, the fourth degree of punishment in order of severity, is subdivided as follows, and is reserved for cases wherein even for considerable offences, the life of the criminal is spared by the mercifulness of the laws: a hundred blows with the bamboo, and perpetual banishment to the distance of 2000, 2500, or 3000 lee. On reaching their destination, the banished offenders may follow their callings, but they are required once a week, or once a month, to appear before the magistrate of the place, and report themselves.

The fifth and ultimate punishment which the laws ordain, is death, either by strangulation or by beheading.

All criminals capitally convicted, except such

Ten les are usually estimated to be equal to three geographical miles, but the proportion varies a little in the different provinces of the empire.

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SIR Isaac Newton possessed a remarkably mild and even temper. That great man was one day called out of his study to an adjoining apartment. A little dog, named Diamond, who was a great favourite of his master's, happened to be left among the papers, and threw down a lighted candle, which consumed the almost finished labours of some years. Sir Isaac soon returned, and beheld with mortification his irreparable loss; but, with his usual gentleness, he only exclaimed, "O Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done!"

MOZART had a great regard for Haydn. A professor of Haydn, took a malicious pleasure in searching the composiVienna, who was not without merit, though far inferior to tions of the latter, for all the little inaccuracies which might have crept into them. He often came to show Mozart symphonies, or quartetts, of Haydn's, which he had put into score, and in which he had, by this means, discovered some inadvertencies of style. Mozart always endeavoured to change the subject of conversation; at last, unable any longer to restrain himself, "Sir," said he to him, sharply; "if you and I were both melted down together, we should not furnish materials for one Haydn."-Life of Mozart.

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