of this establishment; and that, only the other day, an attempt has been made to take advantage of some manorial rights, and to demolish the mill dams. Pity it is, that the aristocracy should, even by open acts, separate themselves from the interests of the people around them. The enterprising quaker who has established this factory, has done more for the neighbourhood, than Lord Waterford and all the Beresfords have ever done; and his lordship's pride ought to be, less in his magnificent domain, and fine stud, than in the comfortable condition of the surrounding peasantry, and in the establishment which has produced it."-Vol. i. p. 70. We know not what a change of ministry may bring about; but the defeat of the Waterford family in the election for the county has operated wholesomely for some time. The author says that they felt it severely, and that more attention has since been paid to the interests of the tenantry. In Kilkenny the author found the most widespread and most aggravated misery. Out of a population of about 25,000, he was enabled to know that upwards of 2,000 were totally without employment. on my right to see it, and satisfied myself that potatoes and butter-milk, the food of the poor, pay a toll to Lord Clifton, who, out of the revenue of about 20,000l. per annum, which he draws from this neighbourhood, lays out not one farthing for the benefit of his people."-Vol. i. pp. 97, 98. The following passage may in some respects be taken as a companion to the former extract; whilst pointing towards another curse of Ireland besides that of hard-hearted landlords, it goes to establish the author's impartiality. "Cashel is rather a pretty town: the principal street is wide and well built; but the place is far from being in a flourishing condition. It was formerly a place of much resort, and consequent prosperity; but it is now almost entirely an absentee town; and I found every Wages were here only eight-pence a day without diet, thing extremely dull, and things getting daily worse. and numbers were altogether without employment. The population of Cashel is, at present, about 7,000; and the number of protestant communicants about 150. I was sorry to hear bad accounts of the protestant archbishop. I found him universally disliked, even by those dependent upon him, and of the same religious persuaHe does no good; and, by all accounts, is a close hard man, in every sense far overpaid by the 10 or 12,000l. a year which he enjoys. He has the disadvan indeed, of being compared with his predecessor, whom all, protestant and catholic, unite in praising."Vol. i. pp. 110, 111. sion. Here is another important statement. "It chanced that I was at Kilkenny just after the debate on the repeal question; in which the prosperity of Ireland was illustrated by reference to that of Kil. kenny, of whose prosperous manufactures honourable mention was made, condescending even upon the num-tage, ber of water wheels at work, which were said to be eleven in number; and the carpet manufactory, too, was spoken of in such terms, that it was said te be owing to its success that the weavers of Kidderminster had petitioned for repeal. I visited these prosperous factories, immediately after the account I have mentioned was received: the principal of these factories used to support two hundred men with their families: it was at eleven o'clock, a fair working hour, that I visited these mills, and how many men did I find at work? ONE MAN! And how many of the eleven wheels did I find going?ONE; and that one, not for the purpose of driving machinery, but to prevent it from rotting."-Vol. i. pp. 91, 92. We find the number of disheartening pictures so great that we cannot afford many more in this part of the author's journey. What sort of landlord should we think him to be, who is enriched as here described, were he found to act so in England? "I had heard, even in England, of the wretched condition of a town in the county of Kilkenny, called Callen; and finding that this town was but eight miles from Kilkenny, I devoted a day to Callen. I never traveled through a more pleasing and smiling country, than that which lies between Kilkenny and Callen; and I never entered a town reflecting so much disgrace upon the owner of it, as this. In so execrable a condition are the streets of this town, that the mail coach, in passing through it, is allowed twelve minutes extra; an indulgence which can surprise no one who drives, or rather attempts to drive, through the street; for no one who has the use of his limbs, would consent to be driven. And yet, will it be credited, that a toll is levied on the entrance into the town of every article of consumption; and that not one shilling of the money so received is laid out for the benefit of the town. The potatoes, coal, butter-milk, with which the poor wretches who inhabit this place supply their necessities, are subject to a toll, which used to produce 250l. per annum; but which having been resisted by some spirited and prying person, who questioned the right of toll, the receipts have been since considerably diminished. It was with some difficulty that I obtained a sight of the table of tolls; but I insisted VOL XXVI. FEB. 1835.-19 "I heard but one opinion as to the necessity of a Coercion bill. Almost every outrage and murder that has disgraced Ireland, has arisen out of one of two causeseither competition for land, or tithes; and, until means be found for reducing the former, and till the latter be finally and justly settled, it will be in the power of a restless, wrongheaded, or interested man to agitate Ireland. Competition for land can only be diminished by employ. ing the people; but I greatly fear that no scrutiny, how. ever strict and impartial, into the revenues of the pro. testant church, and that even no application of the sur. plus, will be satisfactory to the land occupiers of Ireland. Here, as every where else, in the south, I heard the strongest objections to tithe in any shape; and a curious farmers to get rid of tithe. A farmer agreed to pay 30s. instance came to my knowledge, of the determination of an acre for a certain quantity of land, the landlord being bound to pay tithe and all other dues. On rent day the tenant arrives, and, before paying his rent, asks what tithe the landlord pays? Why do you wish to know that?' says the landlord; "what is it to you what tithe I pay? you pay me 30s., and I take tithe and every burden off your hand.' I know that,' says the farmer; but I'll not only not pay tithe myself, but your honour sha'n't pay it either.' The tenant offered the landlord his rent, deducting whatever tithe he, the landlord, paid: and the rent is, at this moment, unpaid."-Vol. i. pp. 116 -118. The absentee landlords are not all bad; neither can we properly call him an absentee whose principal property lays out of Ireland. Of this honourable number, it is with pleasure we find Mr. Stanley figuring, whose estates in Tipperary the author declares are well managed; the rents are moderate, the tenantry well treated, and a library has been formed for their benefit. hope that the following piece of tyranny witnessed at Cahir is not of frequent occurrence. We "I am sorry to be obliged, in this place, to record a G Mr. Inglis considers it to be most important to the civilisation of Ireland, that a better order of catholic priesthood should be raised. At present he says they are reared at Maynooth in monkish bigotry. But he does not spare the establishment when occasion calls. fact, to which I could not have given credit on any evi-liance on, the protestant clergyman, is evinced in other dence less conclusive than that of my own eyes. The ways. It is not at all unusual for catholics possessed of Roman Catholic chapel is newly erected, and is yet un- a little money, to leave the protestant clergyman their finished and I was told, that the anxiety to obtain funds executor, in preference to their own priest, or to any for its completion gave rise to the enaction of some other individual."-Vol. i. p. 347. curious scenes at the door. I went there about ten o'clock; and I certainly did witness a scene of a most singular kind. The gates were shut, and four men stood by. One had a silver salver to receive the larger contributions: two were provided with wooden ladles, for the copper offerings; and these they shook in the ears of every one who approached: and one man, the priest, stood, just within the gate, armed with a shillelah. No one was admitted who did not contribute! I saw a man attempt to pass without contributing; and I saw the priest push and buffet the man, and, at length, strike him several times with his stick, and knock his hat off his his head! This is no matter of hearsay. I saw it; and I saw from thirty to forty persons kneeling outside of the gate, on the high road-poor persons, who had not a halfpenny to spare. To be more and more sure, that this was the cause of their remaining without, I gave some halfpence amongst them, and saw them admitted." -Vol. i. pp. 125, 126. Before laying aside the first volume, which our limits advertise us immediately to do, (for we cannot do more than put our finger on some of the landmark evils and characteristics of Ireland as noted by Mr. Inglis), we must let our readers see what is said of the mighty Dan. "I found in one party of this county, great want of accommodation for the protestant congregation. I allude to the parish "of the Union of Kilglass." There is monstrous abuse here. The bishop is rector, and draws from four to five hundred pounds per annum ; and yet there is no church, or protestant service in the parish. His lordship, on being respectfully written to on the subject, replied, that there was service in the next parish!" —Vol. i. p. 349. How can crime be repressed so long as such a state of things exists, as is thus described? "Trading magistrates are not yet extinct in the county Longford: value is still occasionally received for magisterial protection, in the shape of labour-such as, a winter-cutting of turf being brought to a man's door. Neither is there much co-operation among the magistracy. They take pleasure in thwarting each other; and it is not unusual for persons imprisoned by the warrant of one magistrate, to be forthwith liberated by the warrant of another."-Vol. i. pp. 349, 350. "I was now in O'Connell's country here was the property of Daniel O'Connell, Esq.; or the liberator, as the people called him; there, the property of Charles O'Connell, Esq.; and there again, the property of another As the author, near the beginning of the second O'Connell but the greater part of the O'Connell property volume, approaches Galway, he takes occasion -almost all that of the O'Connell, is held under head to mention, that in Ireland men of moderate landlords; and he is only an extensive middle-man. views, between the extremes of high catholic Near to Cahir-siveen, is the birth-place of the great and high conservative, are on the increase; not agitator. It is a ruined house, situated in a hollow near men of an imbecile policy, but who reprobate all to the road; and when I reached the spot, the driver of preferences of any party. This opinion suggests the car pulled up, and enquired whether I would like to to us, what indeed is enforced by every thing visit the house. But the driver of my car was not a native of these parts; for be it known to the reader, that contained in these volumes, that it is not any one O'Connell is less popular in his own country than he is single evil that can be named which frets and elsewhere. If you ask an innkeeper, or an innkeeper's poisons Ireland, but the whole frame is in disorwife, any where in O'Connell's district, what sort of a der; which the legislature cannot cure by any fiat man their landlord is? Och, and sure he's the best of it may put forth. Could the whole body of the landlords he takes the childer by the hand, and he people be convinced that their regeneration must wouldn't be over proud to dthrink tay with the landlady.' chiefly depend on themselves, on their own earnBut if you step into a cabin, the holder of which owns est exertions to do away with the factions among Daniel O'Connell, Esq., as his landlord, and if you ask them, health would recover part of its sway, coerthe same question, he'll scratch his head, and say little cive measures would be slackened, private morals any way. Shortly before I visited Cahir-siveen, there would gain a firm footing, and respect for the laws was a road-presentation in that neighbourhood, and the make the country a safe habitation for the great rate payers, who have now a vote in these matters, refused at first to pass it, unless the O'Connells would pay proprietors. But this home-wrought regeneration two-thirds of the expense: because, said they, the is not likely to be of sudden operation, and we O'Connells have lived long enough out of road presenta-fear a distant day must be looked to for Ireland's tions!!"-Vol. i. pp. 235-237. prosperity. It would be wrong to pass over three passages at the close of the volume; Longford is the county spoken of. "From time to time, considerable emigration has taken place from this part of Ireland to America; and it is not unusual for remittances to be sent home from the colonies, by those who have emigrated, for the use of their poor relatives. Now it is a curious fact, and a fact that consists with my knowledge, that catholic emigrants send their remittances to the care, not of the catholic priest, but of the protestant clergyman, to be distributed by him among those pointed out. The same respect for, and re leaves the more civilised part of Ireland behind On leaving Galway, the author for a while him, to travel through Cunnemara and Joyce's country, without any such incumbrances as might impede a pedestrian's journey. In these wild regions he was present where a pattern was held, high up amongst the mountains. It was originally a religious ceremony, but it is chiefly now resorted to for recreation, which generally ends in drunkenness and fighting. ! by the Joyces, to be in Joyce's country: but this is not | name, whom he praises or blames; for this may admitted by the Cunnemara boys: and accordingly, two produce good, as he says. General statements factions the Joyces and their opponents-usually hold carry little weight with them; and why should he patterns near the same ground, though not close toge- confound the good with the bad? ther; but yet so near as to make it impossible that the meetings should break up without a scrimmage. The Joyces are a magnificent race of men: the biggest, and stoutest, and tallest I have seen in Ireland, eclipsing even the peasantry of the Tyrol; and I believe, indeed, their claims on this head are universally admitted. I shall, by and by, have an opportunity of introducing the reader to Big Jack Joyce, when I visit him in his own house." -Vol. ii. pp. 48, 49. "The chief proprietors of the town of Sligo are Lord Palmerston and Mr. Wynn. The land in the barony, especially Mr. Wynn's, is let extremely high. Mr. Wynn's tenants are, with very few exceptions, in arrear; but he is one of those short-sighted landlords, who is resolved at all costs to keep up the nominal amount of his rent-roll. His rents are taken in dribbles-in shillings and copper; and agents have been known to accompany tenants to market with their produce, lest any part of its The author was warmly welcomed by many. value should escape the landlord's pocket. This gentle. There might be a score of tents, and hundreds man has been at great pains to establish a protestant of persons were seated on the grass or stones, tenantry on his estate; and in the appearance of their while some of the older people were on their houses, &c., there is some neatness, and some show of knees, beside the holy well. By and by, symp-comfort; but these are not in reality in any better conditoms of a quarrel arose, and our author stepped tion than the other tenantry. None of them are able to aside, that he might witness a regular faction do more than barely to subsist; and they, as well as the fight. catholic tenantry, are generally in arrear; indeed, I found no one exception. The whole land in this barony ave"Any one, to see an Irish fight for the first time' rages 21. 5s. per acre. In the county, it is supposed, that would conclude that a score or two must inevitably be excluding bog and mountain land, it averages 26s.; and put hors-de-combat. The very flourish of a regular shil-good cultivated land may average 21. There is no living, lelah, and the shout that accompanies it, seem to be the and paying such rents. immediate precursors of a fractured skull; but the affair, though bad enough, is not so fatal as it appears to be the shillelahs, no doubt, do sometimes descend upon a head, which is forthwith a broken head; but they oftener descend upon each other; and the fight soon becomes one of personal strength. The parties close and grapple and the most powerful man throws his adversary: fair play is but little attended to: two or three often attack a single man; nor is there a cessation of blows, even when a man is on the ground. On the present occasion five or six were disabled, but there was no homicide; and after a scrimmage, which lasted perhaps ten minutes, the Joyces remained masters of the field. The women took no part in the fight, but they are not always so backward: it is chiefly, however, when stones are the weapons, that women take a part, by supplying the combatants with missiles. When the fight ended, there were not many remaining, excepting those who were still in the tents, and who chanced to be of neither faction. Most of the women had left the place when the quarrel began, and some of the men too. I noticed, after the fight, that some who had been opposed to each other shook hands and kissed, and appeared as good friends as before."Vol. ii. pp. 51, 52. "Lord Palmerston's property is an honourable exception. On an estate between Sligo and Ballyshannon, his lordship expends more in improvements-in roads, drains, piers, corn stores, &c. than the amount of the whole revenue of the estate. In every way improvements, and an improving tenantry are encouraged; and the people on that estate are in a comparatively comfortable condition. This is one of the few instances I found in which the tenantry on an estate were allowed to benefit by the advantages and improvements of the district."—Vol. ii. pp. 125, 126. Mr. Inglis was impressed repeatedly in his progress through Ireland with another disheartening appearance. Amongst the country people, the affection between man and wife, he considered to be unequal to what adorns domestic life in the humbler spheres in Britain. We were hardly prepared for this statement, and trust that it has been rashly made. The Irish probably exhibit their attachment in different ways to what the author is familiar with; for certainly they have been called a people of ardent, it may be hasty and unstable, affection. Still, Mr. Inglis has had ample It would appear that in this hill country the small land owners are in much more comfortable opportunities for seeing a good deal of their homely manners; and if he be in the right, there is here circumstances than those of the flat and the fer- to be found not a little which goes to colour the tile districts. "Neither here nor in any part of condition of the people of Ireland. His theory as Ireland," says the author, "need a stranger be to some of the most effectual means of benefiting afraid to travel." Potheen is very generally dis-that disordered country, may in a great measure tilled illicitly throughout Ireland, and among the be gathered from the following sentences. mountains there are plenty of places where the still is a point of concentration for gossip and drinking, and no reckoning to pay, as almost every landholder there distils for himself. It is easy to see what influence such an abundance of poison to the morals must have over old and young; so that this evil must carry with it the most disastrous effects in a national point of view. Indeed, every chapter of the work before us presents more that is to be blamed than praised; and whilst so many evils unite, will Ireland be wretched. We must commend the author not only for telling truths, but for telling them in the way he does; not even avoiding to give the landlords by "I am not one of those who ascribe all the evils of Ireland to popery; but I am one of those who think protestantism the better religion for the people, and the safer for the state; and think also, that it ought to have been, and ought still to be, the study of government to encourage the growth of protestantism by every wise and legiserving, from all I have seen and learned in Ireland, that timate means; nor can I let slip this opportunity of ob one of the most certain means of increasing protestantism in Ireland will be such measures of reform in the Irish church as will encourage and reward the working clergy, at the expense of those who do not or who will not work; as will sweep away pluralities, and forbid non-residence; as will place protestant education on a better footing; and as will provide for the final and effectual settlement of superior comfort throughout the north, is the the tithe question."-Vol. ii. pp. 164, 155. growth and manufacture of flax. And the next After one long extract, we must close Mr. In- cause advanced is, that they are of Scotish deglis' work. It respects a comparison of the north-scent. Now, we are most unwilling to distrust ern or protestant counties of Ireland, with the the author's liberal conclusions; but still, we southern or catholic counties, in reference to their think the admissions which he has made respectappearances and conditions. He admits that gene- ing the habits and descent of the people in the rally there is a marked difference in the appear-north of Ireland, might, without much difficulty, ance of the protestant districts over the others, be so turned against him, that his opinions would but denies that this is owing in any great degree require more substantial props. From these exto the people being protestants. Listen to his tracts, however, our readers may judge of his reasoning. performance; and surely they must say with us, "I say in any great degree, because I admit that the that it is singularly impartial, and calculated to protestant religion being more favourable to the diffusion be useful; it narrates facts, not fictions, truth of knowledge and to intellectual cultivation than the Ro-alone being the author's object. May that truth man Catholic faith, it will, in some degree, affect favour-be the subject of study in England!-still more ably the condition of a people. But, I repeat, that pro- may it be listened to and understood in Ireland! testantism is not the chief cause of the differences to which I have alluded. Look,' says a favourite writer, at a church, and a mass congregation, and you will be at no loss to distinguish the one from the other.' Truly no. They are very easily distinguished. But, let me ask, who, throughout every part of Ireland (excepting Ulster), are the individuals composing the church congregation? Are they not the gentry and some few of the more substantial farmers? It is not, therefore, at all difficult to distinguish between the catholic and protestant population: for this is but distinguishing between the upper and the lower ranks. But to come more directly to the assertion that a protestant district has quite another aspect from a catholic district, which I admit to be a fact, I think it no difficult matter to find reasons for this, more influential in their results than the profession of protestantism. "Did it never occur to those who have observed a fact, and instantly seized upon the least influential of all its causes, as its sole origin, that the rate of wages might make some difference in the condition and aspect of a people? The catholic peasantry of Clare, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, and of indeed all the south, west, and much of the centre, have not employment at all during half of the year-or, in other words, one half of them have no constant employment; and when they are employed, what is their rate of wages? Eight-pence, and even sixpence, without diet. The protestant population of Derry, Antrim, Armagh, and Down, have, if not full employ. ment, at least greatly more constant employment than their catholic brethren of the south; and the rate of wages is from 10d. to 1s. 4d.; the difference is, at the least, 4d.; and does 4d. per day make no difference in the condition of an Irish labourer? But the most overwhelming argument for those who would ascribe all the difference in condition to protestantism is, that not the protestants only, but the catholics also in these protestant counties, are in a better condition. How should this be? The mass of the lower classes in the towns, as well as the great majority of the country labourers in the districts called protestant, are catholics; but they are not in the condition of their catholic countrymen ef Munster and Connaught. We do not see them with tattered coats and bare feet; and why? Because they are generally in em. ployment, and receive higher wages. I have seen in catholic districts, catholic tenantry, and catholic labourers, comfortable where they had the good fortune to be placed in favourable circumstances-as on the estates of Mr. Tighe of Woodstock, Mr. Power of Kilfane, Lord Arden, Mr. Stanley, Lord Palmerston, Lord Lansdowne, &c.; and I have seen protestants as miserable as any catholics could be-as on the estate of Lord Donoughinore and others."-Vol. ii. pp. 213-216. He goes on at a length which we must not quote; but another source, according to his views of the From the Court Magazine. DEAR DOWAGER DUCHESS. BY T. HAYNES BAYLEY, ESQ. Dear Dowager Duchess, though treble my age, card! That tell-tale, the peerage, your age may betray, One of the enormities of protestantism, which shocks the papists, is the marrying of our clergy. What is to be said of the Roman Catholic Bishop England, who, going on a foreign mission, takes out with him four nuns! The English bishop takes one wife, The Roman Catholic takes out four, Having shown this sprightly contribution to our Roman Catholic sub-editor, he begs leave to offer an explanation of the seeming inconsistency : To vindicate the papist's life, From the Quarterly Review. humanity-no change of the present system, we are quite satisfied, could tend to better their condition, or to promote the tranquillity of this extensive empire: this they well know and are ready to admit; and we are persuaded that such repose and security, in the midst of a conquered people, is mainly owing to the dispersion of well-educated youths among the natives, whose language they learn, whose habits and customs they make themselves acquainted with, and whose opinions they treat with respect. Many of these adventurers, thus thrown into high and responsible situations at an early period of life, frequently without any one to advise with, and therefore compelled to reflect, and to act on their own discretion, need not shrink from a comparison, either as regards ability or conduct, with any functionaries in Europe, whether military or diplomatic. We need not travel out of the pages of the Travels into Bokhara; being the Account of a Journey from India to Caboul, Tartary, and Persia: also Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, from the Sea to Lahore, &c., in the years 1831, 32, and 33. By Lieut. Alexander Burnes, F. R. S. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1834.* We are not in the number of those who affect to think or to speak slightingly of the East India Company; still less are we disposed to admire those conceited persons who are in the habit of sneering at the directors of that company, contemptuously designated as "a set of merchantkings, exercising their sway, and issuing their commands, with an equal ignorance of the first principles of government and of trade!" As to principles of trade, we must indeed confess that they have shown themselves, averse from the new fangled doctrine of free trade; but is that ques-volumes which are now before us in search of an tion quite settled yet? With respect to the charge of unfitness to be trusted with the government of so vast an empire as India, it appears no bad answer that they and their servants conquered and created this empire; and the history of its rise and progress may perhaps be admitted as some further proof of their fitness to wear what they have won. Upon their trade, the house of commons, in its wisdom, has thought fit to put an ex-judge did not hesitate to say, in writing to the tinguisher-merchants they no longer are. That governor-general, "I shall be very confident of any plan Lieutenant Burnes undertakes in this quarter of India: provided a latitude is given him to act as circumstances may dictate, I dare pledge myself that the public interests will be promoted." It might have been natural enough that some senior officers should have felt a little jealousy in being passed over on such an occa. sion; but, with a good-natured jocularity, they were ready to admit the superior claims of Lieut. Burnes, though he was "one of Sir John Malcolm's swans." much pleased with his conduct of what had been entrusted to his charge, that on his return he took this "swan" under his protection, and employed him on a second journey of far greater importance, though avowedly of a private nature. last and most important branch of their trade, alike productive of profit to those who carried it on, and to the public exchequer-the tea-trade of China-has followed the fate of the rest, never to be recovered by themselves or by others. Not all the energies of all the free traders of the United Kingdom will ever replace it on the old and advantageous footing.† It is to be hoped, however, that no further encroachments will be made on the authorities who have so long and so ably administered the government of India, and whose successful endeavours, in diffusing happiness among countless millions of a quiet and innocent people, are universally allowed. Placed as these natives are, under the immediate rule of able, upright, and honourable men, taught from an early age to respect their prejudices, and to treat them with kindness and In the short notice of this work in the last number of the Museum, no attempt was made to analyse the travels. The present review will be found both entertaining and valuable.-Ed. Mus. The evil consequences which we predicted in an article on "The Free Trade to China" (Quarterly Review, No. C.) have already began to show themselves. The most respectable of the Hong merchants have retired from business, and the rest are either unable or unwilling to advance a shilling to enable the poor cultivators of tea to prepare the usual supply, though 40,000 tons of shipping were expected at Canton; but we shall, notwith. standing, have some tea, and it is as well that our readers should know what sort of tea it will be. Our information is from an eye-witness of unquestionable authority, recently arrived in England from China. On the opposite side of the river to, and at a short distance from, Canton, is a manufactory for converting the very worst kind of coarse black tea into green; it is well known in Canton by the name of Wo-ping, and was always rejected by the agents of the East India Company. The plan is instance of what we are contending for. For the conduct of the first mission here recorded, Mr. Burnes was originally recommended by Sir John Malcolm, himself a brilliant example of the advantage to be derived from an early application to the study of the language, manners, and That admirable opinions of the native races. Lord William Bentinck was so In attempting to give some account of the three volumes before us, we labour under considerable to stir it about on iron plates moderately heated, mixing it up with a composition of turmeric, indigo, and while lead, by which process it acquires that blooming blue of plums, and that crispy appearance, which are supposed to indicate the fine green teas. Our informant says, there can be no mistake respecting the white lead, as the Chinese superintendent called it by its common name yuenfun. At the same time it is right to state, that pulverized gypsum (known by the name of shet-kao) is understood, by the gentlemen of the late factory, to be employed to subdue a too intense blue colour given by the indigo. There were already prepared, when this visit took place, 50,000 chests of this precious article, just enough for three cargoes of the very largest ships of the East India Company. The crafty proprietors told our friend and the other visiters that this tea was not for the English but the American market; but we shall no doubt have our full share of it: nay, some particulars lately published in the newspapers render it highly probable that the importation of the well-doctored Wo-ping has already com. menced. |