Autnor Title Class Book.|.. Imprint GPO 16 — 7464 LECTURE ON THE CHINESE EMPIRE. DELIVERED BEFORE THE MECHANIC'S INSTITUT-E, Oil ThHi'sday Evening, January 2^i\u 1854, BY REV. DR. SCOTT, NEW ORLEANS : Fln.NTED AT THE - DAILY DELTA" STKAM JOB PKESS, DO AND 112 T'OYDRAS STRBBT. 18 5 4. LECTURE N THE CHINESE EMPIRE, DELIVERED BEFORE THE MECHANIC'S INSTITUTE, On Thursday Evening, January 26th, 1854, BY REY. DE. SCOTT. Ladies and Gentlemen : " The powers that be " in this Hall have selected, out of several topics submitted to them, China, as the subject for the present address. And not a little have I been perplexed to know why this subject was preferred. Was it because the Spirits, who, I am told, frequent this place, informed them that I knew very little about China, and that the best way to teach me something of it, was to set me lecturing about it? It is true, indeed, that I know but little Chinese — only two words, I be- lieve, tea and junk; and the first is rather sug- gestive of cosy nerves at a petite soiree, and the other calls up much more vivid recollections of Missouri venison than anything pertaining to the " Flowery Kingdom." Or was this subject selected because these worthy gentlemen are '•manifest destiny" men, and thought this plat- form might be a lifting oratory for the exten- sion of the area of freedom '! Or was this theme given me that it might become necessary for me to visit the " Celestials,-' according to the rule and practice applied to a distinguished author, of whom it is said, that he " wrote a book on Egypt, and then Avent to Egypt himself to see whether or not his book w^as true T' Whatever the motives were for assigning me this subject, rather than any of the others submitted, they were, doubtless, wise and good. Numerous considerations suggest points of interest in our theme. First, // is one befitting our times. The age of apathy is gone. The pall of superstition and pre- judice is rolled up. I^ations now arc neighbors. A fearful energy and force are now operating every- where. Revolutionary fires are smoulderiag under every throne in the old world. Kingdoms are about to clash against kingdoms, like stai's broken loose from their orbits. The great wave that rushed upon the shores of Europe, in 1848, seems to have receded only to gather fresh strength, in order to return with greatly augmented force. We are called upon, there- fore, to lay aside all little narrow prejudices and views. And it is a palpable fact, that travel and commerce between nations is one of the best agencies by which the arts of peace and the kind offices of christianized civilization can be advanced among the great nations of the human family. The advancement of human thought, far and wide extensions of the horizon of human fra- ternity, are the prominent characteristics of our day. Nothing more effectively removes prejudices, and local jealousies and narrow views among men, than intercourse with their fellow- men of other cities, countries and nations. Even the acquisition of a tongue, foreign to our native one, liberalizes the mind. Charles the V said, " that every new language a man ac- quired made him a new man.'' It introduces him to new thoughts, and into modes of thought peculiar to another nation, as a means of mak- ing us acquainted with distant countries, next to a personal acquaintance with them by trade and travel amongst them, the reading of books of travel and history, is the most important and agreeable. And this, of course, should al- ways be done v/ith the use of a globe or atlas, and geographical dictionary, so that distinct ideas may be impressed upon the mind as to the localities of mountain ranges, and rivers, and their relative positions. It i* possible in thi? ] ■way to be a universal traveler, and have ac- . curate knowledge of all the chief nations of the \ vrorld, ■without ever lea"ving one's own country, j There are advantages, ho^wever, in personal I observation, combined 'with this kind of careful ! study, that are of great importance. ; Secondly. — Our subject is large enough to de- ' mand some consideration. Indeed, it is so large ; that I am sadly perplexed ho-w to approach it, i or on which side to "iry to climb it. The Chi- nese empire forms one of the most extensive do- . miBions ever swayed by a single power in any age, or any part of the "world. Within its lim- ' its is every variety of soil and climate. It is • watered by numerous rivers, which drain and I irrigate it, and furnish the means of unusual in- ; temal intercom-se. It T)roduces within its own borders everything necessary for the comfort, support and delight of its inhabitants. It is more independent of " the rest of mankind,*' than any other country on the globe. It has, | within itself, sufficient for satisfying the wants of its vast population. Its civilization audits government have been developed under its ovm institutions and ■without reference to any other country. Its language, genius and literature are original. And its numerous population are noted for industry, docility, peaceable and pe culiar habits. All the information that we can- get of the personal, social, moral and political condition of so large a branch of the human fam- ily, must be both insti-iictive and entertaining to the curious, inquiring and benevolent. And aU the more so, because this vast empire for centuries has held a middle place between ci^vi- lization and barbarism. It is the most civilized Pagan nation that has existed in modern times. And yet, perhaps, no people on the globe have been more subjected to ridic-ale than the Chi- nese. They have been regarded as "the apes of Europeans," and then- civilizatioii such as it is, their arts, laws and government considered as the bm'lesque of ours. The names of their towns and rivers, then* di'ess and fashions, their uten- sils, festivals, religion and usages, and even the physiognomy, the Creator has given them — everything Chinese has been made the subject of a pun, or the object of a laugh. The traveler, or lecturer about China, is expected to talk of an uninteresting, grotesque, and uncivilized "pig-eyed" people — "an" umbrella race,'" '"long- tailed celestials, at once conceited" to the eye- brows, dull, ignnvant and alTno'4, uuimprovablej If, then, any of you have come hither to hear :i long-faced, black-coat account of '■■virtndarina with yellow bvittons, uandin? you conserves oT suails; Smart young men about Canton in nanlseen tights and pea- cock's tails, With many rare and di-eadfitl dainties, as kitten cutlets, puppy pies; Bird-nest sonp, whirii so convenient! every bnsb'aronnd stip- piies:— '■ I am under the necessity of disappointing you. My taste does not run in the "soup'' line. Our information concerning the Chinese em- pire has but just commenced. And though it is but a lew years since anything was kno^wn ■with tolerable accuracy concerning it. now it draw> the gaze of Christendom. The few Chinese seen in the seaports o; Europe and America, are not a fair sample of the " Celestials." They should be seen as they are at home, if we would comprehend their na- tionality. We should see them walking in satin shoes, with white soles of paper, or float- ing through the streets in gowns of sUk, with waving fans painted ■with extracts of poets two thousand years older than Chaucer, and from philosophers perhaps three thousand years prior to Lord Bacon. And when we see the Chinese ' gentlemen, we are told, ^7e shall find them the ' " Yankees of the East."— that we shall be aston- [ ished at thek refinement, intelhgence and enter- : prise — that they are gentlemen in their address, : shi-ewd in diiving a bargain, acute as diplomats, 1 and possessed of an extensive and polished ! literature. JVous vcrr&ns. ' For many centuries, China was known to ' Europe only by vague traditions and antiquated I descriptions. And the traditions concerning ' it only served to thicken the darkness in which j the inquirer was wandering, and the descrip- ' tions given were vague and totally unworthy ot i confidence. Most of them were written for a ' penny a line, or to reheve a heated brain, or : to excite national enterprise, and wi-itten by men ; who had never traveled through any of those : eastern lands. Even Marco Polo never entered I China, and if Oliver Goldsmith had ever cross- '• ed the great wall, he would never have written ! " The Citizen of the World." It was bymean< ■ of the Portuguese navigators who succeeded Tas- ^ CO de Gama, that Europe first received any i certain information of the situation, extent and I splendor of China. The sources of the informa- ; tion of our day concerning this vast portion of : our globe, are from ambassadors, exploring ex- peditions, under the patronage of enlightened ( rovpvnments. travelers, merchants, and, most of all, from the personal exploration^! and labors of j Christian missionaries. j By glancing at this map, which is the best one I have been able to procure, and for which j we are indebted to American missionaries, you : will see that China extends from within 18° at the Equator to 56° north latitude. Its breadth is 2100 miles, and its length 3350, or according to some, 4000 miles. That is, a length of 77 de- grees of longitude by a breadth of 40 degrees of latitude. McCulloch estimates it at 5,300.000 square miles, others say seven millions. The best authors agree in putting down the population at 400,000,000, or aboiit half of the human family. The form of the empire ap- proaches a rectangle, and it is diificult to trace its/'joundaries, especially on the western fron- ti/r. The circuit of the whole empire is 12,550 /iiles, or about half the cii'cumference of the /globe. It is about one-third of the continent, and one-tenth of the habitable globe ; and next to Eussia, is the largest empire that has ever existed on the earth. A moment's comparison may give us a more distinct idea of its size': Russia is nearly 6000 miles in length by an aver- age breadth of only 1500 miles, and measures 7,725,000 square miles, or one-seventh of the land of the globe. As it regards large portions of Eussia, of the British possessions in Africa, India and Australia, they are either absolutely iminhabitable, or incapable of supporting a very large population, while the greater part of China and of our own temtory is susceptible of cultivation, and capable of subsisting a dense population. The Chinese territory is equal to all of the United States and Mexico, and in extent of culture and population, far beyond them. The^ boundaries of the United States are so migratory, like those of the British Empire in the East, that I cannot give the number of square miles belonging to either of them. There are several great mountain ranges in the interior of China, and on its north and west boundaries, through which there are but few passes that would admit an army. The empire may be divided into the mountainous country, the hilly country, and the great plain. The coasts are rocky, and indented with nome- rous harbors and mouths of river. Its moun- tains and hills are in several large districts covered with immense forests of tall trees, and contain large beds of coal. The valleys and river banks are extremely fertile, i ts numerous lakes, hke its rivers, are filled with fish and birds. It has, I believe, all the animals of Em-ope, with the addition of the camel, lion, tiger, and elephant. The Bactrian, or two- humped camel, wanders vrild over the sandy deserts of Mongolia. There are also numerous wild asses and horses in some parts of the em- pire. All the usual domestic animals, and a numerous class of wild fur animals, are found there. The fowls are exceedingly numerous, sj)ecimens of which are to be seen in this city, and its pheasants are of world-wide celebrity. Their geese, ducks, and fowls, are the best-dis- ciplined in the world. It is said., they all come home at night from the canals, rivers and lakes at a given signal. Reptiles, fishes, and insects, are in quantities immeasurable, but amply suffi- cient to feed and to punish the children of Sinim, as the genuine descendants of Adam. The flora of China is a field yet unexplored. You know that the tea-idarit stands at the head of its botany. There are also three kinds of oranges, most delicious, which are said not to grow in any other country. Their fruit-trees are exceedingly numerous. They have cinna- mon, nutmegs, and white cabbage ; onions, beans, turnips, and indigo. They have yams, sugar-cane, and bamboo ; sarsaparilla, cloves, and camphor. They hgve potatoes, rhubarb, cotton, rice, flax, and mulberry. Agriculture receives the highest honors of the Government. The Emperor himself annually confers upon it the highest dignity and encom'agement. Its minerals are scarcely known to geologists; but it is certain that China abounds in tin and silver mines, coal, lead and iron, copper, rock salt, topazes, jaspers, chalcedonies, andprecioivs gems. Instruments and vessels of gold are found in their ancient tumuli. The art of min- ing is believed to have been in use among the Mongolians from a very remote age. The silver mines are believed to be abundant, but are not much worked. There are also gold mines in tlie I country. Granite, porphyry and various kinds of marble abounds, and is easily obtained. Chi- nese granite is used extensively in building houses in San Francisco. As miners, they are believed to be the most persevering and skillful in the world. It is said that about thirty thou- sand Chinese, chiefly miners, are already in California, and that a number are on their way to the Tennessee iron-works. It is certain that i as long ago as the days of Sir Stamford EaflQes, j the Chinese were celebrated for their skill and : success in mining. And even when Alexander the Great invaded Thibet and India, the rich products of this part of Asia gxeatly excited the Greeks. And one of the most carious docu- ments I have ever seen, is the customhouse catalogue of articles of merchandise that had to pay duty at Alexandria when the Eomans go- verned Egypt. Among these articles a number are recognized as the products of China. The revenues of this empire are variously stated, but it is believed they amount to upwards of three hundred millions of dollars, while our own is perhaps less than seventy miliious. THEIR ART AKD I^"PUSTRY. Their numerous canals are an astonishment to travelers, for their length and commodiousness. They are deep enough to carry large vessels at all seasons. The vessels are, however, dragged by men. Their banks are lined with stone quays. There is probably more miles of transit by ca- nals in China than in all the rest of the world. Few works in any age or country can be men- tioned in comparision with the Imperial Ccuial. The main trunk is 700 miles long, but by means of lakes and rivers connected with it, goods and passengers have an inland transit across the country from Pekinto f!anton, a distance of up- wards of 1600 miles- -or about the distance from New Orleans to the Pacific Ocean, on our rail- road route. There is also a com.munication, by means of this canal and its branehes, from the capital to nearly every large lo\;-i\ in the em- pire. A portion of this canal was built in the 7th century, and the rest of it in the 13th century, under a grandson of Genghis-Khan. At one time 300,000 men were at vrork on it. It was made not only for the purpose of internal navi- gation, but also for draining some parts of the interior, and irrigating others. Its artificial level is sometimes 20 feet above the surface of the country. Its flood-gates, bridges, villages, and the cultivated fields that line its banks, have excited the liveliest admiration of all trav- elers. The plain of this canal is the most pop- ulous spot of the earth. The population is more than two-thirds of all Europe. This plain extends from the great wall north of Peking to the confluence of the great rivers Yeang-tze- Keang and Kaie-Kiaug, containing more than 200,000 square miles, and is seven times as large asthe garden of Europe, Lombardy, with which it may, in many respects, be favorably compared. THE GREAT WALL. It was to protect then- fertile and populous valley on the North,~the Great Wall was buUt about two thousand years ago, or two hundred years before Christ. This wall is can-ied over mountains, rivers and valleys, to a distance of about fifteen hundred miles, which will, prob- ably be the length of the Opelousas railroad when it reaches San Diego. This wall was built of earth, brick and stone, with occasional terra- ces and towers. Its average height, according to Lord Macartney's embassy, is twenty feet. Dr. Bowring, of England, has made a curious calculation, which shows that if all the bricks, stones and masonry of Great Britain were gath- ered together, they would not be able to furnish materials enough for the wall of Chma, and that all the buildings in London put together, would not make the towers snd turrets which adorn it. From these stupendous works of the Chinese, we should learn that canals and roads across the Isthmus, and from the Mississippi to the Pacific are possible and practicable, and are an imperious necessity. The architecture of China, like many of their habits and customs, is unique, differing from that of the rest of Asia and Irom Europe. They have numerous royal palaces, temples, bridges, dwelling houses, triumphal arches and sepal- chi-es, which are built of bricks, scented woods, alabaster, marble, granite, porphyry, bamboo and porcelain. And many of them are inlaid with ivory, copper, gold, silver and mother-of- pearl, as were the palaces of Solomon and of Babylon and Ninevah, of Peru and Anahuac Within the city of Peking alone, tliere are said to be ten thousand temples, many of which are beautiful and magnificent. The gresat Porcelain tovrer is at Nankin- It is nine stories high. A Pagoda has been built at Kew, in England, by Sir William Cambers to represent it. Through- out the country many triumphal arches are seen. And although, Confucius btrictlj'' pro- hibited idols, or the worship of anything but the Supreme Being, 3'et there are more than owi thousand five hundred and sixty temples in the Empire dedicated to him, and sixty-two thousand animals, pigs and rabbits nnnually sacrificed to his memory. I cannot close even this brief notice of their industrial arts without remindiug you that at least three of the most important inventions or discoveries of our race were known to the "Sons of Han" or of the "land of Sinim,"' long before they were kno-s^-n to Europe. I mean the art of printing, the composition of gunpowder, and the magnetic compass. And to these mnst be added the two remarkable raannfactones, of which tliey are the unquestioned inventors, the making of silk and of porcelain, the art of the latter remains to this day, a secret I believe, Imown only to the Chinese. It is now consider- ed certain that the art of printing was practised by the Chinese in the tenth century. And though they did not apply powder to guns, yet it is doubtless true, that they made powder from sulphur, saltpetre, and willow charcoal, and used it in fire-works, fire-crackers and the like for centuries before it was applied to fire- arms in Europe. And as early as 121 of our era, the magnetic compass, or the attractive* power of the loadstone, and its property of communi- cating polarity to iron is distinctly described in a Chinese dictionary finished in that year. The literature and peculiar habits of the Chi- nese I have not time to consider. The religion of the Mongolians, Mantchm'ians, and all the nations of Thibet is that of the Grand Llama, who is their Pope or Supreme Patriarch. The prevailing religion of China proper is that of Confucius. This is the State religion. The religion of Foh or Budha has also numerous fol- lowers. Budhism was introduced into China from Hindostan about the beglning of our era. A very large portion of the people hold to a system of manifold superstitions called Powism. They are full of the terrible rites and supersti- tions of idolatry. They worship ghosts and ani- mals, and believe in the transmigration of souls. Infanticide is common, and they are even charged with cannibalism. Their idols are everywhere. In their houses, in their streets, in the market places and theatres. The ignorant and the learned are idolaters. And the consequent moral degradation of the people is appalling, The great want of China for cen- turies has been a pm-e Chi-istianity. The Gov- ernment is despotic, and the Mandarins have ruled with "a red-hot rod of iron." All law proceedings are from ■written pleadings. Ques- tions in court are put by torture. Among them however, are numerous public institutions. In Shanghai is the "Hall of Universal Benevo- lence," which takes care of strangers and buries poor people. They have also hospitals and fre»i schools, in which the children are clothed as well as educated. Their school system is simple and well arranged. It is said that one of the causes that has led to the present revolution was the sale of degrees in their schools to such as had more money than brains. This was par- ticularly obnoxious, as Government offices are bestowed only on such as have passed by regular degrees through their schools. To resist this corruption and with the avowed purpose of ma- king Christianity the religion of the empire, a secret society was formed among the yovmg men, out of which has grown the present remarkable revolution of China. Time allows me to ay but little of THE ORIGIN OP THE CHIXESE. And even if this were the proper place, wo have not the authorities at hand for such an in- vestigation. Indeed, I regret to say, that, so far as I am acquainted with the libraries of the city, they do not furnish the scholar materials for such a discussion. I hope this city of bales and hogsheads, and ships and steamers, will not be many years Avithout libraries w'orthy of its revenues. I may not, then, now go into any de- tail of the proofs which go to show, that the Noah of the Hebrews is the Fohi of the Chinese Chronicles. While Shem, Ham, and Japhet went forth to Asia, Africa, and Europe, Noah and the rest of his family went eastward, and finally rested in the plains of China. Man has ever been a migratory animal, and in the early ages pre-eminently so. The tombs of nations have almost always been as distant in space from then- cradles as remote in time. The lin- gual roots and dialects, litera,ture, policy, his- tory, and traditions of China, as far as they prove anything reliable on the subject, go to prove the identity of Fohi with Noah. This is the opinion of the learned Calmet, and of the editor of his works, Dr. Taylor, and of Dr. Morri . son, and lin fact of almost every learned man with a reputation worthy of preserva,tion, who has written on the origin and emigrations of the races of mankind. One of our own mission aiies, (Rev. W. Speer,) formerly in China, but now la- boring among the emigrant Chinese in San Francisco — a scholar, and a man of fine abilities, who has published some admirable lectures on China — says: "The Chinese of oiir day are ii-om an empire as an- cient as tliat of Nineveh, as civilized as that of Egypt, as wealthy, and as controlling in the politics of the globe, as Great Britain — one that has stood from an early period after the deluge almost unknown to the fickle history of all the nations with which we have been acquainted, but ever augmenting, till it is now the most populous that has ever existed, and covers an area greater by one-half than the whole continent of Europe." — Chinese and California. 1854, Page 4. There is no doubt but the founding of the Chi- nese empire dates back near to the dispersion from Babel. I am aware that it has been said, that China was unknown to the writers of the Bible, and that the inference made from this statement is, that the Chinese are not descend" ants of Adam and Noah , but grew up on their OTSTi mountain slopes and river banks as their tea plants and frogs do; and a second inference from this learned assumption is against the Christian doctiine of the fall of man,, and the completeness of the remedial scheme for his re- covery through the mediation of the Son of God. I design not now to dwell on these points. It is sufficient to deny the truth of the assumed statepient, and the correctness of the inferences even if the statement were true. The most learned men, for centuries past, as well as those of our own day, believe that China was known to the ancients under the various names of " Sera,"' " Serica,'- " Sena,'" "Jin,'' " Djenia,"' " Sinae," "Tzinistae," " Sin,'' " Tchin." It is a fact, susceptible of the clearest proof, that these names for China were used for hundreds of years ' before our era, and for centuries after by the j Malays, Hindoos, Persians, Arabians, and other ■ nations of Asia. Mahommedan travelers in the ninth centmy called China " Sin."' This name "Sin" is the same word I'iSed in Isaiah, as learned : men believe, for China. It is pronounced by the ; Persians and Arabians Tchm. Maltebrun says ; that the " ' Sin' of the Bible was the ancient ge- \ neric name for all the nations of Thibet, China, | and India, east of the Ganges," — (42d Book.) I The inhabitants of India called the country east ' of them and south of Russia " Cathay" and ' "Chin:" and it was not till the seventeenth cen- tury, that it was ascertained that Cathay was i China, and that the great city of Cambalu was , identical with Peking. Several learned men have endeavored to prove that even the Greeks traded, through the Arabians, with China, under the ; name of " Sinim," and that the life of that trade was linen, cotton, and silk. CHINA AND AMERICA. It may be a more interesting point for you to- j consider the claims of the Chinese as the di s ' i.'overers of this continent, and the present grow- ing relationship between them and us. The Chinese, you are aware, dispute with the Jews, the Phenicians, the Welsh, the Irish, the North- . men, the Kamschatkans. and the Japanese the honor of having discovered and settled this new world. And when the consanguinity of orien- tal nations with its aborigines, and the teachings of their own legends, and the manners and in- stitutions 01 the races found on this continent by the discoverers from Spain are well consider- ed, it is believed there will remain but little i doubt that the tribes existing on this contment. ; at the time of its discovery, were of Asiatic ; origin. The progenitors of our aborigines doubt- less were adventurers and navigators of the nide : maritime population of the Asiatic coasts, cast ' upon these shores by currents and winds : or borne hither, as Tartar traditions relate, upon : cakes of ice. Abundant testimony could be I given to prove that Orientals could have reach- i ed this continent thousands of years before any of the Western nations discovered it. " A know- ; ledge," says Redfield, "of the winds and cur- rents of the Pacific ocean, will, I am convinced, serve to remove all mystery and aU doubt from ': the once vexed question of the first peopling of ; its islands from the Asiatic continent, and in spite of the long urged objection of the oppo- sition of the trade winds." It is but a short time since a Japanese junk was drifted all the way to the Sandwich Islands, with its surviving crew. And near the equator, the uorth-Trest monsoon of the Indian and Pacific oceans, for a portion of the year, furnish an additional facility for drifting from the Indian ocean to the American coast. Repeated and very recent instances prove that Chinese and Japanese are drifted in safety to this continent from their own shores and seas. Many learned men agree in beUeving that the resemblances between the manners, laws, arts and institutions of the Chinese and of the Peruvians and Aztecs are too numerous, striking and peculiar to be the effect of chance. To this day the newly ai-rived Chinaman and the Indian of the forest are the same in com- plexion. Nor is there wanting a remarkable resemblance between their dialects. The Chinese and the Toltec or Aztec tongues are believed . by eminent linguists, to have strong aflBnities. [Here Ur. Scott introduced eloquent and perti- nent quotations from Humboldt. Maltebrun, De Guig-nes, Scherer, Sir Charles Lyell, Saint Augustine, Bradford and Prescott, which we have not room to insert, to prove the extreme probability, if not absolute certainty that very old relations existed between Asia and America. He said that all the traditions of the aborigines of this continent, tlie traditious of Tartary and the liistorians of Cbinn favored this opinion. He believed that the Fusang of Chinese his- torians of the Sotitiicrn dynasty was North America. He expressed a hope that the analo- j would destroy Mohammedanism, and as Mr. Layaid tells us the American Missionaries have already done a great work in the Ottoman Em- pire, it may yet be true, as Lamartine once smartly said, that '' Turkey would be destroyed for the want of Turks," and in that case, what will the great Czar do ? So China is about to lie overturned for the want of Chinamen. China,, as I have said, has been a great petrifi- cation — an old geological formation, in which we see t^e enlightenment of the world thousands of years since. For centuries she was like the self-taught hermit, who fancied himself possessed of all the knowledge and strength of the world . They called their country the centre of the uni" verse, and all other people outside barbarians. She was cramped and fettered like the feet of her pretty women, living, but without growth— and yet within this huge statue of petrified exterior there throbbed, as we find to our astonishment, the heart of a great nation, and along its vein>: flowed the blood of four hundred millions, that 11 may yet be republican Christians. There may be, there will be blunders, failures and back sets ia the pre>ent vevolutiou. Caspor Hauser did not walk when lirst removed from his dark cell. "\Ye cannot expect the Chinese to have a perfect government or a perfect Christianity at once. But the right beginning has been made ; and the influence of this beginning on Asia is beyond calculation. Suppose the millions of China en- lightened republicans, and what v.'ould be the effect on the Eastern Continent ? There are al- ready two great batteries playing upon the strong fortresses of ignorance, despotism and paganism One is in Europe and the other America. Their shots are, however, necessarily long shots. Nev- ertheless, millions of millions of explosive shells have been already thrown amidst the enemies works. Our mounted batteries, that have the longest sweep, are om* postal communications, by which letters, remittances, statistics of growth and prosperity, and cheering words are sent to those that sit in darkness and giind ia the mills of tyranny. Our State papers, printing presses, secular and missionary, and our metallic wires and merchant ships, are batteries that throw ef- fective shells into their arsenals Avhich are daily exploding. How then vdll the thrones and palaces of effete superstitious and crushing tyraunies ciTimble and full to pieces throughout Asia and Eastern Europe when a new battery, manned hy an ovenvhelming force, shall be erected in China, and play upon them near at hand and upon theh- unguarded side ! The Chinese, as we have t-een, are immensely .superior to all the inhabitants of the Indian Ar- chipelago, except the Japanese. The distant East, as far back as our traditions go, has always lieen regarded with a most covetous look. The Arabians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, English, Dutch, French, Portugese and Russians have all ia'tjored to establish a flourishing trade with Asia and China. And now that Providence has opened up a way to the '' Celestial Empire,'" not across the isthmus of iSuez, nor by the Persian Gulf, nor around the terrible African Cape, but across our own Continent and from our own Pa- <.'ific Tyre, a nearer, easier, cheaper, safer and far more advantageous than any that has ever been known to Europe, we must go forward and do our duty to ourselves and mankind. Were I so fortunate asto reach the ear of our Minister to China, or of our Government, I should plead most earnestly that our trade with the East thould be encouraged liberally and promptly. Our steamers and clippers should at once do tDe carrying of mails and passengers from. Europe to Australia , Asia and China. Trade vrith the East from the days of the great Phai aohs has enriched the emporiums of Central and Western Asia, and of Europe. We must have a large share of this trade. Is it not for the want of it that Palmyra, Petra, Baalbeck and Tyre are in ruins, and many of the emporiums of fashion and power of a former age " have gone to jungle," and cities once civilized and powerful, are "like Carthage, mere nests of banditti." Is it not for the want of commerce, which calls forth the la- bors of the farmer, the trader and the mechanic, that Athens, Rome, Genoa and Venice have lost their glory ? Any one who has visited the Chi- nese Museum of Paris needs not to bo informed of the excellence of their arts. In my mind there is not a doubt but that our enterprising cities may now enrich themselves until they shall sur- pass the emporiums of the East and of Europe by trading with Asia and the islands of the Pa- cific. They have opportunities that have never been enjoyed before. The porcelain of Kiang-si may be wrought out of the quartz of the Alle- ghany, the Cordilleras and the Sierra Nevada. And as the silks of Persia and Turkey are now woven in Vienna, Paris and London, so will the raw material and skiU of Canton be transferred to the factories of Georgia, Alabama, Lowell and Pittsburg. The Chinese are apt scholars and artisans. They soon learn our art of ship-build- ing. Some of them in oui" ship yards, and in the service of our mail steamship companies, have akeady acquired the art of building vessels and of managing steamers. There is stationed at Canton a fine man-of-war, built for the Chinese Government by a native, who served his time as an apprentice to an American mechanic. There are a few things that we want in order to our true national independence and complete pros- perity. We must learn to think for ourselves, and cut adrift from all European standards, for- mulas and precedents. There is no model for us in Europe. We must cease to be the echo or our mother country. We must have complete com- mand of the Gulf at our door. We must have interoceanic communications between the gi'eat oceans on our West and East. Our trade (ex port and import) with the Mediterranean should be direct, and without salvage to Europeans, or even to Northern cities, and to perfect our com* merce and complete the means of our national defence, we must have a raikoad from the Mis- 12 sissippi to the Pacific, aud steiimships from onr possessions on that ocean to every part of South America, Asia, Oceanica, Aiistralia. Japan and China. Upwards of four thousand years ago the two civilizations of the human race, like Abra- ham and Lot, separated on the plains of Asia, and they have traveled ever since in opposite directions around the world, until they are now meeting again on the coasts and islands of the Pacific Ocean. The re-discovery of this conti- nent upwards of 350 yeai-s ago, and the organi- zation here of a powerful nation with all the ap- pliances of art and civilization, and the highest forms and institutions of liberty and religion, and the gi-owth of an immense v»"hale fishing marine in the Pacific, a marine that exceeds that of all other nations, and then the re-discovery of gold where the proud Castilian could not find it, and the consequent precipitation of thousands of chivalrous spirits upon the Pacific shore, and the unparalleled gvovrth of a nation whose ves- sels, combined with the trade ah-eady existing from the Atlantic cities to China, and with the whale fisheries, make at once the Pacific an American ocean. Thus" has Providence, •' Ever working on the socUl plan ■ made events, revolutions, discoveries aud inven- tions preliminary to the sablime result now so distinctly in view, that a prophet's ken is not required to see it, all take place in their time and after their kind, so as most effectually t'> j work out, at last, the restoration of the unity oi' ! the human family, and establish the reign of the ! liberty, equality and fraternity, not of infidel Pied I Republicans and disorganizing Sociaii^-^is, but o ; HIM "who spake as never did man ;'• of lib- : erty, equality and fraternity, issuing, not from the dreaming poets and novelists of Paris as the ^echoing centre of Europe, but from Jerusalem. i the real centre of the universe.