has been the home of the friendless. The wrecks of revolutions have been drifted to our shore and welcomed. The discomfited and wandering patriot, whose land refused him help and sought his life, has with us found a rest. We have not critically or curiously examined the policy of his plans, or the wisdom of his purposes. It was sufficient that he was helpless, homeless, with no opportunity of ever living by industry elsewhere, to establish his claim for shelter here. This has been long the manner of our country. Some who heve fled here when they could nowhere else gain protection have not been thankful for our shield. That is their affair. It is our business to provide that in this respect the policy of our ancestors shall be continued to our descendants.

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What is Hongkong? A part of the British empire, like Guernsey, or the Isle of Man, and governed by the same great principles. It is near the mainland of China, where a great struggle to overthrow a despotism, by men perhaps equally despotic, has existed for years. Pitiless slaughters disgraced both parties. The patriots are all pirates in the language of Commissioner Yeh. Piracy with him and his party is one, and not the least com. mon, term for rebellion. A very large number of the Chinese, resident in Hongkong, belong to the rebel party. They are entitled to the protection which we extend to M. Kossuth, Ledru Rollin, M. Mazzini, and their friends, while they obey our laws; but if these poor fellows are not to be allowed to work their small ships, in obedience to our very strict rules, without the fear of being dragged from under our flag, to the block, upon the evidence of some person whose name human being in this country ever heard before, but for whose respectability, as a merchant, people living and writing here are prepared to vouch on demand, or to order; they may be as well decapitated at once, for the furrows of Hongkong are not upon land, but on the deep waters. The British authorities claim the privilege of sharing the investigation into charges made against those men whom Commissioner Yeh calls pirates, but whose crime may only be rebellion. This is the same power that civilised nations claim in the "extradition" of persons charged with crime. It is a blunder to assert that we claim any right against China that the United States do not assert against us. If a criminal officer from Paris sought the assistance of our authorities for the apprehension of M. Ledru Rollin, upon a charge of forgery-we trust the gentleman will excuse our use of his name in an A B C way-he would not be given up, merely because the charge was made, without some investigation. We have no doubt that course would be adopted, as it has been pursued in a very troublesome way in the States, even

A great principle is involved in this matter-a hereditary principle; and we impose not upon China customs or laws uncommon, or without precedent among civilised nations, but an international law, recognised by constitutional and free states, although in China also secured by special treaty.

The Government could only be responsible for the acts of their representatives at a distance, either if they were done in obedience to instructions, or had received their approval. The resolutions moved by Mr. Cobden in the Commons, on which the House divided on the 3rd ultimo, do not implicate the home Government, except so far as they, at that date, had supported, or then meant to vindicate, the policy adopted by their representatives. We copy them- for they have assumed more historical importance than any other resolutions of the session :

That this House has heard with concern of the conflicts

which have occurred between the British and Chinese authorities in the Canton river, and without expressing an opinion as to the extent to which the Government of China may have afforded this country cause of complaint respecting the nonfulfilment of the treaty of 1842, this House considers

that the papers which have been laid upon the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the Arrow.

But the Government assumed the responsibility. We honour Lord Palmerston for standing by an official who had no aristocratic connexions to defend him, whose character was maligued for factious purposes; whose ruin was projected to gain a division in the House, but whose conduct the Minister "in his heart," as he said, believed to have been proper and right.

It is worse for a Cabinet to be dishonest than to fall. We honour the Prime Minister for standing by those poor refugees from China to a rock of our empire, who, unlike Kossuth, Mazzini, or Rollin, have not personal friends in London to plead their cause. It is better that a Government should perish than stand in shame.

The Government, however, has not perished The story of the elections will vindicate the trut of more than one of our proverbs. Virtue in thi instance will be its own reward. A similar reward w trust, may be deserved by the domestic poliey of th Ministry; for politicians may be well assured th not among the classes whose enfranchisement sought here lurks there much of that policy th would drag our flag to dishonour for the sake a crotchet; and shiver the empire which in all lan is still the hope-if the forlorn hope-of bleedi: and crushed, and mangled liberty-upon a the tricked out by meretricious romances. ory will be shivered on the empire.

The t

beasts. The oppressive laws of the land have retarded cultivation. The fertility of the soil, and the equability of the temperature, enable the people to exist with very little labour; but the ignorance of the doctors slays them in a very short time. In other respects the climate is equal to any part of the tropics in salubrity, and its vital statistics, except for the active causes mentioned, would present a fair average return.

Sir John Bowring's two volumes consist largely of extracts, and might have been perhaps presented in a more economical and portable form. The illustrations are numerous, and some of them are very rich specimens of lithography. The work has evidently been compiled in leisure moments, for the volumes supply various repetitions of similar facts and figures. The first volume begins with the geography of Siam, but that is an undefined and varying subject. The general features of the country are a back range of grand mountains, branches of the Himalayas, and a frontage of islets and ocean, with, between the two, a long and comparatively narrow region, in many districts nearly flat, and often, therefore, flooded, for it is intersected by large rivers-one of them, Meiklong, is reported to have a course of fifteen hundred miles. The Meinam or Menam is said to run from seven to eight hundred miles. It is the metropolitan river of Siam. The old capital with the pretty name of Ayuthia is situated upon its banks, but, with bad taste regarding names, as they sound in European ears, the Siamese have gone down nearer the sea to Bangkok, which is now their royal city. Ayuthia is a mass of ruins covered over by elegant creepers and forest trees, with twenty to thirty thousand persons dwelling in the centre of the old town, and plenty of scorpions and of serpents, we have no doubt, in the suburbs. Bangkok claims a population equal nearly to that of Glasgow or Liverpool, or what is the same thing, the authorities make that claim on its behalf. It is situated at a considerable distance from either of the three mouths through which the Meinam disgorges its waters into the gulf of Siam. This river is said to have been navigable once for three hundred and fifty miles from the sea to Chinese junks; but the navigation is now only a hundred miles or thereby, for sea going vessels. The Rat ler steamer, which carried Sir John Bowring and his suite upon their visit to the Kings of Siam, experienced few obstacles in ascending to Bangkok. Meinam is a name common to all rivers, in the language of Siam. It is applied to the Bangkok river as a title of superiority. That stream, like the Nile, overflows its banks periodically, and the annual deluge is associated with the fertility of the soil. The course of this Meinam is fringed with banks covered by gorgeous vegetation. They present all those attractions which water and wood supply in the tropics. The river itself and the other rivers of Siam support fishes endowed with the singular power of living on the land or in the water.

They are amphibious, and a family so numerous that the woods swarm with them. The white elephants of Siam are obtained in the forests above Ayuthia. They are brown rather than white, and so sacred or so scarce that the bloodiest wars between the kingdoms of Ava and Siam have occurred respecting the custody of the white elephants. Farther up the river than Ayuthia, the still older capital of Phit Salok is reached, which now contains only five thousand inhabitants, cutters of teak wood for the more civilised and commercial dwellers in Bangkok. The Meiklong is an independent river connected with the Meinam by a branch like that which joins some of the South American rivers, forming a net work of inland navigation. The town of Meiklong contains ten thousand inhabitants, and the valley of the river is narrow, but crowded with Chinese villages. The Chantaburi river and town, are still more distinct and independent, forming the capital and the water-course of an entirely independent and fertile valley. Chantaburi is the great shipbuilding port of Siam, and the province abounds in mineral and vegetable wealth, from the famous garden of Bangchang to the mountain of the stars. Its articles of exportation are extremely varied, from hides to saltfish, ivory to precious stones, and sugar to tobacco. The Bangpatung is a similar river flowing through another rich valley from the mountains of Cambodia, to its port of Bangplasoi, where fish in immense quantities, and salt in an unlimited supply meet conveniently together. The Meiklong is the longest river of Siam, whose praise was sung in the "Lusiad" by the poet of Portugal, who styled it "the Captain of the Waters," comparing it with the Nile, and asking rather foolishly:

And shall I to this gentle river throw
My melancholy songs, and to its breast
Confide the welted leaves that tell the woe

Of many a shipwreck dreary and distrest? These, and the other rivers, could all be joined by a system of canalisation, with little expense or labour; so that the entire territories of Siam might be converted into gardens. It is even said that a canal of less than fifty miles would connect the Bay of Bengal with the Meinam, and save all the dangerous and dreary, as it is a long and tedious, navigation between them.

The Malay peninsula separates the Bay of Bengal from the Gulf of Siam. The vast length of this singular tongue of land, which is tipped by the island and port of Singapore, renders very tedious a voyage from any of the ports of Eastern India to the Siamese capital or territories,—for the Bangkok Meinam, since the King of Siam informs us that Meinam means river, enters the gulf near its top, and Bangkok is at some distance from the mouth of the river.

The Meiklong and the Meinam are the two great rivers of Siam; but it contains many minor streams, while the Salwein river, which falls into the sea at Martaban, near

Moulmein, on the opposite shore of the long and narrow spit of land belonging to the Malays, runs parallel to the Meinam, and so near to that river in its course that they seem to water two great neighbouring vallies, separated by a mountainous ridge.

The irrigation of these valleys can be cheaply and completely effected; and a vast extent of territory might be rescued from noxious and wild animals for the use of man. At present even Singapore town is not secure from the visits of tigers, who swim the narrow strait, and take a meal in its streets or suburbs, like all other murderers and robbers, chiefly operating in the dark. Its proximity to a thinly peopled tropical land, covered to a very great extent by natural jungle, must always render these objectionable visitations

The different items form an assorted cargo of tropical produce, embracing specimens of nearly everything that the tropics furnish; and the only animal entered on the list is the largest and yet the most peaceable of the tropics, until roused by attacks, or by his own error, to fury, when his wrath is terrible.

The Siamese, including the Chinese, are generally Bhuddhists in religion, the Malays are Mahometans,-all are slaves. The slavery is of the most abject kind. We do not refer to the mere buying and selling of themselves inter se, but to the semi-adoration by inferiors of superiors. Even the highest nobles appear in the presence of royalty in a crawling or squatting posture, and they retaliate upon their inferiors a similar abasement. The Siamese are a crawling people, in each grade, to its superiors, up to the highest. This custom may, however, be only an exaggeration of the western bowing, and only one developement of politeness; but it is very inconsistent, and would not be suitable to men attired in costly raiment. The Siamese manage to clo:he themselves with one piece of cloth, in an ingenious style; but one that all our affection for the plaid would not lead us to adopt; yet the kilt and plaid of the ancients formed only one garment.

The Siamese labourer is compelled to give onefourth or one-third of his life to the King. This tax is heavier than our late income-tax, and all the others together, while it must retard agricultural progress and impoverish the treasury. The bonzes,

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or priests, of Bhudda have to be supported in idleness by the population who work; and they are a numerous race. These sturdy beggars never return thanks for the benevolence developed in their favour. They accept the gifts of the population in silence, buried in contemplation. Europe had never friars of order black, brown, or grey, who reduced the voluntary taxation of the people to a scheme so stringent as the system of the bonzes.

The partnership of royalty adopted in Siam, is without precedent in any other country. Sir John Bowring concluded the treaty between Britain and Siam with the first and second king. Both names appear to be used in the transaction of public business, although the second king is to be only a sleeping partner of inferior rank to the first, and his expenses and payments require to be vouched by the first king, before they are allowed from the public treasury.

The two Kings have formed acquaintance with the English language. The first King wrote to Sir John Bowring in broken English, but he has a copying press, copies his letters and numbers them; the communication to the British Ambassador, lithographed in this volume, being No. 37. The penmanship is better than the grammar or the style, but the King of Siam may say truly that no European monarch can write to him in the Siamese language. The letter of the second King is in execution and style superior to the notes that Sir John Bowring might have expected from many English gentlemen or noblemen. It is unexcep-tionable :

To His Excellency Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hongkong, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China, &c. &c.

SIR,It gives me great pleasure to hear of your Excellency's arrival in Siam as the representative of your most gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria; it will afford me great pleasure to meet and welcome you personally to Siam. In the meantime I beg your acceptance of a few Siamese fruits bread, cake &c., with the assurance of my high respect. I remain, Sir, yours faithfully,

S. PIN KLAU CHAN YU HUA,
Second King of Siam, &c,

Palace of Second King, April 4th, 1855.

The Kings of Siam are not only acquainted with the English language, but they have cultivated our literature and science. Contributions by one of them, we have no doubt the second king, to the Bangkok calendar, exhibit an intimate acquaintance with some scientific subjects. They possess good libraries of English books, and scientific instruments on which they set great value. The second King is well acquainted with geography, and must be an accomplished gentleman.

as

The missionaries represent the Siamese generally frivolous, gay, gentle, inconsiderate, and timid. They avoid disputes, and therefore are apparently tolerant of missions and missionaries, yet they do not change their creed easily. They follow the opinion that all religions are good