northern altar or platform rises the beautiful Pagoda of the Vault of Heaven, with three projecting roofs of a deep blue colour, and ninety-nine feet in height. All the host of heaven. are represented on tablets in this pagoda, and are here worshipped to secure favourable seasons.

The southern altar, approached from the first by a stone causeway, is the Altar of Heaven. It also is large and circular, and its broad surface is level and open to the heavens, no pavilion or building rising from it. Near by is a huge furnace, for consuming a whole bullock; there are also magnificent copper censers. Here, once a year, on the night

In the var lip that s armed a hera de Enger r acts as a priest; Te kone v moje, and no mi jeet, lovever ligh may be us mnă, un jin in is almtion. - terug of the star and is fires, uni vile zen ure bent upon the wse by the Entenr mees and fus pease. Ceram pages are recited by an sheta, and a wng af prise pes 1 fm i arre bani si musicans and singers. Of Slange Shere is no idi, pietara, or ther representata, and many Earpeans who hare studied the abject kort that in this wirsing we see the remains of a traditional monotaesum, derived from Jewså somes in remote wes. Simang-Ti w nhi thus be the true God, or Inorali, although the Chinese idea f him may be a very low de.

Not far from the Tien-tan is the Altar of Siene-nene, the Sounder of agriculture, with ita extemaire park. In the centre are three sare altars, dedicated respectively to Sheng-béng, the Fruta of the Earth, and the Seasons. In one part of the park is a piece of grund encowed, which is nominally ploughed and sown by the Emperor. A git plongh and sacred harrow are carefully kept for this cerasion, and the Emperor dresses for the ceremony in a country gub of yellow kne and a Trad hat a yard wide. But his labour is a mere sham; he just touches the plough and scatters a little grain, and then sits on a raised terrace and watches while the work is properly done. The harvest reaped from this Imperial field is kept for sacrifices. Near at Land there is a handsome stable-rani, where the beasts Live which are reserved for the annual ploughing, besides a small model granary for storing the Imperial grain. Chinese agriculturists are thas made to feel that the Emperor is one of themselves, and that by joining in the labour of the fieid he has propitiated Heaven and done honour to their calling.

Having now glanced at the various quarters of Pekin and the principal monuments, we will, before turning to the environs, speak of two or three subjects concerning Pekin as a whole. The population is about 2,000,000 Manchoos and Chinese. The descendants of the Manchoo officers have mostly lost by dissipation and extravagance the fortunes they acquired at the conquest, and are now generally tenants in the houses they once owned. The Chinese have repossessed themselves of the estates in the Tartar City once given to the conquerors. The Manchoo officers are nominally members of the civil courts, but their clever Chinese secretaries do all the work for them.

Beggars swarm in Pekin. There is an official who may be called King of the Beggars, who looks after them, and is supposed to be responsible for their good behaviour. They roam about the city, and may clamour at a house or shop door until relief is given them, but they must move on as soon as they get a copper coin. The coin in ordinary the cash-is of very small value, so that five beggars can be relieved for the worth of an English farthing. During summer the beggars pass the nights in the streets and in doorways, but in winter they herd together in ranges of huts set up for them. No public provision is made for the destitute, but the shop-keepers acknowledge

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their claims to relief, and in the cold weather subscriptions are raised to open kitchens for the gratuitous supply of gruel or porridge to the poor at the city gates and some of the temples. Between the two cities is the noted Bridge of Beggars, a magnificent marble structure, of which the central space between the two roadways is given up to the beggars. Here the most miserable of this class in Pekin assemble-half naked, leprous, diseased, and blind. The Marquis de Beauvoir says that "they are in such a state of starvation that they take the decomposing heads from the wicker cages at the executionground, salt them, and eat them!" He says he would not have believed it if he "had not seen it himself three several times." We are afraid some of our readers will scarcely believe it still.

even

It might readily be supposed by any one surveying the teeming population in the main streets that amidst such a people disorders must be rife, but the fact is that in the capital, as in every town and city in China, the efficiency of the police is proverbial. In all the principal thoroughfares there are guards of soldiers, who are under rigid instructions to use their whips, without distinction of persons, upon any who are inclined to be quarrelsome or disorderly. Again, every ten houses are under the surveillance of one of the inhabitants as representative of the authorities. As soon as night falls every householder, rich or poor, has a lighted lantern before his door. Although the city has no public lights, the fact is almost compensated by the universal passion for lanterns, on a bright moonlight night these are seen everywhere; the palanquin bearers, the police, even the beggars, carry lights about, and children are seen with little lanterns, proportioned to the size of the diminutive bearers. A night patrol may be seen making the rounds, the commanding officer on horseback having borne before him an enormous. lantern, inscribed with his names and titles, and every man in the force bearing a small lantern of the shape of a fish, a bird, or a stag. After a certain hour every side-street is closed with a barrier at each end, and the guards posted there on duty allow no one to pass unless carrying a lantern and able to assign a good cause for being out. It is said, however, that a little money judiciously bestowed will always procure a passage for the benighted wayfarer. During the whole night the streets are patrolled by watchmen, who prove themselves on the alert by striking a bamboo tube every few minutes. Europeans find this dull monotonous sound very irksome at first. The Chinese seem to like all these and other minute regulations for their safety and good conduct-a paternal government suits them.

Of the manners and customs and social life of the Chinese we cannot say much in a sketch of Pekin, but to marriages and funerals we must just briefly refer, as the processions connected with these events so often form prominent features in the street scenes of the city. As regards marriage, to describe in full the preliminaries, formalities, and superstitions connected with it would fill a volume. Previous to the wedding-day the bride is deprived of her eyebrows by the painful process of pulling out the hairs, that she may henceforth be recognised as a married woman. On the morning of the "lucky day," which has been selected with great care for the auspicious event, she is carried from her home to the home of her future spouse in a highly decorated bridal chair, sparkling with crystal ornaments. The procession is accompanied by musicians playing noisy tunes,

by buffoons, and torch-bearers, and a motley crowd of friends and acquaintances. The religious ceremony consists in the bride and bridegroom worshipping together before the spirit-tablets of the bridegroom's ancestors. After a day spent in feasting, complimenting the bride, and general merriment, at the last moment the bride's veil is removed, and the two contracting parties see each other's face for the first time.

Funerals of adult Chinese, and especially of parents, are made the occasion of many extravagant and expensive ceremonies. Great care is taken as to coffins, and they are even treasured by the living, in readiness for the fatal event. For a son to present a handsome coffin to his father is by no means an unpleasant hint, but is looked upon as a very commendable proof of filial regard. When a Chinaman is deposited in his coffin, clad in rich robes, amidst the chanting of priests, the lighting of candles, and offering of incense, his friends must all come and pay their respects, and are legally liable to penalties if they neglect this duty. For weeks, sometimes for months, the coffin, in which cotton and quicklime have also been placed, is kept in the house; then, on a multiple of seven days from the death, a procession of men and women, clad in coarse white garments, follow, and the men-mourners have to wear a white badge on their queues for months. The massive coffin is borne along by some twelve, or even twenty men. The mourning is something. terrible; generally the near relatives have to be supported by friends on each side, and now and again some one is overcome with convulsive grief, and a carpet is spread on the ground, on which the mourner may roll for a few minutes, and get over his violent agitation. Those who can afford it procure hired mourners, in addition to doing the utmost they can themselves. Ever and anon persons connected with the procession burn paper imitations of money, which, according to some authorities, is intended to purchase for the departed immunity from molestation by evil spirits who may happen to be passing. By the lavish display and extravagance of their funeral ceremonies families often embarrass themselves considerably, and, indeed, have been known to reduce themselves to poverty rather than that a parent should be consigned to the grave without due honour.

The environs of Pekin contain many objects of interest. The department of Pekin. is not naturally fertile, consisting for the most part of broad sandy plains; but in some portions near the capital, by building terraces and transporting vegetable earth, and by constant irrigation, smiling landscapes have been created.

The European cemeteries, without the walls, naturally possess great interest for the foreign visitor to Pekin. The Jesuit burial-ground, near one of the western gates, contains, in large white marble tombs, the bodies of many of the Roman Catholic missionaries who took such a conspicuous position at Pekin in bygone times. The stones are about ninety in number, bearing inscriptions in Latin, Chinese, or Manchoo. Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, are among the historic names recorded on these monuments. There is also a large monument of white marble in honour of Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the East, and another in honour of Joseph, the husband of Mary. The Russian burial-ground, to the north of the city, derives a melancholy interest from the small plain monument "sacred to the memory" of Captain Brabazon, Lieutenant Anderson, and eleven others, all victims to Chinese treachery. There is also a French cemetery, containing a monument to the memory of the officers and soldiers who died during the campaign in China in 1860.