very narrow frontage, ground being valuable. A
large quantity of timber is used in their construction, which renders
any chance fire in this city so very destructive. The streets in Canton
are all very narrow, most of those I have seen not exceeding six or
seven feet in width: the two China Streets are probably twelve feet
wide. The city does not cover half the space which a European one with
the same population would do. Its streets, from their want of breadth,
always appear, and indeed always are crowded; and the unwary passenger
is very liable to get knocked down by some heavily laden porter running
against him, if he does not keep a sharp look-out. Like Macao, it is
infested with loathsome beggars, who are, if possible, still more
clamorous in their demands for charity than those of that place. Here,
the stranger will be surprised to see dogs, cats, and rats hawked about,
dead and alive. I do not say that these animals form the daily food of
the people of Canton, but they are daily and hourly hawked about its
streets, and purchased by the poorer classes. The Canton market is,
nevertheless, remarkably well supplied with the good things of this
life; and the European who cannot live and be contented with the
provisions procurable in it, must be hard to please. By nine o'clock at
night, this huge city is perfectly quiet, and nine-tenths of its
inhabitants are wrapped in sleep. At either end of each street is a
gate, which is shut at that hour, and ingress or egress put a stop to
for the night. This regulation, as may be supposed, is an excellent
check upon night robbers, whose peregrinations can extend no further
than the end of the street they live in. Another equally salutary
regulation is that which makes the inhabitants of a street responsible
for each other's good conduct. Thus, if A's servant steals any thing
from B, A must make good the loss. Prowling being put a stop to during
the night, I have seen robberies attempted and detected during the day;
and I certainly never saw a poor thief treated elsewhere with such
unrelenting cruelty. A China-man seems to have no mercy for a thief; nor
is this feeling to be wondered at in an over-peopled country, where all
have to work for their bread, and where idlers are sure to starve.
During the winter, in Canton, the lower classes suffer severely from
cold: they are poorly fed and worse clothed: and hundreds of them may be
seen about the streets, shivering and looking the ve