m the outside barbarians that is possible. In the streets there was a
most unmistakable surliness exhibited that would have broken into
forcible demonstration as we passed through them only for the
instinctive cowardice of the Asiatics. It is quite impossible to express
what a strange sea of life these narrow Canton streets exhibited, as we
floated through them in palanquins upon the shoulders of the coolies.
Their filth dominated all other characteristics, and forced upon the
memory Charles Lamb's remark to his friend, when he said: "Martin, if
dirt was trumps, what a hand you would hold."

Philanthropic societies are numerous in the cities of China, hardly
exceeded in variety and excellence of design by those of Europe and
America. These embrace well-organized orphan asylums, institutions for
the relief of indigent widows with families, homes for the aged and
infirm, public hospitals, and free schools in nearly every district. As
with ourselves, some of these are purely governmental charities, others
are supported by liberal endowments left by deceased citizens. Depots
for the distribution of medicines to the poor are numerous, and others
exist for distributing clothing to the needy. One organization was
mentioned to us which supplied coffins to the poor, and bore the
expenses of burial. Among the dense population of the country there must
be ample occasion for the exercise of such charities. It must be
remembered that these societies and organizations are not copied from
European or American models; they have existed here from time
immemorial.

Philologists have vainly endeavored to trace any affinity between the
Chinese language and that of other nations, ancient or modern. It is
unique,--an original tongue, and, what is equally remarkable, no other
nation, except the neighboring Japanese, have ever borrowed from it, or
amalgamated any of its elements with their own. It must have risen in
its written form from the untutored efforts of a primitive people. Like
the Egyptian tongue, it was at first probably composed of hieroglyphics,
which, in the course of time, became symbolic as they stand to-day.

The foreign population of Canton, American, English, French, etc., live
upon a spacious and beautiful island by themselves. The island is
connected with the city proper by a stone bridge having iron gates,
through which no native is permitted to pass unless in the domestic
employment of the residents, and then they are