, and a line of magnificent steamers plying regularly across the
Pacific, and bringing the East in closer alliance with the West than
ever before.

[Illustration: CHINESE PUNISHMENT.]

Railways will naturally follow the steamboat, and an English company
is now arranging to supply the Chinese with a railway-system to
connect the principal cities, and especially to tap the interior
districts, where the water communications are limited. There is no
regular system of mail-communication in China; the Government
transmits intelligence by means of couriers, and when merchants have
occasion to communicate with persons at a distance they use private
expresses. Foreign and native merchants, doing an extensive business,
keep swift steamers, which they use as despatch-boats, and sometimes
send them at heavy expense to transmit single messages. It has
happened that, on a sudden change of markets, two or more houses in
Hong Kong or Shanghae have despatched boats at the same moment; and
some interesting and exciting races are recorded in the local
histories.

The barriers of Chinese exclusion were broken down when the treaties
of the past ten years opened the empire to foreigners, and placed the
name of China on the list of diplomatic and treaty powers. The last
stone of the wall that shut the nation from the outer world was
overthrown when the court at Pekin sent an embassy, headed by a
distinguished American, to visit the capitals of the Western nations,
and cement the bonds of friendship between the West and the East. It
was eminently fitting that an American should be selected as the head
of this embassy, and eminently fitting, too, that the ambassador of
the oldest nation should first visit the youngest of all the great
powers of the world. America, just emerged from the garments of
childhood, and with full pride and consciousness of its youthful
strength, presents to ruddy England, smiling France, and the other
members of the family of nations, graybeard and dignified China, who
expresses joy at the introduction, and hopes for a better acquaintance
in the years that are to come.

During his residence at Pekin, Mr. Burlingame interested himself in
endeavoring to introduce the telegraph into China, and though meeting
with opposition on account of certain superstitions of the Chinese, he
was ultimately successful. The Chinese do not understand the working
of the telegraph--at least the great majority of them do not--and like