he water, when presently a gayly-decorated junk was observed
approaching the vessel. She arrived at the side, when a pompous little
official, with the air of an emperor, attended by two or three mandarins,
was received on deck. He looked the personification of Imperial Dignity.
He carried a short truncheon in his right hand, like Richard the Third;
and with his "tail" (his own, and his followers') he strode toward the
quarter-deck. Arrived there, he unrolled his truncheon, a small square
sheet of white parchment, bearing a single red character, and held it up
to the astonished gaze of the officers and crew! This was a "_Vermilion
Edict_," that terrible thing, so often fulminated by Commissioner Lin
against the "Outside Barbarians;" and that single red character was, "_Go
away!_" After the exhibition of which, it was impossible (of course!) to
stay in the Chinese waters. Having shown this, the great Mandarin and his
"tail" departed in solemn silence over the side of the ship. Of these
"special edicts," especially those touching the expulsion of the "smoking
mud," or opium, from the "Central Kingdom," we may give the readers of the
"Drawer" specimens in some subsequent number; there happening to be in
that miscellaneous receptacle quite a collection of authentic Chinese
State Papers, with translations, notes, and introductions, by a
distinguished American savant, long a resident in the "Celestial Flowery
Land."

LITERARY NOTICES.

One of the most welcome reprints of the season is Harper and Brothers'
edition of the _Life and Works of Robert Burns_, edited by ROBERT
CHAMBERS, in four handsome duodecimos. This is a tribute of exceeding
value to the memory of the great Peasant Bard, disclosing many new facts
in his history, and enhancing the interest of his writings by the
admirable order of their arrangement. These are interwoven with the
biography in chronological succession, and thus made to illustrate the
poetical experience and mental development of Burns, while they receive a
fresh and more striking significance from their connection with the
circumstances and impressions that led to their production. The present
editor was induced to undertake the grateful task of preparing the works
of his gifted countryman for the press by his profound interest in the
subject, and by his perceptions of the short-comings of previous laborers
in the same field. Dr. Currie, who was the pioneer of subsequent
biographical atte