seat.

rolled back into the wall, and the king was seen mounting a stair leading from a chamber behind to the summit of the throne. He ascended slowly, and as if oppressed by weights, using his goldensheathed sword as a staff to assist his steps. This is doubtless in some degree royal etiquette, but at the same time it was known that the jewelled coat worn by his majesty actually weighed nearly one hundred pounds! The queen followed close on her husband, and after assisting to hand in the golden spittoon, and other appendages of a Burmese dignitary, and fanning herself and her husband for a few minutes, whilst one of the girls from behind brought a lighted cheroot, which was immediately placed between the royal lips, finally took her From the distance at which the king was viewed, he seemed a portly man, having features of a much more refined character than are common among his subjects-exhibiting, indeed, the national physiognomy, but much subdued. His expression was good and inand intelligent, his hands delicately and finely formed. His dress was a sort of long tunic or surcoat, of a light-coloured silk apparently, but so thickly set with jewels that the fundamental material was scarcely discernible. His crown or cap was a round tiara of similar material, like an Indian morion, rising to a peak crowned with a spire-like ornament several inches high, and having flaps or wings rising over each ear. Over the forehead was a gold plate or frontlet; this crown is called Thara-poo. The queen was not seen to such advantage; this was partly owing to the character of her head-dress, which would have been a very trying one to any lady."

It would scarcely be justice to our fair readers to withhold the description of this dress also. Here it is :

:

"It was a perfectly close cap, covering ears and hair entirely, and rising above into a conical crest, strangely resembling in form a rhinoceros horn, with the point curved forward into a volute; close lappets fell along the cheeks. The rest of her majesty's dress had rather an Elizabethan character. The sleeves and skirt appeared to be formed in successive overlapping scolloped lappets, and the throat was surrounded by a high collar, also scolloped or vandyked, and descending to the waist. At the waist she wore a stomacher or breast-plate of large gems. Both cap and robe were covered and stiffened with large diamonds, or what appeared to be such."

"When the king had fairly entered, all took off their hats, and the whole native assembly bowed their faces to the ground, and clasped their hands in front of them. The two rows of little princes, who lay in file before us, doubled over one another like fallen books on a shelf; and the two atwen-woons who sat near us grovelled forward in their froglike attitude to a point half-way to the throne, as if to establish a 'repeating station' betwixt the king and us. Some eight or ten Brahmins, in white stoles, and white mitres encircled with gold leaves, then entered the screened recesses or pews near the throne, and commenced a choral chant in the Sanscrit language."

Then, after more chanting and other preliminary ceremonials, the Governor-General's letter was read aloud by the "Receiver of the Royal Voice," and the presents were delivered-looked at, wondered at, especially a railway model; and then, after some regular official questions, the royal departure took place, the mission was relieved from sitting on its heels, and the reception was over. This was dull work enoughbut it was the state visit, and etiquette prescribed its routine and formalities. There were other interviews of a less formal character, when royalty appeared in dishabille, divested of the overweights of state ceremonial; and then the conversation was more animated, and his telligence and knowledge, after his majesty displayed ever therein an inown kind, and a degree of speculation and research, which would not have shamed many of his European compeers. Religion, science, government, all were in turn subjects of discussion; to this followed interviews with the Ein-she-men and the great officials, all shadows of the royal one. In the official ones there seemed some jollity, and an oppressive series of eating, drinking, and consumption of pickled tea. We could sympathise with their labours in undergoing the multiplicity of breakfasts and desserts, for we once ourselves remember pressing our hospitable intents on a party of foreigners, and being suddenly pulled back by an old sea-captain, who hissed with stage whisper in our ears," For God's sake don't stuff these fellows

any more; this is the fourth time they have lunched, they have three more to get through, and then they dine at half-past six." We saw them sup, and only hope that our Embassy addressed themselves to their task as kindly, and with such good appetite, followed apparently by good digestion.

One official deserves particular note the Lord White Elephant, a great minister of state. A wag of our acquaintance, when asked what he would most like to be, answered "A board-for then there is always good picking, good pay, and no responsibility." According to this rule, the Lord White Elephant would be an enviable personage-great state, nothing to do, and a territory to eat. How would Punch's fat boy, who rather envied the destiny of the fat pig, have longed for a transmigration into the White Elephant existence! This functionary has a palace or state apartment, with au humbler everyday residence, and "sheds for the vulgar herd of the same species, and brick godowns in which the state carriages and golden litters are stowed away." "The present White Elephant has occupied his post for at least fifty years." "He is a very large one, close upon ten feet high, with as noble a head and pair of tusks as I have ever seen; but he is long-bodied and lanky, and not otherwise well made. He is a regular estate of the realm," having a woon or minister of his own, four gold umbrellas-the white umbrellas which are peculiar to royalty-with a suite of attendants said to be thirty in number." Like many other sine curists and "estates of the realm," he does not seem to flourish much under his dignities, but would doubtless be a happier elephant if he could exchange his palace and his umbrellas for coverts, forests, and overhanging trees. The possession of a white elephant is a sort of ensign of universal sovereignty, and the discovery of one is hailed as a good and happy omen for a reign. The slightest blemish, however-a few black hairs in the tail, or some such matter-at once mars its claims to sanctity. 'Tis well that all the other great officers of state are not chosen with the same

fastidiousness. Fancy a white-stick or a gold-stick being rejected for red hair or crooked legs!

woons

The palace and the bamboo hut, what a contrast do they present! and there is little save and white elephants betwixt them. It is the old story of the one absorbing the wealth, the splendour, the resources of a country, and leaving around a waste of dreary poverty, squalidness, and apathy. The corn in one heap, the husks scattered all around-such as Burmah is, spite of all that is said, such it must ever have been, in a degree, in this respect. Amarapoora may not vie with the relics of Pagan; but when we read of its palaces, its monasteries-richer in art even than those of ancient times-and reflect that it is the capital of a new dynasty, a new city, raised and created amid the difficulties and trials of intestine struggles and foreign wars, we cannot believe that there has been any great falling-off in the royal finances or in native art; and there is nothing in the records or traditions of the race to lead us to the belief that the relations of people and sovereign, the difference betwixt state and commonalty, bamboo hut and palace, were ever other than they are now. The extent of the sovereignty was wider, the splendour of courts and cities perhaps greater and more gorgeous, but we doubt, from what is seen of the present, and what known of the past, whether the men of the land, the real strength of a nation, were ever more than dwellers in bamboo huts, and spectators of pues. The strength of a nation, diffused through classes, would have shown itself in greater national efforts, in more vigorous stands for independence. Kings and kings' coffers may create national works, but it is only a people naturalised and bound to the State who can raise a national destiny.

The mission failed in its purpose of a treaty. That seems to us but little matter. The great object was evidently the gathering and collecting information and details of the country and its people. This was done as thoroughly as the time and opportunities permitted. We have

quoted purposely from the parts which throw out the salient points of the national characteristics and conditions, the amusements of the people-the monuments of the past the present as it appears in the modern city-the state and forms of royalty, and the architecture as it reflects the genius of the people. Many lighter and more amusing scenes might have been selected, but these would not have shown the character and principle of the book, which were eminently useful and informing. The concluding chapters contain a summary of the geography, religion, statistics, and government of the country, and are, perhaps, the most valuable part of the work.

The government would appear to be a pure despotism, aided and carried out by a high court or council, composed of the Woongyis, or principal ministers of state.

"Four appears to be the normal number of woongyis, and they do not appear to have any distribution of departments of business among them, but deliberate together at the Hlwot-dau, on whatever is brought before the body. Their decisions, when confirmed by the king, become the laws of the land. The atwen-woons or household ministers, also four in number, are intrusted with the internal affairs of the palace and the realm, and the business of the royal monopolies. The woongyis are generally designated by the title of office, or by a sort of peerage title derived from the township

or district which they eat."

These and their confederates, the atwen - woons, administer the law and the State, and apparently constitute the aristocracy of the country. As far as we can gather, there is no hereditary rank, no middle class, no power, no estate standing between the crown and its functionaries and the people. The military state of Burmah is very low-contemptible indeed. The King of Ava has no magazines or munitions of war, so called; and though the life of every subject is at the disposal of the king, and every male is liable to serve as a soldier whenever he is called upon, the strength of a Burmese force must depend not on the amount of the population, but on the number the

king can feed in a collected state, and on the number of muskets.

The army is supplied by contingents provided by provinces and districts, and has besides a more permanent force on duty at the capital, and believed to amount to about ten thousand men. This force, however, as has been amply proved, is deficient in military character, organisation, and resources.

"It appears to be allowed that Buddhist worship and the monastic discipline are preserved in Burmah with greater purity than in any other country, the former less mixed with the service of intruding divinities, and the latter less stained with the habitual breach of obligations either of poverty or continence. The ethics of their Buddhism, with many puerilities, free as they are from the warp of caste, appear to be much purer than those of Brahminism, and here and there among them maxims are seen of a startling thoroughness that remind one of the penetrating precepts of Holy Writ." The monastic state is carried here to a greater extent than in any Asiatic country perhaps, and is considered indispensable to the attainment of perfection and bliss. "The reputation of the monks in Burmah, too, maintains, I believe, a respectable level. Yet the moral system has had little effect on the character of the people. No point, at least, is more prominent in that system than tenderness of life. Yet in no country probably (unless in semi-Buddhist China) has human life been more recklessly and cruelly sacrificed, whether in punishment of crime, or in judicial and private murder." The geographical description has already been given; its commercial capabilities would not appear to be many or considerable, but yet such as have hitherto been very incompletely developed. The resources of the country, varying, as it does, in its climate and population, are doubtless vast, and such as, under other sway and other circumstances, might be made more advantageous to human life and national prosperity. A sparse population of two millions spread over such an extent

of territory, would in itself indicate all the wants of government and defects of civilisation. All the deductions all the conclusions, though not expressed-lead to the conviction that the country and people, as they exist now, do not possess the elements of progress within themselves -that they require for their advancement and development a stronger impulse and more energetic governing force. All point to the further progress of the Peepul tree. Yet shall we ever again devote national rights and independence to theories of government and civilisation? or shall we not rather pause until the will of a people, rather than the necessities of polity, invite our dominion? Burmah would, from its condition and position, say, Come, take us, govern and civilise us. India, with its experiences, says, "Stay thine hand until events are ripe -until empire be no injury, no polity, but a benevolence and a blessing."

Thus must we quit the book and its subject, deeply impressed with the value of its information, and the thoroughness with which its object has been carried out, even to the sacrifice of lightness and attraction. There has been one aim systematically adopted and adhered to that of collecting and publishing a knowledge of Burmah and its inhabitants; and this has been done by plans, maps, illustrations, and a carefully-compiled letterpress, which establish the topography, illustrate the architectural remains, and delineate the features of the country, with a correctness, vividness, and particularity of detail, which will make this, hereafter, a text-book for politicians, archæologists, philosophers, and explorers. The man who makes one blade of wheat grow where one never grew before, confers, it is said, a benefit on

the world; and surely he who sets before us in light and knowledge one particular nation, however unimportant it may be in the economies of peoples, has done something for mankind - something which shall aid us in knowing and communing with one another. This our author has done. He cannot or may not expect that his costly volume will lie on the lap of railway travellers, or that his leaves will be turned over by the fair fingers of sea-side visitants; but when the governors of his nation seek for knowledge on the subject of the country he describes, or when savants and philosophers seek for facts on the characteristics and analogies of the race of whose past and present he treats, they will recur to him as their authority and councillor. This appreciation may not be so sweet or so ready as popularity, but it is more solid, more enduring; and he who has been capable of so much labour and research will also be capable of waiting for his reward.

Whilst, however, giving all due honour to those who thus creditably fulfilled the mission intrusted to them, it were unjust not to pay a passing tribute to the energy and wisdom of the mind which planned and sent it forth. It would be well for us and our policy were all rulers to follow the system then adopted by Lord Dalhousie, and to make the missions of diplomacy and etiquette instrumental to the acquisition of the knowledge of a people, and the advancement of science. Such a system must be ever of incalculable gain to a governing power, and to the general interests of mankind; and it is to be hoped that all future missions may be conducted on a principle so worthy of a civilised nation.

PASSING showers of rain, which set in towards evening, did not deter the officers and many of the Earl of Elgin's staff from visiting Decima and Nangasaki. They returned in a perfect state of delight with the cleanliness and order of the towns, the civility of the people, and better still, the absence of all those unmentionable smells which haunt the visitor on the shores of the neighbouring continent of China. About sundown the boom of three heavy guns twice repeated rolled from seaward over the hills around our anchorage; presently the same sounds came apparently from some nearer point-the battery above the town next took up the tune, and then the reports were heard again and again, until lost in the distance. When we inquired what all this noise was about, a Japanese interpreter informed us that two European sail had appeared in sight of the look-outs, and that these guns were signalising the fact throughout the interior up to Miaco, where the spiritual Emperor resides. Their method, in the absence of electricity, is a rapid mode of signalising, but the expense must be enormous, and can only be supported by a naturally thrifty government, through excessive jealousy and anxiety to know of the movements of Europeans. Next day the arrival of the naval Commander-in-Chief, Sir Michael Seymour, in the "Calcutta," towed by the "Inflexible," Captain Brooker, proved that the Japanese look-out men's eyes were as correct as they were keen.

It was early morning when we landed at Decima; and in justice to the Dutch residents, whose post-prandial somnolence we have already mentioned, it must be owned, that they had risen with the lark, as men should who dine when the sun is in the zenith. Decima, the foreign quarter of Nangasaki, is an island,

and dear old Kæmpfer, the most charming of old Dutch writers upon Japan, compares it in form to an outspread fan without a handle. Its length cannot be much more than five or six hundred yards, and the settlement consists of one street of that extent, intersected at its centre by a short one leading to the only bridge which spans the canal that separates the once hated Christians from the good folks of Nangasaki. Along this street are the houses of the Dutch residents, and their Japanese agents and retainers, besides a number of native stores filled with articles of Japanese manufacture, and called by the name of the Dutch Bazaar. Decima and the residents were all awake and stirring; a few porters were carrying bales of imported produce; a store here and there was open, and boxes or packages were being tumbled about as if some commercial movement was taking place; but Decima, wide awake and stirring, had none of the rush and throb of buyers and sellers, such as we had seen at the ports of China frequented by European merchants. How changed the scene will be (one involuntarily exclaimed) a few years hence, when Cockney, Scot, and New-Yorker shall be competing who can make money fastest, or be the quickest to improve the Japanese off the face of the earth! Whatever the future " Decima" may be, Decima as we found it was a solemn-looking, weird-like place seemed as if it bore the impress of its past strange history, and as if haunted by the memory of the Portuguese and Dutchmen whose jail it had been. It quietly said to you, "Yes! here the contemned Pagan, as you, in your self-conceit, oh Christian, are pleased to call him, crushed and exterminated the professors and believers in your faith, and tempted with gold these poor Dutchmen to commit

it

VOL. LXXXV.-NO. DXIX.

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